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Que Marca Deixou a Personalidade da Marca?

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Este artigo analisa o desenvolvimento e a contribuição de publicações sobre personalidade de marca para o campo do marketing e do comportamento do consumidor. O levantamento bibliométrico considerou 28 anos de pesquisa. O levantamento de dados incluiu 734 artigos da base Scopus. A revisão de 734 artigos da base Scopus resultou em indicadores bibliométricos. Os resultados identificam linhas de pesquisa específicas, como brand equity, personalidade humana e auto-extensão. O simbolismo e a antropomorfização indicam um caminho para a humanização das marcas. Essa tendência é vital para um melhor relacionamento com os clientes. A aparente mudança no status do tema torna-se relevante para a compreensão do comportamento do consumidor. Apesar dos estudos na área, a aplicação da Personalidade da Marca ainda é complicada para os gestores. O surgimento da comunicação e da personalização no ambiente digital traz oportunidades de uso para diferenciação.
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Revista Ciências Administrativas, 30: e13850, 2024 1
e-ISSN:2318-0722
What brand left the brand’s personality?
Que marca deixou a personalidade da marca?
¿Qué marca dejó la personalidad de la marca?
10.5020/2318-0722.2024.30.e13850
Valéria da Veiga Dias
Doutora em Agronegócio - UFRGS. Mestre em Administração - UFSM. Docente Pós graduação, extensão e EAD - UFN. Docente e Palestrante
- SENAC. Consultora Acadêmica- Daveigaval. Líder Grupo de Pesquisa - GEN/CNPQ.
Marcelo Schuster
Professor Adjunto - Departamento Interdisciplinar UFRGS - CLN. Doutor em Administração UFSM. Mestre em Gestão de Organizações Públicas
UFSM. MBA Gestão de Recursos Humanos FACINTER Internacional. Pesquisador nas área de Marketing, Comportamento do Consumidor,
Empreendedorismo, Metodologias e Análises Quantitativas
Abstract
This article analyzes the contribution of publications on brand personality to the consumer behavior eld. The bibliometric survey
considers 28 years of research. Data collection included 734 articles from the Scopus database. The review of publications resulted
in bibliometric indicators. Data analysis evaluated the content of the main researches and their respective contributions to the
theme. The results identify specic lines of research, such as brand equity, human personality, and self-extension. These stood
out in relevance and development within the area. Symbolism and anthropomorphism indicate a path toward the humanization of
brands and can be decisive in customer prospecting strategies. The apparent change in the status of the theme becomes relevant for
understanding consumer behavior. Despite studies in the area, the application of Brand Personality is still complicated for managers.
The emergence of communication and personalization in the digital environment brings opportunities for use for di󰀨erentiation.
Keywords: brand, personality, indicators, bibliometrics, consumer
Resumo
Este artigo analisa a contribuição de publicações sobre personalidade de marca para o campo do comportamento do consumidor.
O levantamento bibliométrico considerou 28 anos de pesquisa. A coleta de dados incluiu 734 artigos da base Scopus. A revisão
das publicações resultou em indicadores bibliométricos. A análise de dados avaliou o conteúdo das principais pesquisas e suas
respectivas contribuições para o tema. Os resultados identicaram linhas de pesquisa especícas, como brand equity, personalidade
humana e autoextensão. Assim, tais estudos se destacaram em relevância e desenvolvimento dentro da área de pesquisa. O
simbolismo e o antropomorsmo indicam um caminho para a humanização das marcas, podendo ser decisivo nas estratégias
de prospecção de clientes. A aparente mudança no status do tema torna-se relevante para a compreensão do comportamento
do consumidor. Apesar dos estudos na área, a aplicação da personalidade da marca ainda é complicada para os gestores. O
surgimento da comunicação e da personalização no ambiente digital traz oportunidades de uso para diferenciação.
Palavras-chave: marca, personalidade, indicadores, bibliometria, consumidor
Resumen
Este artículo analiza la contribución de las publicaciones sobre personalidad de marca al campo del comportamiento del consumidor.
