Brand Archetypes: The Definitive Guide [36 Examples]

There’s just something about the brands we connect with. We have an affinity with them that’s hard to put your finger on. It’s as if we know them. In some cases, it’s as if we love them.

What is it that attracts us to these brands? Why do we welcome them into our family or show loyalty towards them?

Is it awesome Ad copy, amazing brand identity design or some kind of trickery?

The answer? Brand Archetypes.

In this article, we’re going to show you how you can use them to hack the mind of your audience to create enduring connections.

The 12 Brand Archetypes

Here is a snapshot of the 12 Brand Archetypes we’ll be deep-diving into.

How The Brand Archetype Framework Builds Emotive Brands

Although all brands are businesses that we have a transactional relationship with (they give you something in exchange for your money), for some brands, we feel connection, loyalty and in some cases love.

The most loved brands connect with their audience on a deeper level than most brands and those with an authentic brand purpose often capture hearts. According to Netbase, Lego is the third most loved brand in Europe with 280,314 expressions of love towards it back in 2017. Business Insider’s article dives into the full list of 21.

No doubt you will have some fond memories of at least one or two of them.

Maybe you’re attached to your Macbook, your Air Max or your Heinz Baked beans.

It’s probably none of those things but I’ll bet you my last tin of beans you have a connection with a brand where the alternative just won’t cut it.

Almost all brands that you feel such a bond with are built with a solid alignment to an archetype, which are grounded in decades of psychological research and have their roots in Greek Mythology.

Psychologist Carl Jung who coined the term in the early 20th century was in good company. Though Carl and Sigmund fell out later on.

How Human Emotion Gave Birth To The Archetype

We all have basic human desires. We aren’t taught to want or need them. We just do.

They are instinctive and primitive. I’m sure you can relate.

Here are the basic human desires that each match with a specific archetype;

Your heart rate will increase for some more than others.

As we are all different, our desires are different. My core desire might be Innovation, while yours might be Freedom or Mastery.

When we consider that certain behaviours or personalities increase certain desires, we can understand why some personalities appeal to us more than others.

Enter Archetypes – The Masters At Evoking The Required Desire

Archetypes are the personification of these behaviours and provide a roadmap that enables you to more accurately appeal to a given desire with a specific personality.

There are two primary reasons you would want to align your brand with an archetype.

1. Connection: Most brands today are in the coalface competing on features, benefits and price. If you don’t want your brand to become a commodity, you will need to make a deeper connection with your audience.
2. Differentiation: When it comes to standing out in a crowd, differentiation strategies seem well worn, with latecomers to the party left with little to work with. Personalities, on the other hand, have infinite possibilities. They’re not only unique but can be extremely memorable.

This Is Why Archetypes Are So Unbelievably Effective

Through the use of story, art, religion, myths, Archetypes characterise universal patterns of behaviour that we all instinctively understand.

When you dive into these archetypes and the behaviour traits of each, you will probably recognise yourself, your family and your friends.

Whether it’s your funny uncle acting like The Jester at your grans birthday or your anti-establishment friend dropping conspiracy theories in the pub as The Outlaw, you will see these archetypal personalities time and again.

Although the behaviours of your uncle and friend are familiar through experience, the behaviour or archetypes whom you don’t have experience with will also be recognisable.

Why? Because they are pre-programmed into your subconscious.

We don’t immediately think of an archetype character when we see the behaviour but it is an instinctive understanding and it feels familiar.

Because the understanding of these archetypes is instinctive, we are able to connect with (or avoid) others very quickly when we experience them.

Because this recognition is pre-programmed into our brains, they are an extremely useful tool when defining the position of your brand and the personality traits that will resonate with your intended audience.

I mean, I don’t like using superlatives but as the headline reads, it’s like a hack into the mind of your audience.

Seriously, any brand that wants more than transactional relationships with their audience, need to work with archetypes. It’s a no-brainer.

Archetypes Have A Rich History

Now I don’t want this article to be a historical field guide, but their history shows they’re not some fad.

Archetypes are as old as the art of storytelling itself.

Plato, (The Greek philosopher) who was knocking about in Athens in 348 B.C. explored the idea of archetypes when he spoke of “forms of intuition” as the templates of intuitive understanding.

Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term “Archetypes” in the context of personality. He said we all have a “collective unconscious” that channel experiences and emotions, resulting in typical patterns of behaviour.

In other words, we are born with the same instincts and unconscious understanding of behavioural patterns and we recognise them when we see them.

In their 2001 book “The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes” Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson state that; “Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand because they convey a meaning that makes customers relate to a product as if it actually were alive in some way, they have a relationship with it and care about it.”

