Academic literature on the topic 'Modified Brand Personality scale'

This study was conducted to identify brand personality associated with Nike sports shoes among university students based on Aaker’s Framework of Dimension of Brand Personality. A total of 120 questionnaires were gathered from Management students of a Malaysian public university using Stratified Random Sampling method and analyzed using SPSS software. Findings showed that users of Nike sports shoes were highly associated with the personality: Imaginative, Cheerful, Down to Earth, Real, Charming, Trendy, Good-looking and Friendly. In addition, the most dominant dimension of brand personality of Nike sports shoes was the dimension of Dignified. Several implications were drawn based on the findings to enhance Nike’s markets in evaluating their product branding strategy. Consequently, this research contributes to theoretical knowledge and its application in the field of brand personality.

The success of a brand relies on the extent to which it differentiates itself from the myriad of competitors. As brands seek to become distinctive, brand personality is viewed as a viable metaphor for understanding consumers’ perceptions of brands and for crafting a unique identity in their minds. Measurement and management of brand personality becomes significant in this regard. Most of the existing brand personality scales are either designed to measure the brand personality construct in general or to measure particular categories of brands. There is a lack of a scale which measures the personality of product brands as such. This research tries to fill this lacuna by creating a new product brand personality scale incorporating various advancements in the field of brand personality measurement. This study employs a mixed method approach and the important phases include construct definition, item generation, measure purification, assessment of reliability and validity, and development of a short version of the scale. Findings of this research reconfirm the consumers' tendency to attribute personality characteristics to brands. It also identifies seven dimensions of product brand personality with 26 items.

Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, identify the “Big Five” dimensions, and explore the meaning of each dimension, no parallel research has been conducted in consumer behavior on brand personality. Consequently, an understanding of the symbolic use of brands has been limited in the consumer behavior literature. In this research, the author develops a theoretical framework of the brand personality construct by determining the number and nature of dimensions of brand personality (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness). To measure the five brand personality dimensions, a reliable, valid, and generalizable measurement scale is created. Finally, theoretical and practical implications regarding the symbolic use of brands are discussed.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to validate Tsiotsou’s (2012) sport team brand personality scale in a new country (Australia) and segment (Generation Y) and extend its use from sport teams to individual athletes. This paper also explores the scale’s predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence. Design/methodology/approach – An online panel survey with 560 responses from Australian Generation Y consumers was obtained. Structural equation modelling was used to test and validate the scale. Findings – This paper confirmed the sport team brand personality scale can be applied to an individual athlete. Three dimensions of the scale, namely, competitiveness, morality and authenticity, were found to have predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence. Authenticity was the strongest predictor, followed by morality and competitiveness. Practical implications – Individual athlete brand personality is powerful in influencing how Australian Generation Y consumers identify with their favourite athlete as a role model. These insights assist brand and marketing managers to use athletes as part of their communication strategies regarding brand and product endorsements. Originality/value – This research addresses Tsiotsou’s (2012) call to test the robustness and external validity of the sport team brand personality scale and to empirically test how the scale can predict outcomes. The authors succeeded in validating and extending the sport brand personality scale to an individual athlete level in a new country and consumer segment. The scale was found to have predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence.

