Brand Identity Prism

Brand Identity Prism
What is Brand Identity Prism?
The Brand Identity Prism model was created by J. Kapferer in 1986. He was an enthusiastic
marketer and also a professor of marketing strategy. According to Kapferer, there are mainly
six elements of a brand that helps in forming the brand’s identity in the mind of consumers.
Thus, he coined the concept of brand identity prism and built a model that focused on these
six elements that interact and from an identity as a whole.
Definition – Brand Identity Prism is a six-element model that represent the identity of a
brand as a whole. Following are the elements of the brand identity prism:
 Physique
 Personality
 Culture
 Self-Image
 Reflection
 Relationship
The prism will allow you to represent all the above characteristics in the form of a prism and
thus better map it to one another.
It also helps in differentiating brand from one another which are generally quite similar. For
example, Coca Cola and Pepsi. If you ask an average person, they might use Coke and Pepsi
synonymously. But as a marketer you should know how both the brands have successfully
created a unique brand identity to differ from one another.
A difference between Coca Cola and Pepsi with the help of a brand identity prism is
discussed later in this article.
What are The Six Elements of Brand Identity Prism?
The six elements are divided into two broad categories i.e., externalization and
internalization. Physique, Relationship and Reflection are externalized elements of the brand
identity prism which depend upon how the brand appears to the consumer.
Whereas, Personality, Culture and Self-Image are internalized elements that depend upon
how the brand wants to appear to the consumer.
Let us discuss about all the six elements of the brand identity prism in detail.
Physique
Remember reading this in a romantic novel, where the writer is describing everything about
the guy she just saw “He looked like a super-model just walked out of fashion festival
wearing his yellow colour t-shirt and khaki pants, his hair messy but perfect, I could see his
six-pack abs though his t-shirt, the tattoo on his left hand seemed like it meant to be…”
The writer is describing the person she just saw based on his outside physicality for example,
yellow colour t-shirt, khaki pants, tattoo, messy hair etc. In Physique you do just that.You
describe the physical characteristics of a brand that are visible i.e., the logo, colours of the
brand, packaging etc.
For example, in the above image, I will describe the physical characteristics of Pringles as:
Red cylindrical container, chip with a moustache and bow tie, yellow logo, simple font, chip
dancing on the stage.
Personality
Remember this when you talk about personality “If the brand was a human being, who will it
be”. For example, let’s say if Vaseline body lotion was a human being who will it be?
I would say – Aishwarya Rai
Let’s say if Axe body perfume was a human being who will it be?
I would say – John Abraham

Self-image
Ask this question to yourself when describing self-image in the brand identity prism- “what
do I feel when I use the brand” i.e., you as a consumer, what is the feeling that you get when
you use a particular brand.
Reflection
Reflection helps in answering this question – “How do consumers perceive the brand”. Do
not get confused between reflection and self-image. Self-image is more internal to the brand
and reflection is external i.e., it majorly depends upon how consumers recognize the brand as.
For example, reflection of a brand like Zara would be very stylish, individualistic (in the
image below) and for a brand like Corona would be young, cool, open-minded etc.
Relationship
You are surrounded by brand all the time. Currently I myself am surrounded by thousands of
brands such as Classmate, Pringles, Mc Graw Hill, Nykaa etc. It is hard to count all of them
on my fingers.
However, I have a relationship will all those brands. I use Nykaa when I want to look
beautiful and stylish and Nykaa helps me with that. That is the relationship I have with
Nykaa, it is like my beauty partner, my style advisor.
Whenever I go to buy notebooks, I always ask for Classmates, Why? Because I trust
Classmate, I trust that Classmate notebooks have soft pages, I trust that I can enjoy smooth
writing on Classmate notebooks. That is the relationship I have with Classmate, trustworthy,
my buddy in classrooms.
Relationship describes the engagement between the consumers and the brand. Consumers
tend to form a strong relationship with certain brands that always meet their expectations
For example, if I use Lakme products, I feel sexy, I feel beautiful. When I use Levi’s, I feel
cool, trendy etc.
Brands generally help in achieving certain aspirations that consumer have and self-image
describes just that.
Personality however doesn’t mean choosing the right brand ambassador for the brand. In the
above examples I referred Aishwarya Rai because of her soft skin and overwhelming beauty
which Vaseline body lotion is known for. It has created an identity that way.
Similarly, John Abraham because Axe is sporty, hunky and very manly. I couldn’t think of
anyone better than John Abraham.
Answers for the above examples may differ from person to person depending upon the
perception, but as a marketer you need to ensure that the personality of your brand is being
perceived by the consumers in the way you want to.
For example, if some of you answer Akshay Kumar for Axe body perfume then Axe is
successful in its job, but if you answer Johnny Lever then Axe needs to revise its brand
identity prism. However, Johnny Lever would be a great example for a brand like “Sony Sab”
Culture
Culture describes the values, ideals, morals, style of working, relationship between staff
members etc. of a brand. For examples, culture for Apple would be US based culture of
working, democratic, consumer-centric etc.
In case of Pepsi, you might remember the slogan “Har ghoot me swag hai” and the
advertisement generally showing a college premises or a football ground.

Brand Identity Prism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Brand Identity Prism

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Brand Identity Prism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Brand Identity Prism

What is Brand Identity Prism?

What are The Six Elements of Brand Identity Prism?

I would say – John Abraham

You might also like