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by Lynne Gordon (@lynne_gordon) South Africans love a good story. From our politics to our pastimes, we’re suckers for a tale packed with drama and palaver. We’re a nation big on ‘character’: larger-than-life personalities, whether politicians or entertainers, provide an endless supply of engaging narratives on the news channels, stages and the streets of Mzansi.

It’s a nation where the art of branding is ripe for the picking — iconic brands are master storytellers, engaging us in a narrative centred on the cast of characters in the category landscape. And as brands proliferate and categories fragment, it’s this art of character that helps brands stand up and stand out. But how do brands identify and maximise a brand character that really works?

Products with personality

A brand is a product brought to life by its character. While functional and emotional benefits define WHAT a brand should communicate, character guides HOW the brand speaks, looks and behaves. Character elevates products to become brands, and creates true potential for differentiation in cluttered categories.

Nando’s is spicy Portuguese chicken — a delicious but rather replicable product at face value. Tougher to copy is the brand’s jester-outlaw character, a personality that defines the Nando’s brand and creates uniqueness and preference in a category where choice proliferates. [Below is the latest Nando’s ad — ed-at-large.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL2dgCPcl9o

Many iconic SA brands have similarly unique characters. Consumer goods such as Koo and Omo adopt a nurturer-hero character, elevating everyday goods into lovemarks. Cell C aspires to transform telecommunications with its promise of “the power in your hands” supported by a magician brand character.

Crafting brands with personality

Building an authentic brand character that’s relevant to consumers and true to your brand is not easy. So how do brands establish a character that powers true standout?

Understand the emotional needs and attitudes of your bullseye target

Character allows brands to create unique resonance with the deep attitudes and emotions of their target consumer. Is your consumer disillusioned and bored with the category? An outlaw character, challenging category rules, creates unique relevance. Does your consumer crave community and caring? A nurturer character amplifies communication of care and belonging. Youthful relevance may be found in jester or magician characters that bring fun and joy to your brand.

Think beyond generic choices

Honesty as a character attribute may be true for your brand, but it lacks differentiation in a landscape where few brands would choose NOT to characterise themselves as speaking the truth. Truly distinctive character requires tougher choices. In every category, a dominant archetype will generally be established by the needs and attitudes of the landscape — babycare brands will by default adopt the personality of nurturer; the financial services category is dominated by brands that portray the knowledgeable and trustworthy sage.

Brands that stand out identify unique traits that challenge the category norm, and disrupt the expected. Outsurance, for example, brings the voice of the regular guy to a category dominated by sages, bringing a fresh down-to-earth perspective to insurance.

Tailor the dial of intensity for relevance and appeal

Brand character is the product of nuanced choices. Archetypes may equip marketers with a palette for characterisation, but the art is to refine, craft and shape a unique and specific identify from the platform archetypes provide. Axe and Tiffany are both lover characters — but manifest in deeply different ways. Tiffany’s is romantic and committed, a traditional lover who woos his or her paramour; Axe is passionate and feisty, an unapologetic modern lover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzTSE6kcLwY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE2_KpDTEBs

Applying your character

A clear and unique character powers every piece of communication with a distinct point of view and tone of voice that are instantly recognisable to consumers. Executional choices become simpler, and assets are guided towards consistency by character that works.

The North Face — named for the most unforgiving side of the mountain — uses the brand character rooted in the explorer-hero to guide execution that is extreme and deliberate, brave and adventurous. Never passive or awestruck in the face of the challenge, a golden thread of the explorer point-of-view makes North Face’s brand execution clear, through communication to activation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tll-4WONtg0

Challenge

So the challenge goes out to marketers: Take a hard look at the personality behind your product. Bold choices could breathe new life into a new narrative that speaks volumes to our storytelling nation.

 

Lynne GordonLynne Gordon (@lynne_gordon) is the managing director at strategic marketing consultancy Added Value. Her monthly MarkLives column, “Homegrown”, explores everyday businesses and the lessons corporate marketers can learn from the streets of Mzansi. Find out more on how to explore and define your own brand’s character at www.characterlab.com.

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