El levantamiento bibliométrico consideró 28 años de investigación. La recopilación de datos incluyó 734 artículos de la base de
datos Scopus. La revisión de publicaciones resultó en indicadores bibliométricos. El análisis de los datos evaluó el contenido de las
principales investigaciones y sus respectivas contribuciones al tema. Los resultados identican líneas de investigación especícas,
como el valor de marca, la personalidad humana y la autoextensión. Estos se destacaron en relevancia y desarrollo dentro del
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Valéria da Veiga Dias, Marcelo Schuster
área. El simbolismo y el antropomorsmo señalan un camino hacia la humanización de las marcas y pueden ser determinantes
en las estrategias de prospección de clientes. El cambio aparente en el estado del tema se vuelve relevante para comprender el
comportamiento del consumidor. A pesar de los estudios en el área, la aplicación de la Personalidad de Marca aún es complicada
para los gerentes. La irrupción de la comunicación y la personalización en el entorno digital trae oportunidades de diferenciación.
Palabras llave: marca, personalidad, indicadores, bibliometría, consumidor
The brand personality has been researched for over 60 years to understand how to get consumers’ attention
and strengthen the brand. Scholars (Levy, 1959) have identified that brands, products, and services have more than
functional components, emphasizing the importance of emotional and symbolic characteristics in the representation
of brands. In this sense, by attributing human characteristics, the brand personality constitutes a relevant strategy for
brand differentiation (Aaker & Fournier, 1995).
Several marketing managers realize that the brand and its personality traits, clearly communicated, could be
a point of competitive advantage (Cervera-Tauletet al., 2013) guided the entire image construction in aspects of the
personality of the company. As a result, the brand creates unique associations in the consumer’s memory and builds
equity (Ekinci & Hosany, 2006; Kotsi & Valek, 2018).
The brand personality appears in previous studies that sought to answer questions associated with the theme.
The latest bibliometric searches found are from 2018, 2019 and 2022. (Radler, 2018);2019 (Khurana & Kumar, 2019;
Lara-Rodriguez et al., 2019; Llanos-Herrera & Merigo, 2019) and 2022 (Roy & Banerjee, 2022). In general, the authors
present a variety of ways to measure and analyze personality indicators, use software, review the literature, indicate
gaps and dimensions. Radler (2018) states that since 1995 research on brand personality has gained increasing
academic attention (75% of publications are from the last five years), indicating the concept’s popularity and relevance
in marketing research for brands.
In Radler’s research (2018), the main contribution is to present, research groups within the brand personality
and application of brand personality in related areas. However, Radler (2018) affirm after 20 years of research, there
is still a lack of theoretical and conceptual clarity to advance.
Lara-Rodriguez et al. (2019) corroborate by stating that the articles that compile fields of analysis, models,
and emerging research topics for Brand Personality are scarce despite the relevance to academia and practice. In
the existing literature, various measures lead to instability and incompatibility of measurement in different contexts
(Geuens et al., 2009). Khurana and Kumar (2019) start from the premise that the association of personality traits and
brands is underdeveloped. According to Khurana and Kumar (2019), there is good acceptance and little contestation
in the area for the research and scale of Aaker (1997). However, researchers need to pay attention to compiling the
new existing scales. Lara-Rodriguez et al. (2019) sought to identify theoretical constructions and possible emerging
research topics in the fields of marketing science. Bibliometric findings provide a catalog of research approaches to
the topic and suggestions for research methods. A comparison of research trends associated with renowned marketing
science organizations and current analyses suggests emerging research topics, and Llanos-Herrera and Merigo (2019)
provided an overview of the research conducted on brand personality. The last review identified in the literature was
by Roy and Banerjee (2022), identifying the importance of further research with an association between consumer
personality and brand personality. Research also indicates that brand animism and anthropomorphism have not been
sufficiently researched when discussing brand personality.
Bibliometric research can collaborate with the progress of developing areas, whether with quantitative or
qualitative indicators. As a result, this research aims to analyze the development and contribution of publications
on brand personality for marketing and consumer behavior. The period analyzed comprises 1993 to 2020, that is,
28 years, considering the year 1993 due to the first mention of the theme explicitly. The innovative character of this
study lies in the summary of the indicators, the period covered, and the relationships pointed out, including the latest
international bibliometric studies published on the subject.
