How do archetypes influence marketing and sales? You could say that everything does, and we all have certain predispositions. Something that shapes us and says who and what we are, something we all share. We carry genetic information within us, historical events, and the deeds and reactions of our ancestors, everything that moves this world. In marketing, this source base can then hint at which things we will lean towards more than others.
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Archetype, what exactly is it?
An archetype is something that can be viewed on several levels. We can say that it is a so-called primordial pattern. It is a kind of original pattern, tradition, type or model, but also an idea, a thought, a story, an ideal type or a typical example. The dictionary will tell you that it is “a pattern passed on and adopted through upbringing and culture”. This article, however, looks at the archetype from the point of view of patterns of psychological perception. Carl Gustav Jung worked on this theory of archetypes.
Archetypes are sometimes linked to innate instincts.
Archetypes are something that existed even before C.G. Jung. The first mentions of them can be found as far back as ancient philosophy. They are most often used in literature. They are a kind of pattern of character and story that repeats across generations and that we see in different variations in all kinds of situations. Take, for example, the story of Hercules, the hero, who is young and strong and bravely fights injustice. Or the love story of Romeo and Juliet. A symbol of love and sacrifice.
Archetypes in psychology
In his work, Carl Gustav Jung discovered that each of us has a certain innate set of archetypes. These archetypes are stored somewhere deep in our unconscious, and thanks to them we act or experience things in a certain way. The subject of this theory is broad and also fairly complex. It is not easy to describe clearly something that is, by its very nature, elusive. Jung spoke of the so-called collective unconscious, whose messages to us are hard to grasp and describe.
These patterns have been forming since time immemorial. They are certain patterns for specific behaviour and perception that we are not aware of. They are a kind of symbolism held outside our consciousness, which is why it cannot be grasped in concepts. It does, however, have a basis in our attitudes and reactions. In a way, there are certain laws of perception that we share. They have common elements and repeat in different situations with certain variations.
Fun fact: C.G. Jung’s Bollingen Tower became proof that projecting unconscious contents into reality produces visible contents.
For marketing, this finding is essential. It means that the basic archetypes can help us identify which brand can appeal to which customer, and in what way. Or create a message for the customer about a product or a whole brand that is close to their archetype, so that they identify with it more than with the same product or brand that is unaware of this “communication”. Why do people choose “that one” out of two identical products? Archetypes may be the answer.
What is my archetype?
C.G. Jung’s theory suggests that we have a kind of personal Self and a shadow. We create a so-called Persona, men have a feminine part of the psyche and women a masculine one (the Anima and the Animus), and alongside this there are 12 basic archetypes. Becoming one with your archetype is achieved through the so-called process of individuation, which we mention later in the text. But what archetype are we? The following options can help you find out:
- Look through the work of C.G. Jung or Toni Wolff, who published the book Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche, where you will find a detailed description of each archetype. Here, however, a disruptive subjective factor cannot be ruled out.
- Have a psychologist or therapist give you a test
- Pay attention to your dreams and learn how to interpret them
- Try to express your fantasies non-verbally and learn what the symbols mean
- Try one of the tests available online
Brand archetype, what is archetype marketing?
Carol S. Pearson and Margaret Mark studied the work of C.G. Jung and created the so-called brand archetype. Their idea was that brands target our emotions and subconscious. They drew on 12 basic archetypes, each describing one basic human desire. Their methodology became the basis for the strategy of many modern companies. Marketing thus gains insight into customers’ psychology.
In marketing, archetypes are used to identify which one a brand is built on. This tells us what role the brand plays in today’s culture or market. It also allows us to create a brand that serves the needs of consumers in the same way as the archetype does. However, this does not mean that a single brand cannot have several archetypes. That is because each of the brand’s products can also have its own archetype.
A brand archetype acts as a bridge between the consumer’s motivation to buy a product and the sale of that product
Archetypal branding helps target a brand more precisely in its promotion. For example, The Coca Cola company uses the Innocent archetype for Coca Cola drinks, but the Jester archetype for Fanta. This shows that a brand can have different archetypes for its products. Coca Cola is built on the idea that life is simple, it is the eternal optimist. Fanta is playful and cheerful, it is fun. Both products give us their own message, and people with these archetypes identify with it.
Jung’s archetypes take centre stage in marketing
In its promotional communication, today’s marketing uses 12 basic archetypes derived from C.G. Jung’s archetypes. These characters help communicate a brand’s values:
- Creator: their purpose is to create something new, stands for stability (for example, Horbnach, Lego)
- Caregiver: looks after others, stands for stability (for example, Nutrilon)
- Ruler: rules and leads. Also stands for stability (for example, BMW)
- Jester: wants to have a good time, stands for belonging (for example, Fanta)
- Everyman: tries to feel at ease, stands for belonging (for example, Mary Kay)
- Lover: finds and gives love, stands for belonging (for example, Alfa Romeo)
- Hero: acts bravely, stands for risk (for example, Nike)
- Outlaw: breaks the rules, stands for risk (for example, Harley-Davidson)
- Magician: creates transformation, stands for risk (for example, Dell)
- Innocent: preserves and restores faith, stands for independence (for example, Coca Cola)
- Explorer: keeps their independence, so stands for independence (for example, Amazon)
- Sage: understands their world well, stands for independence (for example, Ernst & Young)
The categorisation of archetypes is approached in different ways and interpreted in different contexts. Online, you may also come across specifically male archetypes (hero, sage, boy) or female archetypes (queen, mother, witch). As mentioned above, C.G. Jung stated in his theory that each of us has a masculine and a feminine part of the psyche. Men have the feminine part and women the masculine part.
