“The role, immediately recognisable and subconsciously familiar, a brand plays in the market due to its offer, communications strategy, identity, and customer experience.”
An archetype helps reflect and position a brand in a specific look towards the target audiences. It helps emphasise the brand’s beliefs and attribute, giving it a personality, a character. It allows the consumer to develop a stronger connection towards the brand on a deeper level, feeding their needs and giving them a sense of identification.
“The brand becomes a character with a clear personality that informs the way it looks, behaves, and speaks. “
According to the article, to create a strong archetype, a brand must consider how the brand’s personality, traits and character positions itself to be. What are the attributes, beliefs and values that may fit into a certain archetype. This is usually found in a brand’s mission statement.
In Lisa’s class we have identified the 12 fundamental archetypes:
- Caregiver
- Citizen
- Hero/ Warrior
- Innocent
- Creator
- Explorer
- Lover
- Rebel
- Jester
- Magician
- Sage
- Sovereign
For example, these brands carry the archetype of a hero/warrior.
All in all, I did not really notice these factors until Lisa’s lecture cover. I only knew that brands do position themselves within their mission statement and target market in order to appeal consumers but using an archetype as a market strategy was truly an insight! (even the term archetype was new..) Thus I believe the role as a designer is truly important in the world of marketing and communication. We are the ones who can manipulate the mood and feelings on how others portray on a particular thing.