A study of this nature is justified, which, in addition to focusing on the grouping of findings, can characterize,
through indicators and theoretical relationships, the relevance of using the brand personality construct and possible
research gaps. Finally, the theoretical framework presents a brief review about the brand, brand personality, and the
advances in the study in the area.
Theoretical Reference
Brand plays a unique role in the relationship with the customer; strong brands increase consumer confidence
and allow them to perceive better and understand the products and intangible benefits (Berry, 2000). Therefore, one
of the most relevant approaches in the study of the brand is the investigation of personality, which involves identifying
essential aspects applied in brand differentiation.
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What brand left the brand’s personality?
Clear communication and consumer recognition depend on identifying the brand’s authentic traits concerning
its competitors. This recognition leads consumers to identify themselves and later attribute personal characteristics to
the brand/products of their choice to feel more comfortable or closer to that brand (Mowen & Minor, 2003). Symbolism
helps the individual to fill emotional gaps, influences the self-concept and the way the consumer shows himself to
others (Wolff, 2002).
There is a symbolic world contained in products and brands, and these influence the consumer in their
preferences, decisions, and several other aspects of their behavior. In addition, brands contain personal meanings
for the consumer’s self-concept - a whole set of beliefs and attitudes that a person has built about himself. The origin
of the brand personality construct is this idea (Su & Reynolds, 2019).
Due to these meanings attributed, the Brand Personality is “the set of human characteristics associated with
a brand” (Aaker, 1997, p. 347). The dimensions of consumer personality are the basis for comparing perceived
characteristics of brands across various product categories (Aaker, 1997).
According to Yoon, Ekinci, and Oppewal (2002), three essential characteristics represent brands with attributed
personality: (1) behavior, (2) interaction with the environment, and (3) consistency or stability of the traits. Thus, personality
is visible through behavior. Likewise, consumers can give personality to a brand according to its communication and
“behaviors” perceived by the target audience, whether the terms that explain personality apply to brands (Azoulay &
Kapferer, 2003).
Brand personality studies date back to the 1990s through investigations into the attribution of human characteristics
to brands (Aaker, 1995; Aaker, 1997; Aaker & Fournier, 1995). The studies by Aaker and Fournier (1995) and Aaker
(1997) are considered seminal for the theme, and the second is considered the first measurement scale for the
construct. The advance in understanding the theme clarified that when consumers choose products, services, and
destinations, they buy the product and buy an emotional relationship (Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995). Brand personality
emphasizes the symbolic meaning and utilitarian attributes (Levy, 1959; Rojas-Méndez et al., 2019).
The importance of studying personality in brands is referenced by several authors (Hosany et al., 2006; Keller,
2012; Plummer, 2000), highlighting that image and personality are the main components for the definitions of positioning
in the market and consumer loyalty. The brand personality can build a bond with consumers, especially if the personality
is distinctive, robust, attractive, and stable (Sung & Kim, 2010). Marketing professionals, therefore, see this theme as
an efficient way to distinguish the brand from its competitors, thus reinforcing its effectiveness (Sung & Kim, 2010).
Brand personality provides professionals with a means of measuring consumer perceptions and guidance in
ad development. Shared information refers to the group of relevant personality traits in a market segment (Aaker &
Fournier, 1995; Labrecque & Milne, 2012) and which ones do not make sense. More importantly, brand personality
can influence the market value (Choi et al., 2017) and be an essential asset of a company because it determines its
ability to acquire and sustain consumers (Fournier et al., 2012).
In addition, the brand personality helps organizations understand who they really are and what they stand
for. Something essential for the company and its stakeholders to be able to interact and engage in a coherent way
(Ashforth et al., 2018). According to Morgan and Pritchard (2005 , as cited in Rojas-Méndez et al. 2019), it is necessary
to continuously evolve and enrich the brand’s personality and build its initial strengths to reinforce the attractiveness.
Method
The chosen methodology includes, in addition to the literature review, an analysis of bibliometric indicators. The
determining criterion for choosing the basis for this research is its relevance in Applied Social Sciences. “Scopus” is
considered the largest database of abstracts and citations curated by peer-reviewed literature, with more than 23,700
journals.
