Why We Need to Extend the Classical Model of Brand Personality : The Practical Value of Brand Personality Measuring Tool for Marketers

The brand personality is a very popular area of research in marketing. Consumers perceive brands as if they were living beings. They assign to brands positive and negative personal traits, demographic characteristics, physical characteristics and cognitive skills. The personality of the brand is a very important means of differentiation, which is the most difficult to copy. Although this topic has been popular in in theoretical marketing research for a long time, little has been done to implement brand personality measuring tool in practice. The author dealt with the methodological shortcomings of a large number of brand personality studies and presented an extended model of "brand as a person," which, in addition to personality traits includes other determinants of the brand as a person, in order to enhance the practical use of this measuring tool. The author has conducted her own research of the extended personality profile of brands of mobile operators in Serbia (telecommunications sector), including two international companies and one domestic company, in order to determine the diagnostic and predictive value of extended brand personality measuring tool. By determining a broader profile of the "brand as a person" (current or desired), we can clearly perceive: if the diversity of the brand compared to other similar brands is sufficient, where we made the mistakes, and how we can focus brand positioning in the future, using a variety of marketing tools