Building a Brand Personality Scale in the Context of Saudi Arabia

The study developed a brand personality scale specifically relevant to the Saudi market. Saudi Arabia has been a promising market for global brands owing to high purchasing power of Saudi consumers. However, it is quite challenging to market these brands in Saudi Arabia because of the conservative culture and strict monitoring by religious and governmental authorities. Therefore, having a brand personality scale particularly applicable for the Saudi market will be beneficial in formulating unique marketing and brand communication strategy appropriate for the Saudi customer. Also, brands can reflect on their brand image and brand associations under the light of these brand personality dimensions which can eventually strengthen the brand equity of the company in the Saudi market and increase its market share in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, twenty-four international brands and four Saudi brands were chosen and 723 Saudi consumers were asked to rate these brand on a list of 104 personality traits. The responses were analysed using factor analysis which resulted in six unique dimensions of brand personality in the context of Saudi Arabia namely; Morality, Religiousness, Competence, Ruggedness, Sophistication and Excitement.