The search uses the keywords “Brand Personality” in TITLE-ABS-KEY. In addition, the following filters use (i)
Areas: Business, Management, and Accounting; Social Sciences and Economics, Econometrics and Finance, due to
the need to seek associations related to the business areas; (ii) Type of document: article and it decides to exclude
the current year (2021) even though it already had 45 articles published on the subject, due to the research in this
year and the incomplete publication count may invalidate the evaluation carried out. Therefore, of the 882 articles
found, 734 remained after using the filters, which served for the analysis of this article.
The adequate method to reach the established objective of this work was bibliometrics, as this aims to evaluate,
measure, and track scientific literature in a field of study through a set of quantitative data (Andrés, 2009; Roemer &
Borchardt, 2015). Furthermore, such a method is based on the premise of the work’s impact on other researchers,
considering that this work was sometimes cited (Roemer & Borchardt, 2015). Furthermore, this method facilitates the
establishment of observable, reproducible patterns and, as a rule, quantifiable (Kendall, 1961, as cited in De Bellis, 2009).
The three laws of bibliometrics are the parameters of data analysis (I) productivity of scientists, or Lotka’s Law;
(II) dispersion of scientific knowledge or Bradford’s Law, (III) the distribution of words in a text or area or Zipf’s Law (De
Bellis, 2009). Finally, the reference networks were analyzed to verify the theme’s evolution and the main contributors.
Data analysis uses R software and the Bibliometrix package (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017).
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Analysis of Results
This results section has three subsections: The first two bring indicators based on the assessment of bibliometric
laws, and the last section presents discussions and contributions of the Brand Personality.
Productivities of Scientists
One of the main ways of creating knowledge in the modern scientific world is scientific publications. However,
any scientist’s discovery only becomes an effective contribution to science when judged, published, incorporated into
the stock of knowledge, and then used by peers (Price, 1974).
The survey on the theme of brand personality resulted in 734 articles after applying the chosen filters and
described in the method. The first indicator, in this case, is that these identified studies come from 279 Journals, with
an average of 40.01 citations per article.
About the authors, Lotka (1926) stated that the number of authors who make n contributions in a given scientific
field is approximately 1/n2 of those who make a single contribution. Therefore, the proportion of those who make a
single contribution is more or less 60%. In order to evaluate Lotka’s productivity law, Table 1 was created below, which
represents the total number of production/authors, total articles, and percentage of publications by several authors.
Table 1
Number of articles produced by each author
Publications of the topic Number of Authors %
1 1264 83.76%
2 166 11%
3 44 2.92%
4 21 1.39%
5 5 0.33%
6 6 0.40%
7 1 0.06%
9 1 0.06%
13 1 0.06%
The application of the Lotka Law was confirmed. Of the 1,509 identified authors, 1,264 have a single publication.
That is, 83.76% of the identified authors had a single publication on the subject.
Theme Evolution
Over the past 28 years, 734 articles on Brand’s Personality have been published. Figure 1 shows the evolution
of the number of articles published annually. The biggest growth in these 28 years occurs in two periods, starting in
2005 and later in 2015.
Figure 1 below illustrates the analysis of the productivity and evolution of publications:
Figure 1
Evolution of scientic publications on Brand Personality over the years
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What brand left the brand’s personality?
The theme developed more noticeably from the 2000s onwards, emphasizing after 2004/2005 when the
numbers doubled and subsequently only increased progressively until 2019. Second (Rust, 2020), from this period
on (2004/2005), technological issues have become part of the reality of marketing strategies, especially smartphones,
resulting in an explosion in the ability to track customers’ online behavior.
In this sense, marketers are finding that they spend an increasing amount of time on interpersonal, empathic,
“feeling” tasks, while technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) take on more “thinking” tasks. In addition, the
possibility of knowing more about the lead or the customer can often include behavioral and personality characteristics.
Dispersion of publications
The dispersion of publications in journals makes it possible to estimate the degree of relevance of the journal in
the field of knowledge. According to the Bradford Law (Bradford, 1934), the journals that produce the most significant
number of articles on a given subject form a core of journals, supposedly of more excellent quality or relevance to
that area.
