RESEARCH

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Measurement and Validity of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality Scale for Colgate Brand
Bejoy John Thomas and P C Sekar

Executive Summary

Brand differentiation is now becoming an important tactic for combating competition in the hostile marketplace. A viable solution for establishing the distinctiveness of a brand is through brand personality. Attaching personalities to brands contributes to a differentiating brand identity, which can make brands more desirable to the consumer. Jennifer Aaker developed a specialized brand personality scale, the five dimensions of the scale being sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. This study focused on measuring the brand personality of Colgate brand and exploring the model validity of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality scale. The study indicated that: About 93 per cent of the respondents used toothpaste and toothbrush among the oral care products. About 55 per cent of the respondents used only Colgate brand and about 39 per cent used Close-up and Pepsodent together with Colgate brand. 61 per cent of the respondents who were using only Colgate brand were using the brand for more than three years which indicates that most of the respondents had an understanding about the Colgate brand. Most of the respondents who were using more than one brand have indicated that they switch among the brands once in three months or once in more than six months. About 53 per cent of the respondents have indicated that they prefer Colgate dental cream among Colgate paste brands and 35 per cent Colgate Cibaca top among Colgate toothbrush brands. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that ruggedness, competence, and excitement are the main dimensions of Colgate Brand Personality. This shows that the company should stress more on its functional benefits than the emotional benefits whenever the company introduces a new brand, new ad campaign or any other form of communication with the user. The itemstrendy, exciting, and youngunder Exciting Dimension are more relevant for the Colgate brand and the itemscool, contemporary and imaginativeare not applicable to the Colgate brand. This will be a major finding for the company and ad agency because they can improve the score in this dimension by concentrating on the creativity and contemporariness of its advertisements and other promotional materials. Also, the itemsconfident, secure, and hardworkingunder Competence Dimension are more relevant for the Colgate Brand and the itemsuccessfulis not applicable to the Colgate brand. This finding will be an eye opener for the company A validity check of the scale using Factor Analysis was carried out which indicates that the number of dimensions of Brand Personality is 13 and that about 10 items of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality scale are not applicable in the Indian situation. The applicability of this scale in the Indian situation was not checked because it required an exploratory study to identify the dimensions of Brand Personality in the Indian situation. Hence, identifying the Indian Brand Personality construct can be undertaken by future researchers.

KEY WORDS Brand Personality Colgate Brand FMCG Branding Toothpaste Brand Building

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hroughout the past two decades, the development of new products has been a popular marketing strategy for many firms. According to the trade publication, New Product News, consumer-product companies launch nearly 20,000 new products each year (compared to only 2,689 in 1980) and supermarkets carry an average of 30,000 products compared to 13,067 in 1982 (as cited in Belch and Belch, 2001)1. This newfound brand proliferation threatens the survival of other recent brands. Brand differentiation is now becoming an important tactic for combating competition in this hostile marketplace. A viable solution for establishing the distinctiveness of a brand is through brand personality. Attaching personalities to brands contributes to a differentiating brand identity, which can make brands more desirable to the consumer. While positioning the brand, it is important to treat it like a human being with specific characteristics. There are a host of brands out there and if we position the brand in a general manner, it will become a commodity that will get lost in the crowd. The only distinguishing factor we would then have is price, which would leave the task of brand identification at the mercy of market forces. A very dangerous proposition indeed, because it would effectively mean very little control. On the other hand, if the brand has a distinctive personality, it will come alive for the consumer and endear itself to him. It will help the consumers in identifying with the brands personality traits. If youth is a personality characteristic of the brand, it need not appeal only to youngsters. It could appeal to everyone from six to sixty for whom being young and alive is important. Similarly, if the brand is positioned as tender and caring, it will be attractive to everyone who desires these qualities. Lux has a distinctive brand personality tender and caring. Promoted as it is by the film star who is the current rage, it comes with a testimonial that is hard to ignore the seductive dream woman of Technicolour and 70 mm, swearing that it is Lux that keeps her skin the way it is, the lure of Lux is strong. This is what fantasy is made of. It is a complete beauty care package all in a cake of soap. In these instances, the brand personality of Lux helps to identify the brand from a mile away. Luxs personality is one of being the beauty soap of film stars. Thus, we see that there could be two kinds of foci one, wherein brands aim to create personalities for themselves, whether they be Saffola, Maruti, Colgate-Palmolive or

Amul and the other in which there are a number of personalities or celebrities trying to be branded and being able to take in a lot of brand equity, increasing their value and therefore, trying to use that for their own success in terms of volumes, market shares, and of course, profits. The distinction between brand personality and personalities brand, is an incisive and precise distinctionthe distinction wherein an inanimate object like a product or a brand of soap, oil, car, or garment is being personified and being given a personality for better gains to the corporation and certainly better value to the customer. On the other hand, there are human elements and people who have done well in life and have achieved success and therefore, a celebrity or personality status and who now want to move in to the mould of a product or a brand which can then be identified and symbolized again to improve standards of living, provide better service, and hence be in a position to give better value to the customer.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Dimensions of brand personality: To examine how the relationship between brand and human personality may drive preference, Aaker (1997) indicates that two types of brand personality scales can be used. The first type are ad hoc scales, typically composed of a set of traits ranging from 20 to 300 in number. However, though useful, these scales tend not to be theoretical in nature-often having been developed for the purposes of a specific research study. As a result, key traits may be missing from such scales. Furthermore, the traits that are selected often are chosen arbitrarily, which casts doubt upon the scales reliability and validity. The second type of brand personality scales are those that are more theoretical in nature, but are based on human personality scales that have not been validated in the context of brands (e.g., Bellenger et al., 1976; Dolich, 1969 as cited in Aaker, 1997). Some dimensions (or factors) of human personality may be mirrored in brands whilst others might not. As a result, the validity of such brand personality scales often is questionable, leading researchers to argue that if unequivocal results are to emerge (in the literature on the symbolic used of brands) consumer behaviour researchers must develop their own definitions and design their own instruments to measure the personality variables that go into the purchase decision (italics in original, Kassarjian 1971, as cited in Aaker, 1997).

