Kapferer Brand Identity Prism
Digital MarketingMarketers often use the Brand Identity Prism to measure the identity of any brand. But before applying any model, some obvious questions that come to mind are:
What is it?
When should it be used?
How to use it?
Now suppose if a product or brand (taking the liberty of equating product with brand) were a person, what would they look like? What traits would it have? Would he be warm, cold, aggressive, approachable, or intelligent?
The brand identity prism helps us provide answers to these questions.
OK, so the next logical question is when to use it.
I would say practically everywhere. Understanding the identity would help to better design your web presence, it would decide the positioning and it would have an effect on all the marketing guarantees.
The best way to understand the model is to call a meeting of all the department heads and ask questions, lots of questions.
The model has 6 dimensions on which a brand will be evaluated.
physical facet It talks about what the product is, what it does, how it adds value to customers, how it fills the gap in the market.
Marked personality it is measured using those traits/characteristics of the consumer’s personality that are directly related to brands. Care must be taken not to confuse it with the reflection of the consumer. Brand personality is closely linked to self-image and consumer image. The questions that should be asked are:
1) What are the characteristics of the consumer’s personality?
2) What are the characteristics of the brand if it were a person? This depends on the functional aspect of the product and the gap it would fill.
Brand culture: As the name implies, it speaks to the culture of the brand. Values and principles will be derived from culture and it is these values that will unite customers. Remember HSBC’s “The World’s Local Bank”.
Questions to ask yourself:-
1) Is the brand culture global?
2) What are the values that the brand represents?
3) How would customers take the values of such a brand?
Brand Relations: There are no prizes for guessing what it is! Yes, after all, every brand has to maintain healthy relationships with customers. All marketing collaterals are meant to do just that. Therefore, to measure identity, this had to figure.
1) How would Sales describe the relationship attributes for your customer management process?
2) How would customer service describe your approach to increasing customer satisfaction?
3) How does the brand want to be seen by customers in marketing communication?
Customer Reflection: Each product is designed to meet some need of the intended customer base. A consumer has to be portrayed in a way that shows how he or she might imagine himself or herself consuming a particular good. For example, in India anyone who consumes Pepsi Cola would imagine themselves as young and Thums Up (another cola from the Coca-Cola stable) as an adventurer. For this aspect, questions should be asked to the customer experience team about What would users imagine while using the product?
Client self-image: Consumers are attracted to those brands in which they see their own traits, for example, a strong, muscular man would smoke Marlboro. This goes hand in hand with the personality of the brand.
The physical facet, the relationship with the brand and the reflection of the customer are externalization factors, while the rest represent internalization. I know it’s a bit tedious, but I’m sure if applied correctly it can bring great benefits to businesses.