Brookes (1969) states that a limited number of journals should receive the first articles on a new topic. If accepted,
these journals become a reference in the development of the subject area. At the same time, other journals publish their
first articles on the subject. Thus, a core of periodicals is in the second phase. These journals become the reference for
publications on the subject. These phases were called “publication zone,” thus, three zones with publications indicating the
dispersion in the area. The present study has three zones: the nucleus or zone with the highest frequency of publications,
resulting from the compilation of 19 Journals with more than 6 (six) publications in the period studied, according to Table
2. The second zone was composed of 65 Journals, with a maximum of 5 (five) publications and a minimum of 3 (two);
the third zone consists of 196 Journals with one or two publications on the subject.
Table 2
Conversion and dispersion zones of the analyzed publications
Journal Position Freq. Cumulative Freq.
Journal Of Business Research 1 33 33
Journal Of Brand Management 2 31 64
Journal Of Product And Brand Management 3 30 94
Psychology And Marketing 4 22 116
European Journal Of Marketing 5 19 135
Journal Of Consumer Marketing 6 11 146
Asia Pacic Journal Of Marketing And Logistics 7 10 156
Journal Of Travel And Tourism Marketing 8 10 166
Journal Of Fashion Marketing And Management 9 9 175
Tourism Management 10 9 184
International Journal Of Advertising 11 8 192
Journal Of e Academy Of Marketing Science 12 8 200
Journal Of Consumer Psychology 13 7 207
Journal Of Islamic Marketing 14 7 214
Journal Of Product & Brand Management 15 7 221
Place Branding And Public Diplomacy 16 7 228
Corporate Reputation Review 17 6 234
International Marketing Review 18 6 240
Journal Of Consumer Research 19 6 246
Caption: Freq – Frequency; Accumulated frequency - accumulated frequency
Another critical point about the dispersion of publications is the countries that publish the most, as shown in
Table 3.
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Table 3
Publications by Country
Country Artigos Freq. SCP MCP MCP_Ratio
1Estados Unidos 136 0.26 104 32 0.24
2Reino Unido 33 0.06 21 12 0.36
3Australia 30 0.06 22 8 0.27
4China 30 0.06 15 15 0.50
5Índia 29 0.05 28 1 0.03
6Coreia 26 0.05 9 17 0.65
7Alemanha 24 0.05 15 9 0.38
8Canadá 19 0.04 13 6 0.32
9Malasia 17 0.03 9 8 0.47
10 Portugal 14 0.03 11 3 0.21
Legend: SCP: Single country publication MCP: Multiple country publication MCP_Ratio: Proportion of publications by multiple countries.
Table 3 shows the United States of America (136 articles) and then in the United Kingdom with 33 publications.
There is a concentration of publications on the theme of Brand Personality in a single location, which can be the
country that induces new proposals for the others. Brazil was ranked 17th with seven publications on the subject, 4
of which collaborated with authors from other countries.
Word distribution and aggregation
The last law is Zipf’s law, which refers to the frequency of words in a long text. There is a relationship between
the frequency that a word appears and its position in the word list (Brookes, 1969). In this way, there is a central core
of words and peripheral zones of related words. This study uses the keywords of the articles to verify the most relevant
topics. Figure 2 represents this distribution.
Figure 2
Distribution and aggregation of words on the theme of brand personality
Caption: Human personality male – Personalities associated with the male gender
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What brand left the brand’s personality?
The guiding themes align with the foundations of brand personality research, human personality and product
development. Regarding the base themes and brand management, the theme of destination brands and tourist
personality stands out; this is considered one of the most current issues related to brand personality (CHI et al.,
2018). Next, brand management appears as a niche theme; finally, websites appear in emerging themes, which may
be related to digital marketing and social media (Garanti & Kissi, 2019; Peco-Torres et al., 2020).
The Legacy Of Brand Personality
The reflection in the title of this article: what mark left the brand’s personality? Brand personality studies
originate from theoretical as well as practical issues. The surveys sought to identify authentic aspects inherent to
brands, strengthening the relationship with consumers, recognition, and financial return. The research development
demonstrates that the theme has crossed the barrier of the anthropomorphization of brands to become the main
component of the brand’s core (Hankinson, 2004). Therefore, network construction was the approach option. In this
case, the figure represents, in this order, the five most cited references, the ten authors with the most publications,
and the ten most frequent keywords.
