Arielle Jackson: recommendation

Transcript context

…That's exactly the feeling I got. And so, yeah, personality, that's our next topic. It's not something I you think about when you think about brand and marketing and plans and so I'm really curious to hear why I think that's important then how to figure out your own personality for your brand. So I think personality is one of those inputs that will help define your visual design and it will definitely help define your written copy. And it really comes from this idea of brands are like people. And if you start thinking of your brand more like a person, it's quite obvious that it needs a personality, because all people have personalities. And these days, especially when brands show up in places where people show up, like TikTok and Instagram, your brand certainly needs a personality or else you end up like ADP trying to be fun for the summer, which just feels really off and weird. So personality is one of those things that it's actually the easiest part. I think it's the fastest part. It often ends up an hour and you can get it done. But I have some frameworks I like to use that really just get at are you Mountain Dew or are you Rolex or are you somewhere in between? And when you think about brands that have a lot of equity, they really do have a personality. I often talk about Mountain Dew marketing as that marketing that's like trying really hard to be cool and rugged and edgy and fast and kind of teen and Rolex, it's very like Gray Poupon, oh, roll down your window and do you have any Gray Poupon, it's fancy and sophisticated and a little bit aspirational and maybe even a little British. And those two things are really, really, really different. And there's a lot in the middle and not everyone's going to be a Mountain Dew or Rolex, but where are you? And so you can just write it down. I think a lot of these answers come back to like, if you are good with just opening a blank Google doc and like writing down who you are by all means, go for it. And if that feels daunting and hard for you, use a framework. And the framework that I like to use has two parts. The first part is based on some academic research by Jennifer Aker and it basically analyzed the top brands in the world and figured out that all brands can be segmented into five dimensions of brand personality. And that really strong brand spike in two of the five. So the five dimensions that she found were sincerity, so this is like, is it down to earth and honest, excitement, it's spirited, this is a Mountain Dew thing, competence, reliable and intelligent, sophisticated, sophistication, which is a charming and upper class and rugged outdoorsy and tough. So sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. And going back to those two brands we just discussed Mountain Dew is rugged and exciting, Rolex is sophisticated and competent and you can do this with any brand who admire or just think about brands you like and kind of deduce them to their two of those five. So that's the first step. Which two of those five are you going to spike in? And it turns out a lot of tech companies end up spiking in sincerity and competence just usually does happen that way. Amazon is sincere and competent. Google is sincere and competent. ng to spike in? And it turns out a lot of tech companies end up spiking in sincerity and competence just usually does happen that way. Amazon is sincere and competent. Google is sincere and competent. Apple is not, Apple has a little more of that sophistication to it. But in any case, if you just did that, we would end in a world where everyone's sincere and competent or maybe sophisticated and competent. It's like a really boring world. So the next step after you do that is to define five attributes, five brand personalities, thinking about those two dimensions. I like to think about this as a star, five point star and brands need tension to be interesting. So if you tell me we're helpful, we're nice, we're approachable, we're competent, and we're reliable. You basically haven't told me anything because you just use three words to say one thing and two words to say another thing. Whereas if you tell me, oh, well we're really savvy, but we're also really approachable. That's kind of cool. Because people who are expert are always approachable. They have to have a little tension and then you want to write them as statements that say we are X, but not Y, where Y is taking X too far. So in the example Google is playful but not silly, so they would say we are playful, but not silly, or maybe Mountain Dew would say we are daring, but not stupid. So taking that attribute a little too far. And so yeah, then you end up with these five statements that are we are X, but not Y. And those are really useful in informing how you write and maybe even what your visual design would look like, and certainly what your illustration style photography style ad copy will be like.…

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