Titel: Varumärkens personlighet: En kvalitativ undersökning av relevanta faktorer. Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Douglas Svinge, Louisa Plymoth Hjalmarsson Handledare: Jonas Molin och Lars-Johan Åge Examinator: Maria Fregidou-Malama Datum: 2020 – 05 – 25 Syfte: Då det råder en brist på kvalitativa undersökningar – samt en brist på kunskap angående vilka faktorer som påverkar hur konsumenter upplever en varumärkespersonlighet – anser vi att det är av intresse att med hjälp av en kvalitativ undersökning skapa en djupare förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar hur konsumenter upplever en varumärkespersonlighet. Syftet med denna studie är därför att öka förståelsen för vilka faktorer som är relevanta för hur konsumenter upplever en varumärkespersonlighet. Metod: Vi har valt att utgå ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsdesign, där ett deduktivt förhållningssätt har valts för att kunna besvara syftet. Vi använder oss av tidigare framforskad teori inom varumärkespersonlighet och marknadsföringsmixen, vilka vi kombinerar för att undersöka hur teorin förhåller sig till vår insamlade empiri. Vi har sammanställt vår data och identifierat olika teman och mönster, vilket vi sedan ställt mot vårt teoretiska material. Tio stycken intervjuer har genomförts och den yngsta respondenten var 19 år och den äldsta 63 år. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Respondenterna valde olika personlighetsdrag för respektive varumärke, vilket innebär att de upplever distinkta varumärkespersonligheter. Vi ifrågasätter dock relevansen av personlighetsdragen charmig och glamorös för snabbmatsbranschen då de ej valdes någon gång. Vårt resultat tyder på att samtliga faktorer i 7P-ramverket påverkar upplevd varumärkespersonlighet, där vissa faktorer verkar vara viktigare än andra. Examensarbetets bidrag: Vår studie skapar en större förståelse för att företag bör beakta samtliga aspekter i 7P-ramverket vid utveckling och kommunikation av önskad varumärkespersonlighet. Genom att öka denna förståelse kan företag mer effektivt utvärdera och anpassa sina varumärkespersonligheter för att på så vis attrahera kunder och bygga långsiktiga kundrelationer. Vi ser även vår inkludering av negativa personlighetsdrag i form av motsatsord som ett viktigt praktiskt bidrag. Genom denna inkludering fick vi insikt om att flera faktorer som påverkar att konsumenter associerar varumärken med positiva personlighetsdrag även kan påverka att negativa personlighetsdrag tillskrivs varumärket om de inte sköts på ett korrekt vis. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vi föreslår att framtida forskning genomför liknande studier för olika branscher och olika länder. Detta skulle öka möjligheten att generalisera resultaten, och det skulle även innebära en chans att identifiera nya mönster gällande faktorer som påverkar hur konsumenter upplever en varumärkespersonlighet. Framtida kvantitativa undersökningar vore önskvärt för att kunna avgöra om de mönster och teman vi urskilt står fast med ett större antal deltagare. Detta skulle till exempel kunna genomföras med hjälp av en enkät där respondenter får välja och rangordna faktorer som har påverkat upplevda personlighetsdrag. Ytterligare forskning krävs även för att kunna ta reda på vilken/vilka faktorer som har störst respektive minst påverkan på hur konsumenter upplever en varumärkespersonlighet. Nyckelord: Brand Personality Scale, Brand Personality, Marketing Mix, 7P Model, Modified Brand Personality scale, Antecedents of brand personality.<br>Title: Varumärkens personlighet: En kvalitativ undersökning av relevanta faktorer. Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration Authors: Douglas Svinge, Louisa Plymoth Supervisors: Jonas Molin och Lars-Johan ÅgeExaminator: Maria Fregidou-Malama  Date: 2020 - 05- 25 Aim: Since there is a lack of qualitative research - as well as a lack of knowledge about the factors that influence how consumers perceive the personality of a brand - we believe it is of interest to use a qualitative method to create a deeper understanding of the factors that influence how consumers evaluate brand personality. The purpose of this study is therefore to increase understanding of the factors that are relevant to how consumers evaluate brand personality. Method: We have chosen to base our study on a qualitative research design, and a deductive approach was chosen to answer our purpose. We use previously researched theory on brand personality and the marketing mix, which we combine to investigate how the theory relates to our collected empirics. We have compiled our data and identified different themes and patterns, which we then tested against our theoretical material. Ten interviews have been conducted and the youngest respondent was 19 years old and the oldest respondent 63 years old. Result &amp; Conclusions: Our respondents chose different personality traits for each brand, which suggests that distinct brand personalities were perceived. We question the relevance of the personality traits charming and glamorous for the fast-food industry since they were not chosen once in our study. Our results suggest that all the factors in the 7P-framework affect perceived brand personality, where some factors seem to be more important than others. Contribution of the thesis: Our study supports that brand should consider all factors of the 7P-framework in the development and communication of desired brand personality. This way brands will be able to assess and adjust their brand personalities more efficiently in order to attract customers and build long-lasting relationships. An inclusion of negative personality traits is suggested in the evaluation of brands as it may increase the understanding of how different factors affect how customers perceive brand personalities. Suggestions for future research: We suggest that future research perform similar studies among different industries and countries. This would increase the generalizability of the results and it would also provide a chance to identify new patterns regarding factors that affect how consumers perceive a brand personality. Future quantitative studies would be desirable in order to determine whether our results are valid for a larger number or respondents. An example would be to use a survey where respondents would choose and rank factors depending on their respective impact on perceived brand personality. Further research is also required in order to determine which factors of the 7P-model that are more/less important. Key words: Brand Personality Scale, Brand Personality, Marketing Mix, 7P Model, Modified Brand Personality scale, Antecedents of brand personality.

