Do brand personality scales really measure brand personality?

Abstract

Since 1997, literature and research on the concept of brand personality have been flourishing, and specific scales have gone into widespread use in academic circles, unchallenged on their validity.

Brand personality is certainly a key facet of a brand identity. As this paper will demonstrate, however, the current scales of brand personality do not in fact measure brand personality, but merge a number of dimensions of brand identity — personality being only one of them — which need to be kept separate both on theoretical grounds and for practical use. Brand research and theorising, as well as managerial practice, have nothing to gain from the present state of unchallenged conceptual confusion.