Episode 126: Unlocking the Power of Brand Archetypes: How to Attract, Connect, and Convert

Most businesses make the same mistake with their branding: trying to appeal to everyone. The result? A watered-down message that gets lost in the noise. If you want to build a brand that stands out, you need to own your voice, embrace your brand archetype, and create messaging that attracts the right people while repelling the wrong ones.

In this episode, we’re breaking down what brand archetypes are, why they matter, and how to use them to create a brand that is clear, compelling, and instantly recognizable. We’re talking about why consistency is key, how to stop second-guessing your messaging, and what it really takes to build a brand that people connect with.

What we’re covering in this episode:

• Why your brand archetype is the foundation of your messaging
• How to stop diluting your voice and start attracting the right audience
• The role of consistency in building brand trust
• Why playing it safe will keep you small (and how to break out of that cycle)
• Practical steps to refine and own your brand voice

Your brand isn’t just about what you sell—it’s about the experience, emotions, and identity you create for your audience. If your messaging feels scattered or unclear, this episode will help you take back control.

Join the Conversation:
What’s your brand archetype? Let us know how you’re using it to shape your messaging. Tag us or send a DM—we want to hear from you.

Take the Quiz!

What’s your brand archetype? Take this short quiz and find out!

Already know your archetype? Download our guide: Non-Traditional Ways to Apply Archetypes to Branding

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Lynn Howard

Hey there, I’m Lynn.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the Pursuit of Badasserie, the podcast. Today, we’re tackling brand archetypes. What that means for your business, why they’re important, what they are, why should you care?

Let’s talk about it.

Lynn Howard

Yes. you haven’t listened to because will help give you even more ammunition to move forward with really creating content in the right brand voice and understanding yourself too as a brand.

So first let’s talk about what archetypes are.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

So a brand archetype is, it helps you maintain a consistent voice, tone and a messaging across all your platforms.

So there are list that we’re going to go through of the different brand archetypes. and your brand falls in usually into one or two, sometimes up to three of these different brand archetypes.

It’s the voice, it gives you your distinct personality, it makes it easier for your audience to recognize you, remember you, it helps with your storytelling.

There’s about a million things that it does for your business, but ultimately it’s really important that your brand archetype is congruent with the message that you’re trying to put out there and that your target market identifies with that archetype because just because you as a person might be one brand archetype doesn’t mean that your brand is that brand archetype because you as a person are different, we hope then you as a business, even if you are completely ingrained in your business, you’re not always gonna be the exact same thing.

So a lot of the time there’s overlap, but we’re going to go into some of the definitions of what each of them are, but basically the whole point of a brand archetype is to make it easier for your branding and marketing.

it gives you your brand’s essence basically. So it’s basically, it’s what sets you apart from something else from the status quo from what you have going on with your competitors.

It’s what’s your brand identity.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I think it can be part of your USB. Yeah, it’s, think of it as the psychology of the connection, right?

So it’s people buy from brands that they can identify with that they can connect with, not just typically brands that they like.

And so it’s more, yeah, it just gives you a stronger platform. So let’s run down the archetypes and we’ll be posting them up as well.

Just to give you an idea of what they are, but there’s tons of work on archetypes, the brand archetypes and we tend to just use the top 12.

So we have the innocent, the every man, the hero, the… a law or rebel, the explorer, the creator, the ruler, the magician, the lover, the caregiver, the sage, and the gesture.

And so each one has its own unique kind of description, if you would.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Yes, it’s kind of like their dating profile. Each one has a different tone, a different personality, and they have the feelings that they evoke.

So the whole purpose of brand archetypes is really to create a more consistent storytelling ability, and it just gives your brand a little bit more cohesion.

And so each of these different brand archetypes brings out different descriptive words and different feelings that your audience will have.

And then you can create a story to give your brand more depth and more relatability depending on what you’re doing.

So, you know, to give you an example of that.

Lynn Howard

So, like, so the innocent.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

So the innocent is optimistic, it’s pure, it’s driven by City focuses on doing things that are right in creating a sense of safety.

So it’s all about I mean, just what you think, like it’s an innocent idea. So this is an example, literally it’s in their name, innocent smoothies, and they really talk about being natural, being simple and simple ingredients, they’re friendly, they’re trustworthy, that’s their whole vibe, and their brand archetype is the innocent.

Lynn Howard

Yeah. The Every Man is like that relatable, down-to-earth, jack-of-all-trades focused on belonging, prioritizes like every day, authenticity, and connection.

So it’s very, you can see yourself, like they’re just kind of there. And a great example is IKEA that they offer accessible, practical solutions that resonate with everyday life.

So it’s very simplistic in a lot of ways.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

And we have the hero. Now the hero, we all know what a hero is, they’re courageous, they’re determined, they’re inspiring.

