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.

Belief built around a powerful narrative is deeply Jungian. But the root code for building such narratives is primal branding.

The Ultimate Destiny Is To Become Your Own Archetype

Possible? Maybe. Early on, we uncovered a living example of myth.

The Australian Wool Board is responsible for about 25% of global wool production and represents over 30,000 wool growers in Australia. They are home to the finest wool on the planet: Extra Fine Merino Wool.

Thanks to the Wool Board’s chief executive Brenda McGahan and consultant Lori Sutej, we were hired to re-vision Extra Fine Merino Wool in the U.S.A. Early on, McGahan and team explained to us just how Extra Fine Merino Wool came to earn its reputation as the finest wool in the world.

Merino sheep have been around for centuries, they explained. In Medieval times, understanding that underhanded merchants might try to stuff bales within ships loaded with wool with scratchy, lesser quality wool, merchants buying wool by the boatload had their wives sleep naked overnight amongst the wool bales. If the spouse enjoyed a luxurious night’s sleep, the merchant family was assured they were buying the genuine article (and avoided being “fleeced”). (One of Merino wool’s features is that it is soft as cashmere and can be worn comfortably against the skin; unlike cashmere — which stretches when wet and over time — Merino fibers spring back to their original shape.)

Merino was sought after by Renaissance Italian weavers to produce the finest Italian cloth. From the Enlightenment to modern times, they sold the extra fine “material” to be cut and stitched into expensive garments in fashion centers including Milan, Paris, London.

Here Comes The Myth. In prehistory, Merino sheep did not exist in Australia, but grazed in the hills of Asia Minor. Merino wool was so legendary it was known as the Golden Fleece. According to Greek myth, Jason and his band of Argonauts endured a series of adventures as they sought — and eventually stole — the Golden Fleece. (Historical note: Jason’s shipmates included Orpheus, Heracles, the winged Boreads and a dozen others. His marriage to Medea was the subject of playwright Euripides’s Greek tragedy Medea.)

Notice how some of this sounds like cliche — which is exactly because its historical relevance has been imbedded in our brains for thousands of years. Over the centuries Merino flocks traveled East to West, pasturing from Asia Minor across the top of the African continent. Merinos accompanied the Moors when they invaded Spain in 711 AD and, by the 1800’s, Merino sheep were the private flocks of the King of Spain: no one was permitted to wear Extra Fine Merino wool, except as a gift from the royal family. Merino wool was still the golden fleece.

Fast Forward To The Napoleanic Wars. From 1808 to1814, the British invaded Spain in order to outflank Napoleon’s French army. Headed for Waterloo, British troops intercepted the Spanish King’s flocks and, recognizing good woolies when they saw them — seized the Merino sheep as their own.

Understanding the worth of this war prize (and the tendency to repatriate stolen treasures after peace treaties were signed) British commanders shipped the contraband Merinos as far away as possible. In the early 1800s, this meant the distant shores of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

These geographies are where Extra Fine Merino Wool — now branded Smartwool®, WoolX, Merino and other names and used in Icebreaker, Allbirds, Nordstrom’s products — is produced today.

Archetypes Outrun Time. The fact that Psychologist Carl Jung mentions the myth of Jason and the Argonauts as an example of the archetypal hero’s journey, makes this all the more interesting.

French social anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss came to a similar conclusion as he struggled to understand the structure and meaning of myth. Present phenomena are transformations of earlier structures and infrastructures, he declared, “the structure of primitive thoughts is present in our minds.”

The power of archetypes is that they retain meaning over time. It’s hard to depict the fuzzy beginnings of archetypes: exactly when and how did the character types of the Hero, Caregiver and Sage take shape? We don’t know and we may never know.

According to Jungian psychologist James Hillman, our minds are a psychological fantasy. By consciously using story and symbol, we weave our own fantasies and create our own reality. Together, these elements create a strategic brand narrative that satisfies the parts of our brain that make us feel safe, make rational sense, and influence preference.

Jung’s archetypes helps us understand the psychological underpinnings of Primal Branding, the source code for building mythic brands. Spread your creation story, reasons to believe, symbols, rites, lexicon, leader — and acknowledge the nonbelievers, outsiders, pagans who do not believe, across social, digital and traditional media and you can attract those who believe what you believe.

Consciously, we may try to ignore these signals as intelligent consumers. But, unconsciously, they become a warm bath of affirmation, trust, vision, belonging and kinship.

Can Mickey Mouse ears, the Nike swoosh, I New York, Miyazaki, Kusama, Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe”, Levi’s blue jeans or John Lennon ultimately become lodged in our psychic DNA? The key is to build stories worth retelling.

As Homer once declared, “Fate controls all.”