There’s A 95% Probability That A Brand Archetype Has Seduced You

As you can see, archetypes aren’t some pie-in-the-sky growth-hack. They’re legit with actual science to back them up.

We know that we have emotional connections to some brands despite the fact that our relationship is based on a transaction.

We also know that the reason we feel this way is based on the way these brands communicate with us and they do that by leveraging the science of archetypes.

You definitely don’t hear the term “Archetype” every day; yet they have likely influenced what’s sitting in your pocket, your gym bag 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.

My Name is Maximus Decimus Meridius … And I’m an Archetype!

As you’ll see when we uncover the 12 Jungian Archetypes, each one is very familiar. As we covered already, this is partly to do with your intuition and partly to do with experience, culture and storytelling.

You see, long before branding and marketing experts got their mitts on archetypes, storytellers and filmmakers had been writing and creating some of the worlds most loved books and films with archetypal characters.

Here are a few examples.

The exploits of Indiana Jones as The Explorer.

The guiding wisdom of Yoda as The Sage in Star Wars.

The rising from the ashes conquest of Maximus as The Hero in Gladiator.

All of these much-loved characters are built on archetypal foundations, as the storytellers knew about your intuitive instinct to connect with them quickly.

They are brought to life through story, where their personality can work to evoke an emotion within you, which allows you to form a connection with the character.

This is why you’re at the edge of your seat when Indy is in danger or why wish you had Yoda about to ask him some questions or why you celebrate Maximus’ bloody victory.

The Brand Archetype Strategy Goes Beyond Selecting Characteristics

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

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

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.

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 feel all the more familiar to your audience and allow you to communicate with the consistency and humanity of a real person.

Brand Archetypes Are Not About Appealing To Everyone

As the old adage goes “If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one”. Great brands are focussed.

You may be tempted to take traits from multiple archetypes to express your brand’s individualism but understand the consequences of a “confused brand”.

Referenced in the book “The Hero and The Outlaw” an analysis uncovered that brands with “tightly defined” archetypal identities rose in value by 97% more over six years than “confused brands” or brands with characteristics from many different archetypes.

The moral of the story? Know who you are, know who your audience is and don’t try to please everyone.

Try listening to your audience more, and your archetype will be more effective.

Hang On…Who is the Archetype? My Customer or my Brand?

As archetypes represent all personalities then they are both your customer and your brand.

The trick is to identify your customer’s personality, then align your brand with the archetype that would most appeal to a desire within your customer (They are often the same but not always).

For example; your audience might be “The Everyman” but you want your brand to appeal to “The Explorer” within them. In This case your brand should be more aligned with “The Explorer” Archetype and use personality and communication to evoke their desire to explore.

We’ll dive into some more strategy a little further down.

Archetype Branding is Chess, Not Checkers… A Differentiation Strategy Is Key

Without a doubt, you recognise these archetypes or more specifically their personalities. But how do you choose which one to apply to your brand?

Your industry will often have a typical personality that your audience would expect. The healthcare sector would be The Caregiver as an example.

Although differentiation is key to a strategic brand (here are 10 ways to differentiate), communication to would-be healthcare customers, as an Outlaw or a Jester wouldn’t go down well would it?

This is where the Archetypal Mix comes in.

You need a core archetype that will represent a minimum of 70% of your brand personality (any less, your personality will be confusing and you’ll struggle to connect with your audience through familiarity).

The other 30% is your influencer archetype, which is left to spend on differentiation. But don’t let this 30% burn a hole in your pocket. Use it when you must and spend it wisely.

Your core archetype may need to be aligned with your industry archetype (depending on your sector). If so, you need to get creative with your remaining 30%.

If you can go against the grain of your industry with your core archetype (eg. if you’re not a Caregiver in the Health space etc), you have an opportunity to make some real noise in your sector.

Remember, you want to differentiate your brand not blend in. If you’re just going to jump into a flock of flamingos with pink feathers then we won’t be able to see you will we?

When The Outlaw Became The Creator

It’s possible for a brand to break through to their audience as one archetype but to develop a closer alignment to another as it evolves.

Apple is a perfect example of a brand breaking through with one and developing with another.

In 1984, Microsoft dominated the personal computer market. They were very much then, and still remain, a “Ruler” brand.

Apple came to the market with their anti-regime “1984” ad, and with it, a message to the world that they were “The Outlaw” that wanted to right the wrongs of their industry.

Apple ran many more “Outlaw” campaigns, including the hugely successful “I’m a Mac vs I’m a PC”, which signified who best represented their audience; Younger users that wanted more choice and had creative tendencies. This piece by referral candy outline how Apple continue to break the mould.

