Brand Archetypes

From a branding perspective, the brand archetype approach can help you build your brand's story, define its values, and develop a unique personality.

Many internationally renowned brands use prototyping techniques to connect with their audiences on a deeper level. The framework helps them apply knowledge from psychology, human behaviour, myth and legend.

The brand identity governs every aspect of the brand, guided by the journey of the archetype, which is then woven into all the key axes of the brand.

This useful tool in the brand building provides a common infrastructure for brands or customers to identify and initiate a relationship of shared desire that will later be reflected in brand communications.

The term "archetype" was coined by psychologist Carl Jung in the context of personality. He argues that humans "share ideas that people find strange at first but quickly possess and use as familiar concepts".

Archetypes are the common heritage of mankind. Carl Jung identified two psychological levels of human personality: the conscious and the unconscious. The latter is divided into the personal unconscious and collective unconscious.

The collective unconscious realm is where archetypes exist because it is an inherited part of the human psyche rather than developed from individual experience. The mental expression of this collective unconscious expresses itself through prevalent thought forms or mental images that can influence an individual's feelings or intuitions, leading to typical behavioral patterns.

Archetype paradigms help control brand development because they often carry strong emotional overtones. From a psychological point of view, archetypes are expressed as myths and fairy tales, which refer to the telling of stories through collective representations of historical themes, dreams of the past, visions, legends, and realities.

Brand Archetypes: Understanding the Power of a Great Story

Every brand must have a purpose. The reason for being and how you as a brand can change your customers' lives. Having a purpose is a very sensible way of telling your audience who you are, what you stand for and what you will never be.

Making purpose the focus of business strategy brings all departments together as one force, working together and complementing each other to achieve the organization's mission and vision.

However, brand purpose goes beyond company mission as it encompasses attitude, personality, values, approach and ways of getting work done within the brand.

When it comes to brand building, each brand archetype has a specific purpose in life, specific values, a way of expressing personality, and an audience to appeal to. You can’t be everything to everyone, and you have to decide which archetype fits your brand better.

There are twelve brand archetypes, in which the story tells the brand promise, which is recognized by customers through the brand's physical manifestation in the archetypes. Archetype branding is a tool that brings focus and consistency to a brand.

Let’s find out which archetype is your brand, here you can take the quiz.

Dive into the archetypes’ stories and use their flexible approach to strengthen your brand.