There are three things that customers value most:
- the quality of what they buy,
- the experience of the service that delivers it, and
- the story of the brand.
While quality and service can cause customers to see the value of a particular business, it is the brand story that makes them loyal.
We may liken branding to visual cues and promotional materials such as logos, but its one true purpose has always been to craft a story no customer could resist.
However, no branding is complete without brand development.
And when brand development is conducted in the same manner as we would conduct character development in novels, we’ll see incredible results.
In this article, we are going to discuss how brand experts use the Jungian personality archetype of the Warrior to create emotion-provoking brand identities.
Emotion Is the Key to Success
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers for a second. For that matter, you may put yourself in anyone’s shoes. Imagine yourself standing in the supermarket in front of a shelf.
You are trying to choose between two products.
One has a generic name, generic packaging, and you have seen the commercials but they only displayed the manner in which the product should be used.
The other product has a packaging you are sure you have seen many, many times. You can reminisce about a particular advertisement that took you on a journey. By the time it finished, you felt as though you’d lived a thousand lifetimes.
You felt as though you had achieved something, regardless of the fact that it was only a commercial.
Which one would you be more likely to choose?
In all likelihood, it would be the second product. You had already formed an emotional bond with it.
And therein lies the brilliance of branding; it tells a story customers can relate to. It brings them closer to your product than your competitors’.
So when they have to make a decision, they will go with the product whose brand they trust.
However, not all customers can deeply relate to the same things. And for that, expert brand marketers use Jungian archetypes.
The Importance of Brand Archetypes
Every brand wants to communicate with a different audience. Some, like Harley-Davidson, speak to the troublemakers. Their customers want to raise hell, and so do they.
Carl Jung, the psychologist, realized why that was the case. There are certain behavioral patterns that can be used to describe motivations for performing certain actions.
And when brands employ the knowledge of motivational factors, they can deeply connect with their customers.
There are 12 brand archetypes:
- The Sage
- The Lover
- The Hero
- The Everyman
- The Creator
- The Ruler
- The Caregiver
- The Outlaw
- The Explorer
- The Magician
- The Jester
- The Innocent
Each archetype describes behaviors and motivations pertinent to a certain segment of the human population. Therefore, brands can shape their identities according to the archetypes their customers (desire to) embody.
And when brands want to attract customers that value quality and excellence, they shape their brand identity according to the Warrior brand archetype.
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The Warrior Brand Identity
The Warrior, also known as the Hero or the Champion, is an identity that, quite admirably, wants to improve the world.
The Warrior brand archetype is not afraid of overpromising; it always delivers.
In terms of brand identity, Warrior brands are always willing to go one step further to satisfy their customers and provide excellent service they could not find anywhere else.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Warrior brands are capable of capturing significant market share because they are better than their competitors.
As in stories, so in life: people love heroes and warriors.
Consider BMW and their 5 Series commercial featuring Clint Eastwood’s son. The main message of the commercial was made to inspire:
“It doesn’t matter what you do in life, just be the best at it.”
Warrior brands strive to become the masters of what they do through hard work. They apply themselves completely or, to put it colloquially, they give their one hundred percent.
As such, they attract like-minded customers.
Who Trusts the Warrior?
The Warrior brand oft speaks to customers who crave to feel like successes themselves.
If you consider Nike, a brand which had changed their name post-incorporation to the name of the Greek goddess of victory, and their customers, you will notice a particular type:
People who want to feel strong, powerful; people who may be the underdogs, but they have a strong desire to prove themselves and come out as winners.
Their brand strategy puts customers first, and they make them feel like the heroes of their own stories.
How to Use the Warrior Brand Archetype
Businesses can emulate the Warrior by:
- Using direct, motivational language
- Speaking to the ego of the customers, and their innermost desire to come out as victors and overcome any obstacles in their paths
- Romanticizing courage, discipline, and ambition through visual and written materials
And when customers have tasted glory through a company’s branding, they will come back for more without fail.
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