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Abstract
Studying human personality dimensions has interested scholars for decades. However, associating these traits with brands was under-researched. Aaker's remarkable paper, "Dimensions of brand personality," rekindled researcher's interest. Many authors adopted her proposed theoretical model, and few challenged her findings. Last two decades saw a surge in publications. Different areas of research emerged, and several advocated new brand personality scales. Branding literature has no such compilation and analysis of these dimensions. Enough articles are there to undertake an analysis of the different dimensions. This paper reviews dimensions of brand personality based on an online database of articles. Paper collates the different dimensions of brand personality. Summarising these dimensions the article outlines an agenda for future research.
Keywords: Brand personality, Dimensions, Development, Bibliometric review, Jennifer Aaker
Last two decades saw Brand Personality gain prominence in marketing and academic literature. 'Articles in many journals stand testimony of the growing importance of brand personality. Brand personality is an essential tool for building brand image. It supports consumer's decision-making. Hence, the importance of brand personality is there in marketing studies. Martineau, (1958) states brand as an image in the consumer's minds with functional and psychological attributes. Products are physical entities living in the real world. Brands are a perceptual entity that lives in the consumer's mind. Empirical study findings measuring brand personality played an essential role in brand positioning. Brand characterisation differentiates competing brands just as personalities of human beings differentiate them. Personality traits manifest from an individual's behaviour, attitudes, beliefs, and demographic characteristics (Rothbart and Park, 1986).
Extensive research on personality psychology helped in conceptualising and identifying human personality dimensions. Scholars studied, probed, and explored these human personality dimensions. But, parallel research in consumer behaviour on brand personality was insignificant. Brand and human personality may have similar conceptualisations, but the two are different constructs. McCracken's (1989) suggested, "Personality traits associated with users of the product or brand are transferred to the product or brand." Thus, people consume products or brands those symbolise or communicate these characteristics. Aaker, 1997 based her definition on this premise. Her transformational study filled this void. She rejuvenated scholar's interest in brand personality. She defined brand personality as, "the set of human characteristics associated with the brand". Azoulay and Kapferer, (2003) found the...