Introducing the 60 Archetypes of Branding

Let's kick this off with one of my favourite topics: brand archetypes. As commonly understood within the industry, archetypes are a collection of characteristics often framed through compatible behavioural and literary traits. Inspired by the studies of psychiatrist Carl Jung, the traditional archetype framework was developed, including the following 12 categories:

Traditional Jungian Brand Archetype Framework

Don't be quick to mistake these for some horoscopic nonsense. In the world of branding, archetypes play a crucial role in helping both brands & individuals better understand the traits that reflect them, helping understand what they are and what they are not.

For brands, proper understanding of their archetype position provides a clearer strategic vision for how they need to think and act to maintain a consistent public image. For individuals, archetypes provide a better understanding of ones own strengths, as well as the flaws that are typically found in other like-minded individuals.

While, the most familiar archetypes are covered under the traditional Jungian 12 archetype model (see above) this model only showcases a fraction of the entire picture. This becomes problematic when assessing a brand/individual's archetype for several reasons:

The current Jungian model provides an overtly broad character profile that does not provide any specific guidance on how a brand must act if they adopt it nor any real value to any individual looking to understand their own character model. In short, it’s about as useful as getting advice from a fortune cookie

Here lies a battle between idealism and realism. A common misconception with archetypes is that they represent what a brand wants to be, rather than what a brand actually will be. This in turn leads to companies trying to artificially project themselves to the public as a representative of values and traits that they do not realistically uphold. With individuals, the misidentification of one’s personal archetype hinders one’s ability to correctly assess their strengths & flaws, as well as presents advice that may likely not apply to the pertaining party.

The approach to using and implemented archetypes is often misguided, especially when the 12 archetype model is utilised. Due to it’s broad and vague structure, brands & individuals often adopt more than one archetype to try and best define themselves. In professional branding, this approach is a dead no no. Like blood types, only one can exist - both for brands & individuals.

In today's hyper-competitive market environment, brands and people seeks to distinguish themselves from the pack, not just to gain attention but to also forge their own unique identity. Fortunately, the field of branding has come a long way since.

In particular, I refer to the Ogilvy approved archetype framework outline in Hartwell and Chen's brilliant book "Archetypes in Branding: A Toolkit for Creatives and Strategists" (click to find out more). Through it's collective research, we instead learn that the generic 12 archetypes fields can be broken down to form 4 additional alternatives each, creating a total of 60 brand archetypes in all. These are categorized as:

With the degree of specificity that each brings in terms of advice and guidance, users can find themselves far more capable than ever before of increasing brand attraction, enforcing brand alignment, and enhancing brand experiences.

While none of the 60 archetypes can 100% summate every brand in existence, they all provide sufficient distinction in their traits to provide far more detailed and tailored information about a brand than the 12 archetype model. Through the course of time, we will explore each archetype in this series, helping you identity the one that represents your brand, or even your own unique self.