Brand Archetypes
Brand archetypes apply Carl Jung’s idea of universal character patterns to brand personality. The framework, popularized by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson in The Hero and the Outlaw, defines twelve recognizable characters (the Sage, the Hero, the Outlaw, the Caregiver, and so on) organized around four core human motivations. Committing to one primary archetype, often shaded with a secondary, gives every downstream decision, voice, storytelling, imagery, even naming, a consistent character to check against. It answers the question a voice guide alone cannot: not just how we sound, but who is speaking.
Twelve universal characters that give a brand a personality people recognize.
One primary archetype, one secondary flavor. Voice, story, and visuals follow.
When to use this
- When the brand sounds competent but generic, and nothing about the personality would be missed if a competitor’s logo were swapped in.
- Before writing a voice and tone guide, so the guide documents a character rather than a list of adjectives.
- During a rebrand or repositioning, to replace subjective adjective debates with a shared vocabulary stakeholders can point to.