Brand archetypes are a fundamental part of brand psychology.
Brand archetypes help you lay the foundation for your business style and personality. By defining your brand archetype you can better understand how to market to your ideal client while staying true to your values. This is one of the things that I evaluate for you inside of my brand strategy.
I’ll bet that you have a brand that you just connect with so deeply that no other substitute will do. For example, one of mine is Dukes Mayonnaise. In my house, no other mayo is allowed. It’s a family tradition… is the southern classic. Crayola is another one for me, no other brand comes close… Think about these brands that you connect with and only buy their brand. What about it makes you a loyal customer? Is it the quality, family tradition, or values? If you look deeper at these brands you will see that they all follow an archetype to a T.
While archetypes are the foundation of brands, this analysis is behind the scenes and lays out the rules for how they market to their customers. They aren’t shouting from the rooftops “hey customer, I’m a hero archetype”. But, if you look closely, you can see how they are communicating and determine their archetype.
There are 12 different brand archetypes and each of them correlates to a basic human desire. These are instinctual and primitive needs. These archetypes are grounded in decades of psychological research by experts such as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.
Basic needs by brand archetypes:
INTIMACY > LOVER
BELONGING > REGULAR GUY/ GAL
MASTERY > HERO
LIBERATION > OUTLAW
POWER > MAGICIAN
ENJOYMENT > JESTER
SERVICE > THE CAREGIVER
CONTROL > THE RULER
INNOVATION > THE CREATOR
SAFETY > THE INNOCENT
UNDERSTANDING > THE SAGE
FREEDOM > THE EXPLORER
Brand Archetypes are rooted in psychology and data
Brand Archetypes aren’t some pie-in-the-sky growth hack. They have actual science to back them up.
We know that we have emotional connections to some brands despite the fact that this relationship is based on a transaction with the business. We also know why we feel this way is based on the way these brands market to us and they do that by using the science of archetypes. You definitely don’t hear the term “Brand Archetype” every day; yet these archetypes have likely influenced what’s sitting in your pocket, your refrigerator, or even your driveway.
According to Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman; a whopping 95% of our purchasing decisions are made in the subconscious mind. This means that brands with a strong archetypal personality that connects on an emotional level with their audience, have a massive advantage over their competition.
Who’s Archetype? The brand or the customer?
As brand archetypes represent all personality types, then they are both your ideal customer/client and your brand.
The key is to identify your ideal customer’s personality, then align your brand with the archetype that would most appeal to a desire within your customer (They are usually the same but not always, after all we usually connect with people like us).
For example; your audience might be “The Creator” but you want your brand to appeal to “The Explorer” within them. In This case, your brand archetype should be more aligned with “The Explorer” Brand Archetype and use personality and marketing to evoke their need to explore.
Want to learn more about your brand and archetype?
Book a Brand Strategy session with me. With this session, you will get a full in-depth analysis of your clients’ personality, your brand archetype and psychological profile, marketing suggestions unique to you, and more. You can book a free consultation with me and learn more about how a Brand Strategy plan can help you solve your client’s problems so that you can turn heads and open wallets.
