Powerful Metaphors

Toobox – Brand Archetypes

In a sea of sameness—how can you drive differentiation? What you do, how you do it and why it matters is a function of the role you play in your industry. Brand archetypes are powerful metaphors that help to ascribe a role and thereby a personality to your brand. Often, in categories/industries where lines of differentiation are blurred, brand archetypes help to draw out the differences.

Brand Archetypes (also know as Brand Character) help define a brand’s role in the marketplace—in the lives of customers—by connecting at a deeply human level, with stories that cross cultures and connect at an unconscious level. Archetypes help create a consistent and compelling identity, with a motivation that is recognizable, meaningful and rich enough to allow for the evolution of a brand’s story.

In defining the role your brand plays through archetypes, it allows us to elevate key attributes that help inspire a brand proposition, and clarify brand personality. Completed together with key clients, it helps us understand our clients’ view on the role they play, and how this role impacts our strategic foundation.

A bit of history

The Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung (1865-1961) believed that humans tend to use symbolism to understand their world. He introduced the concept that our unconscious actions and thoughts are heavily influenced by age-old stories. This is why some characters are so instantly recognizable to us, proving the theory that they are a part of our shared collective unconscious. After Jung, the eminent mythologist Joseph Campbell began to explore how archetypes explain mankind’s hunt for meaning in the world through art, pop culture, mythology, literature, and beyond. This is exactly how the idea of archetyping was brought into the modern world. Unsurprisingly, we have become accustomed to such archetypes being represented as film or book characters. Fairy Godmother, for instance, is an epitome of a motherly figure and caregiver while Ethan Hunt is a classic hero.

The most successful brands are those that most effectively correspond to fundamental patterns in the unconscious mind known as archetypes.

The premise of archetypes is based on universal, mythic characters that reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over. There are 12 basic archetypes that represent fundamental human desires and evoke deep emotions, each symbolising a basic human need, aspiration or motivation. Each has its own set of values, meanings and personality traits. These archetypes are found everywhere: literature, cinema and television, theatre, music, mythology, religion, political and celebrity personas—and in marketing and advertising. They are commonly used by advertising companies and consumer products companies (e.g., P&G). The majority of approaches in the marketplace today are based heavily on Carol S Pearson’s work on archetypes, and their use in marketing (The Hero and the Outlaw, 2001), that build on Carl Jung’s theory.

A fresh point of view

Recently, the view that one personality is not sufficient to illuminate all facets has become more and more accepted. Especially with similar core characteristics, it can be important to include other characteristics as blend. See also the example of IKEA and APPLE, both positioned as Creators. Please make sure that there is only one core archetype dimension for leading and others only blend in.

Values by KANTAR (formaly Added Value),published in BUSINESS INSIDER by Kim Bhasin, 2012.

This diagram shows the differences side by side.