Brand Personality & Personal Branding

I recently posted on the top 30 brand personality attributes chosen by the 100+ brands that we have positioned over the past 15 years. I believe the top 10 brand personality attributes are as important for individuals as they are for companies, products and other branded entities. Here are the top ten again:

1. Innovative
2. Trustworthy
3. Reliable
4. Responsive
5. Professional
6. Easy to work with
7. Service oriented
8. High quality
9. Friendly
10. Customer-focused

People admire innovators. They are always looking to what is new and different. Trustworthy and reliable are all about being predictable. People want to be able to count on a brand to deliver what they were expecting when they were expecting it. Responsive, service oriented and customer-focused speak to putting the customer first and catering to their needs in a timely manner. This implies good listening skills and perhaps even an ability to anticipate customer needs. It also speaks to putting customer needs ahead of one's own needs or at least aligning the two so that they are congruent. A sense of urgency around meeting customer needs is also important. Friendly and easy to work with imply an approachable, easy going brand, not one that has a big ego and is full of itself. Typically, people do not appreciate arrogance, attitude or drama and generally they do not want things to be difficult. Finally, professional and high quality speak to people's need for someone or something that is operating at a high standard of quality. This can imply many things, from substance and competence to a respectful attitude and even a strong command of the English language and a high level of aesthetics.

So, while company, product and service brands focus on these adjectives as their most important personality attributes, individuals can also learn something from this list. If the people you interact with on a regular basis were to choose a set of adjectives to describe you, which ones would they choose? Would any of these ten attributes be in their list?

This is a useful exercise. Ask people with whom you interact on a regular basis for feedback on how they would describe you. You might even probe for their perceptions of your positive and negative qualities. Good luck.