Brand, trends and traditions by Vivian van der Burgt

Brand identity and the founder Does the identity of the founder affect the brand identity?

Jaakko Sorsimo Vivian van der Burgt Richard Koerselman Sagar Bansal Sebastian Sillanpää Inga Reinke Brand, Trends, Traditions, ME 2026

ABSTRACT Brands have an own identity which is created through all the associations of a brand. The brand personality is part of the brand identity and an important aspect for building strong brands. This paper researches the question how the identity of the founder of a brand influences the brand identity. This is a highly psychological topic which requires research in psychology concepts and brand identity models. For this the comparison between personal identity and brand identity is made, and the comparison between human personality and brand personality. After that two case studies are performed. The paper concludes that there is a relationship between the identity of the founder and the brand identity. Different models explain that the organization and the culture of the brand, the CEO/founder, the people behind the brand, are the ones who communicate and influence the brand. The founder comes up with a brand with an identity close to his own identity. People’s perception of a brand identity and personality lies close to the behavior and identity of the people behind the brand like the CEO/founder. Two brand case studies in the end of the paper show the relationship between the founder’s identity and the brand identity.

CONTENTS 1

A PERSON’S IDENTITY ................................................................................................ 4 1.1

PERSONAL IDENTITY .......................................................................................... 4

1.2

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY ........................................................................................ 5

BRAND IDENTITY AS A CONCEPT ............................................................................... 6 2.1

KAPFERER AND THE BRAND IDENTITY PRISM .................................................... 7

2.2

AAKER’S IDENTITY PLANNING MODEL ............................................................. 10

2.3

BRAND IDENTITY & PERSONAL IDENTITY ........................................................ 12

HUMAN PERSONALITY TRAITS ................................................................................. 13 3.2

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE .............................................................................. 13

3.3

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS ...................................................................................... 14

3.4

EXTRAVERSION ................................................................................................ 14

3.5

AGREEABLENESS .............................................................................................. 15

3.6

NEUROTICISM .................................................................................................. 16

BRAND PERSONALITY ............................................................................................... 16

CASE STUDY: INGVAR KAMPRAD ............................................................................. 20

5.1

THE IDENTITY OF INGVAR KAMPRAD .............................................................. 20

5.2

THE EFFECT ON IKEA BRAND IDENTITY ............................................................ 22

5.3

THE PERSONALITY OF INGVAR KAMPRAD ....................................................... 24

5.4

THE EFFECT ON IKEA PERSONALITY ................................................................. 25

CASE STUDY: GIORGIO ARMANI .............................................................................. 27 6.1

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 27

6.2

BRAND IDENTITY AND PERSONALITY ............................................................... 27

6.3

IDENTITY OF THE FOUNDER AND HOW IT INFLUENCES THE BRAND IDENTITY29

6.4 PERSONALITY OF THE FOUNDER AND THE INFLUENCES ON THE BRAND PERSONALITY ............................................................................................................... 32

INTRODUCTION With the rise of the influence of modern media the exposure of the CEO’s and founders of companies has risen as well. Because of this the perception of a brand is based more and more on the perception of the spokesperson, whether this is the CEO, someone from the public relations department or brand ambassador. This person sends out a message to the customer to be able to sell the brand to this customer. When trying to sell a product it is essential to send out a clear message what the brand stands for. When selling a product one wants to have a person who sends out the same signal as the product itself. The image of a person can be described in two different ways, by his or her identity or by his or her personality. These fields have been widely researched in psychology in the last few decades and have now come to a point which is being widely accepted by the psychology community. The sense of identity is based on the subjective feeling of who we are. This is based on your background and groups that one is a member of. All of this is being discussed in Chapter 1. At the same time the brand also has an identity of its own which should be similar to the identity of the spokesperson, for optimum results. Therefore in this essay the topic of brand identity will be discussed, based on different models, created in the field of branding. In order to make a good assessment of the similarities between the identity of the person and that of the brand a comparison is needed between the psychological models and the brand models. This is done in Chapter 2. Different from identity, personality is objective and describes how a person is. The different personality traits are discussed in Chapter 3. These personality traits are used to describe a person. A different model of personality traits is used when discussing the personality traits of a brand, when one would metaphorically describe a brand as a person. However both the models have clear similarities and can therefore be used to discuss the similarities in personality of the brand and the person. All of this is being elaborated on more in Chapter 4. With this theoretical background treated in the first four chapters one can look at some case studies. Some CEO’s and their companies will be introduced in the last chapters where the theoretical models will be applied. An assessment is made of how much the identity and the personality of the CEO is similar to the identity and personality of the brand. The research question is therefore to which extent the identity and the personality of the CEO influences the identity and personality of the brand. Is the image of the brand affected by the CEO and is it needed to be exactly the same in order to send a clear message?

1 A PERSON’S IDENTITY Our sense of identity is negotiated by us every single day and represents our feeling of being. Who are we? Our sense of identity is influenced by our surroundings and by the interactions we have with other people. Our identity provides us with a location in the world and furthermore it reflects the link between us and the society which we live in.1 Primarily the word identity is the individual’s way of identifying her‐ or himself within specific cultural contexts2. Because identity is subjective it is not the same as character or personality, which are both objective. Whenever you have a shared identity with somebody else you feel connected and you can identify yourself with a certain group, unlike as with shared character traits or personality. If one shares a personality trait with somebody else one does not immediately feel a connection. Identity has two forms: Identity and difference3: •

•

Identity: This is primarily based on the own feeling of self‐differentiation and self‐awareness. How do you think you are special yourself? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Difference: This is more based on the difference with other people. When you compare yourself to others how do you differentiate yourself? This is also called personal distinctiveness.

Since one can have multiple identities at the same time, such as being a parent, Swedish, a man and a race car driver, identities are plural and are therefore prone to contradictions4. For instance as a parent you might be expected to take your responsibility and do what is best for the family. On the other hand, as a race car driver you might take high risks, also putting the (financial) future of the family at stake.

1.1

PERSONAL IDENTITY

There are multiple levels of identity: Personal (or individual) and collective (or group). This section covers the personal identity. Personal identity refers to categorizing an individual as distinct from others, along with the specific relationships the individual has with others. Collective identities include group memberships. Because one is part of multiple groups, based on race, ethnicity, political orientation, gender, class, religion, occupation and many others there might be contradictions again. 1 Liu, S., Volcic, Z. and Gallois, C., Introducing Intercultural Communication, London: SAGE, 2011. 2

Hall, S., Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies, Cambridge: Blackwell, 1996. Erikson, E., Identity, Psychological, International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, 7, New York: Macmillan, pp. 46‐48, 1968. 4 Castells, M., The Power of Identity, Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. 3

Personal identity means that one has a certain self‐image and will act according to that image. Others also expect you to act to that image. Personal identity includes aspects like: • • • • • •

Physical features Hobbies Interests Family relationships Social circle Personal aspects, such as age, sex, nationality, religious affiliation, disability, sexual orientation and so on

Personal identities consist of such things that make us distinct from others. Some are given to us by birth, like sex and sexual orientation and some might evolve through our lives, like interests and hobbies.5 Our sense of identity is influenced by our everyday life and will change through time. Every interaction will affect us and our sense of personal identity to some extent. According to this so‐called Identity Negotiation Theory the negotiation of the identity can be described as: “A transactional interaction process whereby individuals in an intercultural situation attempt to assert, define, modify, challenge and/or support their own and others’ desired self‐images”6. One should keep in mind that the identity of a person might be different amongst different cultures. One example of this is the gender identity. Gender, opposed to sex, is defined culturally. Whereas sex is all about the biological part, gender is about the roles that are given to people of a certain sex by society. In some cultures some things might be seen as masculine features whereas in other cultures these might be typical feminine features. This should be kept in mind for the case studies discussed later on in this paper. Our perceptions of the founders/CEO’s discussed are based on western cultures.

