Why would you want to connect with your customers on an emotional level and influence their intuition?

The answer is simple: it’s not enough to be different these days.

You really need to make people emotionally invested.
They need to feel their way to your brand.
They need to feel your brand is for them.
They need to feel they want to participate in your brand’s community.

There are many tips all over the internet on how to do this. From making your brand “be like you” because “people buy from people” to trying some questionable mind tricks to persuade people to buy from you.

Don’t get me wrong: I do know people buy from people. And I do believe your brand should be like you (kind of).

It’s just not so simple as some people make it.

 

 

See, your brand should have personality and it should be personable.

People should be able to recognise your brand’s personality and understand it on a subconscious level. This personality should be consistent with certain personality types we as species have evolved to understand and recognise.

It shouldn’t be simply based on you as a person though. This is a quick recipe for a vague message and confusing your audience.

Also, we definitely can use “mind tricks” (or rather psychology) to be able to trigger certain feelings, desires and behaviours.

It’s all good if you do it in an ethical way and avoid overdoing it, so to not be perceived as a “car salesman” – none of us wants that!

There’s one tool I love to use though that connects all these things in a cohesive, easy to digest and use way: it’s Brand Archetypes.

This is a tool used by big agencies working for brands like Dior, Chanel or ZARA, as well as some small ones who have discovered its power (this can be you!).

Not only does it help you create a personable brand people can relate to (even if it’s not based on YOU), but also use psychology to attract people, rather than trick them, and make your brand irresistible to them.

After using this tool to advance my brand as well as my clients, we’ve had people say to us:

“I don’t know why but I’m really attracted to your brand”.

We’ve had our clients attract celebrities to buy from their brands even though they have been struggling to stand out and build trust before:

 

This is exactly what Brand Archetypes used right are capable of doing.

Are you interested to learn more now?

 

Psychology of perception

Psychology of perception and emotional branding is something still quite new in the small business space and something I am really passionate about.

I have been interested in building a perception since I couldn’t find a job as a designer years and years ago. Yes, just a few years before I landed a senior designer job at Jimmy Choo London HQ, I didn’t get any answers to my CV.

I had skills to land a job, I just didn’t know how to present myself and how to influence others to stand out in a SEA of other applicants.

After a while, I invested in a coach who helped me understand the other side – the side of the employer. That in turn made me super interested in the psychology behind that.

I absolutely geeked out about it. I spent over £20k on training, hundreds of hours on reading books and listening to podcasts to learn how to build a perception of then me, as a brand. How to be seen the way I want to be seen and really take control over it.

Then when I did land jobs as a designer at top fashion brands I saw first hand how branding influences this perception.

They all used this concept in their brand strategy.

Brand Archetypes are a great way to use psychology to tap into your clients and customers emotions and influence them, help you focus your brand WHILE still staying true to your values.

So if you can relate to any of these:

• your brand doesn’t reflect who you are
• you don’t know how to meet customers where they are and engage them
• you are being pulled in so many directions that you can’t narrow down your choices of visuals, niche, or messaging
• you don’t know how to build a consistent brand on social media, so people relate to it and engage with it
• you attract the wrong customers
• you can’t figure out exactly who your target market is and how to speak to them
• your conversion rate is very low
• your engagement is low

and you feel like you need to rebrand again and again…
…like you HUSTLE but never get the MOMENTUM..
… or like you are screaming into a VOID…

Brand Archetypes will give you incredible clarity and POWER.

See, these problems are all due to the lack of strategy and consistency within your brand. It may not have consistent personality, so people get confused and end up not connecting with it.

Or it may not have consistency between the personality, its mission (and promise) and it’s brand experience or offers.

Either way, these problems can only be fixed by a solid brand strategy.

Brand strategy is so much more than your visuals, though.

It’s your customer service, products and offers selection, pricing, messaging, website, packaging, attitude, marketing and so much more.

Think of the of this way: there’s brand message and positioning and there’s customer’s interpretation of it. Where they OVERLAP – here is where the perception of the brand really is.

Different people can perceive different brands differently. That’s why its so important to only focus on YOUR ideal people and not worry about the rest.

 

It all is influenced by your brand personality.

To really connect with our ideal customers and touch their hearts we need to tell a story.

We need to start selling and experience, not the product or service.

Brand Archetypes help you figure out what that actually is.

