Consumer Behaviour: Charity Branding and Personality Branding - Term Paper Example

Consumer Behaviour: Charity Branding and Personality Branding Executive Summary Part A: Literature Review There currently exists a limited body of literature relating to branding within the charity sector and particularly with regards to the area of creating brand personality. Nonetheless, there have been a cross- section of authors who have dedicated aspects of their research towards these two elements of consumer behaviour. However, a majority of past and present literature on these topics mainly concentrate on branding in the commercial sector and the few that delve into the charity sector focus on cases in the UK or US West leaving a dearth of information in relation to the Australian context. The following literature review will thus attempt to close this knowledge gap by analyzing the information in existing literature and relating it to the Australian charity set up. The comprehensive work authored by Sargeant (2007) focuses on the reasons as to why branding in the charity sector has not taken off as much as it should have. One such reason is that charity brands are much more complex than commercial brands hence causing its analysis to likewise be complex. Since charities are deemed to be for non- profit purposes, many charities struggle with creating a balance between creating empathy when raising awareness of the cause they support and at the same time being savvy enough to actually raising finances for these causes. This ties in with the related challenge of being deemed to being too commercial and greedy. In addition, there is the difficulty of persuading internal stakeholders to the branding concepts arrived at. These challenges have been rightly identified by Sargeant (2007) as being hindrances towards research in this area and more research work should be carried out in that regard to enrich this area of study. One study that has made an attempt into this area of research is the work of Hankinson (2001), who delves into various aspects of branding for charity, mainly focusing on the concept of brand orientation. The charity sector has of late been faced with growing criticism whereby many charities are viewed as improperly managing and under using their brands. To understand why this is the case, Hankinson (2001) attempts to analyze whether or not such charities are aware of brand orientation, the nature of brand orientation for charities and its implications for their brands. By definition, brand orientation is defined by the author as the extent to which charities view their organizations as brands, a sign of how much or how little these charities embrace the theory and practice of branding. Therefore, a brand-oriented charity is one that behaves and thinks in line with framework or the construct of the brand. Further to that, the author seeks to give a strong foundation for the methodical advancement of brand orientation within the charity industry in response to the current knowledge gap in this area of study. Hankinson (2001) further delves into what she identifies as being the four key components of brand orientation as gleaned from interviews conducted on charity managers of the UK’s Top 500 charities. These four key components are identified as being the general factor of brand orientation, brand communication, brand understanding, and the strategic use of brands. All these various elements are researched in this work and their implications for charities are summarily given. Brand management is the theme delved into by Ewing and Napoli (2004). Due to the increased competitiveness within the charity sector, charities have become alive to the fact that their organizations have to be run in a more businesslike manner to stay relevant and financially sustainable. Despite this, brand management is a concept that has been largely ignored in the charity sector. The work of Ewing and Napoli (2004) thus seeks to explore this concept within the context of the charity sector and focuses on the theoretical aspect of it. In the process, the authors develop a scale to evaluate nonprofit brand orientation and the results are published therein. Brand personality is a major aspect of branding that charities of necessity need to focus on in greater detail. Mulyanegara et.al (2009) in their work evaluate the relationship that exists between brand personality and consumer personality through the use of models reflecting The Big Five theory. They explain that some aspects of The Big Five model are to a great extent related to consumer preferences on certain aspects of brand personality. In their study, consumers who show a “conscientious” personality exhibit a preference for trusted brands as opposed to those who show an extroverted personality who have a preference for sociable brands. In addition, the authors reveal that in terms of gender differences, male respondents with a neurotic type of personality have a preference for trusted brands whereas it was females with a conscientious personality who preferred trusted brands. These and other fascinating insights from the study are very important and will be of invaluable assistance to the brand managers of charities in relation to crafting brand personalities that are in tandem with the personalities of the intended audience of consumers. Part B: Charity Advertisements Review Brand personality is an important aspect of branding that all charities need to develop for their respective brands (Sweeney and Brandon, 2006). Ouwersloot and Tudorica (2001) define brand personality as the emotional aspect of a brands image