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Imagine two (fictional) soft drinks. InfernoEnergy has flames on the label, 180mg of caffeine, and fluorescent liquid inside. ZenWellness has a label that looks like a sunset, contains reishi mushroom powder, and describes itself as a functional wellness beverage.
InfernoEnergy is popular with college students and sells in convenience stores for $4. ZenWellness has a cult following of yogis and wellness influencers, sells for $7 a pop, and generates most of its sales through limited social media releases.
These two drinks exemplify how brand personality shapes market position. InfernoEnergy exudes excitement and intensity, while ZenWellness embodies calm and health-consciousness. Their distinct personalities allow them to command different price points and attract specific audiences.
In this article, we'll show you how to create a brand personality that's authentic, engaging, and uniquely yours.
What is a brand personality and why does it matter?
Think of a brand personality as the human characteristics that you connect with a company. While competitors can copy your business model, your brand's personality sets you apart—it's unique to you.
Brand personality extends beyond your brand’s visual elements. It's about the feelings your brand creates and the emotional connection you build with your audience. It manifests in every customer interaction, from communication style to website experience.
Why is brand personality important?
A strong brand personality builds customer loyalty and drives demand. It sets expectations about your price point. A weak or undefined brand personality can lead to stagnant growth and lost business opportunities.
Brand personality also helps you stand out in saturated markets by giving potential customers a way to connect with your business and its values. In the crowded beverage industry, InfernoEnergy and ZenWellness could only succeed by occupying distinct niches—high-energy performance and mindful wellness—and appealing to those types of customers.
Learn more about building a brand
How to define your brand personality
Starting a business or project often means creating your brand as you go—a quick logo here, some website text there. This approach might work at first, but taking time to develop a strategy will lead to much better results as your business grows. Here’s how to develop your brand personality framework.
1. Define your mission and vision
Start with your core values. What drives your business decisions? What matters most to your business’ culture? Your mission and vision will form the foundation of your brand personality. If you’re unsure where to start, Squarespace’s AI writer can help you draft a mission statement.
Consider an eco-friendly clothing company with a mission centering on sustainability and ethical production. Their mission would inform every aspect of their brand personality, from how they talk about their clothes in marketing to fabric choice and product design.
2. Define your target audience
You need to know who you’re trying to reach. What are their needs and desires? Researching your target audience allows you to avoid mistakes and create a more effective brand. If it helps, turn that research into buyer personas so you can better imagine who your brand is speaking to.
For example, a personal trainer targeting super high-earning urban professionals needs to shape their entire brand around an audience that values luxury and is strapped for time. Their brand voice stays authoritative and elite, while their pricing reflects premium service. Their marketing emphasizes exclusivity and sophistication.
From their workout gear to their booking system, every aspect needs to match the elevated expectations of clients who frequent five-star hotels and exclusive clubs.
3. Determine your personality traits
Now comes the creative part. Think of your brand as a person: Would they be energetic and bold like InfernoEnergy, or calm and nurturing like ZenWellness?
There are an infinite number of personality traits you could apply to your brand, but try to keep it simple. Imagine personality traits on a sliding scale, and consider where your brand sits between these five sets of characteristics.
Elite to Mass appeal
Serious to Playful
Conventional to Rebel
Friend to Authority
Mature & classic to Young & innovative
Looking at our soft drink example, InfernoEnergy leans toward mass appeal, playful, and rebellious. ZenWellness tends toward elite, serious, and authoritative.
Defining these traits allows you to make key decisions on things like the look and feel of your website, your voice for social media, and even how you should address your customers in emails.
How to apply your brand personality
Your brand should feel consistent across all customer interactions. Start by creating a source of truth for your brand’s visuals and tone, then apply it wherever your brand shows up.
1. Create a visual brand identity
Match your look to your personality. Elite brands like ZenWellness are likely to rely on sophisticated, minimal design. Young, rebellious brands like InfernoEnergy need bold colors and dynamic graphics.
Your visual identity includes your logo, but extends to the visuals and colors you use across your website and elsewhere. If you're stuck, Squarespace AI can help generate compelling visuals or recommend fonts and color palettes that match your desired brand personality.
