The 12 Brand Archetypes: Which One Are You?

Creating a brand may not be as simple as it looks. A good brand comes with certain and specific characteristics that people will notice and remember. Knowing that the top twelve brand archetypes, which have been proven to greatly support businesses to flourish, can be helpful to give better insights into this matter.

1. Ruler

It is the easiest archetype to spot. As a ruler, the brand wants to be associated with high class, expensive products and people. In this case, functionality and reason are not the key factors. Pride and ego for high social status are the things represented by the brand. There are quite a lot of examples for this brand type: Ferrari, Omega, Versace, and other high end products.

2. Magician

One of the most popular company with this kind of branding is Disney. It has unleashed human imaginative flair and dreams, and turned them into movies, books, toys and other fascinating products that keep our imagination alive.

3. Outlaw

Outlaws live their lives in their own ways and they usually do not follow the crowd. Take Apple, for example. It once created an advertisement that shows monochrome men and women looking happy and having fun with their product despite their strange looking appearance. Harley Davidson is another example of outlaw brand.

4. Lover

Victoria’s Secret obviously shows the characteristics of lover brand archetype. It indulges people with its sexiness, spreads love and desire. It is indeed why the products are attractive for both women and men. Women want to feel sexy like the models and men buy them for romantic gifts.

5. Explorer

As the name suggests, this kind of brands invites people to go out of their comfortable houses and experience outdoor activities. Bear Grylls and his survival kits symbolize the explorer characteristics perfectly. However, this archetype is not strictly limited to those selling stuff for outdoor activities. In fact, car manufacturer Subaru has recently adopted the explorer style. In one of its ads, the car safely takes its passengers through blizzard, which says something like, “why not go out and enjoy the snow?”

6. Hero

The fact that heroes from both Marvel and DC have attracted millions of people to go to the cinema and watch their movies implies that the idea of becoming a hero is still appealing to many. For that reason alone, this hero type looks promising to boost business success. The ad of this type should be able to depict powerful and valiant characteristics. Duracell has applied such characteristics in its ad through the warrior bunny character.

7. Caregiver

To be given the responsibility of a caregiver, the products must flaunt its commitment for safety and comfort. It is especially because caregiver products are available to serve those who need care, like babies and children. As puny as the target market can be, the brands must be able to convince the ones nurturing the little ones that it is safe and comfortable to use their products. Johnson and Johnson’s is a good example of this archetype.

8. Creator

Products using this creator type must have excellent qualities. They win over their customers by showing off their ‘perfection’. Quite similar to the characteristic of ruler type, creator brands do not focus on lowering production cost. Rather, its main goal is to impress people with their perfect creation. A good example for this type is Lego.

9. Regular guy or girl

While the characters represented for this brand type may look ordinary, the idea is that most ordinary people on their ordinary days with their daily jobs and chores buy and use/consume the products. As most of us share these ordinary things almost everyday, campaigns using this regular brand can work. An example of this archetype is Indomie, a brand from Indonesia. No matter where you live (in cities or villages) and what you do (farmers, 8-5 employees, high school students), you eat the noodle like the others.

10. Innocent

Audience is captivated by innocent brand due to its pure and free of guilt nature. The language used is usually straight forward and free of gimmick. A drink producer has recently used the archetype to promote their fresh, natural smoothies.

11. Jester

It captures audience with its silliness by giving them some good laughs or simply some hearty smiles. The usual target market for this type is young people who enjoy having some fun. For that reason, this brand cannot be seen strict to its customers.

12. Sage

This type offers learning and offers wisdom. National Geographic is the example of sage. People know the programs on their channels and the content of their magazines and websites are all about facts, researches, and truth. The use of technical terms in the brand is also common as it treats the audience as intellectual beings. Another example is Harvard. Once people hear the name, they will instantly relate it with image of a prestigious university, smart students, intelligent professors, and world class learning.