1.2

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY

Collective identity is all about the membership of certain groups. One can be part of multiple groups at the same time. The membership might be obtained through a common background, through friendship circles, occupation, family bonds and many other reasons. When being uncertain one will more likely adapt to the group’s norms7 and the sense of the group membership will become more important. 5

Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S., The Landscape of Qualitative Research, London: SAGE, 1998. Ting‐Toomey, S., Identity Negotiation Theory: Crossing Cultural Boundaries, Theorizing about Intercultural Communication, Thousand Oaks: SAGE, pp.211‐233, 2005. 7 Hogg, M. A., Mullin, B., Joining Groups to Reduce Uncertainty: Subjective Uncertainty Reduction and Group Identification, Social Identity and Social Cognition, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 34‐45, 1999. 6

Members of the same group will have some common shared experiences or anticipated shared future, whether the membership is voluntary (religion, occupation) or non‐ voluntary (sex, race). With this bond a sense of trust, solidarity and intimacy is created. The own group is considered to be an in‐group, meaning that positive associations are made with the members and a sense of feeling better than people outside of that group, the out‐group, is created. This way also a brand could be considered self‐ expressive. If for instance you buy a BMW you might feel connected to other BMW‐ owners. This in‐group might be perceived as ‘better’ than some out‐group, like Skoda‐ owners, by the BMW‐owners. However, the Skoda‐owners might feel the reverse and think they are better than the BMW‐owners, because they have their own in‐group. Commonly undesirable features are ascribed to members of out‐groups, such as arrogance and dishonesty. When looking at the sense of identity for the CEO/founder later on we should once again keep in mind this is written from a West‐European perspective. West‐European countries are mostly individualistic and therefore less attention is paid to the group identity, compared to collectivistic countries, like China, where the sense of group‐ memberships is way more important. Also one should note that when the CEO/founder is not from the same group he or she will be considered to a member of an out‐group, meaning that negative associations are created. The same yields for the personality of the brand. Assume for instance that BMW can be metaphorically characterized by a white male, aged 40, of some higher class and voting on some right‐wing liberal party. Then people who do not share these group‐memberships will probably be less likely to buy a BMW due to this in‐group‐out‐ group effect.

2 BRAND IDENTITY AS A CONCEPT To be able to investigate the effect of the brands founder to the brand created, in the following chapter the concept of brand identity will be discussed from the most well‐ known authors in the field: Jean‐Noël Kapferer and David A. Aaker. These two authors can be considered to be the parents of the concept and are in the leading edge of researching the field, although their view on it can differ slightly. The term brand identity was introduced only in the mid 80’s by Kapferer8, but it has also been discussed later on in other literature as well. Besides Kapferer’s perception of the brand identity Aaker9 introduced an identity model that explains everything around the brand from all different identity aspects. To Aaker the brand identity is the central to

Kapferer, J‐N., Beyond positioning, retailer’s identity. Esomar Seminar Proceedings, Brussels, pp. 167–76, 4‐6 June 1986. 9 Aaker, D. A., Building Strong Brands, Free Press, New York, 1996.

the brands strategic vision and the biggest driver of the associations that build brand equity. Whereas to Kapferer the brand identity is a tool of efficient brand management which is the source of brand positioning that specifies the angle used by the products of that brand to defeat the others in the same market. Aaker looks at the brand identity as something that customers perceive; therefore the emphasis is on the customer’s perspective. Kapferer divides the identity itself into sender and receiver ends while stressing the aspect on how to manage the brand using the identity tool.

KAPFERER AND THE BRAND IDENTITY PRISM

2.1

Kapferer’s brand identity10 is built out of two parts, “brand identity” and “brand positioning”. The brand identity is the source from where an existing brand will find its positioning. Positioning on the other hand is how the brand will fight against others in the same market in order to grow. This paper will focus on discussing the identity part. Brand identity according to Kapferer10 is something that helps the management to make decisions on if a campaign suites the brand or if an endorser or brand extension is found suitable for the brand to keep its relevance. Identity as we know distinguishes us from the rest. Identity consists of things that must stay and cannot be changed, because if otherwise it would not be the same identity anymore. According to Kapferer it is important to see what the things are that can be changed. In an ever changing environment, the brand must be able to dynamically shape with the pressure market diversity. In order to do so the following brand identity questions must be answered: • • • • • • •

What is the brands particular vision and aim? What makes it different? What need is the brand fulfilling? What is its permanent nature? What are its values? What is its field of competence, or of legitimacy? What are the signs which make the brand recognisable?

In many companies the brand image has been thought thoroughly and measured, but Kapferer claims that the brand image is on the receiver’s side and it depends on how they interpret the message sent to them. The identity on the other hand is on the sender’s side and therefore precedes the image. To be able to project a meaningful image the sender must know what to send and how to send it, and to build a holistic view of it, Kapferer presents the “identity prism” (figure 1)

Kapferer, J‐N., New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and sustaining brand equity long term, Kogan Page Limited, London, 2008.

Figure 1: The identity prism

The identity prism consists of 6 facets that set the boundaries within which the brand can and should be changed and developed. The different facets form a unite core for the brand identity and can therefore be used to as a tool to any maneuver that concerns the brand. •

•

Physique = A brand has its physical specificities and qualities o The physique of the flower is its stem that’s the grounding that defines its tangible aspects Personality =A brand has the communicative side o The way in which the brand speaks of its products shows what kind of person it would be if it were human. Culture = A brand has a culture o The culture difference is the key to understanding the difference between Nike and Adidas Relationship = A brand is a Relationship o Especially in the service business the brand has a sought out relationship to its customers, which defines how they act toward each other Reflection = A brand is a customer’s reflection o The outward mirror = How the customers look like (how I look like to others) Self‐image = A brand speaks to our self‐image o Self‐image = I feel, I am (how I think about myself)

The brand identity should not be confused with the corporate identity. The brand identity of the corporation is one thing, but the identity of the corporation is only responsible of affecting how the identity of the brand can be constructed through relationship, personality and culture. The personality facet is interesting while discussing the effect of the brands founders on the brand. The brand builds character through communication, and organizations often 8

use a spokesperson or a figurehead which can sometimes be the CEO, the product developer, the brand founder or even a celebrity which represents the personality of the product in the best possible way. Besides the personality traits that can be tracked to the founder of the company it can be that the founder is more deeply responsible of the brand identity. Brands can only exist if it communicates, and if it does not it will lose its awareness and relevance. From the thought that a brand is a speech in itself10, and the person that writes this speech clearly affects the identity of the brand. This way of communication creates an image that the recipient can receive. Especially in luxury (Karl Lagerfeld) and major retailer brands (Wal‐Mart) the founders or senior managers can mostly handle the communication themselves or make the final decisions10 even if they haven’t thought about the models that have been created only few decades ago. This might bring evidence that there is a relationship between the brands identity and the identity of its founder. Nevertheless, how the can the identity of the founder grow to be the identity of the company? The Brand Identity Prism explains that the culture and the relationship with the customer are both really tightly glued to the personnel and the people working in the company. The way in which a strong leader teaches the employees a certain culture or behavior usually affects the way how the brand translates this culture to the customers. If an influential person in the company decides some strict rules on how to treat the customers, then that person’s way of treating customers (or people in general) could come across. However, it is the self‐image and reflection that drive the customers emotionally when they make buying decisions. Self‐image is something that the customer feels about itself when using a brand. For example when a person wears Lacoste‐shirts they picture themselves as belonging to an elegant sports club. The brand is what makes the distinction from the other people, and is one of the so called “personal identity” traits that will be explained in the next chapter. The reason to why the shirt has such an affect is that its founder Renee Lacoste was a professional tennis player, and the shirt was designed by his orders to resemble a normal shirt so that it could be worn in Wimbledon, but so that it would be more comfortable to wear while playing. In this way the upper‐class elegance and style of Mr. Lacoste is translated to the brand and transferred forward to its consumers. Moreover, the reflection describes the “outward mirror” of the customer, which expresses how the ones using the brand are perceived: A brand for young people, a brand for rich people or even a brand for the environmental friendly. It explains what sort of people consume the brand and it can be set against the “group identity” factor in which we will dig into in the next chapter. Reflection must not be confused with the brands target groups, which are the consumers that the company expects to consume the brand. Reflection again is something that the customer wishes to demonstrate when using the brand. Aaker’s classification of this same phenomenon is a little different, and therefore it will be examined next. 9

2.2

AAKER’S IDENTITY PLANNING MODEL

Figure 2: Aaker’s identity model

Aaker’s Brand identity9 is a thorough model that consists of Strategic Brand Analysis, Brand Identity System and Brand Identity Implementation system. The part of the model that concerns this paper is the Brand Identity System which still consists of Brand Identity and its effect on the Value Proposition, Credibility and Brand‐Customer Relationship, of which the Brand Identity is the one that will be in focus. Figure 2 shows Aaker’s brand identity. The Brand Identity according to Aaker9 is the main source of strategic vision and associations, which is a crucial part of brand equity. The associations are what the customers have about the brand, and therefore they are from the consumer’s perspective. Those are the things that the customers see in the brand and what the value proposition is. According to Aaker the crucial questions about identity are: • • • • •

What are my core values? What do I stand for? How do I want to be perceived? What personality traits do I want to project? What are the important relationships in my life?