 

How Brand Archetypes where created

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (who worked with Sigmund Freud) noticed common themes showing up in his patients behaviour. He developed analytical psychology and Archetypes that are now used for branding.

Those are themes that show up in all of us and we all understand them subconsciously.

That’s why it’s so powerful.

Since ancient times and ancient characters like Afrodite or Hector, to more modern like Luke Skywalker, Lady GaGa or Elsa from Frozen. They are follow these themes and soon you will be able to identify them.

Brand Archetypes help us focus and build a consistent character, but that’s not all.

Brand Archetypes help us differentiate our brands from others in our niche. You can use them to have an unique take on your niche, build a different personality.

For example let’s compare Cadbury’s chocolate to Snickers. Both are chocolate, but they have totally different personalities where Cadbury is all about pleasurable moment (Lover archetype) and Snickers helps you get going again (Hero archetype).

Even though this is the same niche, they are totally different brands.

Or brands Like Tresseme (Girl Next Door Archetype), L’Oreal (Magician) or Magnum Ice-cream (Lover Archetype, all about pleasure).

We all have goals, motivations, fears and personalities.

Those things can be organised into 12 Brand Archetypes.

We’ve got 4 core differentiators between Archetypes groups and those are the main goal of the archetype:

1. Provide Structure with Caregiver, Ruler and Creator
2. Connect to others: with Girl Next Door, Lover and Joker
3. A spiritual journey with Innocent, Sage and Explorer,
4. and Leave a mark with Rebel, Magician and Hero.

Even though we group archetypes in 4 groups with a similar goal, there are different ways each of the archetypes go about them.

Goal #1: To provide structure

This means getting rid of chaos, create some kind of a process, structure to follow. Inside this group we’ve got:

Caregiver – caring for others

The Caregiver derives meaning from being of service and making a change in the world by helping others. They often volunteer, give back to their communities and are drawn to people and brands who are highly ethical and give back themselves.

The Caregiver is deeply loving, compassionate and forgiving. They care about others so deeply and want to be helpful so much, that often, they forget about themselves, feeling neglected and out of their power.

Are you a Caregiver? Find out here.

Ruler – taking charge

The Ruler is called to put a stop to the chaos around them, take control of their lives and do so by exerting their power.

If your brand is the Ruler, you help your customers become Rulers and use their authority and experience to influence change.

Find out if you’re a Ruler here.

Creator – honing skills and creating a process

The Creator is all about expressing themselves and bringing their vision to reality. They love creating something that did not exist before and get great satisfaction from both the process as well as the outcome. They want to leave a legacy, create something of lasting value.

If your brand is the Creator, you want to bring your vision to reality and be able to do so by following the process you worked hard on and using skills you spent years to hone.

Find out if you’re a Creator here.

As you can see all of these archetypes provide order and structure but go about them differently.

Caregiver is of service to others, hoping to make a change this way. Great Caregiver brand examples are a UNICEF or Aveeno.

Ruler takes charge and control to build a wealthy and prosperous society, community, family or business. HUGO BOSS, Microsoft, Ralph Lauren are some of the Ruler brands.

Creator focuses on his process and creates structure out of this process. Max Factor, LEGO or Adobe are some of the Creator brands.

Goal #2: Connect to others

Girl Next Door – it’s all about belonging to a group

Girl Next Door doesn’t need to stand out too much, she doesn’t want to. After all, belonging, being a part of the community and connection with others is where she derives most meaning. She thrives building authentic, long-lasting relationships with her customers and clients and prides herself in being approachable, trustworthy and down-to-earth.

Examples of Girl Next Door Archetype are brands like FENTY Beauty, Aerie or GAP.

 

Joker – having good time with others

The Joker loves disrupting order, making jokes and being unpredictable. It’s his way of making a change in the world and expressing themselves. You love helping people by treating even difficult subjects less seriously, therefore making the world easier to cope with.

Have a look at Flower Beauty (by Drew Barrymore) or Betches for Joker brands examples.

 

Lover – intimacy, connection, realness, vulnerability

The Lover wants a true connection not only with their lover but their family and friends. Unlike the Girl Next Door, Lover focuses on a deep, intimate connection with each person at a time, rather than the whole group.

Great examples of this Lover brands are Magnum Ice Cream, Coco Mademoiselle or Hallmark.

