As talked about in my previous blog post, having a distinct identity is essential to online success. It raises your visibility and allows you to connect with your customers on a more personal emotional level. So discovering what your brand archetypes are, is central to positioning your company and products in a unique way. There are 12 of them, so in those post, we will discuss two of the 12; The Innocent and the Regular Guy/Gal.
The Innocent: 
This archetype represents the dreamer, young people and simplicity. Their ultimate goal is striving to be free and happy & their biggest fear is to do wrong and reap punishment as a result. Think of Audrey Hepburn in pretty much all of her films or even Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. At their best, they are honest & truly enthusiastic and at their worst they can be boring, irritating and naïve.
The Innocent customer prefers marketing that is straight-talking with no gimmicks and they are naturally drawn to optimistic fun brands.
Innocent brands promise simplicity and innocent focused companies promote themselves as pure, simple and trustworthy. Imagery to express this archetype is natural and not overly fussy. Think of wholesome imagery and straightforward language. Something that brings a warm smile to your face.
Some brands that represent this to the fullest? I’m sure you can think of several, but ones that come to my mind immediately are McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
Did you see McDonald’s Super Bowl ad this year? It was all about “Pay With Lovin” Where McDonald’s employees would randomly select customers and instead of paying for their meal with money, they would urge them to call their mom or child and tell them that they love them or randomly dance with joy or even just give a big hug. Brings a smile to your face doesn’t it? 🙂
One of Coca-Cola’s ads this year is to #MakeItHappy, where the ad is about all the hate on the internet today and how you can make a difference by “Make it Happy” instead. The tech spills his Coca-Cola on servers and the Coca-Cola changes messages to inspire love and acceptance.
So is your brand about love, innocence, geared towards younger audiences or wholesome? If so, keep these major brands in mind when creating your sales copy or when writing newsletters, blog posts, social marketing or creating advertising for your business.
The Regular Guy or Gal:
Down to earth, wants to connect with others and to belong are the traits of this archetype. Their biggest fear is to stand out and to separate themselves. Think of the everyman.. good representations are Homer Simpson and even Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit. At their best they are friendly, emphatic and very reliable, but at their worst they are weak, superficial and are easily swayed.
The Everyman customer prefers the familiar and emotionally invests in brands they trust. They want and need, quality and dependability.
Everyman brands promise belonging, and take pride in their down-to-earth beliefs. They project honesty and dependability and solid virtues. Imagery to express this archetype would be getting in tough with everyday folks, with situations that occur in everyday life and giving a sense of belonging by providing imagery that shows…hey, that happened to me or I want to do that or I want that too!
Some brands that represent this? For me, it would be Home Depot and eBay.
Home Depot’s slogan used to be “Your can do it, We can help”. Which appeals to the everyman, because it gives them a sense of belonging to something. Their slogan now is “More Saving, More Doing”. Which is a more simplistic tagline. It’s straight to the point and provides that everyman customer the sense that they can do it, and at a lower cost.
eBay has had many slogans over the years. Such as; “World’s Online Marketplace”, “Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay”, “Buy it, Sell it, Love it” and “When it’s on your mind, it’s on eBay”. The core of eBay is that anyone can be an online seller and they make it easy to do it. By opening themselves up for anyone to sell products from all over the world, it makes them a huge marketplace for buyers and sellers. This appeals to the everyman, because it gives them a community to belong to, and allows them to work on fulfilling what is everyone’s dream, to make more money as a seller and as a buyer, being able to find pretty much anything they are looking for, and the chance to buy it from another everyman.
So is your brand down-to-earth, dependable and geared towards the guy or gal next door? If so, keep brands like these in mind.
Up next…two more archetypes; The Hero and The Outlaw. CLICK HERE!
