Brand Personality in the Automotive Industry: Passat vs Superb

Abstract

Brand is the sign that used to promote the right holder as a symbol of quality, honest work and work volume. It is possible to define the Brand as name, term, word, symbol, design, sign, shape, color or various combinations of them that create the goods or services of one or a group of manufacturers or sellers and differentiate them from those of competitors (Kotler & Keller, 2006, Submitted by: Baş, 2015). The concept of brand personality is very old. The answer to the question of how a person would be if the brand was a person expresses the brand personality. In this context, brand personality emerges by transferring his/her own personality characteristics to brands that enable consumers to distinguish different brands from each other. Therefore, brand personality is the transfer of personality characteristics and character traits of consumers to a brand. Brand personality is a collection of harmonious human personality traits that can be applied to brands. The benefits of creating a brand personality are; to differenciate from competitors, to affect the emotional decisions of customers and other marketing activities positively (Baş, 2015). Thus, brand personality, as a guide in the marketing communication efforts of the brand, enables the consumers to develop a positive attitude towards the brand and add value to the brand. In this study, brand personality sub-dimensions which is; sincerity, enthusiasm, mastery, exclusivity and hardness are accepted as competence, excitement, traditionalism and androgens that is reduced to 4 dimensions to adapt to Turkey by Aksoy and Özsomer (2007). Brand personality dimensions were analyzed by comparing the Volkswagen and Skoda brands with Passat and Superb models which have quite similar features. In this context, a focus group study was conducted between December 2018 and January 2019 with the consumers living in the province of Ankara and the brand personality perceptions on the consumers were presented with the findings.