Review on Localized Brand Personality in China

Fuliang Daia, Junming Lib, Xu Zu*, c

Business School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611830 a 535534631@qq.com, b 1033693122@qq.com, c 403008983@qq.com

*Corresponding author: Xu Zu

Keywords: Localization in China, Brand personality, Research review

Abstract: This paper finds out that the researches on localized brand personality in China mainly focus on jewelry brand, media brand, clothing brand, animation brand and travel destination brand, based on the researches on domestic and foreign brand personality dimensions and localized brand personality. These studies are based on the “Big Five” brand personality dimension system developed by Aaker (1997) and the Chinese localized brand personality dimension and scale system developed by Huang & Lu (2003) to construct a localized brand personality dimension scale. There is still a lack of research on the localization brand personality of fresh agricultural products, which can be used as a key content for future research by scholars.

1. Introduction In 2018, China's GDP totaled 900.309 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%, and the

level of household consumption increased significantly. In particular, the continuous improvement and development of technologies such as the Internet, big data, and mobile payment, as well as the central government's policy support for rural e-commerce infrastructure construction, China's online retail sales reached 906.5 billion yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%, which greatly facilitated consumer purchases. However, the market competition between enterprises is intensified, the degree of product homogeneity is high, and the localized brand personality has become a key factor in the competitiveness of enterprises. The localized brand personality of the enterprise is of great significance to the market differentiation and positioning, which helps the company to stand out in the fierce competition. This paper finds out the shortcomings by combing the researches related to localized brand personality and provides direction for scholars to study in the future.

2. Research on brand personality dimension Brand personality is one of the hot issues in brand research. Aaker (1997) defined brand

personality as a collection of consumer personality features associated with the brand. The researches on brand personality dimensions have focused on the development of brand personality dimension and scale system (Maggie & Bert et al, 2009). Jennifer Aaker (1997) first designed the brand personality dimension scales including “innocent, stimulus, competent, educational and strong”. With the deepening of brand personality research, Aaker & Benet-Martínez et al (2001) found that brand personality should pay attention to the similarity in cross-cultural context, and should also pay attention to the unique personality characteristics of specific countries and regions. Based on the research of Aaker, Huang & Lu (2003) empirically studied the five brand personality dimensions and scale system of “Benevolence, Wisdom, Courage, Fun and Elegance” with Chinese traditional culture characteristics. He & Cong (2008) took the old brand as an example, sumed up the five-dimensional brand personality dimension of “Renhe, Shixin, Elegance, Wisdom and Integrity” through literature induction. Maggie & Bert et al (2009) proposed a five-dimensional personality dimension of “Responsibility, Activity, Aggression, Simplicity and Affectivity” based on human personality attributes. Bai Kai (2011) took the National Geological Park as an example to construct a three-dimensional brand personality dimension scale of “Attraction, Science and

2019 5th International Conference on Economics, Business, Finance, and Management (ICEBFM 2019)

Copyright © (2019) Francis Academic Press, UK DOI: 10.25236/icebfm.2019.046229

Landscape”. Hu & Wu (2015) took the welfare lottery as an example to design the eight-dimensional brand personality dimension of “Authority, Interest, Welfare, Snobbery, Mass-simple, Auspicious, Traditional and Mature”. Sung & Choi et al (2015) took the luxury brand as an example to build a six-dimensional brand personality dimension of “Excitement, Sincerity, Exquisiteness, Professionalism, Attractiveness and Materialism”. Kang & Bennett et al (2016) made data collection for college students and analyzed the personality dimensions of sports brand based on Sports brand theme structure.

3. Research on localized brand personality The researches on localized brand personality have focused on jewelry brand, media brand,

clothing brand, animation brand and destination brand, with the help of the “Big Five” brand personality dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997) and the localized brand personality dimension and scale system developed by Huang & Lu (2003) to build a localized brand personality dimension scale. Li & Wang (2012) combined with the brand personality dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997) and the localized brand personality dimension scale developed by Huang & Lu (2003), using the factor analysis method to construct the seven-dimensional nanzhu brand personality dimension scale of “Original image, Culture, Health, Aesthetics, Rareness, Era, Mystery". Liu & Yu (2013) empirically tested the media brand with three distinctive brand personality dimensions of “Benevolence, elegance and music” by means of the five-dimensional brand personality dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). Tang Xinling (2014) combined the “New Big Five” brand personality scale proposed by Aaker (1997) and the local brand personality dimension scale of Huang & Lu (2003) to construct the five-dimensional brand personality dimension scale of clothing brand. Song & Yin (2016) built a five-dimensional anime derivative brand personality dimension scale of "Sincerely, Interest, Charm, Quality and Green" with Aaker's (1997) "five-dimensional" brand personality dimension scale. Cheng & Lu (2018) used the factor analysis method to build a brand personality dimension model of “Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom and Integrity” based on the "five permanent" (Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom and Trust) moral system of Confucian culture.

4. Literature review According to the literature review, there is still a broad research space for localized brand

personality of fresh agricultural products. Scholars' researches on localized brand personality mainly focus on jewelry brand, media brand, clothing brand, animation brand, tourist destinations brand, etc. (see table 1). The researches on brand personality of fresh agricultural products have mainly used qualitative methods to conduct preliminary exploration of brand personality, which have not been specifically analyzed in combination with the characteristics of Chinese local culture, thus providing guiding suggestions and practical references for the development of fresh agricultural products in China. Based on the lack of research, domestic and foreign scholars can combine the localized brand personality dimension and scale system developed by Huang & Lu (2003) and the “Big Five” brand personality dimension scale built by Aaker (1997) to make in-depth study on the localized brand personality of fresh agricultural products.

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Table 1 Researches on localized brand personality

Research object Localized brand personality dimension (scale) Author (time) Jewelry brand Original image, Culture, Health, Aesthetics, Rareness,

Era, Mystery Li Feixing, Wang Meiyuan (2012)

Media brand Benevolence, Fun, Elegance Liu Chao, Yu Guoming (2013)

Clothing brand Benevolence: Environmentally friendly, Natural, Modest Wisdom: Calm, Innovative, Cultural Courage: Brave, Dynamic, Rough Fun: positive, Stylish, Confident Elegance: Elegant, Tasteful, Successful

Tang Xinling (2014)

Anime brand Sincerely:Pragmatic, Upright, Tough Interest:Innovative, kind hearted, Lively and lovely Charm:Interactive, Wise, Renowned Quality:Elegant, Stylish, Exquisite Green:Optimistic, Environmentally friendly

Song Xiaoli, Yin Jun (2016)

Destination brand Benevolence:Friendly, Harmonious, Dear, Peaceful, Nature Righteousness:Passionate, Unrestrained, Optimistic、Vigorous, Happy Courtesy:Traditional, Tasteful, Small town, Inclusive, Modern Wisdom:Unique, Cultural, Smart, Novel, Innovative Integrity:Actual, Sincerely, Reliable, Healthy, Frank

Cheng Li, Lu Youhai et al (2018)

Acknowledgements Fund Project: Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Science of Sichuan

Province--Southwestern Poverty Reduction and Development Research Center Key Project (SCP1802); Sichuan Agricultural University Social Science Key Project (2018ZD04); Sichuan Province Philosophy and Social Science Key Research Base--Sichuan Agriculture Featured Brand Development and Communication Research Center General Project (CAB1810).

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