From these questions the Aaker concludes that the identity gives direction, purpose and meaning for the brand. From the identity then the customer should have a value proposition that includes functional, emotional and self‐expressive benefits. However to build this relationship all the possible perspectives such as Brand as Product, Brand as an Organization, Brand as Person and Brand as Symbol must be thought about. The different aspects have 12 dimensions within themselves, which help in articulating what the brand stands for. However Aaker claims that not every brand needs to sort out the entire 12 dimension, but all of them should at least be considered.

Almost like Kapferer thinks, the brand image is something that is only perceived by the customer; Aaker also thinks that the identity is something strategists shape in the way they want the customers to perceive it. This was highly doubted by Kapferer as it easily leads to using the ideal image as the identity, and therefore it loses the true identity in chasing after what they believe is what the customers want. What the customers do seek from the brand Aaker has dealt it as the value proposition. And this value proposition will have the strongest effect on consumers using the brand. The self‐expressive benefits are very similar to the reflection of the Kapferer’s model, and emotional benefits to the self‐image. The self‐expressiveness can be seen as a way to present you to others by consuming a brand. One wears for example a Rolex to express success, or buys fair‐trade products to express environment friendliness. On the other hand emotional benefits are basically hedonistic feelings of using a brand, such as feeling patriotic when driving a Harley Davidson or professional when using a Lenovo ThinkPad. To understand the management of Aaker’s brand identity helps in building a strong brand and brand equity. The four perspectives speak for what the brand stands for, but to compare with Kapferer the Brand as Person part is interesting, and how it affects the relationship between the brand and the customer. The Brand as Person has personality traits just like human beings, and can therefore be considered friendly, fun, active, formal etc. The consumer can use this as a way to express its own personality. Eg. Buying a Haglöfs jacket might make you express your “outdoorsiness” therefore the customer identifies itself to the product. In Aaker’s model the price, the advertisement style, country of origin or even the whole brand can drive these personality traits. A symbol such as the Michelin man can be the one who “speaks” to the customers, but the management or the founder is not covered in this perspective. Nevertheless, in the organizational perspective the culture and the people managing the company are the ones that affect the relationship with the customer, and in that way the founder can actually affect the identity of the brand. Aaker sees this as an organizational aspect even though it is the person and its public image to who the customers are relating to. Personalizing the corporation by putting a leader upfront is therefore an organizational association which seems kind of confusing. Nevertheless Aaker9 suggests that like in the case of Sam Walton the founder of Wal‐Mart, when people visit the store they feel appealing and loveable relationship with the store, which in fact are the famous personality traits of the founder as well. Moreover Aaker’s Brand personality scale9 was created to help companies find the personalities their brand has. The scale has been widely referred to but according to Azoulay & Kapferer11 it does not measure brand personality in a strict sense, but a number of tangible and intangible dimensions that are more or less related to it. E.g. Electronics would be “up‐to‐date” or Energy drinks “Energizing”. In these cases to Kapferer’s view the scale is not measuring personality but, Physical identity measures

Azoulay, A. and Kapferer, J‐N., Do personality scales really measure brand personality?, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 144–55, November 2004

instead. This to Kapferer10 comes from that Aaker builds personality from the basis of old marketing agencies which glue everything that is not straightly related to tangible aspects of the product to personality.

2.3

BRAND IDENTITY & PERSONAL IDENTITY

As the human identity has been examined under many different fields of human science in the western culture for hundreds of years, and the brand identity models are only from the 80’s, we can reason that the brand identity have some kind of basis in these identity studies. To find the most genuine picture of the identity of a brand, the models to the human identity source must compared. It can be seen that the Kapferer’s brand identity model is to at least some point based on person’s identity models. Kapferer’s brand identity model consists of physique, relationship, reflection, self‐image, culture and personality. These are the different features that the brand “sees” it is built on. On the other hand, person’s identity is based on personal and collective identities. These are the different factors an individual thinks make him who he is. Kapferer’s physique is based on individual identity in person’s identity model. Product characteristics that are vital for the brand translate to individual identities that make an individual’s identity. For example, if Coca‐Cola was a person, it would be really proud of its skin color. Kapferer’s relationship is based on collective identities. Brand’s relationship to its customers is pretty same as an individual’s relationships to those groups he belongs to and those where he does not belong to. Kapferer’s reflection is also based on collective identities. The reflection of a brand in the eyes of other people translates to the way a group where an individual belongs is considered in the eyes of other people. Kapferer’s self image relates to individual identities. How the people using the brand see themselves is the same as an individual picture of him. Kapferer’s culture is based on collective identities. The culture where the brand comes from is shown in pretty same way as habits of those groups where an individual belongs. Kapferer’s personality relates to individual identities. A brand has a personality in much same way as an individual. Thus, we can conclude that brands can be, to at least some point, treated as human beings, since the brand identities are somewhat based on person’s identities. Therefore, the research for the connection between identity of the founder and brand has a solid theoretical background. When thinking about the identity of a person, it could be argued that the aspects of Kapferer’s studies resemble it more genuinely than Aaker’s. This is because Kapferer builds the brand identity concept on the dimensions that have been studied from a human identity. According to Kapferer an identity is everything that the brand has been and the environment where it has grown. He speaks of the identity as something that has been molded by its creators and managers through time with all of its identity crisis’s and ups and downs. Aaker sees the identity as a strategy that the managers can 12

decide to build, but it lacks consistency and it creates confusion because of its complicity. Both of the models mainly have all the aspects included in the concept, but from the point of view on finding how the creator affect it Kapferer’s model applies slightly better. In the cases of this paper we mainly use Kapferer’s model to analyze the identities, but in some instances we have also thought about some parts of Aaker’s models.

3 HUMAN PERSONALITY TRAITS

3.1

THE BIG FIVE MODEL

The Big Five model is a psychological model which describes the personality of a person. Since there are many different personality traits it has been proven to be hard to limit the number of personality traits for the model to five, which could describe a person’s personality in a good way. Based on questionnaire data, peer ratings, and objective measures from experimental settings they managed to limit the number of personality traits to increase the comprehensibility of the model. Because it is just a model of a very complex system there has been a lot of discussion on the selection of these five personality traits. Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal were the first ones to develop a model in 1961, but it was not noted by the academic community right away. It took until the 1980s before their findings were recognized. In 1990, J.M. Digman came up with his five factor model of personality, which Goldberg extended into a more comprehensible structured model.12 Although these factors have been found to be quite robust across culture not everyone agrees with five factor model. Some people talk about more factors being needed; others less (Eysenck ‐3 factors‐extraversion, introversion, psychoticism)

3.2

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

The first personality trait, openness, could be described by factors such as art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. Very creative people are distinguished and differentiated by this personality trait from down‐ to‐earth rational people. These people also appreciate arts and play more on the emotions. They usually are more creative and are more in touch with their own feelings. They are more prone to have unconventional ideas and can think ‘out‐of‐the‐ box’.

Goldberg, L. R. "The structure of phenotypic personality traits". American Psychologist 48 (1): 26–34, 1993.

On the other side, people who are not that open tend to have more conventional, traditional interests. Their ideas are usually based on rationality and therefore would choose the easy simple solution over some difficult emotional solution. Sample openness items: • • •

I have a vivid imagination I have excellent ideas I use difficult words

The general appreciation of adventure and imagination can best reflected in the CEO and founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson. His unusual ideas of space tourism and deep‐sea exploration and willingness to do all this himself are good examples of ‘Openness to experience’ Unconventional ideas and vivid imagination can easily be seen in the CEO and founder of Apple, Steve jobs. All apple products are inspired by this imagination of Steve Jobs and involve unconventional and cutting edge technology.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

3.3

Conscientiousness could be described by terms as self‐discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement against measures or outside expectations. Every action should be planned in advance and there is no room for spontaneity. Our impulses are restricted by this personality trait. On the other hand, if one does not have this trait one will not think about anything in advance. Sample conscientiousness items: • • • • •

I am always prepared. I am exacting in my work I follow a schedule I like order I pay attention to details

Conscientiousness is best reflected in the founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates. Bill Gates has always been a self‐disciplined, decent and task focused person and it is truly reflected in the sophistication of Microsoft products.

