Application of Brand Personality Scale in automobile industry: the Study of SAMAND’S Brand Personality Dimensions

Abstract: This research has empirically measured the SAMAND’s (IranKhodro’s
manufactured car brand) brand personality in Iran, by using the five-
dimension Brand Personality Scale developed by Aaker (1997) as a framework.
So according to this framework which was originally conducted in 42 items
(42 personality attributes)clustered in five personality dimensions and had
been tested in different countries and industries, we prepared a
questionnaire translated in Persian, and used the back translation method.
With deep interviews among 12 Iranian experts about the 42 items scale and
also a pilot study the original questionnaire changed to a 38 items scale
and the survey had been run within five big branches of IranKhodro randomly
chosen in the five parts of the Tehran.
The reliability and validity test of the questionnaire had been resulted
in omitting one more item from the list. Then the student T-Test showed
respondent’s ideas about the personality of SAMAND and they believed
SAMANAD’s Personality Dimensions are: Sincerity, Competence and Ruggedness.
They were not agreeing about the ‘Sophistication’ dimension that showed
SAMAND is not a sophisticated brand. And the personality
dimension “excitement” was not clear for this brand.
The confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model and the
structural model provided evidence that the ‘ruggedness’ dimension proposed
by Aaker(1997) was not reliable, nor was it valid. And the relationship
with the main construct ‘Brand Personality’ was weak. So to achieve good
measurement framework, the other four dimensions had to be refined up to
the point that there was no problem with combining them to form one higher
construct namely ‘Brand Personality’. Then the five dimension model
describing 38 attributes changed to a four dimension scale consisted of 24
items.
Finally there were hypothesis about demographic specifications of
respondent’s having effect on their opinion about SAMAND’s Personality. And
the results showed that different respondents have significant differences
in their ideas about five personality dimensions of SAMAND.