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Can a company launching an event or promotion in “the Six” afford to hire just any Toronto brand ambassadors? Not if that company wishes to preserve the integrity of its brand personality. Brand personality is incredibly important to a company’s financial well-being – and hiring brand ambassadors which contradict that brand personality? Let’s just say that’s not a very good idea – not at all.

But what, exactly, is brand personality?

“Brand personality is defined...as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand,” wrote Jennifer Aaker in the Journal of Marketing Research (“Dimensions of Brand Personality,” 1997). In that study, Aaker surveyed 1200 consumers on their perception of the brand personalities of high-profile brands like Kmart, Advil, Lexus, Revlon, and more.

Participants in the study were given the following prompt:

“Most of the following questions are about a variety of brands of products or services. We would like you to think of each brand as if it were a person. This may sound unusual, but think of the set of human characteristics associated with each brand. For example, you might think that the human characteristics associated with Pepto Bismal are kind, warm, caring soothing, gentle, trustworthy, and dependable. The human characteristics associated with Dr. Pepper might be non-conforming, fun, interesting, exciting and off-beat. We're interested in finding out which personality traits or human characteristics come to mind when you think of a particular brand.”

Based on the responses to the survey, Aaker was able to identify the “Big 5” personality traits that defined a brand. These personality traits are as follows:

• Sincerity – honest, genuine, cheerful
• Excitement – daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date
• Competence – reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient
• Sophistication – glamorous, pretentious, charming, romantic
• Ruggedness – tough, strong, outdoorsy

Every brand’s personality – to a varying degree – is a blend of some, or all, of these traits. For example, some brands have a mostly Exciting and Sophisticated personality. But if a brand with that kind of personality hires Toronto brand ambassadors with significantly different personality traits, then those brand ambassadors – try as they might – will simply be unable to represent that brand effectively.

In fact, if the personalities of the brand ambassadors mismatch the personality of the brand, this can have negative repercussions down the road as the brand’s personality is slowly degraded by its ambassadors.

So, word to the wise brand: pick an event staffing agency which is brand-savvy – an agency which is acutely aware of the importance of providing brand ambassadors whose personalities wholly reflect the personality of the brand.

Femme Fatale Media Group, by the way, has an extensive roster of brand ambassadors – ensuring we can select the best ambassadors for your brand, every time. You can contact us here to learn more.