Syfte: Denna studies syfte är att öka förståelsen för vilka personlighetsdrag konsumenter tillskriver varumärken beroende på logotypens färg. Metod: Eftersom studiens syfte har varit att öka förståelsen för ämnet har en kvalitativ metod använts och färgerna blå, grön, gul, röd och svart har legat till grund för undersökningen. För att samla in empiriskt material har semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts med tolv deltagare. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av Aakers (1997) Brand Personality Scale samt tematisering. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att den blå logotypen associeras med kompetens, den gröna med uppriktighet och den gula med spänning. Den röda logotypen har även den associerats med kompetens och den svarta med robusthet, i Aakers (1997) Brand Personality Scale. Reaktionerna för den blå och den gröna logotypen har visat sig vara enklast för deltagarna att placera samt visat sig överensstämma med tidigare forskningsresultat. Den gula, röda och svarta logotypen har upplevts svårare och resultaten har avvikit mer från tidigare forskning. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Våra förslag för framtida forskning är att istället för att studera färger, studera vilken påverkan logotypens utformning har på varumärkets personlighet. Vidare kan framtidens forskning studera flerfärgade logotyper. Vår studie studerar endast en speciell subgrupp och framtida forskning kan därför studera en annan subgrupp för jämförelse. Uppsatsens bidrag: Som bidrag till framtida forskning ser vi att denna studie beskriver samband mellan färgerna blå, grön, gul, röd och svart och dimensionerna som återfinns i Aakers (1997) Brand Personality Scale. Detta tillägg ser vi skulle fungera som ett utvecklande ramverk och därför bidra till det teoretiska perspektivet i framtida studier utförda i Sverige. Som rekommendation kan företag rent praktiskt använda sig av dessa resultat när de ska välja färg för sin logotyp.<br>Aim: In this study we aim to increase understanding of the personality traits consumers ascribe to brands depending on the color of the logo. Method: Due to the aim of the study, which was to increase understanding of the topic, a qualitative method has been used. To collect empirical data semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants. The material was analyzed using Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale and thematisation. Result &amp; Conclusions: Results show that the blue logo is associated with competence, green with sincerity and yellow with excitement. The red logo has also been associated with competence and the black with ruggedness, in Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale. The reactions of the blue and green logo has proven to be the easiest for the participants to place and shown to be consistent with previous research. The yellow, red and black logo has been perceived more difficult and the results have deviated more from previous research. Suggestions for future research: Our suggestions for future research is that instead of examining colors, examine the impact of the logo design in brand personality. Furthermore, future research could investigate multi-color logos. Our study examines only a specific subgroup and future research can explore a different subgroup for comparison. Contribution of the thesis: As a contribution to future research, this study describes the relationship between the colors blue, green, yellow, red and black and the dimensions found in Aakers (1997) Brand Personality Scale. This addition would serve as a developed framework and thus contribute to the theoretical perspective in future studies carried out in Sweden. As a recommendation, companies can practically use these results when they are designing their logo.

Background: Brand personality is based on the notion that brands possess personalities similar to that of human personalities. It is a common measure for describing consumers’ brand perceptions, and brands with loyal customers often have distinctive personalities. Since Aaker (1997) introduced the first brand personality scale, researchers have noticed increasing difficulties in comparing results from different studies. Geuens, Weijters &amp; De Wulf’s (2009) proposed a solution to this problem by developing a brand personality scale that is claimed to be universal. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the extent to which the proposed universal brand personality scale (UBPS) can be validated in a Swedish context. Methodology: This descriptive study is of quantitative nature and applied a cross-sectional design. An online questionnaire was sent out to collect data on 12 brands from 193 respondents. These provided 2205 brand impressions that were processed by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Parameters such as content validity, fit indices, composite reliability and construct validity were chosen to determine the overall fitness of the model. Conclusion: The results indicated reasonable support for validation of Geuens, Weijters &amp; De Wulf’s (2009) brand personality scale in a Swedish context.

