Strategy Note 8: The Party Test

Your brand has a personality whether you chose it or not.

The way you write your emails. The colors on your website. The speed of your responses. The words you use when you explain what you do. The tone of your social media. The experience of navigating your checkout process. All of these create an impression.

Your audience is already assigning you traits based on what they observe. They are constructing a mental model of who you are, whether you have consciously designed that model or not.

The question is whether the personality they perceive matches the one you intend.

I use what I call the party test. If your brand walked into a party as a person, how would it behave?

Would it arrive early, slightly anxious about making a good impression? Or fashionably late, confident that the party really starts when it shows up?

Would it work the room, collecting business cards and making sure to speak to everyone? Or would it find one good conversation and settle in for the night?

Would it tell stories or ask questions? Dominate discussions or draw others out?

Would people describe it later as sophisticated, rebellious, warm, intellectual, irreverent, earnest, quirky, polished, accessible, exclusive?

The answers matter because they should be reflected in every touchpoint.

If your brand is warm and accessible, but your website copy sounds like it was written by a law firm, there is a disconnect. If your brand is sophisticated and exclusive, but your social media uses excessive emojis and exclamation points, there is a disconnect.

These disconnects erode trust even when people cannot articulate why. Something feels off. The pieces do not fit together. The personality is not coherent.

Once you have a clear sense of your brand's personality, the work is to ensure that personality shows up everywhere.

Write like that person talks. Use vocabulary that person would use. Make design choices that person would make. Respond at the speed that person would respond. Create experiences that feel consistent with who that person is.

This is not about fabricating a persona. The best brand personalities are authentic extensions of the people behind the brand. If you are naturally irreverent, your brand should probably be too. If you are thoughtful and measured, forcing your brand to be flashy and provocative will feel false.

The goal is coherence. Every touchpoint reinforcing the same character. So that whether someone encounters you on social media, on your website, in an email, or in person, they meet the same entity.

That consistency builds trust. People know what to expect. They can predict how interactions will feel. They can decide whether this personality is one they want to engage with.

Let the personality be distinct enough to be memorable. Let it be consistent enough to be trustworthy. And let it be true enough to be sustainable.

Stay Curious,