that is created as a result of the experiences consumers have with the brand. Much like the personality of human beings, a brands personality is recognizable almost instantaneously and shines through upon sight, smell, touch and taste as an involuntary thought that comes to their mind. Consumers are more likely to respond to a positive brand personality then they are to a negative or undesirable one and this is more so in the case of charities where more emotions are involved. It is thus of utmost importance that charities create the right brand personalities to garner the desired response from consumers yet many charities fall short of this. Following the increase of brands in the marketplace, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to stand out from the competition. Brand personality is therefore crucial for brand differentiation and different organizations have employed different means to develop their brands personality (Sweeney and Brandon, 2006). Knowledge on how to analyze the brand personality characteristics of brands is an eye- opening experiencing that sheds light into the thought- processes that different organizations employ when developing their own brand personalities. During the course of the following discussion, therefore, three different charity advertisements shall be analyzed in relation to their brand personality through the use of the brand personality theory ANALYSES OF BRAND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF 3 CHARITIES The following is an analysis of three different advertisements from charities in Australia: ADVERTISEMENT 1: THE LONGER THEY'RE HERE Image courtesy of Lavender Advertisement (2009) The above advert belongs to the Australian charity, Homelessness Charity (Youth off the Streets company) entitled “The Longer They're Here” The advertisements were in form of outdoor posters ADVERTISEMENT 2: DREAM BUBBLES Image courtesy of Leo Burnett Sydney (2008) This advertisement was created by Leo Burnett Sydney and is entitled Dream Bubbles. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGE Evidently, most charities around the world including Australia have yet to realize the immense benefits that can be accrued from shrewd branding such as the reduction of the costs of fundraising; increasing public confidence and increasing staff loyalty. This has served to hamper the fundraising efforts of these charities and inevitably the causes that are supposed to benefit end up being short- changed. The following are some recommendations as proposed by that should be implemented with regards to branding so as to ensure that these charities support the causes they are a part of: Ensure that the branding is headed by senior management as the process has to start from the top to have an overall impact. Ensure that a brand model is adopted. Create a branding group that consists of all stakeholders to gain supporters from all those involved. Workshops should be held to develop belief statements that will help on improving the brand. Product analysis should be conducted. To enhance the brand personality, the brand should be described as either a symbol or animal as such symbols depict a more favourable character. During rebranding, a rebranding plan should be developed that is communicated to all parties involved. Other measures should also be implemented such as the development of a style guide to act as a guide for further (re) branding efforts. CONCLUSIONS Works Cited Ewing, Michael. T and Napoli, Julie. Developing and validating a multidimensional nonprofit brand orientation scale. Journal of Business Research 58 (6): 841-853. 2005. Hankinson, Philippa. Brand orientation in the charity sector: a framework for discussion and research. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 6 (3): 231- 242. 2001. Hill, Nicola. How to transform your charity into a top brand. Society Guardian. 2002. Retrieved 12th December, 2002 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/feb/21/charities.fundraising Laidler-Kylander, Nathalie and Simonin, Bernard. 2008. How international nonprofits Build brand equity. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 14 :57 –69. 2008. Lavender Advertisement. The Longer They're Here June 2009. Retrieved 11th December, 2009 from http://www.advertolog.com/youth-off-the-streets/print-outdoor/the-longer-theyre-here--318281/ Leo Burnett Sydney Advertisement. Dream Bubbles. May 2008. Retrieved 11th December, 2009 From http://www.advertolog.com/homeless-charity/print-outdoor/dream-bubbles-200408/ Mulyanegara, Riza Casidy et.al. The Big Five and brand personality: Investigating the impact of consumer personality on preferences towards particular brand personality. The Journal of Brand Management 16 (4): 234-247. 2009. Ouwersloot, Hans and Tudorica, Anamaria. Brand personality creation through advertising. Maastricht Academic Centre for Research in Services. 2001. Retrieved 11th December, 2009 from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:YeXMerfXdm8J:arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi%3Ffid%3D478+define+brand+personality&hl=en&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESitcThQ9rT7UlqxPPEt_snl3qvVigF8P9ml_WVlvLkNoJ7sExZD3Of_SxhREwxWE9n7aF70U3plOe2i0zwnlGIIX6z8wFu5uZH-vWkHY4jstLtjFZAeqrOaphvQlNzTSpciSsRD&sig=AHIEtbTJxrFzbXl1CKDd21fEQY7T7Kw93w Sargeant A, Ford JB. The power of brands. Stanford Social Innovation Review 5 (1):40 – 48. 2007. Sweeney, Jillian C. and Brandon, Carol. Brand personality: Exploring the potential to move from factor analytical to circumplex models. Psychology and Marketing 23 (8): 639 – 663. 2006 Read More