PHOENIX (June 28, 2023) – Zion & Zion, a full-service, global marketing agency, released part four of a multi-part study that explores the relative brand personalities of 45 top U.S. brands. In this study, the Zion & Zion research team explored the impact various brand personality dimensions have on brand performance.

For this study, we performed regression analysis on all 45 brands in the study based on their brand performance scores, which were created by using factor analysis to combine five desirable brand outcomes. Our data science team then used regression analysis to identify how the 11 brand personality dimensions drive brand performance and to what extent.

The ultimate goal for brands is to achieve positive consumer-behavior outcomes. For example, purchasing your brand over a competitor’s or having consumers recommend your brand. Additionally, brands obviously benefit if consumers are willing to pay more for their brand, if consumers feel good doing business with them, and if consumers have a favorable attitude towards their brand. We measured all five of these outcomes on seven-point Likert scales then aggregated the five outcomes into one single measure of brand performance.

“The importance of this research is high. Brands that can not only understand their personalities relative to competitors is obviously necessary, but this research uses regression modeling and a near-10,000 data point study to actually quantify the impact of personality on outcomes,” said Zion & Zion CEO Aric Zion.

The study showed that competence is the brand personality dimension that has the highest impact on brand performance; followed by sincerity, while ruggedness has the lowest impact. Two of the four dimensions of negative brand personality (NegBP) make it into the top four dimensions in impact as well, but with negative coefficients. While it may seem obvious that being seen as egotistical or socially irresponsible lowers brand performance, our study quantifies the relative importance of these dimensions and their exact modeled impact on brand performance. The high ranking of the impact of NegBP underscores the importance of understanding the dark side of brand personality.

View the full research report here: Part IV: The Brand Personality Of 45 Major U.S. Brands.