Bite: Using archetypes to build strong brands – tapping into emotions
A deck that sits alongside Buyer Persona Creation
Importance of Archetypes
Consumers don’t just buy products – they buy the story about the products, and all the emotion that comes along with these stories
• The power of identifying a brand with a timeless story is that it the story already existing deep within our subconscious – it does not need to be created.
• The task of the brand is to evoke the story with clues.
• If it does it well the brand will also evoke the emotion that consumers seek to derive from the brand.
A timeless story
• Companies can develop their brand strategies by identifying the ‘archetypal’ story that best expresses their brand experience.
• ‘Archetypes’ as identified by Jung and others since him make the content of our ‘collective unconscious’. – These characters share fundamental similarities across time
and geographies and appeal to our emotions.• E.g. the Hero story helps us understand our mortality and speaks to
our desire to achieve great things.• E.g. the Innocent story is one of optimism, hope and desire to be
virtuous.
Stories as an ‘archetype’
e.g. Jung: the Four Cardinal Orientations of archetypes
INNOCENT (Saint, Goody-Two-Shoes, Angel)• Brands: IKEA, Google, Dove, Lysol,
Master Card, Aveda, Coke• People: Mr. Rogers, Gandhi, Boy Scouts,
Oprah• Goal/method: To achieve a simple, pure
life by always doing the right thing
EVERYMAN (Good Old Boy, Girl Next Door, Average Joe)• Brands: Miller High Life, Sonic,
Walmart, Lowe’s, Walgreens, Southwest, Visa, Covergirl, Hollister
• People: Jack Black, Homer Simpson, Tom Hanks, Princess Diana
• Goal/method: To bond with others by being humble, hard-working, and friendly
Brands that consistently tell one archetypal story perform better financially. (Mark, Pearson and Stewart)
How to identify them
• The task of an established brand is to discover and clarify its core archetypal story
• The task of new or undefined brands is to identify an archetypal story and stick with it
• Archetypal brand-building starts internally– Often brands remain a reflection of the forgotten
philosophy of the brand’s founder• Do Brand Managers know
– The story of how the brand came into existence?– The fundamental consumer needs the brand addresses?– Or even how the brand got its name?
– Consumer perceptions of brands change slowly– What’s your first memory of your client's brand? How did it
make you feel?– What are your current perception of the brand?
So how do we perform the tasks? - inside
• If senior company executives and brand leaders don’t grasp the fundamental essence and emotional appeal of the brand, its difficult for front-line employees to deliver the right brand experience
• And its particularly hard for consumers to connect emotionally with the brand.
• ‘Devoted fans’ are an additional piece in the jigsaw – They prevent too much internal naval gazing. – They often know the brand better than you do. – We can discover:
• The core emotional benefits derived from the brand• What lies behind the ‘rational alibis’ for choice
– So identifying the most compelling archetypal story for consumers
So how do we perform the tasks? - outside
Psychological interviews and their projective techniques are essential to discovering the core emotional benefit that ‘devoted fans’ derive from the brand.
Consumers often cannot verbalise or are hesitant to tell marketers their true reasons for buying a brand, so skill is needed to identify the kernels of truth.
Inte
rnal
per
spec
tive Depth interviews
with core team & key executives
Wider quantitative survey to all front-line employees and those familiar with the brand
Anal
ysis
Exte
rnal
per
spec
tive Depth
interviews with ‘devoted fans’
Anal
ysis
Executing archetype identification
How to use Archetypes
Brand Strategy Iceberg
External perspective
Internal perspective
Making things actionable
A large part of the brand is never seen by the consumer, its below the waterline
Conclusions
• Archetypal branding works because it appeals to us as humans.– We all share a deep need to feel stability, belonging,
discovery and achievement.• As with the runner who on a cold morning laces up her Nike
shoes to go for a jog because she wants to ‘just do it’, in today’s world our brands have taken on the role of important props in our own personal mythologies.
– Do you know the emotional needs you client's brand appeals to?
– Which of the following messages should you use?
Final thoughts
We look forward to having the opportunity to work with you
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With a background in B2B and development of consumer panels, Redshift Research has a broad pedigree in marketing research consultancy. We provide audience insight, in-depth data analysis and advice to help businesses stay ahead of the curve. - We enable our clients to plan, create, transform and engage.
Redshift use a range of primary research, analytical and modeling techniques to explore original and public data, social and digital data.
While Redshift is based in the UK and US, the company works across the globe, across time zones and languages. Our consortium relationships give us access to 10m respondents in 60 countries worldwide via our online panel Crowdology.
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• Roy Langmaid of The Langmaid Practice• Fritz Grutzner of BrandGarten• Migeul Gonzalez of Forty Agency
With thanks to