Hi, Tim:

You're doing a promising research on branding---city brands. As an example, 'Dove' comes to mind.  A recent paper (Pandey, 2009) identified the parent brand personalities as perceived by the consumer. To understand brand personality, Jennifer Aaker's Brand Personality Scale (BPS) was used. The validity of the scale is examined using factor analysis. Descriptive research, using stratified random sampling, is undertaken. The study also identified the distinct brand personality of the proposed brand and suggests the brand extension categories and strategies, with special reference to the brand 'Dove'!

Also building on extant critiques of the scale, another research study (Avis, Forbes, & Ferguson, 2014) considered the possibility that Aaker’s (1997) scale methodology ‘creates’ the BP that it measures. Using pictures of rocks as stimuli, the authors applied the principles of Aaker’s methodology to examine the BP of rocks. Rocks are the chosen stimuli as they do not have any obvious commonalities with brands, or have antecedents to BP formation. Findings revealed that each of the rock stimuli has a distinct BP and that the personality is developed from sometimes surprisingly detailed personifications. In consideration of the importance of Aaker’s scale in the development of the BP concept, the findings raise questions about its conceptualisation and emphasises the importance of critical examination of the methods used to measure marketing concepts---and perhaps for your city brands research!

• Pandey, A. (2009). Understanding Consumer Perception of Brand Personality. IUP Journal Of Brand Management, 6(3/4), 26-50.
• Avis, M., Forbes, S., & Ferguson, S. (2014). The brand personality of rocks: A critical evaluation of a brand personality scale. Marketing Theory, 14(4), 451-475.

Hope this helps!

Nadeem

Thanks, Rodoula.  Great to see someone using (adapting) it to sports teams!