Bakgrund: Brand personality beskrivs i litteraturen som den uppsättning avpersonliga egenskaper som beskriver ett varumärke, genom att försevarumärken med mänskliga drag kan konsumenten lättare relatera ochknyta an till sina egna preferenser utifrån sin egen karaktär (Aaker 1997).Det var år 1997 som forskaren Jennifer Aaker (1997) kom med denförsta definitionen om brand personality, som följde "the set of humancharacteristics associated with a brand" (Aaker 1997, p 347). Syfte: Syftet är att förklara hur Aaker’s (1997) modell brand personality “thebig five” kan revideras för att passa till den Svenska kontexten. Forskningsfråga: Vilka dimensioner i modellen brand personality “the big five” (Aaker,1997) behöver revideras för att appliceras i en Svensk kontext?Vilka personlighetsdrag och dimensioner är unika för den svenskakontexten och behöver därmed adderas till brand personality modellen? Metod: Denna studie har antagit en abduktivt angreppssätt, där tidigareforskning om brand personality har varit utgångspunkt. Författarna toggrund i befintlig teori med avsikt att testa modellen ”the big five” skapadav Aaker (1997) empiriskt i en ny kontext. Till studien tillämpadesfokusgrupp (förstudie) och enkät. Resultat och slutsats: Genom studien var det möjligt att fastslå att Aakers (1997) ursprungligamodell brand personality, inte var funktionell i den kontext som studienämnar. En revidering var nödvändig för att uppnå en effektiv brandpersonality i den svenska kontexten. Resultatet genererade 41personlighetsdrag fördelade i 15 fasetter och fem dimensioner. Unikt förden svenska kontexten är åtta nya personlighetsdrag och tvådimensioner. Dimensionerna sophistication och ruggedness (Aaker1997) förkastades och ersattes av dynamisk och elementär. Det påvisadesatt vissa personlighetsdrag hade en annan innebörd i den svenskakontexten och var därmed bättre lämpade till en annan dimension.

I takt med upplevelseindustrins tillväxt, ökar även konkurrensen inom branschen. Evenemang som nöjesplattform konkurrerar direkt och indirekt med andra upplevelseinriktade verksamheter och behöver hitta nya sätt att få kundernas uppmärksamhet. Forskning visar hur kunder tenderar att agera mer emotionellt vid sina köp, något som många företag försöker bemöta. Produktproducerade företag har sedan långt tillbaka anammat varumärkespersonlighet som en del i marknadsstrategin för att kommunisera och personlighetsanknyta med kunder. Tidigare studier har visat att företag som väljer att personifiera sitt varumärke nått stor framgång på dess marknad. Ett evenemangs varumärke är desto svårare att kontrollera då många intressenter är involverade, vilket försvårar arbetet med att skapa tydliga kärnvärden som kommuniceras ut till kunden.Studies syfte är att bidra med förstålse samt utforska om Aakers Brand Personality Scale som skapats för att synliggöra produkters personligheter även går att tillämpa för evenemang. Den kvalitativa undersökningen utgår ifrån Aakers Brand Personality Scales variabler och genomförande datainsamling i form av en fokusgrupp med åtta deltagare. Under fokusgruppen diskuterades tre svenska musikrelaterade evenemang, som deltagarna fick välja personlighetsegenskaper för. Utifrån vår studie kom vi fram till att man kan identifiera evenemangs personligheter med karaktäristiska egenskaper som gör varje evenemang unikt. Valet av egenskaper baserades på 1) sina egna upplevelser eller via media och andras upplevelser, 2) associationen till helheten eller olika delar av evenemanget, så som scen, ljud/ljus, staden, platsen, miljön såväl som besökaren. Med förståelse om varför man väljer egenskaper som man gör, upptäcktes en viss problematik med att applicera Aakers Brand Personality Scale på evenemang. Med instinkt om varumärkespersonlighet kan man sammanföra de delar av evenemanget som arrangören har kontroll över, så att de kommunicerar en tydligare image. Exempelvis kan varumärkespersonlighet användas i marknadsföring vilket kan bidra till skapandet av starkare personlighetsanknytning med besökare. Problematiken uppstår kring de okontrollerbara komponenterna som påverkar besökarna och som arrangören inte har möjlighet att styra i samma utsträckning. Med sin varumärkespersonlighet synlig blir arrangören däremot medveten om hur de uppfattas. Man kan således ta ställning till om de kontrollerbara såväl som de okontrollerbara delarna har egenskaper man vill bygga vidare på eller arbeta med att förminska. För användning av modellen krävs viss modifiering samt en förståelse för att evenemangs varumärkespersonlighet inte är fullt kontrollerbar.

