Brand Personality Dimensions in Sweden - Developing a Brand Personality Scale among Swedish Consumers

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale functions in a culture outside of its country of origin and develop a deeper understanding of how Swedish consumers ascribe commercial brands symbolic values in terms of human personality traits. The thesis applies a quantitative research approach where data aggregation and analysis is conducted in a total of three interlinked studies. Study 1 tests the validity of Aaker’s (1997) original brand personality scale via exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 generates brand personality items from Swedish consumers in a free-association task. Study 3 analyzes these items in an exploratory factor analysis to develop a Swedish brand personality scale, which is followed by a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the scale. In addition, a multiple regression analysis is applied to explore consumer attitudes towards the Swedish brand personality dimension, ending with an assessment of 13 fashion retailers’ Swedish brand personalities via analysis of variance. The findings show that Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale is not valid in Sweden. Thus, a Swedish brand personality scale is developed, consisting of the dimensions: Freshness, Sympathy, Stability and Emotionality. Whereas, Freshness and Stability have the strongest positive correlations with consumer attitudes. Thus, the Swedish brand personality scale fills the theoretical gap of Aaker’s (1997) original scale’s lack of cross-cultural validity in Sweden and generates insights valuable for researchers, marketers and other stakeholders who wish to explore present and future brand personalities in Sweden