Brand Personality and Values

To measure the human characteristics or traits that consumers can attribute Coach, we asked our interviewees: “If Coach were to come alive as a person, what would it be like? What would it do? What would it wear? Who would it talk to if it went to a party and what would it talk about?”

Of the 4 personalities profiled, only the one profiled by the female interviewee in her 30s is more “favorable”. She said that the Coach person will be a “high class, educated, middle aged (early 40s) tai tai with long permed hair”. The person will be dressed fashionably in a “Mango long dress with accessories”.  She will “go to networking events with her husband and speak to business associates of their spouses”. Being educated and well versed, they “will talk about social news, every day happenings, and recent news”. The interviewee portrays Coach to be associated with sophistication, maturity, intelligence, sociableness, and fashionableness, which are all positive traits highly regarded in society.

In contrast, the other interviewees profiled Coach to be an “auntie  (said by female interviewee in her 20s)/normal person (said by middle-aged female in her 40s)/ school-going plain Jane (said by male in his 20s) ” who “would not really stand out” and “does not have a distinct personality”. The person “does not dress up or is not exceptionally vain” (female in her 40s) and “tries to be fashionable but not there yet” (female in her 20s). At the party, she would talk to other aunties that “probably don’t look too atas” (female in her 20s)/mix with her friends”. These findings suggest that the Coach brand is perceived to be largely lacking in uniqueness and is also negatively associated with being “untrendy/unfashionable”, “trying too hard”, and “low-class”, traits that are more highly discriminated upon in society.