For example, female archetypes are often categorised as follows:
- Fairy
- Queen
- Shaman (Sorceress)
- Lover
- Mother
- Artist
The Queen archetype
To give you an idea, let us take a closer look at the Queen archetype. The female psyche is diverse and colourful. It has many directions and is very changeable. Yet it, too, has one archetype that dominates it. The Queen represents wholeness. She recognises values and priorities, and she is also independent and strong. She has vision and perspective. This archetype is mature and represents refined femininity. What matters most to her is family, creativity and truth.
Male archetypes are known as:
- King
- Warrior
- Magician
- Lover
The King archetype
As an archetype, the King represents quality and a kind of order. He is no longer confused and wild, he brings stability and focus. He understands and respects feminine energy. He does not fight, he does not create conflict. He is supportive and does not criticise, nor is he oversensitive. He is a good father and husband. He does not look for excuses or shirk responsibility. He is confident in his position and creates a good home. He can handle complicated situations and resolves conflicts with care and reason.
The collective unconscious, a place within us that we cannot perceive
Archetypes are anchored somewhere within us, somewhere we cannot perceive them. According to Jung, this place, which we all share, is called the collective unconscious. Jung believed that there are these “layers”:
- Collective unconscious
- Personal unconscious
- The Self (or essential self)
The unconscious is the area of our psyche that lies outside the sphere of consciousness. It is a part of the psyche. This deeper layer of the psyche was already described by Socrates, who called it an “inner voice”. More generally, we could think of it as instincts or reflexes. Freud called it the subconscious (subliminal or repressed from consciousness). According to Freud, it is rooted, for example, in childhood experiences, but Jung extended it to an area of which a person has no conscious experience.
Our consciousness and unconscious are complementary and compensatory. In other words, they complete and replace each other. Together they form a single psychological whole. Where one weakens, the other grows stronger, and vice versa. According to Jung, various mental disorders arise depending on how consciousness and the unconscious relate to each other. Put simply, consciousness and the unconscious should be in balance. In a well-balanced person, neither of them should dominate.
Individuation as a process of unification
Since the unconscious is part of us just as much as consciousness is, it inevitably “communicates” with us. It tries to speak to us and connect with our consciousness. This process of integrating unconscious content with a person’s conscious self is called individuation. During individuation, the conscious self unites with the unconscious part of the psyche, and in this way we try to understand and come to terms with the existence of the deeper layers of our personality.
The process of individuation can also take place unconsciously. It is linked to life cycles and to the processes of our personal wholeness. However, the content of the unconscious cannot be “grasped” and described in words. To “translate” it into content we can understand more easily, we use dream interpretation, active imagination, or psychological projection onto people or objects. It is this content that can be categorised as archetypes.
The shadow archetype
According to C.G. Jung, the Shadow is the first archetype we encounter on the path of Individuation. It is the part of the psyche that is suppressed, that we see as inferior, insecure and so on. It is part of a kind of inner struggle that perhaps every one of us goes through. A person who suppresses and represses their shadow shows it through negativity towards others. They feel fine themselves, but they take out their fears and insecurities on the people around them.
Carl Gustav Jung, the theory of archetypes
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss physician, psychotherapist and the founder of analytical psychology. In his time, he worked alongside Sigmund Freud. Jung studied the human psyche in connection with dreams, art, mythology and religion. In his study of the psyche, he first identified 8 personality types based on three pairs of opposites, namely:
- extraversion and introversion
- thinking and feeling
- sensing versus intuition.
His work in psychiatry made a huge contribution to modern psychology. He drew his insights from mythological and religious sources, but also from his work with patients. He worked with patients who had rich dreams and fantasies. He let them express their perceptions through drawings, movement, visual means and so on. In these patients, the unconscious was calmed, which led to improvement in therapy. He also found that the patients’ images contained the same recurring mythological symbols.
“The collective unconscious holds as many archetypes as there are ‘typical situations’ and types of behaviour in life.” (Valenta, 2007)
This led him to the theory that the psychological basis of archetypes is formed by the shared features of myths and religious expressions across different cultures. He tried to prove that these mental and psychological testimonies have scientific value. He insisted that his discovery could be verified, because he obtained all his data from collected empirical material. His theory was built on sound scientific data.
