Using Hue as a Clue for Brand Personality: The Effect of Colour on Brand Personality Perceptions

Abstrakt

In the ever-increasing clutter brands need to recognise how to strategically use brand components to their advantage in order to build and retain consumer relationship. Colour, being an omnipresent visual stimulus in the life of consumers, plays a key role in the conceptualisation of brand identity and therefore has an influence over consumer perception of the brand. Another important part of brand identity is brand personality, which can additionally be adopted to shape perceptions and build relationships with consumers. Despite the acknowledged importance by scholars of both colours and brand personality in branding, there has been limited research on the concepts conjunctively, underlining the importance on further research on this matter. Further, there has been limited research on the possible effect context might play on these two concepts. For that reason, this research focuses on exploring the interrelation between colours, brand personality and market context. Our research thus contributes to branding literature by providing clarity on the correlation between these entities and how they affect one another. Our findings conclude that colours can be intrinsically associated with a certain personality dimension and can be used as referential signal of brand personality traits to consumers. Further, this effect can be utilized to elicit certain brand personality traits in particular market context when there is sufficient consensus between the product category and brand personality perception associated with the colour. Consequently, it was found that these relationships can impact consumer brand perception, behavioural intentions, and attitudes. Finally, the research adds comprehension on how brand management can bring together colours, brand personality, and market context and how that can in turn culminate a positive brand image and increased brand equity.