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Patrick Hanlon, Author of Primal Branding

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In 1924, Philip Morris introduced Marlboro cigarettes as a brand for women, milder and filtered to contrast with the stronger unfiltered brands smoked by most men. The filter was even printed with a red band to hide lipstick marks. The original tagline for the brand was ‘Mild as May’.

By 1954, the world had changed, and smokers reconsidered their love of unfiltered cigarettes. This led Marlboro to consider how to leverage its safer filtered cigarette to a wider audience, leading to the creation of the ‘Marlboro man’ by Leo Burnett. The iconic image of the Marlboro man led to one of the greatest U-turns in branding history, and was found in response to Leo Burnett’s question, ‘What’s the most masculine symbol that you can think of?’ to which one of his writers said ‘a cowboy’. The ad campaign was launched in 1955 and within two years had increased US sales from 5 billion to 20 billion. Marlboro was the leading global brand by 1972 and is still the number one cigarette brand.

The new image appealed to both men and women, embodying independence, defiance, adventure and authenticity, a combination of Explorer and Rebel, drawing on the mythology of the US Wild West frontier. The imagery taps into human universal themes, creating connections to strongly embedded associations with the American West and the cowboy films and TV shows were popular as the brand grew.

Jerome Bruner wrote that in classic information theory a message is considered informative ‘if it reduces alternative choices’. The power of archetypes is to access elaborate networks of associated memories that come from our cultural as well as personal memories. When these networks are aligned with our individual goals, they help us to close down other choices and focus on the brands that are most mentally available, as long as they are physically available to us at the right time.

The secret to building brand essence is to understand the impact of sense, symbol and story on each customer, and their connection to the customer’s values. Does the sensory experience of the brand provide consistent patterns? Are brand symbols sending the right signals to customers? And does the brand personality tell the right story?

Successful brands build brand experiences, brand symbols and brand stories anchored by archetypes that consistently reflect their core essence.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Neil Gains, excerpted from his book, Brand Essense: Using sense, symbol and story to design brand identity, with permission from Kogan Page publishing.

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Archetypes are universal ideas, experiences, and images, those that all people can understand no matter where they are from, no matter in which culture they are raised. Carl Jung was an important student of archetypes and much of today’s thinking on the subject emanated from Jung. The hero, the warrior, the ruler, the lover, the trickster, all of these archetypes are in every continent’s myths and legends. The universal depiction of the mother and child is another, a pervasive subject in painting and sculpture depicted in thousands of artworks, for it, too, is a recurring life pattern and image across all cultures.

Jung pointed out that archetypes like the mother and child icon repeatedly show up not only in the arts, but also in our dreams. In fact it is the projecting quality of our subconscious body intelligence that is responsible for the repeating patterns of archetypes in art. This suggests that archetypes are innate not only in human culture, but deep within each one of us. Today, they also appear frequently in the media, in film, and in advertising, and thus they are essential elements of branding and brand development. The most successful of them imprint messages in our individual and collective unconscious.

We see this clearly in George Lucas’ Star Wars saga. Lucas quite intentionally drew upon the profound analysis developed in Joseph Campbell’s masterful study of mythology and folklore, The Hero of a Thousand Faces, which describes many of the vital archetypes that appear across the ages, including the classical model of the hero that is embodied in Star Wars.

And while Luke Skywalker occupies a heroic place in the Star Wars universe, the point of an archetype is that it can apply to all of us, not just the exceptional, unique, or chosen.”

Excerpted from Soulful Branding – Unlock The Hidden Energy in Your Company & Brand,  Jerome Conlon, Moses Ma & Langdon Morris, FutureLab Press 2015. This book presents a deep paradigm shift in what the art of marketing & branding can become at the highest level. Few companies have ventured this high up the brand pyramid.

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Following are my favorite brand archetypes:

The pioneer – one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise or progress
Famous pioneers: Henry Ford, George Eastman, Steve Jobs, Patagonia, Tesla Motors

The rebel – one who rises in opposition or armed resistance against an established government or ruler
Famous rebels: Ron Paul, Apple, Occupy Wall Street, Edward Snowden

The defender – one who makes or keeps others safe from danger, attack or harm
Famous defenders: John Muir, Jane Goodall, The Nature Conservancy, Tea Party, Boy Scouts of America, ASPCA

The savior – one who frees or delivers others from confinement, violence, danger or evil
Famous saviors: Jesus Christ, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders

The achiever – one who brings to a successful end, follows through, accomplishes
Famous achievers: Titleist, FootJoy, General Electric

The magician/wizard – one who practices magic or who displays amazing skill or accomplishment
Famous magicians/wizards: Merlin, Nikola Tesla, Lucent Technologies, Samsung Electronics

