Brand Personification: A Study on Humanizing Personal Care Products in Sri Lanka

In the context of marketing communications where the concern is to create effective brand promotions, associating a brand with the personality of the consumers commonly known brand personification has become one of the most prominent aspects over recent years. In the process of designing the message, incorporating an appeal where the brand is associated to a human-like character is called the humanization of brands in advertising. There, the brand focuses on attracting the consumers with a reflection of the consumer’s personality in the brand being promoted. This strategy becomes thousand times more attractive to those products which are closely associated with the consumers. Thus, humanizing a brand alone isn’t sufficient, while humanizing them in the appropriate appealing manner is much more vital. Hence, this research will mainly be focusing on identifying the most suitable personality dimension to be associated for some of the top of mind personal care brands in Sri Lanka. The research approach, which takes the form of both quantitative and qualitative follows the use of multiple sources of data collection methods. The qualitative aspect clarifies the initial stage with the identification of the top of mind personal care brands and the personality dimensions which are closely associated with the targeted group. The quantitative aspect of the study is satisfied via the data gathered through a self-administered questionnaire developed by the researcher. The study then focuses upon an in-depth statistical analysis with the application of the Kruskal Wallis H Test followed by the Nemeyni Post Hoc test to identify the most suitable personality dimension to be associated with each brand in the humanizing them. The findings reveal some interesting facts over the consumer’s preferred dimensions to be reflected on those brands.