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MEASUREMENT AND VALIDITY OF JENNIFER AAKERS BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE FOR COLGATE BRAND

It was against this setting that Aaker (1997) developed a brand personality scale by isolating these distinct dimensions, further treating brand personality as a unidimensional construct and demonstrating how different types of brand personalities can be distinguished. This has resulted in the perception that there are multiple ways in which the brand personality construct can influence a consumers preference, and has provided investigators with tools so that these may be better understood. This study developed a specialized brand personality scale on the basis of three sources, namely, personality scales from psychology, personality scales used by marketers, and original qualitative research of personality traits associated with a number of brands. The final scale contained 42 personality traits. Factor analyses resulted in five major personality dimensions and 15 facets. The five dimensions of the scale are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness. The dimension Sincerity indicates that the brand is used by family-oriented people, by people living in villages, and is used for practical purposes. The dimension also indicates that the brand is fair and just, delivers whatever it promises, and that promises are based on facts. This dimension highlights that the brand is a pioneer and the brand provides physical and mental satisfaction. The dimension also reveals that the brands colour and other aspects are bright, the brand is used for sentimental reasons, and the brand provides help like a friend. Interestingly, the two latter dimensions, Sophistication and Ruggedness, are not found in human personality scales. Nevertheless, these two dimensions are highly relevant to a number of brands, such as Mercedes and Channel V (Sophistication) and Levis and Marlboro (Ruggedness) (Aaker, 1997). Brand personality structures in the United States and KoreaCommon and culture-specific factors: When a set of global brands were rated on the same personality attributes in the United States and Korea , six common dimensions of brand personality and two factors unique to each culture were observed. The two culture-specific factors in Korea were Passive Likeableness and Ascendancy. The two unique factors (White collar and Androgyny) that emerged in the US sample suggest changing cultural values associated with occupational status and gender roles. (Sung Yongjun and Tinkham, Spencer, 2005).
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Consumption symbols as carriers of cultureA study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constructs: The authors conducted four studies to examine how symbolic and expressive attributes associated with commercial brands are structured and how this structure varies across three cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a set of brand personality dimensions common to both Japan and the United States (sincerity, excitement, competence, and sophistication), as well as culture-specific Japanese (peacefulness) and American (ruggedness) dimensions. Studies 3 and 4, which extended this set of findings to Spain, yielded brand personality dimensions common to both Spain and the United States (sincerity, excitement, and sophistication), plus non-shared Spanish (passion) and American (competence and ruggedness) dimensions. (Aaker, Jennifer Lynn, BenetMartnez, VernicaGarolera, Jordi, 2001). Excitement or sophistication? A preliminary exploration of online brand personality: This study attempts to identify the brand personality dimensions that American firms intend to create in the minds of online consumers. A principal component analysis identifies five underlying dimensions of brand personality stimuli: excitement, sophistication, affection, popularity, and competence. The principal forms of online communications consist of stakeholder relations, direct/indirect sales, choice functions, connectedness, orientation, and product positioning. Multiple regression analyses confirm that there are modest but consistent associations between the intended brand personality dimensions and the forms of online communications. The dimensions of brand personality stimuli are intrinsically traceable from the perspective of the creative advertising appeals that multinational corporations (MNCs) attempt to employ on their web sites. (Okazaki , 2006). Visualizing e-brand personality: The results showed that two visual attributes--simplicity and cohesion--are closely related to a bold personality. Three attributes-contrast, density, and regularity--can be used to create a web site that has an analytical personality. Contrast, cohesion, density, and regularity are closely related to a web site that is perceived to have a friendly personality. Regularity and balance were expected to be related to the sophisticated personality dimension, but no such relation was identified in Study 3. (Park, Choi and Kim, 2005).

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The Ford brand personality in Chile: The main objective of this study is to empirically measure the Ford Brand Personality in Chile, using as a framework, the five-dimension Brand Personality Scale developed by Aaker (1997). The confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model and the analysis of the structural model do not provide evidence that the ruggedness dimension proposed by Aaker (1997) was not reliable, nor was it valid. Thus, it shows a weak relationship with the main construct, Brand Personality. Among respondents, three segments are identified: the antagonists, the admirers, and the cold-blooded. Marketing suggestions are offered for the positioning of the Ford brand in Chile (Rojas-Mndez, Erenchun-Podlech and Silva-Olave, 2004). Brand-personality scale: Empirical evidence is provided regarding the extent to which the restaurant brands such as Wendys, McDonalds, Burger King, and others, have established clear and distinct brand personalities in the minds of consumers. A well-established brand personality has been shown to result in increased preference and patronage, higher emotional ties to the brand, and trust and loyalty (Siguaw, Mattila and Austin, 1999). Building foreign brand personalities in Russia The moderating effect of consumer ethnocentrism: Based on a survey of Western brands in Russia, three contributions are offered to the literature on international brandbuilding. First, the Aaker Brand Personality Scale (Aaker, 1997) was tested in a Russian context. Important similarities and differences between Western and Russian brand personality perceptions were identified. Second, the results show that brand personalities of Western brands also have an impact on brand attitudes among Russian consumers. Third, and most importantly, it is demonstrated that the effect of Western brand personalities is heavily moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Specifically, only low-ethnocentric consumers are influenced by foreign brand personalities (Supphellen and Gronhaug, 2003).

building of brands has become very important for competing firms. In such a scenario, systematic research aimed at measuring and validating the Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality Scale is of utmost importance for brand managers and advertising agencies.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This study focused on the following objectives: a) To study the personal, demographic, and rational profile of Colgate users b) To measure the brand personality of Colgate c) To explore the model validity of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality Scale.

