The Likeable Brand

By Bill Cleary

The other day I was giving a presentation to a group of MBA students on one of my favorite topics, Branding in the Digital Age. What was unique about this particular group was that all 30 of the students were foreign born. The bulk of them were Swiss with a few token Germans thrown in for diversity's sake.

Over the course of our discussion the students seemed especially interested in how we define brands, how we give them personalities.  It was a good opportunity to discuss the conscious and sometimes subconscious ways brands communicate.  It was particularly interesting to view the topic in an international light.

The students became especially engaged when I talked about brand personality, and how it emanates from positive associations. I used an example of how Apple’s marketing team assessed brand personality in the early 1980’s. When asked to put a human face on the company, customers back then viewed Apple as a “friendly, accessible guy who lived in California and drove a fancy European sports car. Apple was the kind of guy who was always willing to help out. As an approachable fellow, you always felt especially comfortable around Apple.”

Then-arch rival Tandy (aka Radio Shack), on the other hand, came across in customer focus groups as “a poorly clad fellow from Texas. The Tandy guy was a bit overweight and never wore natural fabrics. He wore a brightly colored digital watch and a tie that hung about midway down his distended belly. What was great about Tandy is that he could talk tech and had one of every known kind of electronic device in his disheveled garage-like shop.”

Naturally, we on the Apple marketing team took advantage of this personality difference.

What’s always fascinated me about the two companies is that Apple has largely been defined by it’s incurably hip co-founder, Steve Jobs; while Tandy has been defined by it’s nerdy in-store sales staff.  The important thing to remember is that any time you have a product parity situation, the tie goes to the company or brand with the most engaging and yes, pleasing personality. People are predisposed to do business with companies that they like and believe to be competent.  And that’s true anywhere in the world.