THE PRINCIPLE

Whatever you create will have a personality – make sure it’s the one you want

Your brand is simply the impression people have when they think of your product or service. Every brand has a personality, for instance:

Apple = cool and sexy

Tesco = good value

Harrods = posh

You need to think about your project’s personality while you are creating it. The personality needs to be an intrinsic part of it, not something that marketers and advertisers tack on later, whether or not it really fits.

When the American company Dave’s Gourmet created a line of spicy sauces, they decided to go for the extreme. They concocted the hottest hot sauce ever sold and called it ‘Dave’s Insanity Sauce’. Their motto became, ‘Snacks for an insane world.’

At the other end of the personality spectrum is the UK company Innocent Drinks, which produces a line of smoothies and juices. It projects a kind and – well – innocent image.

All kinds of factors go into a product’s personality – colour, shape, size, ease of function, kind of function, the sound it makes, what it reminds people of, how rough or smooth it is, how light or heavy, and so on.

With a service, the factors include how easy it is to understand, what part of your problems it addresses, what you associate with it, how closely it aligns with other services you like to use (or which may have negative associations) and the surroundings within which it is delivered. For instance, the atmosphere of a dentist’s waiting room heavily influences our experience.

As you develop your product or service from its original idea, consider the following questions:

• If this were a person, what is the one adjective you would use to describe it?
• Is that the personality you wish it to have? If not, what would you prefer?
• What, if anything, do you need to do to give it even more of the desired personality? This could involve the basic design, the packaging, or both.

When you have a prototype or sample ready, ask that first question of everybody who is exposed to your product or service.

Do they see it the same way? If not, what is giving them a different impression?

A person with a great personality is always popular. Keep making adjustments until your product or service has the kind of desirable personality that’s likely to make it popular in the marketplace.