Goal #3: Spiritual journey

Innocent – making life simple

The Innocent main goal in life is to be happy and spread happiness. They do not want to focus on anything negative, make things too complicated or difficult. After all, happiness is just one choice away.

Examples: Honest Company or Girlfriend Collective.

 

Sage – searching for truth

The Sage spend their whole time searching for the truth, learning and digging deep into the things they care about. For them it’s not only about education, but it’s also about wisdom. Understanding the world and its many secrets.

Have a look at Proven Skincare or Kensho Health for Sage brands examples.

 

Explorer – searching for freedom, restlessness

The Explorer never stops searching. Whether they are searching for themselves or for new challenges, activities or experiences, they are always on the run.

Explorers hate stability, which is boring for them. They are restless types always searching, always exploring, always trying new things. They need to feel free and this freedom is something they are always drawn to.

Great examples are Starbucks or Beauty Bay.

Goal #4: Leaving a mark

Magician – master the universe, bring about a transformation

The Magician is all about change, transformation, renewal, and metamorphosis. They find ways to create something that is truly magical out of nothing or a bunch of mess, leaving others mesmerized.

Even though The Magician can create something truly amazing, there’s nothing magical about how they get there. They hone their skills, create a strong process and apply their deep knowledge to get the results their customers were only dreaming of but weren’t sure they were possible for them (often completely exceeding their expectations). They often hear that they’ve absolutely changed someone’s life or business.

Beautiful examples of Magician brands are Mindvalley or Charlotte Tilbury.

 

Rebel – break the status quo, shock and disturb

The Rebel is all about destroying what’s not working and doing things their own way, often shocking others in the process.

The Rebel loves breaking the rules and doesn’t mind shocking others or getting attention. They are not seeking attention though. For them, being stuck in something that’s not working or following someone else’s footsteps is simply too hard to bear. They are individualists, strong spirits who forge their own way and often create revolutions.

We love Jean Paul Gaultier or NARS Cosmetics as examples of Lover brands.

 

Hero – conquer, achieve and rise to thechallenge

The Hero inspires us to become better, think bigger and get stronger.

The Hero is disciplined, driven, often very competitive. Strong both physically and mentally, they do not shy away from challenges that lay ahead.

Of course, a great example is Nike or Maybelline New York.

Those 12 archetypes are all a bit different, but I’m sure you’d recognise these themes from your life, movies, companies or even from your own longings or behaviours.

When archetypes activate in us?

When we have a certain longing or desire.

When we want to experience a pleasurable moment, or intimate moment, Lover activates in us.

We can then seek love or buy ourselves a Magnum ice-cream and indulge ourselves (don’t tell us you never did it!).

When our business seems chaotic and we don’t know how to grow it so it’s wealthy and powerful, the Ruler archetype will activate in us and our longing will be for structure, control and taking charge. For stepping up to be a leader.

When something doesn’t work in our life we may feel a deep need for a change, a transformation. That’s where Magician is going to activate in us.

As you can see, it’s not like we’re one archetype all our lives – different archetypes live in us, sometimes multiple at the same time.

Your brand’s goal is to get focused and choose what archetype are you so you can attract people in whom its activated and serve them in that capacity.

Let that really sink in.

Your brand archetype is the same as your audience core desire.

Let me give you a few examples, to illustrate it better.

if you help your clients transform their lives, your brand is a Magician. It’s as simple as that.

Don’t be a Rebel, Caregiver or a Ruler.

Focus on being a Magician, talk about the transformation, the change, the empowerment, the unlocking of potential and you will attract people who are looking for that.

A great example of a Magician brand is Tony Robbins, or L’Oreal – both companies sell products that are to bring a total change and results.

 

If your brand sells jewellery to help women feel beautiful, attractive and treat themselves – you’re the Lover.

Your core audience’s desire is to be more attractive, attract love or attention, and therefore experience intimacy and connection.

Lover brand is also about the realness, closeness and vulnerability. So if your brand helps people experience that, you’re Lover too.

Great examples of Lover brands are Aerie – clothing brand or Dove cosmetics brand – both all about self-acceptance and imperfection.

 

Maybe your is all fun and relaxed like Joker – bring your customers fun moments!

Don’t suddenly change into a caregiver or worse… a Ruler. Your audience wants fun from your brand and this is when they will come to you. A great example of this kind of brand is Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore (we LOVE).

It’s a fun brand and it doesn’t even try to be serious – we don’t expect it from it! That would dilute their brand.

