Online brand personalities: An exploratory analysis of selected African countries

A strongly articulated brand personality is germane to the success of an online branding strategy. This paper explores whether African countries communicate clear and distinctive brand personalities in cyberspace. Because of the increasing focus on the global digital dividend, it is important to discover all the ways in which African countries can benefit from the application of online technologies to improve their economic status. The study involved a multistage methodology focused on ten official websites of African countries, using a combination of computerised content and correspondence analyses. The content analysis was structured using Aaker's five-dimensional framework while the positioning maps were produced by examining the data using correspondence analysis. Results indicate that none of these countries communicates a clear and distinct brand personality. This study also illustrates a powerful but simple and relatively inexpensive way for organisations and brand researchers to study communicated brand personality.