I love pushing for the idea that social relations happen not only between people but also between people and products, technologies, and information. This kinda changes everything. Communication is not anymore something that happens exclusively between humans. And it's not reduced to images & sounds that grab our attention. It becomes interaction with things. And with this, the need for the concepts of brand image and brand personality starts to approximate zero. Why need an image or a set of imagined (personal) attributes to mediate your relationship the world around you? Properties of things may just be fine enough to speak for themselves, and interaction with them can be designed for, and made useful and delightful. When I go running, I have particular sneakers on, along with the rest of the gear. Those sneakers define how fast and how far I can run, as much as my own body. If I buy another pair of sneakers, I may run even further. They shape me as a runner equally as my training routine. So who does the running then? Me, or my gear, or me-and-my-gear system? I really think that neither we nor the products we use can be separated from the activity that connects us in and creates this system. The role of brands is then to serve this activity and to make it better (or more fun, or different, or whatever). And brand personality is pretty useless there.