METHODOLOGY Brand Selection

Today, Colgate is a household name in India. Colgate brand was selected for the study as it is the No.1 brand in India (Economic Times, 2004). Consistently superior quality, continuing innovation, and value-for-money products emerging out of the advanced technology employed, have enabled Colgate to be voted as The Most Trusted Brand in India across all brands and categories for the third consecutive year in the Brand Equity AC Nielson ORG-MARG 2005 Survey. Colgate has been the only brand to be ranked in the top three for all the five surveys and to hold the premier position for three consecutive years. This is a true measure of the trust and confidence that generations of consumers have placed in Colgate for their oral care needs.

Sampling Method
The population for this study consisted of all the households in ward number 46 of Tiruchirappalli district. The sample for the study was selected from the population by systematic sampling method.

Determination of Sample Size

A pilot study was conducted among 50 Colgate users and the standard deviation of the items was found to be 0.273. Hence the sample size was determined to be 115*.

NEED FOR THE STUDY

There is a lack of research in the Indian context specifically exploring the applicability of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality Scale. However, the competition in many sectors has intensified with the liberalization and privatization policies of successive governments. Hence

* The sample size n = (Z x s / e)2

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MEASUREMENT AND VALIDITY OF JENNIFER AAKERS BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE FOR COLGATE BRAND

Data Collection
A structured questionnaire was prepared based on Jennifer Aakers Dimensions of Brand Personality. The questionnaire comprised of three parts. The first part of the questionnaire contained 7 questions relating to rational factors of users such as the type of oral care products used, the type of toothpaste brands used, etc. The second part of the questionnaire contained 42 questions relating to the 42 traits corresponding to the 5 brand personality dimensions, viz., Sincerity (down-to-earth, family-oriented, small-town, honest, sincere, realistic, wholesome, original, cheerful, sentimental, friendly), Excitement (contemporary, independent, up-to-date, unique, imaginative, young, cool, spirited, exciting, trendy, daring), Competence (reliable, hard-working, secure, intelligent, technical, corporate, successful, leader, confident), Sophistication (upper-class, glamorous, good-looking, charming, feminine, smooth) and Ruggedness (outdoorsy, masculine, western, tough, rugged). The third part of the questionnaire contained 6 questions on demographic factors of the users. Tiruchirappalli, situated on the banks of the river Cauvery is the fourth largest city in Tamil Nadu. Tiruchirappalli City Corporation consists of 60 wards and 4 zonal offices, 15 wards in each zone, namely, Srirangam, Ariyamangalam, Golden Rock, and K Abishekapuram. Tiruchirappalli City Corporation totally comprises of 146.70 sq. kms. The study was conducted in Ward No. 46 which covers an area of 0.82 km under the Golden Rock zone. This ward was selected as it contained an ideal* cross-section of Trichy population. A systematic sampling was done by contacting every 6th house in every street of Ward No. 46. Only the households with Close-up users were included in the sample and questionnaires administered to them.

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

About 68 per cent of the respondents were males, 45 per cent were in the age group 20 to 30 years, most of the respondents were undergraduates. and 45 per cent of them had an annual income of Rs 1-1.5 lakh. The study indicated that about 93 per cent of the respondents used oral care products such as toothpaste and toothbrush, about 55 per cent of the respondents used only Colgate brand, and about 39 per cent used Close-up and Pepsodent together with Colgate brand. The study also revealed that 61 per cent of the respondents who were using only Colgate brand were using the brand for more than three years suggesting that most of the respondents had an understanding about the Colgate brand. Most of the respondents who were using more than one brand indicated that they switched among the brands once in three months or once in more than six months. About 53 per cent of the respondents preferred Colgate dental cream among the different Colgate paste brands while 35 per cent showed a preference for Colgate Cibaca Top among the various Colgate toothbrush brands. From Table 1, sincerity, excitement, and competence dimensions achieved a high Cronbachs alpha coefficient, suggesting a high reliability (greater than 0.6 recommended by Nunally and Bernstein) and internal consistency while the dimensionssophistication and ruggednessdid not attain the required level. Though some of the items under the dimensions were poor in their reliability, the overall Cronbachs alpha coefficients for the 42 brand personality items was 84.7 per cent. Finally, the results of Hotellings T-squared test confirmed that the mean of different brand personality items under the five dimensions was significantly different from each other at 1 per cent level. This indicates that there is no equivalence between all the 42 items and that they are different.

