E X P R E S S I N G T H E P RO M I S E 165 The brand personality scale is a good place to start for measuring and perhaps defining the traits of your brand's character. It's validated by ample research and shown to be true across cultural boundaries and product cat- egories. However, it's worth noting how dominant the sincerity trait is in Aaker's research. Sincerity explained more than 26 percent of the variance in the brands that she studied. It was connected to descriptors such as "honest, genuine, down-to-earth, wholesome, and real." While her study did not spe- cifically link these descriptions to brand preference, the fact that consumers often used sincerity as a way to describe a brand is relevant in its own right, and it reinforces the point I made earlier in this chapter. Your brand voice is a reflection of your character, and your character is revealed through your actions. When you consistently demonstrate that character in brand expe- riences, your personality will probably be evaluated as being more sincere than that of other brands.