Figure 3
Brand Personality Development Network
The brand personality theme gained prominence with the publication of Jenifer Aaker (Aaker, 1997) article that
can be considered the central point or the origin of the theoretical development of the Brand Personality scales. The
author developed the theoretical structure of the brand personality construct and proposed a scale to measure the
construct. This scale has five dimensions (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Robustness). It
is the most used instrument to measure brand personality. Good measurement scales can support more significant
differentiation; they also have predictive power regarding customer behavior and purchase intentions (Aaker, 1997).
Aaker’s model is replicated in studies from several countries, despite some divergences about its validity. In
some cases, controversies refer to the multiplicity of dimensions and characteristics (Lara-Rodriguez et al., 2019).
Nevertheless, scale is the most widely used option in brand personality analyses, particularly in research on the
relationship between product design and Brand Personality, emotional and affective elements, and consumer behavior.
In the following year, Susan’s work (Fournier, 1998), through three case studies, deepened the investigation
of the consumer’s relationship with brand personalities and sought to provide a framework to characterize better and
understand the types of relationships that consumers they create with brands. Among the references used was the
work of Aaker (1997).
Another contribution along the evolution of brand personality studies was the book Building Strong Brands by
David Aaker (Aaker, 1996). The book is one of the primary references in constructing the theoretical framework of
the theme with a practice-oriented approach. The focus is on building strong brands for the market. Still, on authors,
it is essential to highlight that Aaker (1997) and Fournier (1998), as well as five of the ten authors with the highest
number of published works, used Keller (1993) and Belk (1988) as a reference for the construction of their research.
Keller (1993) presented the conceptual brand equity model from the individual consumer’s perspective, stating
that brand equity is the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumers’ response to brand marketing. The
same authors who referenced Keller also used the research of Belk (1988), a recognized researcher in the field of
materialism. Belk (1988) states that possessions are a great reflection of the consumer’s identity and that he constructs
what he called “extended self” to portray the use of products and brands that indicate similarity or “translation” of that
consumer’s identity. According to Belk (188), this occurs through the relationship between self-concept and brand
choice, thus building the anthropomorphization of brands.
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As a result, it seems imperative to establish design and advertising parameters to ensure consistency with the
brand’s personality and a clear understanding by customers, who ultimately decide based on the human characteristics
they attribute to the brand. Personality is an affective and intangible element of the brand to interact with other intangible
elements, such as trust, loyalty, loyalty, involvement (Molinillo et al., 2017; Pradhan et al., 2020; Sung & Kim, 2010).
Such evidence signals the importance for marketing managers to outline their strategies for customer retention, creation
of valuable content for the internet, improvement in engagement actions, and customer relationship.
However, Lara-Rodriguez et al (2019) question whether the brand personality explains the purchasing behavior.
The hedonic aspect emerges from studies on consumer brands. However, it is not possible to say whether the purchase
decision is subject to the anthropomorphic value brands represent.
The brand’s personality assesses the direct and indirect influence on the relationship with the various areas.
Brand personality is a hedonic characteristic and, therefore, can generate involvement with brands with more remarkable
similarities between the brand and the customer (Hu et al., 2013). Market segmentation and niches gain strength
in this scenario, in addition to strategies for digital media, where hyper-segmentation prevails in search of customer
attention and proximity to multiple niches.
Other customer-related research has already been conducted, such as on luxury brands (Sung et al., 2015), brand
persuasion (Kim & Sung, 2013), the personality of national brands (Chu & Sung, 2011; Song & Sung, 2013; Sung &
Tinkham, 2005), source credibility (Kyung et al., 2011), association with social media and crisis management (Nadeau et
al., 2020), place marketing (Rutter et al., 2018), political brands and online brand personality (Rutter, Hanretty & Lettice,
2018), brand personality in higher education (Rutter et al., 2017), and fashion (Kim et al., 2018), sports (Tong & Su, 2014)
and tourism (Dias et al., 2020) and Destination Marketing (Atay et al., 2020; Casalegno et al., 2020).