3.4

EXTRAVERSION

Extraversion could be described as being open to the outside world and the willingness to engage with this outside world. Usually extravert people like to have people around to enact with and are usually full of energy. They get a lot of energy in retun from their outside world too. Whenever there is some excitement involved extravert people will be the first ones to sign up and to become part of this excitement. If there is some 14

exciting event they will want to be part of it. Usually extravert people also like to talk and in that way also becoming the center of attention .They are the life of the party. Introverts might not be so outspoken and do not tend to show the outside world their excitement whenever they experience such feelings. They usually seem quiet and seem uninterested in the outside world. They keep their feeling for themselves. One should note that introversion is not the same as being shy or depressed. Those are influenced by the self‐esteem and mood. Introversion on the other hand is a real personality trait. Introverts tend to spend more time alone and do not need the energy from the outside world to feel satisfied. It might be that introvert are very energetic but they will not feel the need to share that with the world. Sample extraversion items: • • • •

I don't mind being the center of attention. I feel comfortable around people. I start conversations. I talk to a lot of different people at parties.

Extraversion is best reflected in the CEO and founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson. He is always in the pictures and does not shy away from media. He always does things that creates public attention, is very enthusiastic and represents the energy dimension of his company.

3.5

AGREEABLENESS

Agreeableness is tp be compassionate and cooperative and not have have hostile attitude towards others and their opinions. People who score high on the agreeableness scale tend to care about other’s feelings and appreciate the feeling of collective harmony. In order to achieve collective harmony they tend to put the collective feeling over their own. As long as the collective is happy it’s good. Agreeable people also seem to think that people in general are good by default. This makes them more open to different cultures and ideas. Disagreeable individuals tend to be more selfish and self‐centered. They do not really care about the collective happiness as long as they are happy themselves. You would not see them help out other people just for the sake of being nice. Because they do not feel the default goodness of people they tend to be more sceptic about others. Sample agreeableness items: • • • •

I am interested in people. I feel others' feelings. I have a soft heart. I sympathize with others’ feelings. 15

•

I take time out for others.

Agreeableness was definitely reflected in the founder of Body Shop, Anita Roddick. She was a human right activist and environmental campaigner and hence was considerate and willing to compromise her interests over others. This was clearly reflected in the ideology of Body Shop which used recyclable materials, did not indulge in animal testing and showed support for third world countries through buying materials from them and through various other programs.

3.6

NEUROTICISM

Neurotic people tend to score high on having nagetive feelings, such a being angry or depressed. Ithis emotional instability is caused by their reactiveness towards the outside world. They are easily influenced and will therefore be more prone to become stressed due to their environment. Because their default thought of negativity they will see negative sides to everything and therefore see a threat in a lot of different situations. The negative feelings are stronger and last longer than for non‐neurotic people, such that they can seem depressed and having bad moods. Because of their shifted perception of the world and situations that occur in this world they will also have problems to make good decisions. On the other side, individuals who score low in neuroticism do not have this reactive nature to their direct environment and therefore tend to be more stable. They do not have the major mood‐shifts that neurotic people experience and they usually have a positive attitude since the anger and stress will last for shorter periods. Sample neuroticism items: • • • •

I am easily disturbed. I change my mood a lot. I get irritated easily. I get stressed out easily.

The best example of a personality who would score less on neuroticism would the famous American investor Warren Buffet who is also the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Calmness and emotional stability is clearly reflected in his policy of long term investment based on the belief that stock prices of fundamentally strong companies will always go up in the long run. Hence he is not disturbed by any short term fluctuations.

4 BRAND PERSONALITY After comparing the Kapferer’s identity model with the identity model of David A. Aaker we now look at the brand personality. Brand identity is all the values and associations to the brand. For example, when you think of McDonalds, you think of the golden 16

arches, fast‐food, hamburgers, speed, fun etc. All these associations (name, symbol, attributes) are part of the brand identity. Brand identity is a perception in customer’s minds that results from their entire experience with the product and services of a brand. Brand personality is part of the brand identity. According to Jennifer Aaker13, brand personality is the set of human characteristics associated with a brand. Consumers can easily think about brands as they were a person with human characteristics. Personality traits differentiate brands from each other and make the brand stronger. The personality traits of Jennifer Aaker are based on psychological models like the big five. She includes human characteristics like age, gender, social aspects, nationality in the brand personality definition, whereas psychologist did not include these aspects in their personality definition years ago. According to Kapferer the personality of the brand is apart from the other identity characteristics which will be explained later on. First the brand personality traits of Jennifer Aaker13 will be explained. According to Jennifer Aaker13, brand personalities are divided into five categories: • • • • •

Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness Figure 3 explains the brand personalities in detail.

Figure 1: brand personality framework from Jennifer Aaker

Some criticm is made on the Jennifer Aaker model. Perceptions of human personality traits are formed on the basis of an individual’s behavior, hobbies, interests, physical characteristics, attitudes and beliefs, and demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and nationality which will form the identity of a person. The personality of the big

Aaker, Jennifer, “Dimensions of Brand Personality”, Journal of Marketing Research, 1997

five model are only involving human personality traits and no human characteristics like age, gender etc. According to Kapferer, brand personality is one single part of the brand identity. He defines brand personality as the human personality traits that can be associated with the brand. He considers the culture (inner values), the physics, and the pictures of the typical user (self‐image, reflection) as other dimensions11. He makes a distinction between the brand personality (the sender), and the person to whom the brand is speaking to, the target (the receiver). However, according to Jennifer Aaker13 brand personality is the set of human characteristics associated with a brand, so also including physical traits, demographic characteristics etc. Thus, she considers brand personality as whole of brand identity. She has based her brand personality traits on the psychology models like the big five. Psychologist have worked over the years with excluding gender, sex, social class from their personality definitions. Because Jennifer Aaker implemented these characteristics in her personality traits, she makes a blend of brand personality traits with brand identity. In the brand identity model of David A. Aaker14 the perspective brand‐as‐a‐person is also mentioned. A brand can be perceived as having a unique personality with different kind of characteristics, just like a person. The perspective of brand‐as‐a‐person is the most important and interesting aspect of the brand identity than a brand identity based on product attributes and other associations. Brand personality will explain the symbolic use of brands. According to David A. Aaker, the brand personality is also one single part of the brand identity. There are three ways how a brand personality can create a stronger brand according to David A. Aaker: it creates a self‐expressive benefit which helps customers to express their own personality. The customer likes to show off with the brand and communicate their own personality. This is also called as the outer mirror of the customer. It creates a relationship between customer and the brand, and further it helps to communicate the product’s attributes and thus creates a functional benefit. If the comparison is made with the big five model of human personality traits, which it is based on, sincerity is corresponding with agreeableness of the big five model as they both cover honesty and warmth. Excitement is corresponding with extraversion and in some way openness of the big five model as they both cover outgoing and imagination. Competence is corresponding with conscientiousness of the big five model as they both cover order and success. The other two brand personality traits, sophistication and ruggedness cannot be corresponded to any personality trait in the big five. These two are more like personality traits people wish or desire to have. The aim is to match the personality of a brand with the personality of the consumer on aggregate level to build a strong brand. In this way the customer feels more connected to the brand and will be able to express themselves better. There is also another way of how you can make the comparison between the big five personality traits and Jennifer Aaker’s brand personality traits. The big five personality traits can be seen as a scale. For example, a person can be very open or not at all, a

David A. Aaker Brand Leadership, 1999

person can be very extravert or not at all. When you look to one brand personality trait of Jennifer Aaker, for example, sincerity, this brand personality trait can be mapped upon the five personality traits of the big five. When a brand is sincere, it is more open, less conscientious, more extravert, more agreeable, and less neurotic. Table 1 shows the scale and the comparison. Table 1: brand personality traits13 scaled among human personality traits (big five) Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness Openness Yes Yes No No Yes Conscientiousness No No Yes Yes No Extraversion Yes Yes No No Yes Agreeableness Yes No Yes Yes No Neuroticism No No No No No Perceptions of brand personality traits can be formed and influenced by any direct or indirect contact of the consumer with the brand and any association with the brand15. Personality traits can be formed and associated in a direct way by the people who are associated with the brand, such as the typical user of the brand, the company, the founder, or the brand’s product endorsers. In this way personality traits with the people associated with the brand are transferred directly with the brand16. Personality traits can be formed and associated in an indirect way by product attributes, product category, brand name and symbol, advertising and price. Brand personality increases consumer preferences and usage, evokes emotions in consumers, and increase levels of trust and loyalty. Consumers form perceptions of brand personality by all the people associated with the brand, like the user, the company employees, the brand’s founder or the brand’s product endorsers. In this way, the identity or personality of the founder can correspond with the perceptions of brand personality of the consumer.