In 1997, Steve Jobs inspired Apples’ “Think Different” campaign, which celebrated Icons that had changed the world, including creative geniuses such as Bob Dylan, Thomas Edison and Pablo Picasso.

Apple aligned themselves with creatives, encouraged their audience to “Change the World” through their creativity, and provided a tool of self-expression to do so, and so the became a “Creator” brand.

Here, Neil Patel dives into what we can learn from Apple’s Marketing.

Archetypes Are Masters At Evoking Your Desires

Archetypes in branding are not simply about mirroring the personality of your audience.

It’s about identifying the desire that you want your brand to evoke and using that desire to define your personality.

So before defining your archetype based purely on your audiences’ personality, consider the primary motivation and the desire you want your archetype to evoke, and develop your brand archetype with that desire at the core. Emotion in branding, as always, is the key.

Brand archetypes speak to your customer’s primary motivations which are often emotionally charged.

Knowing what you want to mean to your audience is key to taking that position in their mind. Here are some of the most common positional approaches.

• We are the same:
  Your personality reassures your audience that they are the same as you. You provide a sense of belonging and togetherness.

• You can be me:
  Your personality represents everything your audience aspires to be. Through the alignment of your brand your audience feel like they have arrived at their idea of success.

• I can guide you:
  Your personality represents safety, like a lighthouse in a stormy sea. You need to acknowledge the predicament but reassure them you know the path to safety. You are trustworthy and steadfast.

• You can be great:
  Your personality inspires your audience to believe in themselves so they can achieve what they want in life. Your communication and personality is motivating.

Great, But How Do I Apply This To My Brand?

Simply developing a brand personality with the Archetypal framework will put you streets ahead of your competition.

Once you have your Archetype in place, you need to flesh it out before applying it to your brand visuals and communication.

1. Using the characteristics of your brand archetype, define its opinions on issues related to your market and the wider industry.

2. Using keywords, identify its attitude towards life.

3. Adopt a tone of voice and writing style that captures these opinions and attitudes.

4. Identify the vocabulary that your brand will use keeping the desires your brand is evoking in mind.

5. Expand your vocabulary with synonyms and capture this in your brand guidelines.

6. Adapt your brand visuals, colours, typography and images to represent this personality visually.

7. Apply your vocabulary, opinions, attitudes and tone of voice to all of your brand communication.

Remember, as with a story, the more detail there is in your brand personality, the more vivid and memorable it will be.

Develop your personality on an ongoing basis to ensure it remains in line with who your audience is and the desires it is working to evoke.

When your brand look, feel, tone, attitude, opinions and vocabulary are aligned and are all working together to evoke the desires it satisfies, you will have a brand with a humanistic and memorable personality that your audience will find easy to care for.

Once Your Character is Defined… Your Story Begins

Once you have an archetype in place, you now have the foundation and character for a brand story.

Aristotle knew a thing or two and he reckoned human beings are hardwired for story.

The science of Neural Coupling backs that up (This Ted video on Neural Coupling and storytelling by Uri Hasson is an absolute eye-opener). It turns out we are 22 times more likely to remember a story than fact. Although that’s enlightening, something about it doesn’t feel surprising.

This is because story activates a much deeper part of the brain than simple fact sharing. More than that, our brainwaves when listening to a story, match the brainwaves of the storyteller. The term “we’re on the same wavelength” was made for storytelling.

Archetypes are about your brand knowing who it is and being able to communicate with a consistent personality and tone of voice as a character in the life of your audience.

But what is a character without a story?

Conclusion

Brand archetypes are not a new concept but they are an underutilised one, especially in the smaller business space.

That’s refreshing to know. Not much is underutilised these days.

With so much noise in any market, it is only brands that connect on a human level that garner any kind of affection.

There is no better way to connect on a human level than with a human personality and there’s no better way to develop a human personality than using an archetypal framework developed to evoke human desires.

Brand Archetypes are a tool that can help you differentiate your brand, give it a depth of personality and use it to truly connect with your audience so they begin to feel something for you.

An effective Brand Story is intriguing and an opportunity to be truly authentic.

If your brand is lacking direction, identity or human connection with your audience then it’s not appealing to their desires.

Identify what it is you want your audience to feel, map the archetype that will appeal best and develop a real personality to give your brand conviction.

Make sure you know who your brand is, what it stands for and where it’s going.

Brands that know where they’re going, inspire people to follow.

Over To You

If you’ve gotten all the way through this article, then congratulations. You’re now armed with some powerful knowledge to help you build a brand with emotional connection.

Now it’s over to you.

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

How are you connecting with your audience?

Where do you stand on branding with emotion through personality?