Chanel: Brand Personality and Identity
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Brand Personality:
According to brand dimensions by Jennifer Aaker, personality traits can fall under any of the 5 core dimensions which are further segmented into different attributes.
Chanel is a brand that is based on and linked to founder Coco Chanel and now designer Karl Lagerfeld who has successfully kept her spirit alive through the brand (needless to say, I think we all know that by now!). Everything that she had a hand in making, all her iconic items including her perfume (which is what we are interested in here), are based on her personality or in general, aspirations to be someone like her. The brand has been humanized since Chanel No.5 was released to the market.
Diving deeper, the 5 dimensions of Brand personality accroding to Jennifer Aaker, and how the brand is associated includes –
Chanel mainly falls under Sophistication dimension and gets all points for the facets in it – without doubt.
Next, Competence because of the quality and security of the products. Chanel’s humble background to riches shows the hard-working aspect of the brand. In all her videos, while there has been glitz, glamour and pretty aspects, it does not leave the “hard work” out in the making of success. Further, “successful” is also another one within competence which Chanel is. Leader in the field, the brand has revolutionized fashion and perfume as well as helped empower women in a time of change. Last but not least, the intelligent dimension has helped make Chanel a successful business over almost a century.
Excitement
Indeed, the brand oozes class and it is the main factor of the brand. However, the story and Coco herself was unique, daring – exciting, independent, which all translated to her products. Additionally, at this time, it also makes some effort to be young and contemporary which mainly due to the rise of competitors and digital world – however, I would not consider this to be crucial for now. Additionally, as we have seen in some ads, the brand is highly spirited which feeds to the excitement facet.
Sincerity
Honest, Real and Original are all traits that make Chanel commonly known as a “pure” brand.
This then leads to authenticity because when a brand is true to itself and real, it is easier to find its roots (orignal aspect) and remain relevant at any time.
Humanization of the brand allows us to understand brand deeper and enables us to resonate with them quicker and with ease (thus helps form relationships).
Chanel has established Sophistication and Competence as its main brand identity (checks all boxes under the two categories) and thus consumers that look for the real deal, are looking for competency of their prouct and ultimate sophistication fall under Chanel.
Do you agree? 🙂
Brand Identity Prism:
Next, the identiy prism tool helps us to better understand brand identity and image. It takes shape of a hexagon (below) and can be imagined as lights coming in from different sides portraying different attributes and perspectives of the brand. Thus, the overall picture you get of the brand is a combination of all the attributes that are in this prism.
On the one hand, you can control certain parts of the company – such as logo, slogan/tag line, colour code, and what we try to project outwards and on the other, theres a receiver who has his/her own interpretation of the same parts. The final image lies somewhere in between (relationship and culture). Also the right hand deals with the essense of the brand, and the left hand side looks at the phsyical aspects of the brand.
Going forward, here’s a brand identity prism that I thought was accurate for Chanel.
- Physique – determined by the logo, design, shape, size of products. Firstly it is easy to tell apart Chanel perfume bottles/ or the brand from others. The physical aspect of Chanel’s perfume bottles exude elegance, class and I would say completes the look for a woman (also through the ads that we have seen). Essentially, it is what it does to stay afloat or make it as successful as it is.
- Relationship – The relationship between the brand and target audience. Level of trust, pride, comfort wearing the product can come under this. Women and men that wear Chanel perfume like it because it is long lasting, it suits/ flatters their personality and their taste, and they enjoy the perfume that they wear.
- Reflection – This is how the brand is perceived and what the value of the brand is perceived as. The brand is worn by people of good taste, usually have high social income and reflects a modern woman (in the case of the Chanel perfume).
- Personality – Personality of the brand – how it relates to its customers. How the brand’s personality is perceived and reflected. The personality of the brand (we touched upon another version above) but, it is sophisticated, daring, innovative, understated (which makes it classy – less is more) and would have high self-esteem.
- Culture – Origin of the brand – I would say that Paris and liberation would be a major part of Chanel’s culture. Also, values and communities of customers are important in culture, which is where I would say sophistication is a major facet.
- Self image – How it affects self image/ The realization of self image – 1. the image you will have of yourself when you buy it, and 2. the self image Chanel (in this scenario) tries to sell. It is important to note that luxury brands usually emphasize on the importance of this beause it tries to portray an image that people can aspire to be or have.
How it can be applied here – When I wear a Chanel perfume, what does it say about me and vs what I want it to say.
What is my image when I wear their perfume? Perhaps it perhaps it makes me feel sophisticated and elegant.
What is the image you will have of yourself (or people have of you) when you purchase their product? and does it align with the self image Chanel tries to sell?
Therefore, all of these aspects summarize the core of why Chanel is what it is. This helps Chanel define what it wants as a brand, and remains consistent in providing this image or reflection to its customers from using their products. Once again, Chanel sold an attitude/ way of thinking (through its story) to the market.
Sources:
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_aaker_brand_personality_framework.html
http://www.digitalnewscoventry.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/dimensions-of-brand-personality/
Image source:
http://www.slideshare.net/tebreb/chanel-project-50358248 (Chanel Project by Rebeecca Teboul)
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