Abstract
Brand personality can be defined as a set of human characteristics associated with a brand (Aaker, 1997).This study reports on the perceived brand personality of symbolic brands as seen by Generation Y students from one higher education institution campus located in South Africa. The respondents were asked to write down the first brand that came to mind for eight symbolic product categories. The top two brands in each category were used in a self-administered questionnaire. A second group of respondents were then asked to write down personality traits they associate with each of the identified brands. These findings, present a unique viewpoint regarding a number of brands and how the respondents perceive their brand personalities.
Highlights
“I love my Jeep because it is tough like me”, a title of a paper by Govers and Mugge (2004) which illustrate a typical product-personality resemblance
Heine (2010) mentions that there is a dearth of literature based on the symbolic meaning of luxury brands worldwide since his initial study (Heine, 2009), which he claims was the first to focus on the brand personality of luxury brands
Sampling methodology: Non-probability convenience samples will be taken from a sampling frame of students registered at one South African HEI campus located in the Gauteng Province
Summary
“I love my Jeep because it is tough like me”, a title of a paper by Govers and Mugge (2004) which illustrate a typical product-personality resemblance. Consumers search for brands with personalities that corresponds with theirs or brands that personalise who they want to become (Freling & Forbes, 2005). This creates the challenge for businesses to create brands with specific personalities to appeal to various consumers. Brand personality affects consumers’ feelings, perceptions and attitudes (Freling & Forbes, 2005). This study of Heine’s (2009) only focussed on a small sampling frame of millionaires within Germany, which suggests a definitive need for research on brand personality perception of typical consumers regarding symbolic products
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