15 Plummer, Joseph T., "Brand Personality: A Strategic Concept for Multinational Advertising", 1985 16

McCracken, Grant, “Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process”. 1989

5 CASE STUDY: INGVAR KAMPRAD

5.1

THE IDENTITY OF INGVAR KAMPRAD

We will start the case analysis by studying the question: has Ingvar Kamprad’s own sense of identity affected the brand identity of IKEA? First we try to examine what is Kamprad’s own sense of identity and then we research the brand identity of IKEA. Finally we try to evaluate whether these two identities match. First of all, it is a bit hard to examine someone’s identity. As identity is something that a person thinks about himself internally, it is not so easily visible in our everyday behavior. Actually, a person might not be able to tell the core of his/her identity, when asked. Our identity is pretty deep inside our minds. Therefore, we have to rely here on assumptions that are made based on Kamprad’s interviews, quotes, personal history and stories. There are studies that also this kind of identity researching processes, based on determining the individual’s choices and commitments over a lifetime, can be valid.17 Another problem is that the brand identity of IKEA was created already in the 1960s and 1970s, but there is no source of information on Kamprad’s identity in those days. The main sources of information are interviews, quotes and other statements that Kamprad has done during the past ten years. It is clear that the identity of a human being changes during the years.18 However, we try to find so clear parts of Kamprad’s identity that they can fairly be claimed to have been corner stone of Kamprad already in his adolescence. Ingvar Kamprad was born in 1926 in Pjätteryd, now part of Älmhult Municipality in the province of Småland, and grew up on a farm called Elmtaryd.19 Many think that the Kamprad family was poor but that is not the case. As a matter as a fact Kamprad’s grandfather was German and Paul von Hindenburg, the president of Germany before Hitler, was one of their powerful relatives in Germany.20 The family owned by far the biggest farm in the area. However, because of farm’s debt problems, Kamprad’s grandfather committed a suicide already in 1897. Therefore, the farm was not so productive in the childhood of Kamprad. Because of this simple and plain childhood with no elegance, and the fact that he was born in very little town, Kamprad could be considered to see himself in the group of simple, possibly even working –class, people. There is actually one very good argument for this consideration. In an interview from 2008 that can be seen in YouTube Kamprad

Marcia, J. E., Development and validation of ego identity status, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 3, pp. 551‐558, 1966

Cramer, P. Identity change in adulthood: The contribution of defence mechanisms and life experiences, Journal of Research in Personality, vol. 38, is. 3, 280‐316, 2004 19 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad 20 http://www.hemlin.pp.se/Ikea2.html

opposes really strongly Swedish government’s idea to raise the tax on snuff.21 Kamprad states that because nowadays it is forbidden to smoke almost everywhere, snuff is the workmen way to satisfy their needs. Being one of the richest men in the world, Kamprad shouldn’t care about any price increases in snuff. However, one could think that Kamprad sees the price increase as an attack against his own initial group and that is why he gets so angry. Kamprad’s conception of belonging to simple working‐class can also be seen later in the same interview when the interviewer asks about Kamprad’s relations to Swedish Nazi party in the 1940s. From present‐day view, Nazi ideology does not seem to go hand in hand with working‐class beliefs about emphasis on equality. Nazis clearly thought that they are better than Jews. With tears in his eyes, Kamprad regrets this black spot in his past and says that he was a big fool at that time. Well related to the group identity of simple people, Kamprad sees himself as a normal down‐to‐earth person. There is nothing special about Ingvar Kamprad. Even though he has had a huge success in his life, he does not think that it has changed him as a person. Kamprad still has the same interests and hobbies as 60 years ago such as good food. Unlike many others, Kamprad does not have urge to show off his success. Therefore he does not feel awkward driving a fifteen‐year old Volvo. Kamprad’s appreciation towards down‐to‐earth people can be seen in an interview where he says that one of his idols is Hans Werthen, the former Electrolux boss, as he never wanted anybody to see his success.22 In the same interview Kamprad says that he is shy and antisocial. In a situation with a lot of new people, Kamprad does not know who to talk to. Shyness is actually more a personality element but if one talks about it as a part of himself, subjective, it is actually part of personal identity. If a person identifies himself as a shy, she often sees her behavior as completely normal and so personality can actually have strong effect on self conception. Shyness is often related to lack of self‐confidence and Kamprad actually admits this.23 One could think that as Kamprad still identifies himself so strongly belonging to normal people, he is still a little bit afraid of other CEOs and leaders that he confronts. Actually, Kamprad even says in one interview that he admires strongly other people and they can really touch him with their words.24 We must also suppose that being a highly economical person is a big part of Kamprad’s identity as in so many interviews Kamprad highlights that he does not like to spend on trivial things.2526 Actually, being economical is more likely for Kamprad a way to stand out from the crowd, and these kinds of differences can be very important corner stone in one’s identity. One could claim that Kamprad’s economic carefulness stems from the simple and plain childhood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH_CpSEZT6k&feature=related http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article10380381.ab 23 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyness 24 http://wwwc.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9808/18/ikea.html 25 http://www.privataaffarer.se/pension/200703/kamprad‐avslojar‐sina‐pensionsplaner/ 26 http://www.hurjagblevrik.se/ingvar‐kamprad‐intervjuad/ 22

As Kamprad is not the most social person and does not easily create acquaintance with new people, those social groups where Kamprad belong mean the world to him. Basically, there are two of these groups: Kamprad’s family and the IKEA‐family. The importance of IKEA‐family can be seen in the Kamprad’s YouTube interview where he says that he was so embarrassed of his Nazi past that he had to write personal letter to all his employees in Älmhult.27 Thus, one very clear part of Kamprad’s identity is the perception that he is a part of IKEA‐group and he is really proud of it. What do we have as identity of Kamprad? Let’s start with personal identities. Ingvar Kamprad sees that he is not special compared to other people: He is just an ordinary man with ordinary hobbies and interests. Therefore, Kamprad does what an ordinary man does: Uses public transport or drives fifteen‐year old Volvo. Ingvar Kamprad also sees himself as a frugal person compared to others. He is proud of it and maybe Kamprad even thinks that this is one part of his identity that had lead him this far. In addition, Kamprad sees that he is an antisocial and shy person. He is not good in getting know new people. Finally, Kamprad clearly is proud of IKEA and big part of his identity is based on the fact that he is the founder of it. Now we move on to collective identities. Ingvar Kamprad clearly sees himself as a part of the vast group of original, even working‐class, people that do their job in a humble manner and not making a big noise out of it. Even though he has had a success in his life it has not changed anything. Moreover, one could even say that Kamprad actually feels that he differs a lot from other corporate CEOs and their lifestyles. Also, one can see that Kamprad really values the IKEA family and sees that they form a group with desired values and goals.

