If you’ve been reading this Blog for a while you know I champion storytelling as a prime (socially) sustainable marketing tactic. As an aspiring storyteller I know that only a handful of possible story lines appear in mythology and literature. Archetypes, therefore, interest me greatly, and so did a book about using them in branding.
The Hero and the Outlaw aims to apply archetypal psychology in creating brand identity. With functionality, reliability, convenience, or price no longer sufficing for differentiation, brands must compete on meaning. The best way to create “emotional affinity” through meaning is to use archetypal images to fulfill “basic human desires and motivations and [evoke] deep emotions and yearnings”. The narratives and meanings behind archetypes let customers relate to brands by making brands seem alive.
The authors list 12 archetypes arranged along 4 groups of motivations. Each archetype fulfills a deep-seated need:
- Motivation: stability and control = Archetypes: Creator (craft something new), Caregiver (care for others), Ruler (exert control)
- Motivation: belonging and enjoyment = Archetypes: Jester (have fun), Regular person (be fine with self), Lover (find/give love)
- Motivation: risk and mastery = Archetype: Hero (act courageously), Outlaw (break the rules), Magician (affect transformation)
- Motivation: independence and fulfillment = Archetype: Innocent (retain/renew faith), Explorer (maintain independence), Sage (understand the world)
The biggest problem for brands arises when they fail to deliver on the promise of their story. This hefty volume has that problem, too. The promise: “the first system-ever-for the management of meaning”. What you get is lengthy descriptions of 12 archetypal narratives, with an elementary brand-building process thrown in, and pages upon pages of convoluted copy.
To be fair, the 12 archetypes are useful yardsticks to measure your brand narrative against – you can certainly use them to maintain consistency of your brand story. However, the examples used to back the importance archetype are predominantly ads or ad campaigns. Brands are more than just ads, and ads are weak predictors of brand experience. No measurables are provided to back claims; little proof or evidence are offered to make convincing the case for using archetypes in branding.
A lifetime ago, my PhD application got rejected on the grounds that it was going to be just an enumeration of factors contributing to the observed outcome; the evaluation committee was looking for a causal analysis and a theory. Though I was mad at the time, I learned something valuable from the experience. I see no system or theory in The Hero and the Outlaw; there is theory behind the book’s claims (psychological theories of motivation and human motivation), but the book itself offers none. A categorization is not a theory; a list is not a framework; description is not analysis.
Management of meaning inevitably entails management of expectations. Mine were high for The Hero and the Outlaw, and like Icarus, the ultimate Explorer, they ended in a loss.
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Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson, The Hero and The Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes, New York: McGraw Hill, 2001.