Table 1: Reliability and Equivalence of Various Items in Brand Personality Dimensions

Dimensions Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness All No. of Items 11 11 9 6 5 42 Cronbachs Alpha 0.674 0.705 0.714 0.483 0.359 0.847 Hotellings T-squared 300.285 161.562 52.317 445.019 338.846 1206.515 F- value 27.658 14.881 6.138 85.881 82.482 19.102 d.f (10,105) (10,105) (8,107) (5,110) (4,111) (41,74) P- value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

* Trichy population consisted mostly of middle class and upper middle class people. VIKALPA VOLUME 33 NO 3 JULY SEPTEMBER 2008

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MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL OF BRAND PERSONALITY OF COLGATE WITH CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

Chi-square test of goodness of fit Minimum was achieved Chi-square = 1500.222 Degrees of freedom = 816 Probability level = 0.000 The path diagram (Figure 1) illustrates the multidimensional model of the brand personality of Colgate. The brand personality is the exogenous variable and the

brand personality dimensions namely sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness are endogenous variables, i.e., brand personality causes the brand personality dimensions. Also, each of the brand personality dimensions are measured by a series of indicators. RMR = 0.131 GFI = 0.593 AGFI = 0.550 (1)

xj^ = j^ z ^ + e i ^

where xj^ is the estimated standardized latent variable, Sincerity

Figure 1: Path Diagram of Brand Personality

e23

e24

e25

e26

e27

e28

e29

e30

e31

.35 Reliable

.37 Hardworking Secure

.38

.19 Intelligent .61 .62 .44

.25 Technical

.05 Corporate .20

.04 Successful .35 .65 Leader

.12

.43 Confident

.59

.50 .21 .73

.21 e11 Friendly .29 e10 Sentimental .07 e9 Cheerful .13 e8 Original .06 e7 Wholesome .47 e6 Realistic .04 e5 Sincere .24 e4 Honest .08 e3 Small Town .23 e2 Family Oriented .25 e1 Down-to-earth Upper-class .00 Glamorous -.04 .48 .50 .69 .20 .49 .29 .45 .54 .27 e43

Competence

e38 .27 Outdoorsy

e39 .01 Masculine .51 -.11

e40 .06 Western .24 .64 .85

e41 .41 Tough .66

e42 .44 Rugged Trendy Daring

.14 e22 .52 e21 .26

.85

e44
.36 .25 .55

e46

Ruggedness

.37 .72

Exciting .12 Spirited .01 .12 Cool .17 Young .05 Imaginative .11 .27 .30 Unique .07 Up-to-class .09 Independent .01

e20

.92 .74

.51 e45 .35

e19

Sincerity

Brand Personality

1.00

1.00

e18

.42 .22 .33

Excitement
.96 e47 .92

e17

e16

Sophistication
.26 .07 .09 .01 .62 -.10 .36 .39 Charming .01 Feminine .13 Smooth

e15

.09

e14

Good Looking

e13

e32

e33

e34

e35

e36

e37

Contemporary

e12

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MEASUREMENT AND VALIDITY OF JENNIFER AAKERS BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE FOR COLGATE BRAND

z^ is the standardized value of indicators j^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients ei^ is the estimated measurement error i = 43 to 47 j = 1 to 5 Table 2: Latent Variable: Brand Personality (Z^)
Dependent Latent Dimensions Sincerity(X1) Excitement(X2) Competence(X3) Sophistication(X4) Ruggedness(X5) Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.286 0.438 0.450 0.264 0.479

x1^ = i^ y i + e i ^

(2)

where x1^ is the estimated standardized latent variable Sincerity y i is the standardized value of indicators i^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients e i^ is the estimated measurement error i =1 to11 Table 3 indicates that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variable Sinceritythere will be 0.687 standard deviation increase in the indicator, realistic, 0.540 standard deviation increase in the indicator, sentimental, and 0.497 standard deviation increase in the indicator, down-to-earth and vice versa. The results of the critical ratio test reveal that the path coefficient for the indicator, Sincere is not significant at 5 per cent level and the path coefficients of other indicators are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Hence we infer that in the Sincerity dimension, the items realistic, sentimental, and down-to-earth are more relevant for Colgate brand while the items, sincere and wholesome, are not applicable to Colgate brand.

Table 2 indicates that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variableBrand Personalitythere will be 0.479 standard deviation increase in the latent variable, ruggedness, 0.450 standard deviation increase in the latent variable, competence, and 0.438 standard deviation increase in the latent variable, excitement and vice versa. It also indicates that the root mean squared value is 0.131(close to 0) which shows that this model is a good fit for the Brand Personality Dimensions. The goodness of fit index is found to be 0.593 which confirms a reasonable fit of 59.3 per cent for the model. The adjusted goodness of fit index is 0.550 which takes the degrees of freedom into consideration; this indicates that this model is a moderate fit in measuring the brand personality and their dimensions. Hence we infer that ruggedness, competence, and excitement are the main dimensions of Colgate brand personality.

x2^ = i^ y i + e i ^

(2)

where x2^ is the estimated standardized latent variable, Excitement y i is the standardized value of indicators i^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients e i^ is the estimated measurement error i =12 to 22

Table 3: Latent Variable: Sincerity (X1)

Indicators Down-to-earth(Y1) Family-oriented(Y2) Small town(Y3) Honest(Y4) Sincere(Y5) Realistic(Y6) Wholesome(Y7) Original(Y8) Cheerful(Y9) Sentimental(Y10) Friendly(Y11) Unstandardized Path Co-efficient 1.000 1.153 0.986 1.029 0.467 1.626 0.565 0.850 0.702 1.575 1.092 Standard Error 0.298 0.175 0.265 0.260 0.339 0.254 0.277 0.292 0.378 0.296 Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.497 0.483 0.290 0.485 0.195 0.687 0.247 0.357 0.268 0.540 0.453 Critical Ratio 3.866 5.628 3.879 1.795 4.790 2.228 3.066 2.403 4.168 3.692 P - value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.073 0.000 0.026 0.002 0.016 0.000 0.000

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Table 4: Latent VariableExcitement (X2)

