Axe’s brand personality and equity

: consumers’ perspective on the brand’s personality and equity

Abstract

Companies search to establish a type of communication which is not only unique but also coherent, in order to ascertain certain types of associations within the minds of consumers. It is the composition of all the associations transmitted that forms the personality of a brand. However, this is a very demanding process, requiring years of investment and a need to be entirely coherent when communicating, through the years. Axe is a perfect example of this intention, with not only a distinctive type of communication but also a consistent one, trespassing always the ideas of sensuality and self-confidence. Nevertheless, not always do the intentions of brand managers coincide with the perceptions of consumers. Additionally, implications of a brand personality in its value, is still somewhat an uncertain subject. This dissertation aims to analyse Axe’s brand personality and its inferences on its own equity, analysing what consumers perceive the brand to be and furthermore how they value those attributes. For that purpose a practical application of Jennifer Aaker’s “Big Five” model was carried out, in order to understand how the brand is perceived, in what way does this perception influence the brand’s equity and what can be the future options for the brand to undertake. The study evidenced the predicted strong facet of the brand, the emotional side, as well as the relationships between the brand personality dimensions and Axe brand equity. This emotional side is in fact the most differentiating asset of the brand, although it is not the dimension with the strongest effect on brand equity.

Date of Award	10 Apr 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)