hat's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here with BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video
you're going to learn what a brand persona is and how to create one so you can develop
a guide for your brand's human expression and win more customers through familiarity
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals and
the logo using strategy psychology and creative thinking and you're in the right place hit that
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now if you have any experience in marketing or branding or even general business then you'll
have seen plenty of articles and videos around the idea of gaining a competitive advantage in
the marketplace or standing out in the market or grabbing that attention and these all play on the
idea that you need to have something different in order to get the attention of your customers
now although it is absolutely critical in having the right offer and the right message for the
right person understanding exactly who that person is what they're attracted to and how to deliver
the message to them is becoming increasingly important and that's where the brand persona
comes in so what is the brand persona well it's the human character that your brand communicates
with and it's developed based on who the audience is and what they're actually attracted to and it's
made up of a series of elements and those elements include your brand personality those personality
traits that your brand communicates with it's based on the brand's voice what traits do they use
within the voice it's based on the ideas opinions and attitudes of the brand which really bring the
brand persona to life ultimately your brand persona is about that humanistic
expression of your brand why do brands need a human persona well we are most certainly in
the age of the human brand that is a brand that communicates through human characteristics now
years ago brands didn't have to do that they sent out messages into the marketplace through
monologue that was one-way communication one-way broadcast communication and the idea was that over
time enough messages would stick in the market but today you can't do that you can't simply send
out messages time and again today it's all about dialogue it's all about that two-way conversation
with the consumer the consumer has a really really powerful voice today and they will that power
through their buying decisions if they see a brand behaving in a certain way that they don't like
they'll go elsewhere they'll spend their money elsewhere they'll go with another brand who aligns
with who they are and the values that they hold dear if brands go out into the marketplace with
monologue messages with one-way broadcast messages they're not going to make that connection and
today that is exactly what the modern consumer expects they want that human connection they want
that dialogue they want the brands that they do business with to listen to their needs now
in order for a brand to engage in dialogue it needs a human personality brands in essence
are inanimate objects and they're made up of a series of processes and systems that represent
the business but a brand comes to life through its communication and how it communicates and
the brand personality and the human brand persona plays a huge role in that so how do people connect
with brands well it's the same way that people connect with people if you think about how you're
attracted to other people and what attracts you to other people it's through their behavioral traits
how do they behave and is that behavior aligned with your own traits or do they have something
that you're attracted to now this all plays out in the market every single day and it's all based
on this primitive instinct and it all happens in our ancient reptilian brain which is all based
on survival we're drawn towards that familiarity because that familiarity represents safety and we
push back on things that are unfamiliar because that represents danger so this is how we connect
with people and this is how we connect with brands as well so we tend to do business with brands that
feel familiar to us that represent safety because ultimately that safety leads to trust and we do
business with brands that we trust so what's the difference between a brand persona and a buyer
persona well these two are distinctly different they're often confused but they are critically
intertwined as well now the buyer persona is a fictional character that represents who
our audience is the brand persona is a fictional character that represents who our brand is but the
brand persona its job is to really connect with who that buyer persona is and the way we do that
is by really understanding that buyer persona by developing out that bar persona so we know it on
an intimate level we know who that audience is and once we know that once we have that information
and once we know what they're attracted to then we can develop a brand persona to better connect
and resonate with who they are so how do you develop a brand persona well developing a brand
persona is all about bringing your brand to life and although it sounds complicated
it's actually very very simple the way to do that is simply by understanding who your buyer persona
is and what they want and developing your brand persona to give it to them i'm going to show you
how to do that in seven simple steps number one identify your most influential buyer personas
now you might have multiple buyer personas you might have two three four even five buyer personas
and they might represent different market segments or different people within a specific market
segment but some personas will be more important than others some will have more influence over
the success of your business so identify the most important buyer personas that have the
most influence on the success of your business number two extract their most influential traits
so between your multiple bar personas your top two or three bar personas what are the characteristics
that are most influential within their personalities these characteristics whether
they display these characteristics or they're attracted to these characteristics will be a
defining difference in appealing to who they are number three identify the role they want your
brand to play now your brand could play different roles in the lives of your audience and depending
on who the audience is and what they want from your brand should determine whether you play a
role that's about guidance or about inspiration or about protection what is the role that your
brand is going to play for your audience because this role will determine exactly how you should
approach the market and how you should approach that buyer persona number four align your brand
with an archetype now archetypes were developed initially by carl jung in the early 20th century
as a way to categorize all personalities now this framework is made up of 12 distinct personalities
that represent pretty much all human personalities you're more closely aligned with one or two of
these personalities than others now archetypes were brought into the branding spectrum by
margaret mark and carl pearson in their book the hero and the outlaw and we can use the
archetypes framework as a way to identify who our audience is and what characteristics we
should align our brand to number five define your brand tone of voice and your language
so once you have a bit of direction based on the archetype framework you can begin to develop out
the tone of voice that your brand is going to approach the market with so is your brand going
to be soft and gentle and guiding or is it going to be rough and gritty what kind of tone of voice
should your brand have and what language profile should your brand have as well is your language
going to be really professional or is it going to be based on slang and communicating on a much more
human and basic level so defining what your brand tone of voice is and the language profile that you
use is really important number six expand your brand personality so you have that direction now
with your brand archetype framework your brand tone of voice and your language but you need to
expand out this personality it's not enough to just have a handful of traits you need to give
your brand persona attitudes and opinions and an outlook on life so really asking the question of
your brand persona what do you feel about this situation what do you feel about the industry or
the broader world and this will really start to bring your brand persona to life so it starts to
feel like a real person and number seven use your brand persona as a guide so your brand persona is
just a guide for your brand communication you will have many different touch points for your brand
in the marketplace whether it's your website copy or your social media pages or your youtube videos
or your advertisements you have many different touch points and having a brand persona now is a
guide for you to go out and express your brand through human characteristics so go out and
use your human brand persona in your messaging in your videos in your website copy and if you do
this consistently over time your brand will start to feel familiar and if your brand persona is
developed based on who your audience is and what they're attracted to then this from familiarity
will be welcome to that audience and that's when they start to develop trust towards your brand now
we can all relate to the comfort of familiarity if you think about being in a strange place with
strange people that you don't know and then you hear a familiar voice or a familiar accent
you're drawn towards that familiarity because that familiarity represents safety if something was to
happen you want to be close to someone that you have some kind of connection to and again
this is all based on a primitive level and if you understand the value of that if you understand the
value of familiarity and you approach the market in that way if your first touch point of your
first engagement with your audience is through that sense of familiarity then that is a foot that
you have in the door that is an advantage that you have of your competitors and sometimes that's
all you need just that little touch of familiarity could be enough to open the door for your consumer
to do business with you now if you are ready to develop a brand persona for your own brand then
brand archetypes are a great way to structure that personality and persona if you want to understand
what brand archetypes are and how to use them to develop your own brand personality then this
video will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video