Kapferer Brand Identity Prism Explained

The Kapferer Brand Identity Prism is a branding tool commonly used by businesses to create a strong brand identity that resonates with its customers and sets itself apart from competitors.

It provides a framework for visualizing the various elements that make up a brand’s identity.

What is the Brand Identity Prism?

In 1986, Jean-Noël Kapferer introduced a framework for analysing the key elements of brand identity. Known as Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism, the hexagonal prism represents the six key elements that make up brand identity. These key elements had human like qualities.

Marketers and brand strategists can align these elements to create a distinctive brand identity that resonates with the target audience.

Kapferer Brand Identity Prism: Various Facets

Jean-Noel Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism is a model that talks about the various facets that helps a business build strong, enduring brand identity.

As per the model, a brand’s identity is made of six different components: physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection, and self-image. Companies can create a better brand identity by working on each of these components.

As per the model, a brand’s success is driven by a company-wide utilization of the following elements:

Physique

Tactical positioning – product and brand physical attributes: Design, logo, materials, shape, colours of the brand.

The Physique component is usually the first thing that consumers notice and recognize about a brand.

It includes the visible and tangible elements of a brand’s identity that can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard. Things like brand’s logo, packaging, design, use of colors are some of the physical aspects of the brand that can be sensed through the five senses.

• Physical tangible qualities – salient and emerging
• The brand’s tangible added value
• The first step in branding is to define the physical aspect

Example: Coca-Cola – Using bottle images

Personality

Brand desired personality (human characteristics) qualities, e.g., feminine vs masculine; exclusive/ aloof vs inclusive/close; wild vs domesticated.

The Personality component refers to the personality traits or characteristics that consumers attribute to a brand. How do consumers perceive the brand – rugged, friendly, sophisticated, sincere, exciting, and so on.

A firm must strive to develop a strong and distinctive brand personality for itself that will help create an emotional connection with their target audience and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

The brand’s imagery, messaging, tone of voice, overall aesthetic style, help portray the Personality of a brand.

• This is the brand personified
• What kind of person would it be if it were human?
• Spokesperson or figurehead helps create instant personality

Example: Pepsi-Cola

Culture

Cherished set of values, e.g. ethical values, environment, technological advancement, Corporate social responsibility.

The Culture component refers to the values, beliefs, principles associated with a brand. This association is created based on the way a company conducts business, its mission statement, how it treats its employees, and the social and environmental causes that it supports.

A strong brand culture helps build trust and creates a sense of authenticity among its target audience.

The Culture component of a brand is often portrayed through a company’s community involvement initiatives, social media presence, and advertising messaging.

• Speaks of the brand
• Feeds Inspiration
• Reflects the basic principle
• Over focus on personality leads to a neglect of identity

Relationship

Bond between brand and consumers based on consumer needs- emotional bonds are stronger.

The Relationship component depicts how a brand interacts with its target audience, and the level of loyalty and trust that the brand is able to build over time based on the emotional connection that a brand is able to create with its customers.

A company’s customer service practices, various forms of customer interaction, social media engagement, help define its Relationship component.

A brand can avail benefits such as repeat purchases, customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, by developing a strong relationship with its target audience.

Brands are a key link in transactions between people. Brands symbolise characteristics such as:

• Charm – Yves Saint Laurent
• Performance – BMW
• Orderliness – IBM
• Friendliness – Cahoot

Reflection

Brands to reflect user-imagery; i.e., consumers ideal-self i.e. desired / aspiration image. Who is your ideal customer?

The Reflection component shows how customers perceive the brand, how it influences their self-image when they associate themselves with the brand, how the brand’s values and messaging align with the customer’s own identity and values.

Over time a brand will always build a reflection or image of its user which it is addressing.

The Reflection component is often portrayed through a brand’s advertising campaigns, social media presence, and other marketing communications.

Firms must strive to build a positive, aspirational self-image for its customers in order to encourage loyalty and build long-term relationships with its target audience.

• Reflection and target are not the same
• Customer should be reflected as they wish to be seen by using the brand
• Coca-Cola (children and adults), Olivio spread, Orange Network
• Consumers use brands to build their own identity
• A Brand must control its own reflection – be flattering to your audience

Self-Image

How customers envisage ideal themselves and brand can help them to achieve this.

The Self-Image component refers to the way in which a customer sees themselves when interacting with a particular brand.

This component is concerned with how the brand’s values and messaging align with the customer’s own identity and values, and how the brand can help the customer to achieve their ideal self-image.

A brand speaks to one’s self-image, and customers tend to develop an inner relationship with their own selves through their brand attitudes.

So how does Reflection differ from Self-Image?

While the Reflection and Self-Image components of the prism may seem related, they differ in their focus.

Reflection is the target’s outward mirror, whereas Self image is the target’s own internal mirror.

For example, the Reflection component of a luxury brand car may try to create a perception of exclusivity and prestige through its cars by getting celebrities to endorse the product. When a customer buys their luxury car, they may see themselves as part of an elite group who can afford such a luxurious car.

On the other hand, the Self-Image component could be focused on creating a perception of sophistication. When customers buy the brands’ car, they may think of themselves as someone with impeccable taste and style.

Both components are concerned with how a brand is perceived by customers, but Reflection is about how the brand shapes the customer’s sense of who they are, while Self-Image is about how the brand fits into the customer’s existing self-image.

Elements Grouped in Larger Categories

While these elements appear separate on the prism, these can be further grouped under the following larger categories.

Picture of Sender

How does the brand wish to brand itself? Physique and Personality elements belong to this group.

Picture of Receiver

How do the customers see the brand? Reflection and Self-image elements come under this category.

Externalization

This refers to all the output of the brand that customers are able to see such as logo, advertising, products. The Relationship element captures all these aspects.

Internalization

This refers to the firm’s management, values, human resources policies. These get captured by the Culture element.

Examples

Brand Identity Prism for Levis

• Physique: The iconic red logo and blue jeans, rugged and long lasting clothes
• Relationship: Sharing adventures and emotions with friends
• Reflection: Young trendsetters, fashionable without trying too hard
• Personality: Youthful, rebellious and free.
• Culture: The American freedom, an individualistic mindset
• Self-Image: Trendy, independent and confident

Brand Identity Prism for L’OREAL

• Physique: Women skincare dedicated to all the women.
• Relationship: Women strongly trust L’Oreal: they use their products as beauty partners.
• Reflection: I can benefit from the expertise and experience of the worldwide leader of skincare at an affordable price.
• Personality: Very beautiful and attractive women with sex appeal.
• Culture: Excellence, beauty, innovation, expertise.
• Self-Image: Thanks to L’Oreal I’m a beautiful, independent and powerful woman. I’m worth it and I want people to see it.

Closing Thoughts

Here are the characteristics of the Prism.

• Each facet of the prism is interrelated and the content of one facet echoes another.
• Brands only exist if they can speak and communicate.
• Reflection and Self-image help define the recipient of the communication. These then belong to the brand identity.
• Relationship and Culture help bridge the gap between the sender and the recipient.

Related: More branding concepts and theories

References

Kapferer, J.N., 2009. Kapferer’s Brand-Identity Prism Model. European Institute for Brand Management, 24, p.2014.