Using Jungian archetypes to push the boundaries of marketing
Generative AI can help go beyond the tropes
Carl Jung was a student of Sigmund Freud and in the early 1900’s his research focused on looking for psychological patterns that we all share. He focused on the world’s mythology and suggested common ideas that come up in religions and folklore from different continents.
For instance, one of these is the Great Mother which shows up in various mythologies. The Great Mother is seen in earth goddesses or fertility goddesses, such as Gaia in Greek mythology, or Isis in Egyptian mythology, and the Virgin Mary in Christianity. The fact that this ‘archetype’ shows up in different parts of the world led Jung to the assertion that these are embedded in human consciousness, rather than passed down via communication.
As branding and marketing emerged as a field later in the 20th century, Jungian archetypes became a useful device for evaluating brands and to offer a framework: brand personality can help a company build a brand that is relatable, appealing, and perhaps most importantly, memorable. The personality can show up everywhere from advertising, to web design, and even customer service.
Want to see how this breaks down? Let’s take a look at the Jungian archetypes and how they have been applied.
The Hero: Brands that position themselves as a hero portray their products or services as enabling consumers to overcome obstacles or challenges. For example, sports and outdoor brands often use this archetype, promising consumers the ability to achieve their goals. For example, take a look at how Under Armour uses Steph Curry.
The Sage: Companies that use this archetype position themselves as knowledgeable experts offering wisdom. This is often used in industries where expertise and wisdom are key, such as education, consulting, and technology. Here’s how CalTech approaches this, and an example from IBM.
The Everyman: These brands value connection, belonging, and comfort. They aim to fit in and appeal to the ‘average’ person. A lot of consumer brands fall into this category. Examples could include brands like IKEA or Starbucks showing how its coffee fits into the life of the common person.
The Outlaw/Rebel: This archetype is used by brands that seek to disrupt the status quo or cater to those who see themselves as nonconformist or rebellious. This could be used by innovative tech startups, fashion brands targeting younger consumers, or any company that positions itself against the mainstream. A classic case is how Nike used the Air Jordan shoe to enter into the basketball market, incurring a fine from the National Basketball Association.
The Lover: Think of brands that focus on beauty, relationships, and sensual experiences. It can be seen in luxury, cosmetics, fashion, and even some types of food and beverage advertising. See how Gucci applies this.
The Caregiver: Companies that utilize this archetype often offer services or products related to caring, nurturing, and protection. This could include health care, insurance, or child-oriented products. For instance, Kaiser ties the Caregiver archetype to the Hero.
The Jester/Trickster: Bring joy, fun, and levity into people’s lives. This archetype is commonly seen in entertainment-related products, or brands that rely on humor in their advertising. Here in the US, this has become a trend in the insurance industry to break away from the fear-mongering of old, with companies like Geico leading the way. You may not think of hotels as ‘entertainment’, but Hilton is making that link with an unusual degree of self-awareness.
The Explorer: Brands that position themselves as explorers promise their customers adventure, exploration, and the thrill of discovering or experiencing something new. This can be seen in travel companies, outdoor gear, and sometimes in educational products. Here’s an upbeat version from The North Face.
The Innocent: Companies here offer simplicity, happiness, and nostalgia. They position themselves as trustworthy and reliable. This could be used in products or services that aim to evoke a sense of safety, simplicity, or nostalgia. Take a look at this gentle nod from Microsoft to paint a picture of a legacy product.
The Creator: These brands value innovation and creativity. Creator brands aim to build things of enduring value, while also creating new categories. Take a look at how LEGO brings this to life. Another example in this space is Apple and their approach to ‘reinventing’ the ear bud.
The Ruler: Ruler brands exude luxury and exclusivity. This is often the direct opposite of the Everyman. These brands are often leaders in their field and typically offer strong aspirational messaging that has the implicit promise of power and control. For instance see Rolex or Mercedes-Benz helping you become ruler of your destiny.
The Magician: Magician brands aim to inspire change and create experiences that are transformative or magical. They will take us out of this world, or achieve feats that we didn’t even think possible. Think about the experiences that Disney creates, or the strange twist Dyson applies to its products.
As you can see from these cases, when a brand uses an archetype, it is often pulling us along for the ride: as much as a brand exudes a personality, it will also make the connection between a consumer and that personality. We will forge links with Ruler brands that help us see ourselves as members of an exclusive elite. If we think of ourself as more of the mad scientist, we may be more drawn to Magician brands. Rebel brands tend to skew to younger audiences for the same reason.
Veering from your traditional archetype
Now where this gets interesting is when you start deliberately coloring outside the lines. A few years ago I worked on a project where we needed a brand-level client story for our Cloud division. We really wanted to stand out from the normal “talking head” videos that are prevalent in our industry and so produced this piece:
We moved from the normal Sage brand archetype that shows up frequently in tech to the Hero archetype with a touch of the Magician. This led to some nice publicity, and also had Ad Age directly stating the ad is more like something you would expect from Under Armour rather than IBM. This is exactly the result we were hoping for.
Use archetypes and AI to push advertising boundaries
One of the advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability to construct text using these archetypes. Where this can really help is to create a brand campaign that is differentiated in the market: but not just for differentiation’s sake — rather to make a connection that is meaningful to your target audience.
One of the obstacles to achieving this can be that the high price tag associated with brand advertising makes it difficult to push through something that is novel. There will be many stakeholders in the decision and a tendency to risk-aversion. Using AI to show how ad copy (and visuals) can attach a brand to a different archetype, and then testing that proposition in low-risk areas such as paid search, can help break stifling creative-by-committee and help push boundaries.
We’re embarking on a project to A/B test ads written with different archetypes to see what we can learn about our audience and what attracts them. The brand we are focused on is Green for Growth, which is an educational site intended to help the business community learn about sustainability. The Caregiver stands out as the obvious choice for this campaign, but what happens if we look in a different direction like presenting the brand as the Magician that can help a business person achieve feats they didn’t even think possible? Where will this end up? Stay tuned for more updates as this project develops!
Learn more about how brand archetypes are used in marketing from Iconic Fox and Ironclad brand strategy.