Indicators Daring(Y12) Trendy(Y13) Exciting(Y14) Spirited(Y15) Cool(Y16) Young(Y17) Imaginative(Y18) Unique(Y19) Up-to-date(Y20) Independent(Y21) Contemporary(Y22) Unstandardized Path Co-efficient 1.000 1.843 1.235 0.907 0.291 1.124 0.549 0.982 0.521 0.658 0.175 Standard Error 0.504 0.380 0.338 0.257 0.379 0.284 0.376 0.228 0.269 0.211 Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.370 0.721 0.508 0.348 0.119 0.416 0.219 0.334 0.273 0.302 0.085 Critical Ratio 3.655 3.252 2.680 1.135 2.964 1.936 2.614 2.283 2.449 0.831 Probability 0.000 0.001 0.007 0.256 0.003 0.053 0.009 0.022 0.014 0.406

Table 4 indicates that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variableExcitement there will be 0.721 standard deviation increase in the indicator, trendy, 0.508 standard deviation increase in the indicator, exciting, and 0.416 standard deviation increase in the indicator, young and vice versa. The results of the critical ratio test reveal that the path coefficient for the indicators, cool, contemporary, and imaginative are not significant at 5 per cent level and the path coefficients of other indicators are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Hence we infer that for Colgate brand, in the Excitement dimension, the items trendy, exciting, and young are more relevant while the items cool, contemporary, and imaginative are not applicable.

y i is the standardized value of indicators i^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients e i^ is the estimated measurement error i =23 to 31 Table 5 shows that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variableCompetencethere will be 0.654 standard deviation increase in the indicator, confident, 0.615 standard deviation increase in the indicator, secure, and 0.606 standard deviation increase in the indicator, hardworking and vice versa. The results of the critical ratio test reveal that the path coefficient for the indicator, successful, is not significant at 5 per cent level and the path coefficients of other indicators are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Hence we infer that in the Competence dimension, the items, confident, secure, and hardworking are more relevant while the item, successful, is not applicable to Colgate brand.

x3^ = i^ y i + e i ^

(3)

where x3^ is the estimated standardized latent variable, Competence

Table 5: Latent VariableCompetence (X3)

Indicators Reliable(Y23) Hard-working(Y24) Secure(Y25) Intelligent(Y26) Technical(Y27) Corporate(Y28) Successful(Y29) Leader(Y30) Confident(Y31) Unstandardized Path Co-efficient 1.000 1.074 0.986 0.798 0.758 0.279 0.232 0.566 1.055 Standard Error 0.210 0.175 0.203 0.172 0.137 0.119 0.177 0.195 Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.588 0.606 0.615 0.436 0.499 0.214 0.204 0.346 0.654 Critical Ratio 5.124 5.628 3.927 4.401 2.038 1.947 3.204 5.415 Probability 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.042 0.052 0.001 0.000

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MEASUREMENT AND VALIDITY OF JENNIFER AAKERS BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE FOR COLGATE BRAND

x4^ = i^ y i + e i ^

(4)

where x4^ is the estimated standardized latent variable, Sophistication y i is the standardized value of indicators i^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients e i^ is the estimated measurement error i =32 to 37 Table 6 shows that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variableSophistication there will be 0.623 standard deviation increase in the indicator, charming, 0.356 standard deviation increase in the indicator, smooth, and 0.261 standard deviation increase in the indicator, glamorous and vice versa. The results of the critical ratio test reveal that the path coefficient for the indicators, upper-class, good-looking, and feminine are not significant at 5 per cent level and the path coefficients of other indicators are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Hence we infer that in the Sophistication dimension, the items charming, smooth, and glamorous are more relevant while the items upper-class, goodlooking, and feminine are not applicable to Colgate brand.

y i is the standardized value of indicators i^ is the estimated standardized path coefficients e i^ is the estimated measurement error i =38 to 42 Table 7 indicates that when there is a one standard deviation increase in the latent variableRuggedness there will be 0.664 standard deviation increase in the indicator, rugged, 0.641 standard deviation increase in the indicator, tough, and 0.515 standard deviation increase in the indicator, outdoorsy and vice versa. The results of the critical ratio test reveal that the path coefficient for the indicator, masculine is not significant at 5 per cent level and the path coefficients of other indicators are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Hence we infer that in the Ruggedness dimension, the items, rugged, tough, and outdoorsy are more relevant while the item, masculine, is not applicable to Colgate brand.

MODEL VALIDITY OF JENNIFER AAKERS BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE WITH FACTOR ANALYSIS
KMO measure of sampling adequacy = 0.664 Bartletts Test of Sphericity Chi-Square = 1829.842 df = 861 p value < 0.01

x5^ = i^ y i + e i ^

(4)

where x5^ is the estimated standardized latent variable, Ruggedness Table 6: Latent VariableSophistication (X4)
Indicators Smooth(Y32) Feminine(Y33) Charming(Y34) Good looking(Y35) Glamorous(Y36) Upper-Class(Y37) Unstandardized Path Co-efficient 1.000 -0.456 2.332 0.341 1.110 -0.190

Standard Error 0.477 0.717 0.425 0.526 0.451

Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.356 -0.102 0.623 0.085 0.261 -0.044

Critical Ratio -0.956 3.252 0.803 2.112 -0.421

Probability 0.339 0.001 0.422 0.035 0.674

Table 7: Latent VariableRuggedness (X5)

Indicators Outdoorsy(Y38) Masculine(Y39) Western(Y40) Tough(Y41) Rugged(Y42) Unstandardized Path Co-efficient 1.000 -0.236 0.640 0.941 1.248 Standard Error 0.220 0.287 0.206 0.268 Standardized Path Co-efficient 0.515 -0.113 0.244 0.641 0.664 Critical Ratio -1.072 2.228 4.571 4.654 Probability 0.284 0.026 0.000 0.000

