Define Your Brand With The 12 Archetypes

The first and foremost step to creating your brand identity is establishing your Brand Trinity, which includes your Mission, Vision and Values. 

A mission defines your brand’s purpose; vision to determine how your brand progresses and values to show qualities you value in the company’s culture. For example, at Ignite Search, our vision is to “Transform your vision into results”, with the mission of being the “trusted digital marketing agency that helps ambitious companies grow”. We highly value Integrity, Growth, Nimbleness, Innovation, Trailblazing and Excellence (which happens to be Ignite’s acronym!).

With so many businesses in the market, how can you ensure your company stands out? By investing in a strong brand that captures people’s attention.

Having strong and consistent branding helps you to be more recognisable and be more aware in people’s minds. Not only does branding consist of the brand trinity, cohesive visuals, and fonts, but it also consists of a brand personality.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Personality Test before. Well, brands have their own version: The Brand Archetype. 

The brand archetype is a concept that helps marketers and businesses create a consistent identity for their services. Archetypes are effective as they portray universal patterns of behaviour that are instinctively understood by everyone, no matter the culture or time period. As understanding these is instinctual, the personality traits of your brand will easily resonate with your intended audience. 

Out of the 12 archetypes, they each have their own key characteristics, values, goals and challenges.

Given the 12 archetypes, which do you think the following brands fall under? You can find the answers at the bottom of the blog post.

TED is a non-profit media organisation that hosts conferences all over the world. Their slogan is “ideas worth spreading”, wanting to fulfill the need to spread knowledge and educate others, which falls in line with the brand archetype

Disney is a well-known media and entertainment company that has produced a wide variety of movies and television shows, established theme parks and has the honour of being a part of many childhoods all over the world over the years. It’s whimsical and innocent nature behind the brand alongside its slogan “Where Dreams Come True”, helps it align with its brand identity.

M&M’s has created an emotional connection with its audience by creating iconic M&M characters with their own unique personality, showcasing the fun and humourous sides of its personality. If you take a look at M&M’s advertising, you can just tell how fun their brand is! 

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IKEA’s vision is “to create a better everyday life for the many people”. Their seasonal catalogues are always a good source of inspiration for one’s home.  As they sell an expansive and affordable range of household furniture and products(hint: this could fall into 2 categories).

While it is not necessary to choose brand archetypes, choosing one still helps define your brand identity. Hence, one that matches your brand well creates brand affinity that people have towards your brand and makes you outshine your competitors. There might be some values, goals or challenges that crossover with one another, but don’t feel pressured to stick to one archetype only (see IKEA). 

Hopefully, reading through this blog post gives you some clarity on how you can define your brand’s identity, personality, or tone. If you need more guidance, feel free to download our free branding worksheet, read our blog for more inspiration, or contact us for a consultation. 

Answers:

TED: Sage

Disney: The Magician

M&M’s: The Jester

IKEA: Everyman or Creator