Build a Brand 2: It’s all about personality

A few days ago, my wife returned from the grocery store with two different brands of coffee: Lavazza and Caribou. While Lavazza is a household favorite, I immediately claimed the Caribou coffee. Why? Because its cover spoke to me. The rustic image of a caribou in the wild resonated with the part of me that loves being in the woods.

Simply put, a brand’s personality is the way that the products make people feel. As a rule, we tend to like people whose personalities match our own. We do the same with products. And businesses know that.

Companies spend millions of dollars building up their brand’s personality. They know that consumers make decisions to buy, or not to buy, products based on how much the product (and by extension, the brand as a whole) matches their own personality.

While Lavazza and Caribou both produce awesome coffee (at least in my opinion!), I opted for Caribou because it connects with my personality.

So what kind of brand personalities are there, and how can authors leverage this information to their own advantage?

In the ‘90s, a social psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Aaker, identified five dimensions that form the general basis for marketers understanding of brand identity. They are:

• Excitement (brands that are trendy, and daring like Red Bull)
• Sincerity (or brands that capitalize on a “family” feel, like Southwest Airlines)
• Ruggedness (which focuses on a more masculine you-can-handle anything attitude like  . . .  Caribou)
• Competence (which promotes products that are hardworking and secure like Apple),
• Sophistication (which focuses on high-end, typically feminine products like Chanel or Dove).

Your readers are consumers. Therefore, they will decide whether or not to “buy your product” (a.k.a read your book) in part based upon the way its personality makes them feel. There’s no way to please everyone but you can leverage this aspect of being authorpreneur to maximize your potential with your target audience.

Here are three steps to give your “brand” of writing its own personality.

Observe: Look at the work of other successful authors in your genre. As a reader, how would you describe their books? Do you see them as being in the exciting category, sincere, rugged, competent, sophisticated or a mix of the above? Don’t just look at the big names out there.

Once you’ve done this, decide what aspects of those books you can incorporate into your own work—things such as cover design and interior formatting. Is there one character featured on the cover or are there many? Are the pages cream or white? These are the things that give a book its feel . . . or personality.

Also consider what makes your book different from other authors in your genre. How can you feature those differences so you’re giving your readers something fresh yet trending?

Plan: Think about who you want to read your book. If you could create the ideal reader, what kind of personality traits would he have? If your ideal reader is a daring, young woman, then you want your book to push excitement and possibly sophistication. If your book is geared toward children of aging parents, for example, you might want to take a “sincere” or “competent” approach.

Think about your image. What we wear often reflects our personality. The same is true of your book.

Your image isn’t just the cover—it’s also the methods you use to connect with readers. To make the most of your social media audience, make sure your online presence reflects your brand’s personality. While Facebook should play a role in your marketing mix, authors that are more “youth-focused” or have a more “exciting” personality might want to build an audience on social media channels that are perceived as being “newer” such as Instagram .

Authors who want to build an audience that favors “honest” or “competent” trends might consider focusing the bulk of their online time on longer blog posts and Facebook groups.   

Keep in mind that, because you’re marketing to readers, your audience will most likely be comfortable reading blog posts, but readers are also visual people who love pictures, videos etc . . .  So present your book’s personality in a way that is likely to resonate with your target market.

For marketing ideas, tips on how to build a brand and more, check out my website: www.JPRobinsonBooks.com

JP Robinson gained experience in the marketing field doing promotional work for multi-million dollar medical facilities and non-profit groups over the past decade. He is an international speaker, educator, and prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction.

JP also conducts writing seminars in various parts of the country and heads Logos Publications, LLC, an emerging publishing and book marketing team.

When he isn’t writing or teaching, JP loves spending time with his wonderful wife and children.

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