See one expert’s tips for creating a brand design
2. Determine your voice and tone
Your brand voice must match your personality to sound genuine and create authentic connections with your target customers. Go back to your personality traits and think about how those would translate into a way of speaking. A laid-back neighborhood cafe might speak casually and warmly to customers. An elite personal trainer needs to maintain an authoritative, motivational tone.
3. Integrate your brand personality across every customer touchpoint
Once you understand your brand personality, the key is to stick to it consistently. Doing so establishes your brand’s connection with its audience, no matter where they interact with it.
Website
Choose colors, fonts, and imagery that align with your personality. A minimalist design might convey sophistication, while bright, playful graphics could signal a fun-loving brand.
Social media
Social media platforms create an opportunity to build out your brand personality through consistent, engaging content. Each post should reflect your values while encouraging audience interaction.
For example, that neighborhood cafe might share authentic conversations with baristas and customers. The elite personal trainer's Instagram grid would feature curated imagery highlighting premium fitness spaces and client success stories.
Learn more about building social media for your brand
Marketing materials
From brochures to email campaigns, make sure your brand personality is consistent. A playful brand like InfernoEnergy needs energetic emails and marketing. Formal or corporate language would confuse or alienate their customers.
Customer service
Delivering a consistent customer experience requires thought. Your team needs thorough training to embody your brand personality in every interaction.
Consider how two different fitness studios might approach customer service. A luxury yoga studio might use mindful language like, "We look forward to creating your moment of balance." In contrast, a crossfit gym might use messages like "Ready to crush your fitness goals?"
Common pitfalls to avoid
Watch out for these common brand personality mistakes, from trying too hard to match others’ expectations to not paying enough attention to your audience.
1. Inconsistency across platforms
Your brand should look and feel the same everywhere. Consider if our fictional beverage brand, ZenWellness, presented a calm, sophisticated image on their website but filled their social media with memes and selfies. This would confuse customers and damage their premium positioning.
2. Trying to appeal to everyone
While it's tempting to create a brand that appeals to the widest possible audience, this often results in a brand personality that’s scattered and forgettable. Focus on creating a personality that resonates with your ideal customers, even if that means not for everyone.
3. Copying competitors
It’s okay to view competitors as a source of ideas and inspiration, but you need to start with a strong outlook on what defines your unique personality and how you’ll stand apart. Customers can tell when you’re trying to be something you’re not.
4. Failing to evolve
Failing to adapt can leave your brand feeling outdated or disconnected from your audience. It can also mean you’re missing key opportunities to connect. Make adjustments as your audience evolves or as your brand and business do.
5. Overlooking staff alignment
Your employees are ambassadors of your brand personality. That extends to everyone in your business, whether they work directly with customers or not. If ZenWellness customer service representatives act rushed and aggressive, they would immediately damage their calm, nurturing brand personality.
6. Neglecting your audience's perception
While you can shape your brand personality, ultimately it's defined by how your audience perceives you. Gathering and acting on customer feedback is critical. You can gather feedback directly or use data from website traffic or email and social media interaction to gauge what’s landing or isn’t.
Maintaining and updating your brand
Brands must evolve while maintaining their core identity. Here are three ways to keep your brand personality relevant, even as your brand changes and grows.
Embrace feedback. Regularly check in with your audience and team to make sure your brand is still hitting the mark.
Stay ahead of the competition. With a fully formed brand personality, you have a roadmap to continue pushing limits. Ten years ago, latte art might have been enough to set a neighborhood cafe apart, but if there’s now a cafe on every block, it will need to further define its brand identity. Knowing their customer can help the owner decide whether that means offering coffee education or sharing more about the cafe's story.
Be ready to adapt. Your brand can stay true to its core values while refining how they are expressed. Be open to evolving your personality as your brand grows and the market shifts.
A strong brand personality is the foundation of your business identity. Distinct personalities can create market leadership, even in a crowded industry. By defining your brand personality carefully and evolving it thoughtfully, you can build lasting connections with your target audience and stand out from competitors.