Become Your Own Brand Archetype

The best thing about archetypes is not understanding them, but discovering how to become one. Illustration: Matt Craven

It has become standard for marketing and communications pros to spin psychologist Carl Jung’s wheel of archetypes, hoping to land on an appropriate story model for their brand. That’s great. But here’s how to level up — the real marketing objective should be to become your own archetype, right?

How is this possible? Here’s a mythic example: Carl Jung himself pointed to the Greek adventure tale of Jason and the Argonauts, to help him illustrate the hero’s journey.

Thing is, there is evidence that this archetypical story actually happened (minus the Greek gods). Understanding this might broaden the field of vision on your own brand.

Quick review. German psychologist Carl Jung established the importance of the sapiens collective unconscious, a repository of symbolic imagery that is an essential part of human psychology. It’s the human birthright.

Jung’s supporters identified Jungian archetypes (like the Hero, Caregiver and Sage) — templates that have become relevant for creating brands. By using signs and symbols that can tap into our audience’s unconscious people can source deep emotive connections.

The human mind has its own history and retains traces left from previous steps in sapiens development Artist: Howard Finster