Image is everythingPersonality and image of
financial banks during times of adversity
Tim SmitsKULeuven & Northwestern University
Natalie Van HemelenKULeuven
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Personality
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Image
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Personality vs. Image
Well debated issue if it concerns humans
Particularly focal during adolescence
Personality characteristics
Situational characteristics
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Corporations?
They too have both a personality and an image (Konecnik & Go, 2008):– Identity – Personality = sender side– Image = receiver side~ Brand as a speech flowing from a sender to a
receiver (Kapferer, 2008)
Often tension between both (e.g., Keller 2008; Plummer 2000)
Interest in both constructs has a long history, but often conceptual confusion between them when it comes to empirical research
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Conceptual confusion• In Psychology:
Personality is self-perceived, self-assessedImage is social perception by others
• In Marketing and Market Research:Brand personality is social perception by others; still intrinsically linked with sender identity but questionnaires focus on perceived personality
Brand personality assessment used as a market research tool; feedback loop to management to reposition
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image@TimSmitsTim
IMAGE(other-perceived)
PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
DESIRED PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
EXPLICIT Brand BehaviorIM
PLICI
T Bra
nd Beh
avior
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Personality
Big Five (Costa & McCrae, 1992):– Five personality traits (underlying facets) fully
describing one’s personality– (Almost) universal (McCrae et al. 2005)– Assessment: questionnaires (NEO-PI-R 240 items …
Shortest Big Five questionnaire 10 or even 5 items)
1. Openness to Experience2. Extraversion3. Conscientiousness4. Neuroticism5. Agreeableness
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Brand personality
• Definition: “the set of human personality traits that are both applicable and relevant for brands” (Azoulay & Kapferer, 2003)
• Measures:– Aaker (JMR, 1997): 44 item for five dimension1. Sincerity2. Excitement3. Competence4. Sophistication5. Ruggedness
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
– Aaker’s scale and other attempts recently criticized– Geuens, Weijters & Dewulf (IJRM, 2009, p.103)
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image@TimSmitsTim
IMAGE(other-perceived)
PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
DESIRED PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
EXPLICIT Brand BehaviorIM
PLICI
T Bra
nd Beh
avior
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Research questions
• RQ1: Match between sender’s & receiver’s perceptions of personality?
CASE: Belgian financial banks
– Using Geuens et al measures among key informants
– Using the same measure to asses perceptions by others
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
• RQ2: Shouldn’t there be a 6th dimension/trait: regional versus international scope?– Adding to both instruments questions about this scope– Might be a decisive personality factor in specific market
circumstances: saturated markets; adverse markets; …
• RQ3: How do the personality measures and the tension between both relate to brand attitudes and expected brand attitudes?– Is personality predictive of overall value of brand? Which
dimension? – Do key informants have an accurate expectation of
attitudes in the target audience?
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Measures
• 10 Belgian banks, ranging in size and sales volume; split into two subsets (each participant rated only 5 banks)
• Personality:15-item questionnaire; How much does [adjective] apply to X; 7 point Likert scale
• Attitude:4-item questionnaire bipolar semantic differential; 7 points
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@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Results
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• Factor analyses on brand image questionnaires– Differences between banks; factor structure not
fully robust, despite claims in Geuens et al. (2009)– Overall factor structure:
1. Responsibility2. Activity3. Emotionality, including the Aggression dimension4. Simplicity
– No contribution of regional character (RQ2)
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Results (RQ1)Responsibility Activity Emotionality Simplicity
Pers Image Pers Image Pers Image Pers Image
Argenta6,00 4,58 3,67 3,70 2,50 2,80 4,50 4,81
Deutsche Bank 5,67 4,70 6,00 4,11 3,5 2,91 1,00 4,16
ING6,33 4,69 5,67 4,69 2,75 3,25 4,50 4,08
KBC5,33 4,93 5,00 5,07 3,00 2,97 2,50 4,00
Landbouw-krediet 7,00 4,49 6,00 3,46 3,50 2,78 4,50 4,89
Bank v Breda 6,67 4,50 5,67 3,87 2,25 2,98 4,50 3,98
BNP6,33 4,08 6,00 4,56 2,50 3,02 2,00 3,75
Citibank5,00 4,25 6,33 4,10 4,75 2,93 3,00 4,33
Dexia3,67 4,78 6,00 4,73 3,75 2,71 4,00 4,15
Keytrade5,33 4,36 7,00 3,85 4,00 3,44 4,00 3,97
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@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Results
• Predicting respondents attitudes for banks (RQ3; regression analyses)– Best predictor, for all banks = responsibility image (seems rather obvious nowadays – adverse times)
– Possibly banks do know the importance of this dimension: Empirical relation between expected attitudes and self-assessed responsibility; r = .64; However, reverse relation between self-assessed responsibility and actual attitudes; r = -.45!
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image@TimSmitsTim
IMAGE(other-perceived)
PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
DESIRED PERSONALITY(self-perceived)
EXPLICIT Brand BehaviorIM
PLICI
T Bra
nd Beh
avior
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Results
• Attitudes: sender vs receiver– Note: r = -.43 !
@TimSmitsTim
Expected attitude Attitude
Argenta 5,75 4,14
Deutsche Bank 5,00 4,24
ING 6,00 4,73
KBC 4,75 5,19Landbouwkrediet 6,00 3,70
Bank van Breda 4,75 4,15BNP Paribas Fortis 4,75 4,21
Citibank 5,00 3,92
Dexia 4,50 4,86
Keytrade 5,50 3,96
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
It seems as if banks knew what the key personality dimension was in adverse times
However, they did not manage to self-perceive their personality adequately
Procedure in this study is a tool to aid this introspective activity
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Further project plans
• Apply more rigorously amongst different type of stakeholders:– Management– Actual customers– Potential customers– Non-customers
• Apply for different brands on the product – service continuum
• Apply in a B2B brand setting
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Questions and suggestions?
and Thanks! for your attention
@TimSmitsTim
@ABCEurope2012: Personality - Image
Answering research questions
• RQ1: Match between self- & other-perception– Low match– Too positive self-view on key dimension
• RQ2: Sixth dimension ~ regional focus?– No data supporting the necessity of this dimension
• RQ3: Personality predictive of attitudes?– Credibility was most predictive of attitudes– Seems as if key informants did have an idea about
this– Too positive attitude expectations
@TimSmitsTim