Brand Archetypes

How do brands create a personal connection and craft messaging that have consistent appeal?

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Every day, we get bombarded with ads or brand messages vying to capture our attention. Most of them get deflected by our unconscious minds and hold little relevance or appeal to our daily lives. But at the same time, a select few of these messages get through to us, and we may even feel a sense of personal identity with them.

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The way your brand communicates is critical. In the search to communicate better, every brand discovers a need for a personality and a voice.

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There are many strategies and techniques used by marketers to accomplish this. Still, one interesting way to view it is through the lens of archetypes. Brands can anchor their communications to enduring personas or profiles that feed into the human experience allowing consumers to identify narratives and symbolism quickly and effectively.

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Brand Archetypes

Brand Archetypes were a concept introduced by Carl Jung, who believed that they were models of people, behaviours, or personalities. Archetypes, he suggested, were inborn tendencies that play a role in influencing human behaviour.

In branding, the archetypal framework helps us build human-like brand personas. And best brand personas are forged by identifying solidly with one — and only one — core archetype. Companies do best when they are explicit about the archetype that is truest to their values, mission, and vision.

Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand because they convey a meaning that makes customers relate to a product. If it were alive in some way, they have a relationship with it and care about it.

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The Brand Archetype Strategy Goes Beyond Selecting Characteristics

Suppose you don’t want to be just another business in the market competing on price, benefits and features. In that case, you will need to connect with your audience on a deeper level.

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Your brand needs a real personality with a tone of voice.

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Less experienced brands may pick a couple of traits that they think their audience will relate to. But archetypes are fully formed personalities with an outlook on life, an opinion on the world and firm beliefs that allow brands to connect as though they were human.

> How to pick your Brand Archetype

‍In other words, if you want your audience to know who you are as a brand, your brand needs to know who it is.

Aligning your brand as tightly as possible to a single archetype will allow your brand personality to feel familiar to your audience. It will enable you to communicate with the consistency and humanity of a real person.