Have you ever been in a discussion about brand attributes or brand personality?  What about research studies measuring how much donors think the brand fits certain attributes?

Did it feel wildly generic or maybe, contrived?  Does anybody think about a brand as being charming or good looking?

One of the most well-respected marketing and brand professors is a guy named David Aaker.  One of the Big 3 brand personality dimensions he conceptualizes is Sophistication, which is almost entirely about physical appearance.  This isn’t personality, it’s personification and anthropomorphism.

But a charity brand only exits as a donor perception and do donors really perceive brands with these outer, human characteristics?

If you ask people in a survey if they think Coke or Pepsi is more handsome, they’ll give you an answer and it’ll likely match their preference.  But, don’t conflate this with cause and effect.

You could ask them if Coke or Pepsi was more like King Kong or Godzilla and who’d win in a fight, and you’d wind up in the same place.  A bunch of contrived differences having nothing to do with causing choice and preference, merely reflecting it.

But if the term brand-personality has any value then the real question is do donors perceive charity brands with internal, psychological human characteristics?  There’s a lot of evidence we are what we choose, that our brand choices are partly to reflect or enhance our inner selves.  I’m a dog person, I choose to own a dog and support charities helping dogs.

But my Identity isn’t my Personality.  Might I also choose charities that fit my personality, which could help explain why I pick one dog charity over another?

In a word, yes.

Want to learn more and see examples?  Join us at our learning session, registration is free.

This table shows how people describe themselves and how those descriptions fit the Big Five.

We know people high in Openness are more likely to pick charity: water than Red Cross.  But someone high in Agreeableness would have the opposite inclination.

We are what we chose.

Where it gets more interesting is knowing personality is in the eye of the beholder.  A food bank can successfully market itself to Agreeable, Conscientious and Open people while still coloring within the lines of your brand and tone of voice guidelines.  It just requires different stories and images, word choice and programmatic emphasis.

Want to learn more and see examples?  Join us at our learning session, registration is free.

Kevin

P.S. DonorVoice is hiring, if you’re high in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness and yearning for professional growth, take a peak here.