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Table 8 clearly exhibits the results of factor analysis conducted for the 42 brand personality items. The results suggest that the eigen value was greater than a recommended level of 1 for the extracted 13 dimensions. This reveals that from the 42 brand personality items included in factor analysis, only 13 dimensions were extracted and emerged with a cumulative variance of 67.46 per cent. This indicated that the 13 dimensions explained 67.46 per cent variance of the brand personality. However, among these 13 dimensions, dimension 1 had a greater eigen value and 16.731 per cent of variance. This shows dimension1 explained most of the variance among the 42 brand personality items. Finally, the KMO measure of sampling adequacy is greater than 0.6 (0.664) which explains that the sample used in the factor analysis is adequate. On the other hand, the result of Bartletts Test of Sphericity and chi-square transformation suggested that the correlation matrix of the 42 brand personality items was not an identity matrix at 1 per cent level, i.e., some of the 42 items were intercorrelated. Table 8: Results of Factor Analysis
Dimensions Eigen Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 7.027 3.915 2.473 1.985 1.946 1.702 1.599 1.540 1.391 1.344 1.178 1.117 1.117 % of Variance 16.731 9.321 5.887 4.725 4.634 4.052 3.808 3.668 3.311 3.200 2.805 2.661 2.659 Cumulative % 16.731 26.052 31.939 36.664 41.298 45.350 49.158 52.826 56.137 59.336 62.141 64.801 67.460

outdoorsy; dimension 6 comprised of the brand personality items successful, goodlooking, and Western; dimension 7 comprised of wholesome, unique, and contemporary, and dimension 8 comprised of the brand personality items, reliable and leader. Dimension 9 comprised of the brand personality item, friendly. Dimension 10 comprised of the brand personality itemscheerful and daring; dimension 11 comprised of upper-class and smooth; dimension 12 comprised of corporate; dimension 13 comprised of sincere. It also shows that the items such as down-to-earth, family-oriented, small-town, honest, original, spirited, young, confident, charming, and tough do not have adequate loadings in any of the 13 dimensions. Hence we infer that the number of dimensions of brand personality is 13 and about 10 items of Jennifer Brand Personality Scale are not applicable in the Indian situation.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS Profile of Colgate Users

The personal and demographic profile of the users indicate that majority of the users are young male in the early twenties or late twenties and belong to the middle income group. The rational profile of the users indicates that most of the users prefer toothpaste and toothbrush among the oral care products; a majority of the users are hardcore loyalists as they do not use any other brand; some of the users prefer Close up and Pepsodent together with Colgate; most of the Colgate users have been using the brand for more than three years; the split loyals switch among brands once in three months, and a majority of the users prefer Colgate dental cream among the different toothpaste brands and Colgate Cibaca Top among toothbrushes.

Colgate Brand Personality

The Colgate brand is considered to be rugged as respondents believe that it can clean even irregular teeth and can be used for removing yellow colour and dark stains from the teeth. Also this brand is considered to have the dimensionCompetencebecause the respondents believe that the quality of Colgate brand has been consistent over the years and the brand works very hard to clean and protect their teeth from germs throughout the day. The respondents also feel that the Colgate brand has an Excitement dimension because the usage of the brand increases the interest of the users in brush-

Table 9 shows the results of factor analysis with varimax rotation based on the technique of principal component analysis method. From the table, it can be inferred that dimension 1 comprised of the brand personality items realistic, sentimental, hard working, secure, and intelligent. Similarly, dimension 2 was represented by cool, feminine, and masculine items; dimension 3 comprised of trendy, exciting, independent, and rugged items; dimension 4 comprised of the brand personality items technical and glamorous. Dimension 5 comprised of the brand personality items imaginative, up-to-date, and

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Table 9: Rotated Component Matrix