Brand personality is considered as an important element in building and maintaining strong and valuable brands. Several brand personality scales have been proposed within the brand marketing literature, but no reliable and valid brand personality scale has yet been produced for the Islamic context. Therefore, scholars and practitioners have been unable to empirically assess brands‘ personalities, identity and image in such a context. In addition to developing a brand personality measure for an Islamic context, this study explored Islamic religious beliefs‘ influence on brand personality. A related scale was conceptually and empirically explored in this research, and the influence of Islamic religious beliefs on subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and new religious compliant product adoption was investigated. The study also examines the moderation effects of the demographic variables of age and income, and the mediation effects of the constructs of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility and complexity. This study advances the marketing knowledge by presenting a more critical and empirical understanding of the degree to which Islamic religious beliefs influence a brand personality measure, consumers‘ favouring or not favouring a brand‘s personality, and their adoption of new religious compliant products in religiously featured societies. The influence of Islamic religious beliefs on new product adoption generally has not been investigated previously, with exception of the study by Shabbir (2010), and more specifically no previous study has examined the influential relationship between Islamic religious beliefs and new religious compliant product adoption. Given that the value of while the religious markets‘ is expanding, with the Muslim market value alone estimated to be US$ 2.7 trillion currently, and expected to increase to US$30 trillion by 2050, this makes this study a valuable addition to the marketing management field. A quantitative methodology was employed to collect data from the three largest cities in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam; a total of 352 usable questionnaires were returned. After verifying raw data coding accuracy, the missing values from the raw data were assessed, and data tested for normality, outliers and multicollinearity. The brand personality scale development and the conceptual framework were assessed with 287 questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to purify the scale, followed by confirmatory factor analysis to verify the scale and determine its psychometric properties. The hypothesised relationships were tested by employing structural equation modelling based on partial least square procedures. Mediation effects were examined using the Sobel test, and moderation effects were assessed using multi group analysis. The findings yielded a unique Islamic brand personality with four dimensions and 28 sub items, which contained one dimension with five religious traits. Gender, age and income were found to moderate some of the hypothesised relationships. Significant influence of Islamic religious beliefs was observed on the Islamic brand personality scale, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and new religious compliant product adoption. The influence of Islamic religious beliefs on the brand personality measure was observed to be stronger than anticipated by this study. Also surprisingly it was found that the adoption behaviour differs between men and women with the same Islamic religious beliefs and values. Wealthy and educated participants were found to be more concerned with whether the personality of the products that they purchase contradicts with their Islamic religious beliefs or not. The developed Islamic brand personality scale will significantly support marketing managers who operate in the Muslim market to design a more desirable brand personality for their brands. Additionally, marketing practitioners will be helped understand the factors that affect their consumers‘ behaviour and purchasing activities, and carry out the segmentation process more effectively bearing in mind the differences observed between the age, gender and income groups. Finally, this study is one of the first that explores the links between Islamic religious beliefs, brand personality and new religious compliant product adoption in the light of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). It develops a new Islamic brand personality scale and it is believed to provide a ground for different directions for future research.

In this project, brand personality is studied as a brand construct applied to a specific economic area, the Portuguese retail sector. By considering Aaker’s original brand personality scale as its main basis and applying it to the sector, brand personality gets a new meaning through the consumers of the brands that were selected as a representative sample of the universe of the sector. This new meaning is then a result of test of the original scale perceived by the consumers when it comes to the retail sector in Portugal, which then defines what are the dimensions of this original scale are valid to represent the sector, and then resulting into a unique brand personality scale structure exclusive for it. By applying quantitative and qualitative methodologies (Likert five point scale questionnaire and Exploratory Factor Analysis respectively) it was possible to reach the conclusion that three dimensions from Aaker’s original BPS best represent the factor (Sincerity, Excitement and Competence) while the remaining two could not (Sophistication and Ruggedness), although not all the traits within those dimensions were applied for the sector, thus the conclusion was a result for the traits that reached closest. Since then, a new BPS was achieved then for the sector, combining four dimensions and 21 traits derived from Aaker’s original BPS.