The guide – one who assists others to travel through or reach a destination in an unfamiliar territory
Famous guides: Google, Wikipedia, TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon

Each brand archetype has a unique set of values, fears and desires. Given this, it also has specific strengths and weaknesses. For instance, while defenders are deeply convicted, resolute and unwavering in their beliefs. And while they strongly believe in justice, their weakness is that they do not always discern shades of grey and they are often slow to adapt to a changed environment. Other archetypes include advocate, alchemist, artist, athlete, caregiver, chief, creator, explorer, healer, hero, innocent, lover, martyr, mentor, mother, muse, outlaw, perfectionist, philanthropist, poet, politician, prince, regular guy/gal, ruler, sage, scientist, servant, trickster/fool, underdog and workhorse.

When positioning your brand, identify which archetype best describes your brand’s driving force or motivation.

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Two Examples of Effective Archetypes

One long-standing example of such success dates back to 1955 with the advent of the Marlboro Man. The campaign featured an archetypal rugged, straight-shooting, unpretentious American cowboy. Within a short time after its debut on the airwaves and in the print media, sales jumped by over 5,000 percent.
Men identified intrinsically with the cowboy archetype.

Another is the fun-loving happy clown archetype embodied in Ronald McDonald. He first appeared on the scene in 1963 and was instrumental in propelling the small hamburger franchise into one of the world’s largest multinational corporations. Kids and families believed that McDonald’s was a happy place, a place of fun and good food.

Additional examples abound; however to understand the purpose for using these archetypes, and the reasons for their success, we must examine the psychology behind them.

The Collective Unconscious and Human Behavior

Psychology is the study of the human psyche, the mind’s role in and affect upon human behavior. It is a science, and contrary to what some would have us believe, no science is perfect. To understand psychology, one must accept that the frontier of the human mind remains largely unexplored.

Jung’s theories of archetypes relate to his theory of the existence of a collective unconscious. Another famous student of the psyche, Sigmund Freud, affirmed that each person has his or her own personal unconscious mind or mental state. Jung expanded this by asserting that in addition to that state, all humans shared a deeper state, which he called the collective unconscious. It is in this realm that one finds primordial thought patterns and instincts that evolved in the human psyche over the period of human physical evolution.

While this all sounds less scientific and more mystical, note that Jung considered the human psyche to be primarily spiritual in nature, not unlike the Buddhist concept of mind.

Jung’s archetypes are thus patterns of thought and associated behaviors that exist in every human being. Deep within the collective unconscious, symbolism triggers the association of the primordial thought and behavior pattern and that in turn affects a conscious behavior. This is similar to the way in which a real hypnotist can affect behavior by reaching into the darkness of one’s subconscious mind and planting a suggestion there.

Symbolism and Its Effect on Behavior

This is also related to the proven effectiveness of subliminal suggestion or subliminal advertising, wherein suggested behaviors are passed before the human senses at a rate too fast to be perceived by the conscious mind. While some quarters refute that subliminal advertising really works, consider that on January 24, 1974 the U.S. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) announced that the use of such advertising was “contrary to the public interest” and banned stations from using subliminal advertising with the threat of revoking the broadcast license of any offending station.

Consider further that subliminal advertising has evolved into what we now call product placement advertising. The difference here is that the suggestive images appear at a level just within conscious perceptibility. The human eye may or may not see the Pepsi machine in the background as the action hero blasts his way out the train station.

In the 1988 blockbuster movie DIE HARD, one of the thieves provides a moment of comic relief by reaching under a concession counter, picking up a Nestlé’s Crunch candy bar, and eating it. As he reaches under the glass counter, the audience sees the familiar packaging of Wrigley’s, Mars, Nestlé’s, Hershey’s, Planter’s and other candies and snacks. Though no studies exist for that scene, it is plausible to believe that some percentage of the audience felt compelled to join in with a trip to the theater concession stand.

Personify Your Brand’s Archetype

That images drive human behavior is unquestioned. One sees a late night pizza advertisement and within minutes is on the phone placing an order. The question is how does the public perceive your images and do they reach into the collective consciousness and evoke the desired behavior?

Jung defined twelve archetypes, but in reality, there are an infinite number of them. It is incumbent upon the brand manager to determine the correct archetype for the brand and to provide a physical body for that conceptual entity.

Believing that the archetypes held some intrinsic, almost spirit-like energy, he reasoned that they form “power predispositions which can, when activated, govern human behavior patterns.”

Jung weighed the power of emotions on human behavior quite heavily. Successful brands utilize symbolism, the personification of the archetype, to tap into the human emotions that lay buried deep within the collective unconscious and evoke an associated behavior.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Alisha Webb at Datadial, a London based marketing agency.

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