When you get that warm and familiar feeling that you can really connect with a certain brand, as if you were talking to a person who shares similar passions and share similar values; this is how you know that you’ve come face to face with a brand that truly knows their game! Today, its all about making brands more and more human. Archetypes help you define your brand as well as help your customers relate to it as if it was ALIVE!
Archetypes in branding are used to give a soul to the business. It helps you flesh out your brand story, and help your brand click with your target audience by establishing meaningful relationships. This is what builds loyalty. What brings your customers back to you, time and time again. This is how we stand out from the crowd, and be remembered.
So here’s the two main reasons why you absolutely need to root your brand to an Archetype…
- CONNECTION
- DIFFERENTIATION
Some of the best brands out there are built based on one core archetype, which gives a solid personality to the brand itself. They connect with their audience in such a deep level that they form a nearly unbreakable level of loyalty and trust.
The term “Archetype” was coined by Carl Jung back in 1919, a swiss psychiatrists and psychoanalyst who is recognized as one of the most influential psychiatrists of all time. Jung was a strong believer of Freud’s theory of the unconscious. However, he believed that there was far greater depth to what Freud had uncovered. His theory was called the collective unconscious. The concept refers to the idea of people inheriting vast collections of knowledge and images since birth, rather than learning them through life and personal experience. This subconscious is composed of archetypes, which are basic representations of universal figures, signs, symbols and patterns of thinking passed down from our ancestors.
The emotional connection that we make with brands and their archetypes are already ingrained or pre-programmed in our subconscious. Although it may not hit you right away, your instincts will flag it with a sense of familiarity. This recognition is crucial in helping you position your brand in today’s cluttered market place.
Jung breaks down the archetypes to 12 representations which covers across the range of basic human desires. Each and every one of us, will have at least one of these archetypes stand out in our personalities and character. This is the reason why brands who establish their archetypes well are able to really humanize it and make that essential connection with their target audience. So let’s take a look at the 12 Jungian archetypes shall we?
