What is your brand's personality?
The 12 archetypes of Carl Jung
12.07.2023
People come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. We all have our own character, ambitions, and talents. To better understand the different types of people, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed twelve archetypes. Each type represents a certain set of norms, values, and characteristics of the human personality.
People want to identify with something. With other people, but also with brands. They want to see and understand the personality of a brand. Mutual understanding between the target audience and the brand creates preference for your brand and products or services. But how do you characterize the personality of your brand in a way that makes it recognizable and relatable to your target audience?
What are archetypes?
Each archetype represents a specific set of norms, values, and characteristics of the human personality. These are universal sets that transcend time and culture. Carl Jung believed that every individual is a combination of different archetypes, but we often see that one archetype tends to dominate our personality.
However, we are not conscious of our archetypes. They are formed by ancient behaviors we use to achieve our goals as humans. The patterns we observe in our cultures are shaped by the unconscious influence of archetypes on behavior and thoughts. Despite our claims of being rational, we make as much as 95% of our decisions based on emotions that we are not aware of.
How to characterize a brand
While the original purpose of archetypes was to understand human personalities, Carol S. Pearson in the twentieth century started considering their application in marketing. By developing a basic model of 12 archetypes, businesses have a useful tool to give their brand a distinct character – a character that their target audience can identify with! By attaching an (archetypal) label to your brand, you gain a deeper understanding of the brand – what it stands for, its main missions, and the direction it aims to take. Characterizing your brand in this way provides guidance for shaping the brand's appearance and offers valuable insights for creating campaigns and communication materials. By choosing an archetype as the foundation for your brand, you make it both recognizable and uniquely its own.
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