Items 1 Down-to-earth Family-oriented Small town Honest Sincere Realistic Wholesome Original Cheerful Sentimental Friendly Daring Trendy Exciting Spirited Cool Young Imaginative Unique Up-to-date Independent Contemporary Reliable Hard-working Secure Intelligent Technical Corporate Successful Leader Confident Upper-class Glamorous Good-looking Charming Feminine Smooth Outdoorsy Masculine Western Tough Rugged 0.452 0.331 0.052 0.353 0.020 0.680 0.044 0.300 -0.053 0.646 0.083 0.234 0.384 0.101 0.339 0.137 0.141 -0.035 0.097 -0.027 -0.076 0.057 0.086 0.518 0.514 0.645 .315 0.054 0.142 0.223 0.205 -0.007 -0.167 -0.189 0.369 -0.009 0.049 0.314 -0.129 0.195 0.429 0.266 2 -0.427 -0.125 0.338 -0.174 0.140 -0.119 0.148 0.000 0.091 0.137 -0.185 0.016 0.007 -0.044 0.415 0.652 0.458 0.041 0.215 -0.079 0.006 -0.031 -0.006 0.062 -0.080 0.007 -0.064 0.016 0.011 0.154 -0.197 0.458 0.138 0.409 -0.211 0.715 0.035 0.139 0.853 0.001 -0.134 -0.014 3 0.113 -0.119 -0.312 0.165 0.063 0.315 0.068 -0.171 0.070 0.041 0.152 0.139 0.671 0.632 0.146 0.149 0.389 0.056 0.231 0.134 0.557 -0.085 0.114 0.280 0.173 0.140 0.106 0.085 -0.104 0.130 0.384 -0.215 0.224 -0.044 0.212 -0.076 0.173 0.238 -0.092 -0.031 0.483 0.700 4 0.047 0.483 0.432 -0.120 -0.041 -0.073 0.345 0.215 0.059 0.106 0.117 0.054 0.027 0.127 0.414 -0.129 0.077 0.026 0.240 0.022 0.192 -0.103 0.088 0.057 0.129 0.144 0.627 -0.043 0.166 -0.001 0.393 -0.017 0.644 0.148 0.148 -0.015 0.135 0.012 0.138 0.230 -0.167 0.032 5 0.015 0.126 -0.102 -0.041 0.088 0.034 0.012 0.262 0.044 -0.090 0.070 -0.025 0.166 0.195 -0.132 -0.028 0.117 0.765 0.173 0.729 0.122 0.119 0.076 -0.026 -0.050 0.288 0.049 0.053 0.048 -0.004 0.077 -0.046 0.059 0.097 0.334 0.002 0.018 0.576 0.022 0.153 -0.131 -0.022 6 -0.011 -0.070 0.007 0.113 -0.048 0.039 0.003 -0.154 -0.288 -0.142 -0.011 0.323 0.075 -0.096 0.120 -0.292 0.051 -0.080 0.224 0.152 0.020 -0.064 0.025 0.079 -0.115 0.033 -0.053 -0.095 -0.662 -0.178 -0.119 0.167 0.282 0.528 0.209 0.224 -0.083 0.182 -0.067 0.684 0.159 0.073 Dimensions 7 -0.235 0.121 0.133 0.161 -0.026 -0.040 0.560 -0.057 -0.002 0.157 -0.051 0.288 0.128 -0.002 0.077 0.235 0.133 0.270 0.517 -0.002 0.188 0.803 0.044 -0.019 0.020 0.129 0.068 0.068 0.165 0.357 -0.041 0.093 0.008 0.154 -0.152 -0.127 0.072 -0.082 0.039 0.051 0.108 -0.161 8 0.214 0.366 -0.217 0.178 0.014 0.105 0.063 -0.154 0.175 0.012 0.200 -0.095 0.159 -0.016 0.045 -0.100 -0.002 0.007 -0.353 0.113 -0.100 0.096 0.751 0.167 0.331 -0.024 0.071 0.024 0.123 0.516 0.181 0.095 0.040 0.055 0.448 -0.048 0.217 0.009 0.069 0.065 0.046 0.161 9 -0.058 -0.055 0.083 0.300 -0.008 -0.025 -0.048 0.148 0.109 0.207 0.738 0.101 0.041 0.180 -0.058 0.000 0.283 -0.091 0.224 0.069 -0.431 -0.056 0.279 0.084 0.153 -0.098 0.190 0.059 0.123 -0.119 0.429 -0.260 0.026 0.249 0.172 -0.113 0.135 0.221 -0.108 -0.002 0.116 0.033 10 0.395 0.092 0.008 0.142 0.103 0.121 0.201 0.453 0.717 0.137 0.215 0.540 -0.015 -0.055 0.158 -0.006 0.059 0.183 0.047 -0.146 0.200 -0.088 0.037 -0.149 -0.183 -0.010 -0.038 0.099 0.183 0.242 0.078 0.204 0.109 0.146 0.050 0.040 -0.029 0.071 -0.019 -0.088 0.032 0.135 11 0.011 -0.236 0.217 -0.470 0.034 -0.136 -0.005 0.153 -0.039 0.088 -0.007 0.006 -0.120 0.008 -0.153 0.161 0.015 0.039 0.034 -0.153 -0.053 0.054 0.190 0.111 0.174 -0.046 0.241 0.037 0.096 0.049 0.225 0.500 0.052 0.055 0.129 -0.037 0.726 0.181 0.046 0.022 0.421 0.207 12 0.067 0.191 0.072 -0.087 -0.068 0.096 0.064 0.381 -0.016 -0.044 0.210 0.159 0.124 0.046 0.122 -0.011 -0.192 -0.080 -0.042 0.184 0.266 0.043 0.105 0.332 0.394 -0.131 -0.265 0.851 0.035 -0.245 0.031 -0.021 0.060 -0.111 -0.025 0.006 0.055 0.020 0.053 -0.077 0.158 -0.099 13 .257 0.240 0.390 0.303 0.851 0.184 -0.015 -0.021 0.048 -0.025 -0.030 0.177 -0.038 0.170 -0.232 0.117 0.138 0.049 0.186 0.178 -0.086 -0.039 0.020 0.111 0.150 -0.214 0.070 -0.078 -0.090 -0.045 0.054 0.115 -0.186 -0.144 -0.058 0.013 0.077 -0.249 0.072 -0.094 -0.058 -0.078

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization
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ing, makes one to feel very young, and it is fashionable to say that I am a Colgate user. This shows that the company should stress more on its functional benefits than the emotional benefits whenever the company introduces a new brand, new ad campaign or any other form of communication with the user. The brand is admired for the above-mentioned dimensions and the company should use it as a weapon to counter the stiff competition it faces from Hindustan Lever Ltd. The ad campaign of the advertising agencies should be in line with these dimensions. Also, when the company considers extending the brand to other categories, it should project these dimensions in those categories. This inference about Colgate brand will also help the potential users who are looking for these dimensions among oral care brands. Sincerity Dimension The itemsrealistic, sentimental, and down-to-earth under the Sincerity dimension are more relevant for Colgate because the respondents feel that the brand is suitable for cleaning and maintaining teeth and the benefits highlighted by the brand such as white and strong teeth are based on facts. Also the respondents feel that the itemssincere and wholesomeare not applicable to Colgate because the brand is not fair and just and its usage does not give physical and mental satisfaction. This also emphasizes that the brand offers a physical satisfaction based on functional benefits and does not try to refresh the mind. Exciting Dimension The itemscool, contemporary, and imaginativeare not applicable to Colgate brand because the respondents believe that the advertisements, sales promotion programmes, POP displays, etc., are not very creative and are based on current events. This should be a major finding for the company and the ad agency because they can improve the score in this dimension by concentrating on the creativity and contemporariness of their advertisements and other promotional materials. This will result in improving the score of Colgate brand personality. Competence Dimension The itemsuccessfulunder Competence dimension is not applicable to Colgate brand because the users do not believe that it is one of the successful brands in In-

