Exploring the changing role of brand archetypes in customer-brand relationships: Why try to be a hero when your brand can be more?

Abstract

For over 20 years, managers have been encouraged to leverage archetypal meaning to strengthen their brands. Prior research has studied archetypes as universal patterns present in the collective unconscious that trigger an instinctive response in customers, arguing that brands should evoke one archetype at a time. However, recent evidence seems to suggest that the single archetype view proposed in previous work may have lost its relevance in the marketplace. This article responds to calls for further research into brand archetypes by analyzing more than 2,400 brands and the archetypes they evoke in their marketing communications. The current findings support the continued relevance and importance of brand archetypes in marketing, showing that brands connect with customers by consistently evoking specific archetypes. Critically, however, strong brands tend to leverage multiple archetypes at a time rather than just one as previously believed. We explore key implications of our findings for theory and management, discuss avenues for future research, and provide actionable guidelines for managers wishing to leverage archetypal meaning to build strong brands.