The NMBP is a psychometrically refined alternative to Aaker's (1997) Brand Personality Scale (BPS), developed to address three key limitations of the BPS: (1) the BPS includes non-personality items (e.g., 'feminine', 'masculine', 'small-town', 'western') that reflect product category associations rather than personality traits; (2) the BPS was validated using exploratory but not confirmatory factor analysis, yielding dimensions with poor discriminant validity; and (3) the BPS is overfitted to the US cultural context. Geuens, Weijters, and De Wulf (2009) derived a 12-item scale from a large item pool using CFA, retaining only items that function as valid personality descriptors applicable across brand categories and cultures. The five NMBP dimensions are: Activity (dynamic, active, innovative brands), Responsibility (responsible, caring, well-established brands), Aggressiveness (aggressive, bold brands), Simplicity (ordinary, simple brands), and Emotionality (romantic, sentimental, emotional brands). The NMBP demonstrates superior model fit, cross-cultural stability, and discriminant validity compared to the BPS, and has been validated in Belgian, Dutch, and US consumer samples. The NMBP is recommended as a more parsimonious and psychometrically sound alternative to the BPS for cross-cultural brand personality research.
5-point Likert (1=not at all descriptive to 5=extremely descriptive); five subscales scored separately; subscales averaged; rated for a specific target brand
Activity — ACT (3 items): brand perceived as dynamic, energetic, and forward-looking. 5-point Likert (1=not at all descriptive to 5=extremely descriptive). Items averaged.
Responsibility — RES (3 items): brand perceived as dependable, caring, and grounded. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.
Aggressiveness — AGG (2 items): brand perceived as forceful and assertive. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.
Simplicity — SIM (2 items): brand perceived as plain and unpretentious. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.
Emotionality — EMO (2 items): brand perceived as warm, affective, and emotionally resonant. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
The NMBP is scored identically to the BPS — rate each adjective for a specific target brand on a 1–5 descriptiveness scale. Report the five subscales separately. Geuens et al. (2009) recommend the NMBP over the BPS when cross-cultural comparability is required or when confirmatory factor analysis is used to assess scale structure. The Simplicity and Aggressiveness subscales each have only 2 items; supplement with additional items if either dimension is a primary focus. Unlike the BPS, the NMBP does not include explicitly gendered items; for gender-specific brand personality see Grohmann (2009) GDBP.
Geuens, M., Weijters, B., & De Wulf, K. (2009). A new measure of brand personality. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 26(2), 97–107.
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