How different motivations shape Brand Archetypes
Familiar Brand Archetypes wheel with their core motivations
What I always miss when coming across articles, videos, opinions, and analyses about the Brand Archetypes may actually be the key to understanding yourself as a business owner.
Do you want to know what that key is?
It is your core motivation.
As you can see from the image attached, there are 12 Brand Archetypes in total.
But there are 4 core motivations, and only within them, certain Archetypes:
1. Structure:
- Caregiver
- Ruler
- Creator
2. Freedom:
- Innocent
- Sage
- Explorer
3. Transformation:
- Magician
- Rebel
- Hero
4. Belonging:
- Lover
- Jester
- Everyman
This is all familiar.
But there is a detail I personally added to this familiar wheel.
Updated Brand Archetypes wheel with my added distinctions: Self, World, Info.
These 3 additional descriptions act as a filter:
- Self (internal focus)
- World (external focus)
- Info (information: abstractly or concretely)
Each of the Archetypes has this filter through which they access their core motivation.
So, let's break it down again:
Structure
- Caregiver - structures the world (external focus), by helping & caring
- Ruler - structures the self (internal), by embodying high standards
- Creator - structures the information (can be abstract or concrete) in a completely new way
Freedom
- Innocent - freedom to be oneself, by various types of embodiment
- Sage - freedom of information, through knowledge/wisdom sharing
- Explorer - to move freely in the world, can be physical or metaphorical
Transformation
- Magician - transforms our common world into a new one with magical experience
- Rebel - wants to transform the information and our notions of what is what
- Hero - goes through a transformation of self and embodies the Hero's journey
Belonging
- Lover - drives belonging to self, embodies it through attraction, love, allure
- Jester - plays with information/notion of belonging, teases in a loving way to spark that sense in a new way
- Everyman - finds or wants to find belonging in the world, evokes a sense of community, and is part of a larger whole
I formed this additional distinction in order to better determine the outcome when working with the Brand Archetypes framework for my workshop "Personality & Visual Direction".