5.2

THE EFFECT ON IKEA BRAND IDENTITY

Now it is time to answer the question: Does Ingvar Kamprad’s identity have had an effect on the IKEA brand? Let’s start with thinking about the effect based on by Kapferer’s brand identity model and after that we shall move on to Aaker’s model. One clear part of IKEA brand identity is its availability to everyone. IKEA does not want to exclude anyone.28 Their relationship with customers is really unreserved. They don’t offer building blocks for identity, like some premium or luxury brands do. They just offer simple furniture with Scandinavian design, and most importantly the furniture works and is durable. There is a great connection to Kamprad’s identity as an ordinary, even working‐class, person that values functionality and simplicity and does not need express himself with different products. As an ordinary person, Kamprad has built the brand relationship with customer really direct and based on those things that he and the group value. Customers know what they get, and because of this directness there are no surprises. Kamprad has in all probability also affected the culture inside IKEA organization, which is really down‐to‐ 27 28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddX59ROcdL4&feature=related http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CN/about_ikea/the_ikea_way/our_business_idea/index.html

earth. For example, the company does not believe in strong hierarchies and everyone inside the organization can make progress. Both the relationship with customers and the culture inside IKEA can be seen as reflecting Kamprad’s own identity as a no‐special ordinary man, and Kamprad has certainly had his affect on why IKEA is perceived in exactly this way. Also the physique of the IKEA brand can be seen to reflect Kamprad’s personal identity as an ordinary normal person. The IKEA products are functional and they have the IKEA design, but they are not at all decorative or ornate. The products are made for ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. In addition, the brand advertisement is very simple and informative but lacks any kind of glory. One does not see champagne bottles or ladies in gala dresses in IKEA brochures. Also brand graphics are very plain and there is nothing that would relate to more premiums such as a crown which is pretty common in Sweden. Kamprad’s identity of being an economical person is also clearly a part of the IKEA brand. The relationship with customers is strongly based on the fact that the customer gets the cheapest furniture from IKEA. That is what the brand promises. Evidence of this declaration is that customers have to assemble their furniture by themselves. After this we will consider Aaker’s model. Actually, almost all the aspects discussed already above can also be seen in Aaker’s model, since both of these models in general are based on similar kind of characteristics. However, there is one possible connection between the brand identity and Kamprad’s identity. Born in small village, Kamprad sees himself not only as an ordinary person but also someone who values nature and rural life. Also the brand identity of IKEA symbolizes Swedish heritage as pure, natural and fresh. One thing that seems to be hard to relate to the IKEA brand identity is Kamprad’s identity as a shy and antisocial, whether we use Aaker’s or Kapferer’s model. IKEA seems communicative, warm and clearly proud of itself. IKEA wants to be there where the action is. IKEA even talks with strangers as it is ready to place their products in different TV shows.29 How can this then relate to character? There is no sure answer but it seems that even though there are many similarities between the founder and the brand, there are also lots of differences. One must remember that there a lot of other kinds of associations related to IKEA brand identity that does not seem to have any kind of connection with the Kamprad identity. One of these associations might be Swedish design that can actually make IKEA seem a lifestyle brand in some parts of the world. However, as our focus in this paper is to discuss about the founder and the brand, we leave these kinds of parts of identity off. Furthermore, one must remember that all the information about Kamprad’s identity is drawn from some kind of media, and IKEA knows how to use the media for their

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=458191241351

advantage. For example, it is absolutely in IKEA’s favor to present Kamprad as a very economical person. However, in this paper we have to assume that the picture given from Kamprad in different interviews is true.

5.3

THE PERSONALITY OF INGVAR KAMPRAD

The personality of Ingvar Kamprad will be considered in the following. This is actually much easier than examining the identity since personality can be seen in everyday behavior. We’ll try to assess the personality of Kamprad by the Big Five model that was discussed earlier in this text. The first domain that will be considered is openness to experience. This domain means how open person is for new ideas, emotions and ideas. Even though Ingvar Kamprad claims that he is shy among new people, among new business opportunities he is not shy at all. One of his most known quotes is “Only those who are asleep make no mistakes”.30 Kamprad seems to be open for new ideas and eager to test them. It is quite interesting how Kamprad can be shy among people but among business he is not shy at all. One thing that must be mentioned is that Ingvar Kamprad seems to be quite an emotional person, which is really rare among CEOs in the world. In many interviews he starts to cry when asked about things that matter him the most such as his family or Nazi‐party past. Thus, strong emotionality even strengthens the picture of Kamprad as a person that is very open to different kinds of experience. The second domain, conscientiousness, is very easy. Kamprad is an extremely conscientious man. He does not like to spend money on trivial things, he thinks that time is the most valuable asset one has and he clearly likes order. The famous story tells that if Kamprad used a hotel minibar, he would next day go to a grocery store and replace all the items that he had used.31 The third domain, extraversion, is also quite easy. An extravert person loves to be the centre of attention and feel comfortable around people. Extraverts usually start conversations. In several occasions Kamprad has said that among new people he is shy and antisocial. He does not know how to start conversations.32 Kamprad says that he is a typical Swede in a way that he cannot laugh without alcohol. The fourth domain is agreeableness. Even though Kamprad is very often illustrated as a very gentle and sweet old man, when it comes to IKEA’s business he is not that agreeable. The current president of IKEA says that the conversations with Kamprad can often be quite vivid because they both are quite stubborn. However, we predict that this disagreeableness stems from Kamprad’s strong passion for IKEA‐group and their workers, and because of them Kamprad wants to always do the things that he thinks

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous‐Entrepreneurs/825/Ingvar‐Kamprad‐Quotes.html http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.126310/ikea‐kamprads‐lyxvillor 32 http://wwwc.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9808/18/ikea.html 31

are best for the company. Thus, Kamprad’s disagreeableness in some matters does not mean that he would be unsympathetic and self‐interested towards other people. The fifth domain, neuroticism, is a really hard one. Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability. It is very hard to say, based on some interviews, whether a person has these kinds of negative emotions and especially do they last long times, which is the definition for a neurotic person. Basically, the only information that in some way speaks for neuroticism is the alcohol problem that he had in 1960s, but as we know so little about it we choose not to make any kind of conclusions whether Kamprad was a neurotic or not.

5.4

THE EFFECT ON IKEA PERSONALITY

Now it is time to answer the question: has Ingvar Kamprad’s personality had an effect on IKEA’s brand? If one was given the different brand personalities according to Jennifer Aaker (sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness) and asked which ones of them describe the personality of IKEA the best, she would probably choose sincerity and competence. In addition, she would probably claim that sophistication and ruggedness are quite far from the IKEA personality. Probably someone would even relate excitement with the IKEA brand but as IKEA does not aim to publish new furniture collection at regular intervals, we don’t regard IKEA as a brand with excitement personality. Sincerity is almost perfectly related to Kamprad. A sincere person is down‐to‐earth, honest and cheerful. He speaks and acts truly about his own feelings, thought and desires.33 Probably the strongest evidence of Kamprad’s sincerity is his tendency to burst in tears when discussed about some important topic for him. Crying is one of the most powerful ways that human beings have to show their feelings. In the IKEA brand one sees the sincerity in the way that they don’t try to be something that they are not. IKEA does not try to flirt with more upscale customers by making premium or luxury collections. They don’t open any kind of IKEA‐LUX stores in the centers of big cities to make the brand more appealing for wealthier customer group. Competence is also related to Kamprad but not that obviously. A competent person is intelligent and probably even successful but also reliable. When one thinks from which factors in the Big Five model competence arises, openness to experience and conscientiousness come up. If one really wants to be intelligent, one must be open to new ideas and have the courage to test them. Otherwise one cannot learn and find new kinds of solutions. Kamprad clearly is open to new ideas and experiences. On the other hand, competence is also about being consistent and working persistently towards a specified goal. We all know how easy it is to trust on someone who has consistently 33

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sincerity

worked for a long time with a given matter. With his quotes about the importance of time, it should be clear that Kamprad was a very consistent person. In the IKEA brand the competence is based on the excellent quality‐to‐price ration and the fact that everyone knows how it is by far the biggest furniture chain in the world. One can trust that no matter what kind of furniture she is looking, one will find a functional solution from IKEA’s collection.

6 CASE STUDY: GIORGIO ARMANI

6.1

INTRODUCTION

The Giorgio Armani S.P.A. is an Italian fashion house owned by the founder and designer Giorgio Armani. In the fashion industry it is well known for its simple but high‐ fashion design by presenting a real luxury brand. Giorgio Armani was born in 1934 in Italy into a middle‐class family. He was supposed to study medicine, but abandoned after two years because he wanted to work in a big department store in Milan. This was followed by a career as formal men’s fashion designer for Nino Cerruti and as independent designer for other manufacturers later. Together with his friend and business partner Sergio Galeotti, he founded the company GIORGIO ARMANI S.P.A. in 1975. After a first successful year he expanded the business to capture the whole European market. In 1979 the expansion overseas began by establishing the Giorgio Armani Corporation in the United States. Even after Galeotti`s death in 1985 the company continued to strengthen its commercial and marketing divisions, while building the values and identity of its brand.34

6.2

BRAND IDENTITY AND PERSONALITY

Giorgio Armani extended his brand over a wide range of products and is now presiding over many collections, including the Giorgio Armani line, Giorgio Armani Privé, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans, Armani Exchange, Armani Teen, Armani Junior, Armani Baby and Armani Casa home interiors34. Armani provides a typical example of the pyramid extension model (figure 4) with the distinction that he has not started with the haute couture. However, he added this position recently. Today, the company's product range includes women's and men's clothing as well as shoes and bags, watches, eyewear, jewelry, fragrances, cosmetics and home furnishings. Armani offers a wide range of prices, from high‐prize line “Giorgio Armani” to the lower target brand “Emporio Armani”, adapted to the client and the circumstance of use35. Moreover, his products have become available for customers worldwide.

