Clarifying the Brand Personality Construct in Malaysia

The current study investigates the variations in brand personality trait items to describe both global and local brands in Malaysia. We adopted both factor analytic and experimental methods to investigate the internal and external validity of Malaysia brand personality (MBP) scale. We followed a stringent scale development process that ensure our scale conform to psychometric properties. In seven studies, our results show that the 22-item 4-factor Malaysian brand personality scale adheres to strong psychometric properties of scale development process. The findings further indicate that there are seven indigenous traits, while most traits emerge from factor analyses originate from studies of Aaker (1997) and colleagues (2001). This confirms universality of some brand personality traits and dimensions. The study is not without limitations. First, the study did not examine the facets of the brand personality constructs. However, few previous studies which did not necessitate facet identifications (e.g. Geuens et al. 2009). Second, a nationwide study should be followed to examine the generalizability of the scale. The MBP scale enables marketing managers in Malaysia to focus on brand personality dimensions that their customers can relate to. In other words, marketing communications can be more efficient when managers can identity brand personality traits that enhances customers behaviors and profitability. Malaysia is a multicultural and multiethnic country which is increasingly becoming the focus of international brand expansion. We view that the development of the MBP scale is timely and should provide managers further insights into the brand personality structure that is relevant in Malaysia.