Brand Personality

In the literature review, we saw that brand personality is often defined as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand. As brand personality is reflected in the way consumers describe a brand, we found it relevant to first ask the participants about their free brand associations to each brand, then hand out a paper with already listed brand characteristics and finally ask them directly ‘If Brand X was a person, how would you then describe that person?’. The following analysis of brand personality of each brand will be a combination of the results gathered from all 3 questions¹⁵³.

Louis Nielsen

In terms of the free brand associations, all participants, except from one person, consider Louis Nielsen to be cheap or even ‘discountish’. In addition, poor service is mentioned four times and non-competent one time. It is arguable that non-competent is closely linked to poor service and fall under this category, as it is a part of service as accounted for in the literature review. Finally, comments about the commercials from Louis Nielsen are represented five times, and thus it is among the top 3 most listed associations. Based on these free associations, Louis Nielsen appears to be a person who prefers to shop at low prices, not service oriented and like to be seen in public.

To a great extent, this picture is supported by how the participants described Louis Nielsen as a person. Some of the comments were linked to low prices:

“One who thinks is has to be cheap.”

“To me, it is someone who shops a lot in Netto … all the time I see this person walking around in Netto with dicount all over. It is clever what they are doing, but you get that Netto-feeling all the time.”

153 See Appendix 13: Free Brand Associations from Focus Groups + Appendix 14: Brand Characteristics 20-40 year old – Results + Appendix 15: Brand Characteristics 40+ year old - Results

Looking at Appendix 14 and 15, we see that everyone without exception has marked Louis Nielsen to be cheap and almost half of the participants furthermore added a discount characteristic. Other comments were linked to Louis Nielsen’s way of doing advertising:

”I think they are a bit provocative in its branding, which makes me think of them as young and naughty.”

”The naughty and provocative boy in class in terms of how they are making some special offers and dare to be cheap.”

In continuation hereof, some added that it is a person who stands out from the crowd and walk in the opposite direction. This is supported by the marks at Appendix 14 and 15, in which some of the participants have marked daring, spirited, naughty and young.

In the literature, we found that brand personality can be accessed trough five personality traits. Based on how Louis Nielsen is described so far and looking at Appendix 14 and 15 of brand characteristics, we would argue that Louis Nielsen is mainly characterized by excitement. The participants see Louis Nielsen as a person who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd, be daring and take some risks. That person is young and is not afraid of breaking rules in order to reach its goals. Looking only at the brand characteristics, they indicate that Louis Nielsen to some extent is characterized by a bit of sincerity, because words like family oriented, honest, cheerful and friendly are marked.

Nyt Syn

Based on the free associations, it is evident that none of the participants know the brand Nyt Syn. Only a few indicate that they might know the name but they cannot associate Nyt Syn to anything. In terms of brand characteristics, the majority chose not to mark anything and as a result, it is very difficult to analyze the brand personality of Nyt Syn, as the results are very unreliable and not worth commenting.

Profil Optik

In terms of the free associations, no clear opinion is formed of Profil Optik. There are not that many words that are repeated by various participants and some of the participants do either not know the brand or confuse it with some of the other brands¹⁵⁴. The same is present for the description of the brand personality, which results in a mixed and slightly blurred picture of Profil Optik’s brand personality.

As a free association, the high price level is one of the only factors mentioned by more than one of the participants. Four people at the age 40+ think of Profil Optik as being high-end and more expensive than some of the other brands. One person from this group describes the brand as one of the most exclusive, along with Synoptik and Thiele.

When the young group was to describe Profil Optik as a person and plot in marks of the brand characteristics, the majority finds Profil Optik old, dusty and dull. Some participants said:

“It is the loyal customer, who is older than us, who keeps returning after many years.”

”I am thinking at Danske Bank, you know a bit conservative.”

In general, it is difficult to find a homogenous description of Profil Optik among the participants. At Appendix 14, it appears that the young participants have not ticked of that many personality traits and the ones marked do not point in the same direction. Among the participants at the age 40+, more traits are marked and with a small majority, some traits are linked to the personality of competence. If we consider the fact that many other traits have been marked too and signal some other brand personalities, and the young participants form no clear brand personality, it results in a blurred personality description.

