Searching for the winning persona

Let’s play a little communication game. From the top of your head, name a brand, person or company that matches the following brand character or personality descriptors. Here goes–

• Great with kids

• Free-spirited and masculine

• A girl that gives superb service

• Ina ng bayan

• Super bright about computers. A high achiever at the university

• Formal and professional. Tops in his class intellectually

• The great Filipino performer

• Has a warm, affectionate attitude toward babies

• Dedicated leader in improving dental health for the family

• The iron lady

Well, how did you fare? I am sure you found an ideal match for some of the descriptors quite easily, and possibly named not just one but two or even more matches for the others. This is a function of a weak or a strong brand characterization. Every day you encounter hundreds of brands and human faces. Most mean nothing to you. But when you come upon a brand and its elements, in whatever form or medium, it becomes familiar. So when you see it in a retail outlet, or a supermarket shelf, you experience a sense of recognition. "Hey, I’ve seen you. I know you." If you are intimate with the brand’s personality, and how it relates to you, meeting the brand up close can trigger remembrance, interest, affinity, positive reinforcement and support.

The Persona Principle

Unfamiliarity can result in invisibility, the biggest roadblock to fame and glory. The best, the most experienced, or the most talented cannot enjoy success until it is clearly, credibly, and consistently visible to its targeted audience. This is the unassailable truth for any product, person, or business. Visibility in a party can lead to romance. Visibility in an industry organization can seal a business transaction. Visibility to the electorate can spell political success.

There are several ways to establish presence – spend millions of money through advertising, voice out your truth in pitched or paid media and make people listen via public relations, get lucky, or build equity in your image through an effective projection of a winning brand character or Persona, as Derek Lee Armstrong and Kam Wai Yu describe it in their book The Persona Principle. Persona is an image marketing tool that can help ensure stability and long-term success. Applied to brands, corporations or people, it can be defined as the set of subjective impressions you want a defined audience to form through exposure to them – their performance, their packaging or image, and over and over again to their marketing communication.

The development and articulation of Persona is one of the most challenging tasks for communicators. But it is important to define it down pat given the overcrowded marketplace and fierce competition. A well-defined Persona provides uniqueness on the shelf, and more important, in our target audience’s consciousness. Competition may rob your brand of its claims, but it can never rob your brand of its Persona. An effective brand Persona is difficult to distill in a one-liner, a couple of lines, or with just a few, sharp adjectives. But since you have a feel for the essence of many brands, it is possible to write a working Persona statement.

The Five Power Personas

Defining the Persona is one of the most difficult creative challenges in marketing communication. You can create your own customized and balanced persona. Armstrong and Yu suggest looking at Five Power Personas (FPP), which can give you ammunition and guidelines in developing the all-important truth about your brand.

The Emperor Persona. The most obvert and obnoxious Persona. It is the one most often adopted by history’s military dictators like Napoleon and Alexander the Great. The problem with this personality is that arrogance of the image can lead to downfall. You should only consider the Emperor Persona if you are looked at as a market leader for years, or you invented your product category which others copied. Arrogant confidence in leadership, dictatorial management style, aggressiveness, instant propaganda response to any negative press, and risky behavior are dominant traits. Coca-Cola, Kodak, Sony, Mercedes Benz, Disney and Levi’s are considered Emperors. These brands share the unshakable belief in their image. They are challenged by a number of wannabes but remain to be the undisputed kings in their categories.

The Hero Persona. The Hero Persona builds its success on the talents and skills of one hero, and instead of building the image of the company, it invests in the leader of the enterprise. Ford automobiles being built according to the vision of Henry Ford is a case in point. If you are acknowledged to be the very best in your chosen field, above reproach and agreeable to losing privacy, and would like to see your name everywhere, the Hero Persona is for you. One of the advantages of the Hero Persona is the equity of the hero’s name. Steven Spielberg of Dreamworks and Ted Turner of CNN typify this. They carry billions of dollars in value in their names alone.

The Expert Persona. Building credentials at every opportunity is the hallmark of the Expert Persona. It subtly projects its expertise everywhere, ensuring credibility. It is valuable in almost any service-oriented sector–ad agencies, hotels, and airlines. The false modesty of a hero is more appealing to consumers than the arrogance of an emperor or a hero. You can adapt the Expert Persona if you are already classified as a guru in your milieu, or when you have been able to build a reputation with a well-established firm and wish to "go it on your own." Anita Roddick of The Body Shop is a clear representation of "the expert." She grew her company on her own respectable image and solid principles. Roddick’s image is integral to The Body Shop. Her expertise, and her unwavering commitment to social issues, is expected in her products.

The Buddy Persona. Flexibility is the trademark of the Buddy Persona. It is popular with the later generations of politicians, and the new breed of corporate executives who can no longer afford to be ruthless and approachable. The Buddy is everyone’s friend who treats everyone equally and is respected by everyone. If you are a natural-born salesperson that genuinely likes people, warm and ostensibly caring, socially-responsible and flexible, the Buddy Persona is for you.

The Simpatico Persona. Also known as the chameleon, the Simpatico Persona is cause-oriented and the personality of choice of businessmen and political evangelists. It is the most dynamic of the five power personalities, demanding religious fanaticism or a sense of real cause. The Simpatico requires team orientation, and an absolute belief in the benefits of your product or service. You have to be evangelical about the cause you are espousing, and should carry a genuine enthusiasm for the work being done. Perhaps the boldest and most effective Simpatico is the Apple Macintosh launch. Its introductory advertising is a visual extravaganza that captured the imaginations of consumers so intensely that Macintosh was perceived as not just a product, but an entire culture–almost a religious cause.

The Five Power Personas allow you to make your brand as human as possible. They can be honest reflections of truth, reality, uniqueness, credibility, uncompromising stance, growth, knowledge and independence in branding. Armstrong and Yu believe that they are the most unbalanced but powerful extremes of the Persona Principle. And to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, some "speak softly" –and some do not–but all Power Personas "carry a big stick."

Now let’s play another game. Make a list of brands, people, or corporations that can be classified in each of the Five Power Personas. Again the task can be pretty intricate but interesting. It can surely make you appreciate why brands, people, and corporations act and behave the way they do in the marketplace. Feel free to e-mail me your classifications.

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Read The Persona Principle, and know more about how to succeed in business with image marketing. E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net for comments.