Advances in the Study of Brand Personality began to consider personality based on symbolic elements and
emotional representations. As a result, brand personality became a way of personifying brands, bringing brands and
consumers closer together. Thus, it extrapolates its original conceptions and starts to figure in studies of different
products, brands, and areas, strengthening itself as a relevant construct, despite the existing limitations in theoretical
or empirical advances for different contexts.
The importance of brand management is undeniable, but the implementation of empirical models is complex,
especially about different cultures and areas. It is noteworthy that the brand personality and its studies contributed
significantly to Consumer Behavior, and Marketing since several existing scales, were derived from studies on the
brand’s personality. Thus, the brand’s personality left an ostensible mark on the relationship of companies, nations,
destinations, objects, and services with consumers, influencing how they are understood, established, and maintained.
Furthermore, its application can be decisive in how a brand will perpetuate in the market over time.
Final Considerations
This study aimed to analyze the development and contribution of publications on brand personality to marketing
and consumer behavior. This bibliometric survey indicated that the brand personality evolved from a simple product
attribute to an inhuman entity. It makes sense to think that the study of this construct and its characteristics are very
similar to research on human personality and its characteristics. The review of studies on brand personality indicates
the relevance of deepening the theme. Multiple strands originate from studies on brand equity (Keller, 1993), from
creating a measure-to-measure brand personality (Aaker, 1997).
Brand personality studies were developed from the application in different contexts and related to other
constructs. As one of the pillars of the relationship with consumers and in brand management, the brand personality
has potential for development in times of economic crisis and high competition. One of the great practical and strategic
possibilities of using the brand personality is to create differentiation through brand authenticity. This differentiation
communicated and perceived by the target audience creates identification; this consumer will seek to remain close to
these products, services, and brands and initially discard brands with which they have less identification or perception
of congruence with their interests.
Despite the development and gain of space over the last few years, researchers have a consensus that there
is still much to be researched and published to make the knowledge widely applicable by those who need practical
tools for brand management. Due to this difficulty, it is still possible to identify a lack of empirical studies, mainly on
brand management and personality, mainly in contexts such as Brazil, Latin America, and emerging countries. These
countries, which have similar social, economic and social characteristics, which differ from European or US countries.
Such characteristics often reveal different behaviors in relation to brands and consumption, which requires tools
adapted to this scenario and reality.
More and more studies in Marketing and Consumer Behavior can seek brand personality as a topic capable of
elucidating obscure points in the delimitation of interaction strategies with the target audience. Marketing is increasingly
oriented towards personalization, adding value, and creating experiences that reinforce brand awareness. Furthermore,
it is undeniable, as already mentioned, that the digital environment creates a wide field of application for differentiation,
niche communication, and hyper-segmentation, which implies an explicit knowledge of the brand’s personality traits.
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Revista Ciências Administrativas, 30: e13850, 2024
What brand left the brand’s personality?
Oliveira, B. S. de, Pereira, L. I., Meurer, A. M., & Antonelli, R. A. (2024). Autoecácia e Percepção de Interferência
Tecnológica de Prossionais Contábeis. Revista Ciências Administrativas, 30, 1-16. https://doi.org/
Submissão em: 10/10/22
Aprovado em: 09/10/23
This study also has limitations despite not having the intention of exhausting the discussions on the subject.
Choosing a relevant database for Applied Social Sciences reduces the chances of prominent articles not being part
of this study. Future research on the subject can explore other databases to compare the findings, research the
application of scales and models in specific contexts, brand management, and application in the digital environment
as a propagator of forms of relationship and identity with the target audience.
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Como citar:
Dias, V. da V., & Schuster, M. (2024). What brand left the brand’s personality?. Revista Ciências Administrativas, 30,
1-12. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5020/2318-0722.2024.30.e13850
Endereço para correspondência:
Valéria da Veiga Dias
E-mail: valeria-adm@hotmail.com
Marcelo Schuster
E-mail: valeria-adm@hotmail.com
Submetido em: 17/08/2022
Aprovado em: 20/10/2023
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