Who`s who: Giorgio Armani, http://www.vogue.co.uk/biographies/080422‐giorgio‐armani‐ biography.aspx 35 J‐N. Kapferer, V. Bastien, The Luxury Strategy: break the rules of marketing to build luxury brands. Kogan Page, 2009

Figure 4: pyramid model

As outlined in the previous chapters, brand identity is a set of values and associations to a brand. In Armani’s case the first associations when hearing the brand name might be: Luxury fashion, exclusive, classic, quality, red carpet, power, wide product range and global empire. Now it is outlined how Armani’s brand identity is build up according to the six facets of Kapferers identity prism. The physique as part of Armani’s fashion brand identity defines, for example, forms, colors and materials of the brand (Kapferer). Armani’s fashion generally presents a style that is very special and unique for it manages to combine classic and modern elements using mild, neutral colors and eliminating everything that is unnecessary. His fashion is therefore set on a luxury level for a special kind of upper‐class costumer, but he still wants other parts of his fashion brand to represent the type of clothing that can be worn by normal people in their everyday life36. If one focuses on the personality as character and soul of the brand, it can be associated as luxury, powerful, elegant, sophisticated, Italian, upper‐class, successful and traditional. As the brand personality should be compared with the founder’s personality in this case study, the focus is a little bit more on the brand personality. According to Jennifer Aaker and the five brand personality categories one can emphasize that Armani’s brand can be described best by sophistication and competence. Sophistication is a word that Armani often uses himself when speaking about his brand. It is one of his goals to mediate this sophisticated feeling throughout his fashion. Competence can cover success as well as order and this suits the brand. Ruggedness is definitely not fitting to the brands personality as the opposite is more suitable. Sincerity can only be transferred to Armani’s brand in some parts, as the fashions simplicity might be compared with down‐to ‐earthness. Excitement is also just fitting in some parts as the brands personality is indeed spirited and imaginative but more traditional as up‐to‐ 36 S., Saviolo, Brand and Identity Management in Fashion Companies, pp. 19‐21, 2002 28

date. In section 3.4 is outlined how this brand personality is influenced by the person Giorgio Armani. The culture part covers how the brand is integrated into the organization of Kapferer’s prism. In Armani’s case the culture of Italian and therefore European Tradition is reflected. In contrast to other fashion houses that are often striving for the newest trends and greatest attraction by using colorful or sensational materials, Armani's simplicity stands. It is difficult to outline the reflection, i.e. how the people using the brand are perceived, without entering too deep into the different product lines: Armani, with all its sub‐ brands, is a brand for men and woman, old and young people as well as for rich and mid‐class people. Nevertheless, the strongest image that remains is that of luxury, even in his more “accessible products”35. The person wearing Armani loves comfortable, elegant and non‐conventional clothing of good quality. It is a person that cherishes traditions and is beyond the newest trends but at the same time embraces the future. His costumers share his sense of aesthetics. It is very important to think about the self‐image that the customer has of himself when using the brand Armani. Giorgio Armani wants to suggest an imitation of his person and the luxury world in which he is living in that people can take from his products35. It is a sign of lifestyle to sit in an Armani café. A buyer of Armani clothes might feel belonging to the group of the luxury, upper‐class while wearing Armani fashion. The brand offers self‐expressional benefits, for example, feeling better, more comfortable or more self‐ assured than others. The Armani brand is therefore a status symbol for being exclusive and luxurious. Due to the maintained luxury feeling the costumer distincts from other people wearing normal, cheap clothes of low quality.

6.3

IDENTITY OF THE FOUNDER AND HOW IT INFLUENCES THE BRAND IDENTITY

As usual in the fashion world, the brand Armani is completely based on the personality and identity of the founder Giorgio Armani. As said in the previous chapters, an identity is everything that the brand has been and the environment where it has grown (Kapferer). In Armani’s case the identity has been molded by its founder over time with his personal identity. Thus we will now focus on his self‐image and how he acts according to that image influencing the brand identity. The designer frequently emphasizes his great sense of aesthetics and beauty. It is obvious that he is very proud of the part of his identity because it makes him distinct from others. That part of his identity is also connected to the brand throughout his fashion outcome.

“My well‐known aesthetic sense, which is so obvious and personal, spontaneously spurs me to challenge myself with different disciplines.”37 Another part of his personal identity is to be a workaholic; with an obsession for the things he does and a passion for challenges. “I haven't had fun in my life. I've always worked. I have always been too responsible. But I don't know how to live any other way.”37 This personality may relate to the aforementioned fact that he was not born into luxury and always had to work for building and maintaining his business to gain the luxury life he now has. This identity is transferred to his brand in the way that he today is far more than a fashion designer. He has expanded and extended his brand to a worldwide empire always in awareness that every extension can lead to an insignificancy between the product lines or to an over‐stretching of the brand. Armani has been able to leverage the brand equity to be present in most of the lucrative segments. In customer's minds there might also be an image of power created by the fact that Armani is the single leader of this empire. To wear an Armani suit could be a symbol of power and significance for the owner and thus transfer the identity of Armani onto the costumer wearing his fashion. As previously seen, luxury is a very important factor when entering upon Armani’s brand as well as his own identity. As single owner of a worldwide operating company, Armani embodies the luxurious lifestyle, for example, by working in Milan, living on an Italian Mediterranean island and owning the Greek island of the Onassis family since 2010. Today, his empire is worth more than a billion Euros, and more than 5,000 employees are working in hundreds of stores worldwide34. This affection on the brand is obvious as he underlines the luxury identity of the brand in people’s minds with his own lifestyle. But Armani’s life has not always been determined by luxury. He was born into a middle‐ class family and his childhood was profoundly influenced by the Second World War. He lost one of his friends due to an exploding shell. This, and the hard times after the war (his mother searching for food and his father got arrested), affected him very much38. Coming out of these hard times he worked very hard for building his business, knowing that it is not natural to live in luxury and that he loves things that are practical, simple and natural, even in his today’s luxury way of life. This orientation is transferred to his fashion and therefore to the brand as it led Armani to eliminate everything unnecessary from his fashion. He emphasizes comfort and enhances the refinement of essentiality36 and simplicity that today represents the physique of his brand as part of brands identity. It is these unique designs and patterns 37

D., Morera, Interview with Giorgio Armani, http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/giorgio‐armani/ 38 G., Armani: I fear for a world where the innocence of childhood is eroded by waqr andpoverty, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/giorgio‐armani‐i‐fear‐for‐a‐world‐ where‐the‐innocence‐of‐childhood‐is‐eroded‐by‐war‐and‐poverty‐416852.html

that reflect the identity of their creator and giving an identity to the brand as well as helping to differentiate it from the crowd. The brand adopts the identity of the founder through the designs created. For a luxury brand like Armani which is stretched in so many branches from the luxury product to the more “accessible product”, it must be the aim not to “undermine the essence of luxury itself35. Armani has launched products from high‐luxury to the “accessible products” which resulted in an enlarged customer base. The products of Armani must transfer the brand identity of a luxury brand to be “objects of pride for both the seller and the buyer”35. It works in Armani’s case, because even the more “accessible products” remain expensive and exclusive in their segment and the distribution of the different segments is applied separately in order to avoid mixing the lines (e.g. “Emporio Armani” shops, “Armani Collezione” shops …)35. Another part of his and the brand's identity is influenced by his nationality. Even if the brand is known worldwide, it is demographically identified as “Made in Italy” as the founder comes from Italy. The country of origin is always important when thinking of brand identity, especially for the culture of a brand according to Kapferer`s prism. In this case the brand applies to a very strong proponent for traditional people, dressed in a conservative modern way with an Italian flavor. 39 It is well known, that Giorgio Armani is fascinated by movies since a long time and therefore his work is profoundly inspired by film scenes and the industry in general37. The brand identity is influenced by every single action Armani did through time or is still doing. He created wardrobes for a lot of movies (e.g. “American Gigolo”, “Batman” and “Pulp Fiction”), shows public presence at important cinema events and designs fashion for the red carpet as well as wardrobes for musical tours of pop musicians37. Step by step he connected the brand with his preference and created an association in consumers’ minds who thus connect Armani’s fashion with the prominent, luxury world. His collective identity, i.e. the membership of certain groups, is outlined easily. His social circle is mainly comprised by friendships with prominent people and he sees himself clearly as a part of this group. This is an impregnable public picture that is also communicated through the brand as he uses prominent people, e.g. Megan Fox or David Beckham, for his campaigns37. But there’s a second group that Armani feels belonging to since the death of Armani’s life partner Galeotti in 1985 he is living as single and has no children. The reason for he never tried to build a new relationship was always sacrificing his privacy for his work. The traditional family group therefore does not play a role in his life. But he identifies himself with a close group of friends, family (his two nieces and his nephew) and people who have worked with him for a long time. One can call that an “extended family”‐