Brand personality can facilitate the development of meaningful consumer-brand relationships and allow consumers to move beyond a product attribute focus. The pharmaceutical industry has faced challenging market dynamics in recent years, and the outlook for branded prescription drugs remains bleak. In light of the difficulties facing this industry, brand personality may be a valuable marketing asset. A study of 483 U.S. respondents explored the existence of prescription drug brand personalities as identified by consumers. The findings revealed that consumers are in fact able to attribute human personality traits to prescription drugs, and a stable and generalizable two-dimensional (Competence & Innovativeness) scale was established. The results of a multiple regression analysis suggested that brand personality can be created through a number of different ways, including brand familiarity, advertisement, and personal experience (usage). In addition, a significant relationship between brand personality and likelihood to request a prescription was found, providing preliminary support for the hypothesis that brand personality can influence consumer purchase behaviour. This research has important implications for the expansion of pharmaceutical branding strategies and demonstrates the potential of using brand personality as an effective positioning and differentiation tool.

Brand personality is a set of human personality traits that are relevant to a brand. A distinctive brand personality serves a symbolic or self-expressive function and helps to create a set of unique and favourable associations in the consumer’s mind. Generation Y consumers are considerably more brand and image conscious than any other generational cohort. Given that motor vehicles, especially luxury motor vehicles, are a conspicuous consumption item that are often used to signal status to others, luxury motor vehicle marketers need to understand Generation Y members’ perceptions of brand personality. Aaker (1997) developed a brand personality trait scale to measure brand personality perceptions. This study established a factor structure for Aaker’s (1997) brand personality trait scale applicable for luxury sedan brands. This adapted brand personality trait scale was used to investigate the brand personality perceptions of luxury sedan motor vehicles amongst Generation Y. The target population for this study was defined as students registered at South Africa’s public HEIs in 2014. This study made use of a non-probability convenience sample to select one traditional university campus and one university of technology campus located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed in two separate steps. Step 1 of the study distributed the questionnaire to 65 participants to identify Generation Y students’ top-of-the-mind awareness concerning luxury sedan motor vehicle brands. Step 2 of the study distributed 500 questionnaires to investigate the brand personality perceptions of luxury sedan brands amongst Generation Y students by means of Aaker’s (1997) brand personality trait scale. Step 2 also investigated Generation Y students’ purchasing intentions of luxury sedan motor vehicles by making use of an adapted a scale by Zeithaml et al. (1996:31-46). The statistical analysis included exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistical analysis and significance tests. The findings of the study suggest that Generation Y students’ top three luxury sedan brands are BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. The brand personality perception results revealed that all three brands are associated with the ‘Competence’ and ‘Sophisticated’ brand personality dimensions. In addition, BMW is also associated with the ‘Excitement’ brand personality dimension. The findings of the study also suggest that Generation Y students do have purchasing intentions of luxury sedan motor vehicles. Some gender differences regarding Generation Y students’ brand personality perceptions and purchasing intentions of luxury sedan motor vehicles do exist. However, the differences are limited with a small effect of practical significance. The study offers insight into the brand personality perceptions in the South African market. Generation Y consumers have unique perceptions regarding different brands and it is therefore important to gain insight regarding their perceptions. The results presented in this study can aid the marketers of the selected luxury sedan motor vehicle brands in identifying the personality traits associated with their brand. This information can be compared with their current marketing strategy to determine if any differences exist between the desired and perceived brand personality. This can also help the marketers to tailor the marketing strategy accordingly to achieve the desired brand personality<br>MCom (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Brand personality, as one of the major components of brand identity, is a significant determinant of brand equity. This study investigates the configural invariance of a 42-item brand personality scale that was suggested by Aaker (1997) by extending its use from her U.S. sample to Anglophone and Francophone ethnic groups and some popular brands in Canada. Following a translation of the brand personality scale from English to French and two pilot studies for selecting 30 brands for the study, a stratified area sampling plan was executed to collect data from Anglophones and Francophones in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 1959 questionnaires were distributed by field workers using area sampling within each selected census tract and 596 usable responses were received by mail. After classifying the respondents into Anglophones or Francophones in terms of their responses to a multi-item scale involving language use and self-identification of ethnicity, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the configural invariance of the brand personality scale. The results suggest that the factor structure for both ethnic groups are different than the structure suggested by Aaker (1997) for her U.S. study. Exploratory factor analysis of the data for each ethnic group suggests five factors as in Aaker's study. However, the composition of the factors in terms of the items of the scale is different from hers. The orthogonal rotation of the factor pattern matrices to congruence shows that the factor loadings for the two Canadian ethnic groups are very similar.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the manifestations of emotional burnout of future physical education teachers and to determine the role of personal determinants in the formation and overcoming this condition. The purpose was specified in the following tasks: to identify the features of emotional burnout in future physical training teachers; to investigate the relationships between emotional burnout and personal characteristics of students; to find out the differences in the sets of personality characteristics of students of future physical training teachers with different levels of emotional burnout. Design and Methods: The research involved 150 students of the college (18.1±2 years) who study in the specialty “physical training and sports”: the 1st year, n=50; 2nd year, n=32; 3rd year, n=37 and 4th year, n=31). The sample is heterogeneous (61.33% of boys, 38.67% of girls). The Maslach Burnout Inventory (C. Maslach), “Diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout” (V.V. Bojko), the modified form of the FRI questionnaire was employed. Methods of descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analysis, Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance and structural analysis (by A.V. Karpov) were used. Mathematical data processing and graphical presentation of the results were carried out using the computer software package of statistical software SPSS 22.0. Results: The article confirms the assumption about the existence of correlation relations between emotional burnout and personal characteristics of future physical training teachers. The statistically significant differences between groups of students with different levels of emotional burnout on the scale of “neuroticism”, “spontaneous aggression”, “depression”, “emotional lability”, “irritability”, “reactive aggression”, “openness” that are more common to future teachers with high level of emotional burnout are revealed. It is empirically proven that students with different levels of emotional burnout characterized by various structural organizations of personality characteristics, and also that the growth of indicators of the emotional burnout formation is accompanied by a qualitative restructuring of the personality characteristics. Conclusions: The obtained data contributes to the study of the phenomenon of burnout and provide an opportunity to identify further directions of its prevention and correction among future physical training teachers. Subsequent studies will be aimed at developing an individual system of psychological training and support for the prevention and correction of emotional burnout among students.

Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facilities are a new type of offshore structure, which have been developed as a game changer in offshore hydrocarbon development for unlocking stranded gas reserves. One of the key challenges associated is offloading from FLNG facilities to LNG carriers. Offloading may proceed with vessels in a side-by-side configuration, which allows offtake by un-modified vessels and minimizes requirements for new hardware or procedures (e.g. compared to a tandem operation). Significant challenges remain, however, and reliable offloading is critical for successful FLNG implementation. In this scenario, the two vessels are separated by a narrow 4 m wide gap. The resonant response of the sea surface in the gap has been predicted by numerical simulations [1] to be a few times that of the incident waves at particular frequencies. As a consequence, the gap resonant response may play a role in determining the operational window for side-by-side offloading operations, and thus has attracted a lot of attention recently. There have been studies on this topic both numerically and experimentally. However, many of these studies are in 2 dimensions (2D), for relatively large gaps and relatively shallow water depth, which may pose difficulties when extending the results to a real project. It is unclear what will happen for a gap resonance if the gap width gets narrower (say 4 m in full scale) and the water depth gets deeper (say 600 m in full scale). In this study, we conducted a series of model tests at a scale of 1:60 in a large wave basin, and focused on deep water and, crucially, narrow gaps, which are closer to a real project geometry. To facilitate future numerical simulations, we used two identical fixed bodies in the model tests and the vessels were simple barge-like shapes. Using white noise waves as the excitation, which covers a broad brand, the response of the fluid in the gap has been measured at several points. In these experiments, different modes of the gap resonance have been observed. Response amplitude operators (RAOs) of the gap resonance have been obtained through spectral analyses, which provide valuable information for the design of side-by-side operations and will benefit future numerical simulations. Test runs in white noise waves with different significant wave heights were also performed, to study the nonlinearities of the gap resonance phenomenon.