How to influence the GUT feeling customers have about your brand

Literally nobody teaches this to small businesses and all big brands are using this concept.

Let me get a little geeky on you, okay?

Our brain have 2 sides: logical and emotional. They don’t communicate well together, meaning they speak different languages.

If you want someone to make a decision “from the heart”, you can’t speak to their logical side – because it’s not going to be able to tap into emotions. It also needs a different kind of persuasion.

You need to tap into the emotional side and speak a language of symbols, feelings and hunches.

Those hunches give us GUT feelings which we often believe A LOT MORE than our logical side.

Just remind yourself when was the last time you made a decision from the heart: you did something that FELT right. How did it feel? Did you regret it?

I’m sure NOT.

Whereas when we make a decision using our logical side we may make a good choice but we always seem to wonder what if…don’t we?

Did you ever experience that?

Did you see the difference between those 2 types of decision making?

Remind yourself this feeling for a moment.

It is different when you make decisions from the heart, isn’t it?

It feels safer, even though it’s less analytical and data based.

To create a gut feeling you MUST tap into emotions.

That’s why brand archetypes are so great: because we all unconsciously understand them.

If you assume an archetype and are consistently building your brand on it, your customers will unconsciously understand what type of brand you are and therefore have this “gut feeling” about it.

It’s as simple as that.

You tap into the unconscious and therefore into the emotions. That’s how you use emotional branding: charge your messaging with the right words that speak to the right people.

And how do you know what turns your audience ON? Well, using Brand Archetypes you are certain of their goals, motivations and longings. Then you can use them to connect with them on this emotional level.

The secret to tapping into your customers mind (without them knowing it!) is…

Yes, you guessed it: Brand Archetypes.

By speaking directly to your customers main goals and motivations (like getting structure, or leaving a mark) and their chosen way of bringing that about (through taking charge or creating/following a solid process, or breaking the status-quo) you suddenly are speaking their mind!

You will hear from your customers things like:

I don’t know why but I am attracted to your brand.

I can’t explain it but I know your brand is for me.

I can’t stop thinking about your brand.

I don’t know why but I chose your brand over XYZ.

Have you ever had people tell you this?

That is the power of taping into your customers mind but most importantly: feelings.

That’s what will make them feel your brand is right for them, and therefore irresistible.

How to use Brand Archetypes to make your brand irresistible

• Assume an archetype perfect for your brand: it’s the same as your audience core desire. If you’re not sure of it or it’s still a big vague, You can try an exercise to get clarity on this: just ask yourself what do you customers want as it relates to your brand? And when you get an answer ask “so they can…” and do this multiple times until you get to the core motivation, core desire. Take our free 1-min quiz and find out which one are you.

• Be consistent and don’t dilute your brand: once you assume a brand archetype align your whole brand to it: change your messaging, visuals, the way you showcase products on your website, pricing and even look at your offers and programs and see – are they designed to help my audience with their core desire? is the container right? is the positioning right? because often there could be a lot of inconsistency here.

• Speak often about your brand main goal – therefore your customers main goal. And act accordingly – stay consistent with your messaging, actions products, offers and pricing.

• create a brand experience your customers want – whether is to gain control, disrupt their community or business niche, or bring about a total transformation: design your brand experience around it and inject this motivation into every step of the way!

• stop selling your products or offers and what they contain, start selling the experience. So instead of talking about how many videos or workbooks is there inside your course, talk about the transformation and RESULT they are going to get from it. How will it feel?!

• Instead of talking about your cosmetics or jewellery products and what they are made of talk about how it feels to wear them or use them.

• put your your ideal customers desires first – before any new post on socials, email, new page or blog post, or product or offer – ask yourself: will it strengthen my brand? is it aligned with my archetype and their desire? Will it bring them closer to their goal?

• package and position your products or offers to suit your customers particular point of view – remember the example of Cadbury chocolate vs. Snickers? Both are chocolate with nuts, but they are positioned totally differently so attract different type of customer, wanting to experience different things.

My desire is for you to become a powerful and confident Creative Director of your brand.

I want to you confidently take the ownership of how people perceive your brand and skilfully influence that.

Because I know your brand has something incredible to offer and I can’t stand the thought of it being ignored just because you don’t have the skills to make it seen.

Discover which Brand Archetype are you and tap into its power to make your brand irresistible!