154 See Appendix 13: Free Brand Associations from Focus Groups

Synoptik

If we look upon the list of the free associations, it appears that words like big retail chain and well-known are listed in almost every sentence from each participant. It is the most written word of them all. Next, there are many words in relation to Synoptik’s advertising and communication like many commercials, Lars Hjortshøj (the endorser of the brand), and many offers like ‘discount of your age’. Finally, half of the participants wrote words like assortment and wide range of products¹⁵⁵. If these associations are linked to the personality of Synoptik, this brand can be described as a well-known person, who is not afraid to ‘shout out loud’ and show and tell about who Synoptik is. Furthermore, Synoptik is a person who prefers to have many different options and therefore a wide range of products.

Looking upon the participants’ descriptions of the personality of Synoptik, the majority of the participants from 20-40 consider Synoptik to be a very family oriented person. One of them said:

”Family oriented and also successful. They have managed to create an image and a brand.

We all know them and that is a success.”

The last sentence is closely linked to the free associations of big and well-known mentioned above. In continuation, all participants at the age 40+ characterize Synoptik to be old, classic and the traditional kind of type. One expressed it like this:

”Just because we say it’s old, does not have to be negative, but it is classic and traditional.

They haven’t exactly renewed themselves the most.”

Even though, old was mentioned when the participants talked about Synoptik’s personality, it is on the other hand only marked two times in terms of brand characteristics. That might be

155 See Appendix 13: Free Brand Associations from Focus Groups

due to the fact that old is not thought of in negative way as one said, and when many other words are listed, others are considered more suitable for Synoptik.

In terms of the brand personality traits, it appears that Synoptik is characterized by competence. The main part of the marks are placed at secure, successful, leader, technical and confident, which are linked to competence according to Aakers definition¹⁵⁶. In continuation of these characteristics, we did add some other words that we consider belong within the factor of competence. These are professional, experienced and specialized and all of them were heavily marked. Especially the professional angle is apparently a characteristic the majority finds valid and true.

Thiele

In terms of free associations, words like big, well-known and been in the business for many years are listed most of the times at Appendix 13. In addition, many of the participants wrote words linked to service and sales personnel like service-minded, friendly and competent personnel. Appendix 14 and 15 support the comments of service and sales personnel as the majority of the participants have marked words like real, original, cheerful, friendly and kind.

When asked about Thiele’s age, there were participants at the age 40+ who expressed that Thiele is a grown-up, middle ages person but still young. One of them wrote and explained:

“The new famous one that wants to be modern…. They have went to kindergarten and school, and did grew up with Synoptik - Synoptik has continued to be that lady who wears a pleated skirt and Thiele is trying to stand out a bit…. Thiele tries to be more young.”

156 See appendix 14: Brand Characteristics 20-40 year old – Results + Appendix 15: Brand Characteristics 40+

year old - Results

At Appendix 15, it appears that other participants agree to this opinion as the brand characteristics of trendy and young were marked 5 times in all. In addition, one from the focus group 20-40 finds Thiele quite trendy because of its selection and added:

“I perceive them as quite young. Both in terms of their target group and their selection assortment.”

Finally, the good quality and the high price level were mentioned by some of the participants in the free associations. At the same time, these associations appear from Appendix 14 and 15 with words like quality and detail oriented plus exclusive. Though, it must be stressed that quality and price are not mentioned to such a great extent like the other mentioned areas were.

Based on the participants’ perception of Thiele, the brand can be characterized by competence and sincerity. The brand characteristics from Appendix 14 and 15 clearly shows that according to the participants, Thiele is family oriented, real, original, cheerful, friendly and kind. Compared to the other brands, Thiele is the only brand, which scores that high on sincerity. Next, Thiele received many marks at words linked to competence in the way Aaker defines it, but also at the words we have added like professional, experienced and specialized.

It appears, that compared to Synoptik, the participants find Thiele less ‘competent’ because Synoptik ‘scored’ more marks within that area. But Thiele is indeed close to Synoptik and is on the other hand perceived powerful in terms of sincerity.