dia. This finding will be an eye opener for the company as it has not strived much to popularize its status of No.1 brand in India consecutively for many years. This knowledge about the success of the brand among the consumers will help in improving the score of this dimension and hence will result in improving the score of the Colgate brand personality. Sophistication Dimension The itemscharming, smooth, and glamorousunder Sophistication dimension are more relevant for Colgate because the usage of this brand improves the physical attractiveness of the user and the brand arouses admiration of friends and relatives visiting the house. Also, the itemsupper-class, good-looking, and feminine are not applicable to this brand because it does not make a person good-looking and the users do not belong to a particular class or sex. This indicates that the concept of a Colgate user being admired by friends and relatives visiting the house can be highlighted in the promotional programmes. Ruggedness Dimension The itemmasculineunder the Ruggedness dimension is not applicable to the brand because Colgate users do not give any gender-specific characteristics to the toothpaste. Hence the company or the ad agency need not try to emphasize any gender- specific characteristics by using a particular gender in its advertisements or any other promotional programmes.

LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The main objective of this research was to measure the brand personality dimensions of the Colgate brand using the Brand Personality Scale suggested by Jennifer Aaker. A validity check of the scale using factor analysis was carried out which indicates that the number of dimensions of brand personality is 13 and that about 10 items of Jennifer Aakers Brand Personality Scale are not applicable in the Indian situation. The applicability of this scale to the Indian situation was not checked because it required an exploratory study to identify the dimensions of brand personality in the Indian situation. A study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constructs revealed that sincerity, excitement, competence, and sophistication are common to both USA and Japan. It also revealed that there were culture-specific Japanese

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(peacefulness) and American (ruggedness) dimensions. The findings in the context of Spain yielded brand personality dimensions common to both Spain and the United States (sincerity, excitement, and sophistication), plus the non-shared Spanish (passion) and American (competence and ruggedness) dimensions. Hence, identifying the Indian brand personality construct can be undertaken by future researchers. Also, this research

tried to identify the brand personality only for the No.1 brand in India which implies that researchers can identify brand personality for service, retail, and consumer durable brands. This research was conducted only in the fourth largest city in Tamil Nadu and therefore future studies can be conducted in other parts of India to improve the reliability of the study.

REFERENCES
Aaker, D A (1996). Building Strong Brands, New York: The Free Press. Aaker, J (1997). Dimensions of Brand Personality, Journal of Marking Research, 34(3), 347-356. Aaker, Jennifer Lynn; Benet-Martnez, Vernica and Garolera, Jordi (2001). Consumption Symbols as Carriers of Culture: A Study of Japanese and Spanish Brand Personality Constructs, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(3), 492-508. Banerjee, Ravi (2004), Smiles to Go, Economic Times (Brand Equity), 15 December, 1. Belch, G and Belch, A (2001). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective, Fifth Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill. Bellenger, D N; Steinberg, E and Stanton, W W (1976). The Congruence of Store Image and Self Image, Journal of Retailing, 52(1), 1732. Dolich, Ira J (1969), Congruence Relationship between Self Image and Product Brands, Journal of Marketing Research, 6(1), 80-84. Kassarjian, H H (1971). Personality and Consumer Behavior: A Review, Journal of Marketing Research, 84(4), 409418. Okazaki, Shintaro (2006). Excitement or Sophistication? A Preliminary Exploration of Online Brand Personality, International Marketing Review, 23(3), 279-303. Rojas-Mndez, Jos; Erenchun-Podlech, Isabel; Silva-Olave, Elizabeth (2004). The Ford Brand Personality in Chile, Corporate Reputation Review, 7(3), 232-251. Siguaw, Judy A; Mattila, Anna and Austin, Jon R (1999). The Brand-Personality Scale, Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 40(3), 48-55. Su-e Park; Dongsung, Choi; Jinwoo, Kim (2005). Visualizing E-Brand Personality: Exploratory Studies on Visual Attributes and E-Brand Personalities in Korea, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 19(1), 7-34. Sung, Yongjun and Tinkham, Spencer F (2005). Brand Personality Structures in the United States and Korea: Common and Culture Specific Factors,Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(4), 334- 350. Supphellen, Magne and Gronhaug, Kjell (2003). Building Foreign Brand Personalities in Russia: the Moderating Effect of Consumer Ethnocentrism, International Journal of Advertising, 22(2), 203226.

Bejoy John Thomas is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Jamal Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli. He is also the Member In-charge of the Institute. After taking his MBA from Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai, he worked in the textile industry for three years He has submitted his Ph.D. thesis in the area of Brand Personality to Madurai Kamaraj University. He has published three papers in the area of Brand Management, two in the area of Retailing, and has presented papers in six International Conferences. He is a life member of the Indian Association of Canadian Studies. He is also a member of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Jamal Mohamed College, Board of Studies of Bishop Heber College, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Jamal Institute of Management. He undertakes consultancy

work for Femina Shopping Mall, Retailing Division of Femina Group of Companies, and is in the Advisory Board of Femina Shopping Mall. He has acted as the convenor for two AICTEsponsored National Seminars. e-mail: bejoy_j_thomas@hotmail.com P C Sekar is a Reader in the Marketing Area of the Department of Management Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. His areas of interest are Marketing and Behavioural Sciences. He has published 12 books and 20 research papers in the areas of Brand Management, Advertising, and Interpersonal relations. e-mail: drpcsekar@gmail.com

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