When our clients learn about how we use archetypal psychology to guide the development of their brand persona, they often get pretty excited. Usually, they’re at least somewhat familiar with Carl Jung and his concept of archetypes. But before we can jump into creating the Brand Persona, it’s essential to understand the personality and archetypes of the target audience as well.
Archetypal roles
The purpose of the brand archetype is to clarify and animate the primary role that the brand plays in the lives of its clients and customers. So in order to do this, we need to have a clear picture of what’s happening in the emotional life of the customer when they interact with the brand.
Stereotyping your audience
If you try to imagine all the traits and characteristics of your ideal client, you’ll probably find it pretty challenging to come up with a single, coherent picture. Of course, all your customers are unique individuals, and creating a unified stereotype to describe them all is no simple task. They come from a variety of backgrounds, and most likely, have a wide range of hobbies and interests.
But there’s a common thread that runs across your audience, and you can find it at the intersection of their needs and your product or service. When your clients seek your solution, they have a shared emotional story, regardless of their unique traits, that has brought them to your doorstep.
It’s a specific set of hopes, fears and ambitions that drives your audience to interact with your brand. Based on your skills and background, you are the best qualified to solve the problems associated with a certain condition. And now the idea is to develop a character—perhaps a two-dimensional one—who’s built around that condition. In real life, it’s not the only part of their personality that matters. But in terms of your relationship, and what ties you together, it kind of is.
So take a microscopic look at the circumstances surrounding their needs for your product. Examine their vulnerabilities and pain points. Consider their deepest needs and desires. Then refer to the directory of Archetypes and decide which of these 12 personalities align most closely with those hopes and fears. Keep in mind, there’s always more than one archetype at play, so just try to narrow it down to the two (or three at the very most) that are most relevant in their relationship with your brand. You can also download our Audience Archetypes Cheat Sheet for more information and examples for each archetype.
If they look to you to satisfy their deep need for belonging and connection, then they are probably acting under the influence of the Lover or the Everyman. If they come to you to satisfy their need for structure and authority, then they’re probably acting out the role of the Ruler.
Spend some time thinking this through. Think about some of your best customers and try putting yourself in their shoes. What are they craving, and what are they worried about? Then look at which archetypes have those same desires and pain points.
Complementary archetypes
Once you’ve identified the major archetype(s) acting out in the lives and minds of your audience, you can put on your storytelling hat and think about which other characters would make the perfect companions in their real-life drama.
In some cases, they just need a mirror to look into. Many Ruler brands, for example, are designed to appeal to Rulers. Think of a luxury car ad, in which the driver of the car radiates with elegance and sophistication, a perfect match for the classy car, a beacon of flawlessness in an otherwise chaotic world. Even if the target customer isn’t always the most elegant member of society, that’s the aspect of their personality that’s most animated when they picture themselves driving this particular automobile.
Usually, however, it’s a bit more complicated than just devising a brand persona whose archetype matches the archetype of the audience. When it comes to developing these characters, it helps to let the universally appealing stories from film and literature act as your guide. Rarely does an Innocent like Dorothy or a Hero like Harry Potter need another Innocent or Hero to fulfill his or her quest. More likely, what’s missing is the wisdom of a Sage, the power of a Magician or the defiance of an Outlaw.
Model stories and characters are helpful, but ultimately, you need to study the real circumstances and emotions of your target audience. What is it they’re really after?
The hero in your story
This is where character building can get difficult. But at the same time, this is where the magic happens. There’s no right answer, after all. In most epic stories, the hero is accompanied by a series of guides. Luke Skywalker, for example, has the help of a Sage (Obi-Wan Kenobi), a Rebel (Han Solo), and a Lover (Princess Leia).
In brand strategy, the customer should play the part of the hero, or the main character. (See our article on the Hero Archetype to better understand the distinction between the hero as an archetype and the hero as the main character.) Whether your superior service will rescue them, guide them, or inspire them, will depend on their specific needs. And there are a variety of ways in which you can do that. So there’s never just one absolute right answer. It requires creativity and imagination, in addition to your careful research, which is why we always say that effective branding is a delicate balance of art and science.
It’s also important to consider your competition. A lot of business owners prefer to shrug off their competitors, and simply charge forward with undaunted confidence and optimism. Those are valuable qualities in a leader, but they can spell tragedy and disaster when it comes to developing a strategy.
It’s essential to know what other players in your industry are doing right, and what they are doing wrong. If you’re a healthcare provider, and everyone else in your line of work invokes the Caregiver archetype, then you have an excellent opportunity to stand out from the crowd by playing the part of the Magician or the Hero.
That doesn’t mean you should abandon the patience and empathy of the Caregiver entirely, but in order to differentiate yourself, you should consider building a persona around a different archetype.
As you undergo this creative process, listen to your instincts, and see where your intuition takes you. As the head of the company, no one understands the soul of the business as well as you do. At the same time, remember to balance your instincts with data. Analyze your audience, scrutinize your competitors, and be sure that your brand’s personality is both authentic and effective.
The show must go on
I hope you enjoyed this brief explanation of Brand Archetypes and Audience Archetypes. Now think about who your audience is and what their most important archetypes might be. What are their emotional needs, and how can your business or practice best present itself to address those needs?
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