What Carl Jung’s Archetypes Can do for Your Business

The most effective brands are the ones that really make an effort to talk to the customer on a human level and engage with them on an emotional level. In short, your brand personality needs to be the cornerstone in your strategic thinking and acting.

Human interaction, like it was in the early- to mid-part of the twentieth century, is gone. No face to face contact, customer service or conversations. Today, modern brands are rediscovering it through digitalization. Especially now with the pandemic, I’d say those connections aren’t getting better. We need to connect. Carl Jung saw this. He gathered and analyzed stories and mythologies from different parts of the world and discovered that certain types of characters were common all over the world. He’d find stories about heroes, about leaders, caregivers, or wise older men and concluded that these archetypes were instinctively known by mankind all over the world.

This means there are intrinsic ways for us to communicate, interact, feel understood, etc. in a way we all understand. This means we can all connect, no matter our background, our religion, or upbringing. We connect through our personality and this group of characteristics, beliefs, or traits all come together in our engagement. The reason you connect with someone you don’t know is that you are attracted to their personality/ characteristics and they to yours. Branding is all about connection. If a connection is made it means the customer is drawn to one of your displayed characteristics. Being authentic here is essential, though. Humans want to feel connected with a brand.

Jung formed 12 characters. These can be categorized in four groups, each with three personalities. The archetypes can be seen as a template every human is born with. Within each group, all archetypes have affinity with one another. These are the groups with their archetypes:

1. Leaving a Legacy (Core desire)

“They feel like they made an impact in the world and want to be remembered”

  - Outlaw (liberation)

  - Magician (power)

  - Hero (mastery)

2. Pursue Connection (Core desire)

“They want to feel like they have meaningful relationships in their lives and people want to be with them or be around them”

  - Lover (intimacy)

  - Jester (enjoyment)

  - Everyman (belonging)

3. Provide Structure (Core desire)

“They want to build something that wasn’t there before in their own name or in the name of others”

  - Caregiver (service)

  - Ruler (control)

  - Creator (innovation)

4. Explore Spirituality (Core desire)

“They want to feel connected with the earth and everything in it and on a quest to know themselves and other”

  - Innocent (safety)

  - Sage (understanding)

  - Explorer (freedom)

As quoted in the book The Hero and the Outlaw

“Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand, because they convey a meaning that makes customers relate to a product as if it actually were alive in some way, they have a relationship with it and care about it”.

That means that for every human desire, there is a collection of behavioristics. So, if I find freedom more important than another person, then, I am more drawn towards the characteristics or behavior of that brand towards that sense.

Know your brand’s role

There are two ways to portrait characteristics, namely as relatable and as necessary.

Relatable characteristics are when aspirations are key to your audience. How do they see their lives? The perfect version of their lives? How can our brand contribute to that perfect version? There are a lot of problems getting the audience to that aspirational life and one of those problems is the problems that you solve.

Necessary characteristics, on the other hand, is when your brand displays the skill/ experience that your audience needs to guide them to their aspirational view of life. The brand acknowledges the pain points and reassures your audience they have the skills/expertise to guide them through that process and bring them to a solution they are looking for. Educational-, service-, and law firm brands usually use this approach.

Best ways to resonate with your audience

1. We are the same

Your personality reassures your audience you are the same as them. Mirror their characteristics, voice and tone.

2. You can be me

Your personality represents everything your audience aspires to be. Through alignment of your brand your audience feels like they arrived at their ideal of success.

3. I can guide you

Your personality represents safety, you need to acknowledge the predicament your audience is in and reassure them you know the path to safety or success. You need to represent what they need and be trustworthy. Demonstrate a high level of expertise and earn their trust.

4. You can be great

Your personality inspires your audience to believe in themselves, so they can achieve what they want in life. Your communication and your personality are motivating and inspirational. Resonating this way, your brand should represent their biggest goals and inspire them to achieve them.

The characteristics you will be displaying through the dominant archetype must be, in a way, how you want to be perceived by the audience (it is possible to have two archetypes, but the second can only play a minor role).

After selecting the archetype, think about the characteristics that will resonate with your audience. These characteristics must be from one archetype and can function as your influencer archetype.

This means:

- The role you will play

- The meaning you will have

- The desires you will evoke

Humans are all hardwired for storytelling. People don’t want information; they want to be taken on a journey.

- Where has your brand come from?

- Where is it going?

- What will happen?

- Tell chapters of you brand, tell the brand story to your audience

Source: The Hero and the Outlaw by Market Mark & Carol Pearson

Stefan Kuijer