M. Chevalier, G. Mazzalovo, Luxury brand management: a world of privilege, pp.37,91, 130‐ 132, 2008

group40. He wants to share his luxury with this group of very few people and separates this group quite clearly from his prominent friendships. To sum the identity part up, Armani’s personal identity is somehow transferred with his lifestyle, fashion, public appearance or communication and therefore forming a special brand image in people’s minds. The brands physique is influenced by his own sense of aesthetic and the fashion he creates and the personality of the brand through his own personality. How this affects his work and the brand will be discussed in the next section. An Italian feeling surrounds the brand culture. The reflection of the costumer is that Armani creates fashion mostly for upper‐class costumers but also for normal people who want feel belonging to the upper class group. The brands identity thus stands for luxurious Italian style fashion with a characteristic simple elegance.

6.4

PERSONALITY OF THE FOUNDER AND THE INFLUENCES ON THE BRAND PERSONALITY

Until now, different parts of Armani’s identity have been mentioned, the personality of Giorgio Armani will be discussed more deeply now. According to the big five model the first personality trait, openness, is in some parts applicable to Giorgio Armani. As we have seen in parts of his identity, he has a great sense of aesthetic and is sensitive to beauty. His personality is according to his openness also defined with curiosity, i.e. he is focusing on the world and people around him and transferring his observations to his fashion36. It is very conspicuous in his personal identity that he is focusing on people and accordingly elaborating what the people in the streets might suggest. For him, the focus on people is the reason for being successful36. Nevertheless, a down‐to‐earth part and traditional interest remains in his personality as we will see later. His openness is in some way comparable with excitement in Jennifer Aakers brand personality categories, as the brand could be described as spirited and imaginative. Up‐to‐date is not completely fitting as the traditional personality in his fashion remains. According to the big‐five theory it is the second part, conscientiousness that suits best to Armani’s personality as he has worked hard to build up the business like it is today. This part of his personality is corresponding with the competence category of Jennifer Aakers brand personality framework. His personal way of planning and controlling every part of his business can therefore be translated into a successful, competitive personality of the brand. Another part of his personality that is also fitting to conscientiousness is to be a “maniac” of details who wants to gain complete control over his business. People that are conscientious tend to rather control and plan their actions than act spontaneously. Armani is not only objectively actuating the fashion itself but the visual identity and 40

The gentle touch, http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/dec/11/fashion.shopping

brand communication. From time to time he even checks personally the lights and items arranged in his shops as every detail is fundamental36. Armani is also very strict with managing his advertising campaigns because for him the most important thing is that the product can be clearly identified with Armani and not mixed with images too modern or too trendy. The communication creates a very important and strong image which will be received by the recipients. He is not only responsible for the fashion but also chooses himself models, locations, colors and merchandising for the campaigns. As well as his fashion, the campaigns are very realistic and natural and people should find the same identity in the shops as has been communicated in advertising36. According to the next big five domain it can be outlined that Armani’s personality does not belong to extraversion so much, only where it needs to be in his work as designer. Armani is no person that loves to be in the center of attention even if he is a worldwide known fashion designer. By friends he is even called a shy person who does not enjoy the limelight. “For example, at a private lunch, full of wealthy young potential customers ‐ exactly the clientele you would think he would want to woo – he’re treated into a back room”40. Even if we can assume Armani in some parts as extraverted in his work, as he needs to be as a fashion designer, his personality is based on introversion. He likes interactions, but interaction that is not forced40. As the personality of extraversion can be compared with the brands personality of excitement there is compliance, because the brand personality is also not fully occupied by excitement as it is rather traditional than up‐to‐date. This shy and sensible part of Armani is further described with modesty and down‐to‐ earthness. That might go back to his experiences in the war and the poor life after, which, according to himself, changed his personality a lot. He also felt not very comfortable with himself in his childhood. As middle child of three, he had always kind of rivalry with his older brother who was the favorite of his mother. “He was tall, he had girlfriends”40. Armani himself was always insecure and had a lot of complexes, so sensibility and a restrained nature remained. Furthermore he has never liked how he looked physically. Maybe that is why he is now concerned about people feeling comfortable with their clothes and wants to encourage men and women with his fashion to feel better, individual and elegant with respect to their personality37. But how could Armani become the leader of this successful business with his uncertainty? It was the influence of his friend and partner Galeotti. In the first ten years after the foundation, Galeotti was the businessman and brain of the company. Furthermore he found the reassurance and love, that was absent in his childhood home. "It was Serge Galeotti who gave me strength, huge strength.”40 That he continued to build up his company after Galeotti's death in 1985 was only for the reason that he promised to continue with the company40. As outlined before, even the brand's personality has a part of his down‐to‐earthness. Especially in the fashion branch it is common to invent something new in order to attract the greatest attention. Armani’s fashion philosophy differs from that and makes it somehow unique: “Fashion should evolve rather than change drastically from year to 33

year”36. Even if the brand is a luxury brand and his designs are worn by prominent people on red carpets, his considerations while designing is about normal people as he wants his design to be “within everyone’s reach”36. “In my work I wanted to be more democratic, and to separate high fashion from the image of an applied art designed for only a few globetrotting jet‐set millionaires. I thought about people. […].” 36 This is also supported by the fact that for him fashion is a process of evolution and not a revolution. He does not want to invent but to develop new fashion which is unusual among designers36. Agreeableness as next part of big fives personal identity traits is again not completely fitting to Armani. Regarding his work he is a very strong leader and in the end it is his opinion that counts. According to his staff he is said as someone who is not tolerating imperfections but is equally known to pay his staff extremely well40, so there are some parts of agreeableness and carrying for others feelings in his personality. This is also suitable to the fact that Armani is doing some charity work, for example, for eliminating world poverty and AIDS. The same works for the brand personality. Agreeableness can be transferred to sincerity and the latter is in some parts given in Armani’s brand with down‐to‐earthness and honesty. The last part of the big five model, neuroticism, was very present in his childhood, but cannot be outlined anymore. Armani seems to be emotionally stable today even if this is hard to say from interviews, articles and the image that is transferred by the media.

CONCLUSION The goal of this paper was to examine whether the identity of the founder affects the identity of the brand. The possible transfer of the founder identity to brand identity has a solid theoretical foundation. The Kapferer’s identity prism model explains the different facets of the brand identity, and as discussed earlier it could be seen in the same sense as personal identity. As the theory explains it, to some extent the brand identity is based on the identity of a person, and it is therefore justified to use say that there is a possibility of a transfer from the personal identity to the brand. Next we have focused on personality and compared human personality with brand personality using famous models, the Big Five Theory by Digman and brand personality by Jennifer Aaker. Brand personality model itself is based on the big five factors and the traits in brand personality can be mapped onto the human personality traits showing a very strong evidence that brands reflect human personality. Further with examples of some famous CEO’s it has been shown how their personalities are reflected in their brands. 34

Based on our research we found similarities between the founder`s identity and the brand identity. Different models explain that the organization and the culture of the brand, the CEO/founder, the people behind the brand, are the ones who communicate and influence the brand. In many occasions, the founder comes up with a brand with an identity close to his own identity. People’s perception of a brand identity and personality lies close to the behavior and identity of the people behind the brand like the CEO/founder. When looking at the case study of Ingvar Kamprad a lot of similarities can be seen, but all the results are based on assumptions. In Armani`s case it could be seen that his identity evolved with the development of his brand, because he is now living the luxurious lifestyle as he came from a normal middle‐class family. This brings another question in mind: Does the brand identity influence the identity of the founder?