1998:092 MASTER'S THESIS Brand personality - Brand personality as a way of developing and maintaining Swedish brands Joakim Wallenklint Ekonomprogrammet D-nivå Institutionen för Industriell ekonomi och samhällsvetenskap Avdelningen för Industriell marknadsföring 1998:092 • ISSN: 1402-1579 • ISRN: LTU-EKON-EX--98/092--SE LULEÅ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MASTER`S THESIS BRAND PERSONALITY Brand personality as a way of developing and maintaining Swedish brands 98-05-28 JOAKIM H. WALLENKLINT Department of: Business Administration and Social Science Division of: Industrial Marketing ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work presented in this thesis was carried out at the Division of Industrial Marketing at Luleå University of Technology. There are several key people who have contributed to this work. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Ph.D.candiate Tim Foster for his support and encouragement throughout the work leading to this thesis. I am also grateful to my fellow students Hanna Bertvald and Jimmie Cato who have helped to improve the work through their valuable comments. The work presented in this thesis has its origin from a research proposal stated by the adver- tising company Explosiv Marknadsföring i Piteå AB (DYNAMIT Reklambyrå). In this com- pany I would especially want to thank the Manager Gunnar Forslund for his inspiring thoughts in the field of Branding. Finally I would like to thank the case study companies for taking the time to be in this study. They were the Sales and Marketing Director Gunnar Pettersson and Marketing Assistant Siw Kalliostenmaa-Öhman at Polaris Optic AB, the Sales and Marketing Director Stefan Erkki at Polarbröd AB and finally the Executive Director Stefan Lustig and the Sales and Marketing Director Martti Perttunen at Piteortens Chark AB Luleå in June 1998 Joakim H.Wallenklint ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on how the brand owner could use brand personality as a way to build and maintain Swedish brands. To be able to get a picture of this, the research in this study has been aimed to look at what kind of brand managers there are, the brand positioning state- ments, the perceived brand personality and the way it is communicated through print ads. The aim with these research questions has been to see how the brand personality fit in with the positioning statements and the communication through print ads. The research was conducted at three case study companies in the North of Sweden. The result from these case studies shows that there are no official brand managers or any clear brand personality program. The case study companies did not have a clear perception of their brand personality, but they all had clear positioning statements, and from this an intuitive perception of the personality. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION .................................................................................. 1 1.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ......................................................................... 3 1.4 RESEARCH PROBLEM .................................................................................... 3 2 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................... 4 2.1 BRAND HIERARCHIES..................................................................................... 4 2.2 BRAND MANAGEMENT.................................................................................... 5 2.3 BRAND IDENTITY............................................................................................. 6 2.3.1 BRAND POSITIONING ...................................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 BRAND PERSONALITY..................................................................................................... 11 2.3.2.1 Variables of brand personality ................................................................................. 12 2.3.2.2 Implementing the brand personality ........................................................................ 13 2.3.2.3 Visual presentation of brand personality ................................................................. 16 2.4 SUMMARY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................... 18 3 FRAME OF REFERENCE ................................................................. 19 3.1 CONCEPTUALISATION .................................................................................. 19 3.1.1 BRAND MANAGEMENT: Research Question One ........................................................... 20 3.1.2 BRAND POSITIONING: Research Question Two ............................................................. 21 3.1.3 BRAND PERSONALITY: Research Question Three ......................................................... 22 3.1.4 BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION: Research Question Four .......................... 23 3.2 THE EMERGED FRAME OF REFERENCE .................................................... 25 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................... 26 4.1 RESEARCH POSITION................................................................................... 26 4.2 RESEARCH APPROACH................................................................................ 26 4.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY................................................................................. 27 4.4 DATA COLLECTION METHOD....................................................................... 28 4.5 SAMPLE SELECTION ..................................................................................... 28 4.6 DATA ANALYSIS STRATEGY......................................................................... 29 4.7 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY .......................................................................... 30 4.7.1 CONSTRUCT VALIDITY.................................................................................................... 31 4.7.2 EXTERNAL VALIDITY........................................................................................................ 31 4.7.3 RELIABILITY ...................................................................................................................... 31 5 DATA PRESENTATION.................................................................... 32 5.1 BRAND HIERARCHIES................................................................................... 32 5.2 CASE ONE: POLARIS OPTIC AB ........................................................................ 33 5.2.1 BRAND MANAGEMENT: Research Question One ........................................................... 34 5.2.2 BRAND POSITIONING: Research Question Two ............................................................. 35 5.2.3 BRAND PERSONALITY: Research Question Three ......................................................... 36 5.2.4 BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION: Research Question Four .......................... 37 5.3 CASE TWO: POLARBRÖD AB............................................................................ 38 5.3.1 BRAND MANAGEMENT: Research Question One ........................................................... 39 5.3.2 BRAND POSITIONING: Research Question Two ............................................................. 40 5.3.3 BRAND PERSONALITY: Research Question Three ......................................................... 40 5.3.4 BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION: Research Question Four .......................... 41 5.4 CASE THREE: PITEORTENS CHARK AB............................................................. 42 5.4.1 BRAND MANAGEMENT: Research Question One ........................................................... 43 5.4.2 BRAND POSITIONING: Research Question Two ............................................................. 44 5.4.3 BRAND PERSONALITY: Research Question Three ......................................................... 44 5.4.4 BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION: Research Question Four .......................... 45 5.5 SUMMARY....................................................................................................... 46 6 DATA ANALYSIS.............................................................................. 47 6.1 BRAND MANAGEMENT: RESEARCH QUESTION ONE........................................ 47 6.1.1 POLARIS OPTIC AB ..........................................................................................................47 6.1.2 POLARBRÖD AB ............................................................................................................... 47 6.1.3 PITEORTENS CHARK AB ................................................................................................. 47 6.1.4 CROSS CASE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 48 6.2 BRAND POSITIONING: RESEARCH QUESTION TWO.......................................... 48 6.2.1 POLARIS OPTIC AB ..........................................................................................................48 6.2.2 POLARBRÖD AB ............................................................................................................... 49 6.2.3 PITEORTENS CHARK AB ................................................................................................. 49 6.2.4 CROSS CASE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 49