I mean, they’re overcoming challenges and they’re motivating others. This is a lot of brands use this, one of them in particularly Nike, they’re just do it message is empowering people to push over these plateaus, go beyond their limits, that’s their entire stick.

And that hero motif, you can see it in a lot of different brands, but it’s really going the extra mile overcoming your challenges and motivating yourself and others.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, I do want to make one note here because they’re, are a lot of times when we’re talking about the archetypes, especially the hero one, a lot of people bring up the hero’s journey.

the hero’s journey is just like a flow. And obviously there’s a hero because people talk about him branding as well, but that doesn’t mean your brand voice has to be hero.

So just really want to make that clear because there are two different things and that’s more of the journey that you would go on, right?

And who is the hero in your, in that particular story versus the hero? archetype and that brand voice in which everything is spoken, spoken in, yeah.

So next we have the outlaw or the rebel and they’re the ones who break the rules, challenge the norms, values, freedom, embraces disruption and non-conformity.

Conformity cannot spit out that word today, words are hard. a great example would be like Harley-Davidson because they are like rebellious and like being on the back of a Harley is a symbol and spirit of freedom on the open road.

And so they got that one down.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

For sure. And then we have the explorer that’s the adventurer that’s their independent, they’re driven by discovery. And these are encouraging people to push boundaries and seek newer experiences.

a great example of this will be like the North Face, it’s a clothing company that inspires outdoor exploration and the pursuit of adventure and going out there doing that thing, going on the hiking trail.

of doing the long camping trip they want to really inspire that kind of seeking adventure and going out there and discovering.

Lynn Howard

Absolutely. The creators next and they’re more innovative and imaginative, expressive. They focus on originality and building something of lasting value.

great example of this is Lego so it celebrates creativity and the joy of building with limitless possibilities. And with this, I, again, we want to make sure like there’s the hero’s journey and then the hero archetype.

There’s the creator archetype and then there’s also like the early adapters who are those that like to be that first person and that innovative and that doesn’t, they’re not the same.

Again, those two aren’t the same but there could be a lot of creator archetypes in the early adaptation.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

activism vice versa. And then we have the ruler, which is commanding, responsible, they’re focused on control and order, and they also seek stability and structure.

Now, one thing to think about with the ruler is, I mean, see Mercedes-Benz, they have luxury precision, authoritative excellence, but they really get down to this brand archetype.

It’s not just that feeling of authority, but it goes even into the way they do the photography, where they usually tend to use a low angle.

So they’re looking up at their subject matters, because again, it’s that ruler authority, you were looking up at somebody.

And so that’s how, when you think about your brand archetype, we really want you to think it’s not just saying that like, oh, I’m a creator, I’m a ruler archetype, it really is in every aspect.

The ones who do it well, it’s in every aspect of their brand. So the way they position their camera, the color choices they use, the fonts they use, they all have this.

And you’ll see it in a lot of these higher-end companies, they really, really get down to their brand archetype because it matters to them.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, you know what’s crazy about that while I was listening to you. We’ve done this a cajillion times with archetypes, but one thing that this made me think of is all the ambassadors have either Mercedes or or a BMW, but essentially it’s crazy.

I know that they have like some kind of agreement or somebody was talking about it a couple days ago when I was in a conversation about how all the investors have black either Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes, and some have BMWs, but that responsibility, that commanding of authority and control and order, it’s kind of interesting.

Just a little light bulb went off when you were talking about that. All right, next we have the magician and the magician is visionary, transformative, and it’s

inspiring. It’s about making dreams come true and enabling change. So a great example is Apple. They’re known for innovative products and transforming everyday experiences and even their story about transformation and being a visionary and that early adapter, right?

talked about the creator earlier, but the magician, they were the early adopters. They created these things. So this is where you see the different nuance in that particular where sometimes people couple because early adopter isn’t an archetype.

But I love Apple and the way that they continue like their graphics and like Amanda was saying with Mercedes, like their graphics embody all of this.

The way that they come out on stage when Steve Jobs was still alive and how he would just, even though he was a simple man in the way that they did everything around him.

it’s absolutely incredible.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Absolutely. I mean, they really get creative with using the full storytelling ability of these brand archetypes. So another one is the lover.

This is passionate, it’s committed, it’s centered on beauty and lush and connection. And this really creates emotional bonds through the indulgence and aesthetics.

So if you’ve ever seen like a Chanel commercial or any of their print advertisements, it’s all about luxury and these sensual fabrics and elegance and they’re always just perfectly quaffed.

And it’s that emotional reward that’s captivating its audiences. so that’s what the lover does. It’s luring you in and these lovey-dovey embraces it.

It’s even the color palettes, like these soft color palettes, everything is driving home this brand archetype of the lover.

Lynn Howard

Yes, absolutely. caregiver caregivers are compassionate, nurturing and selfless. They focus on caring for others. providing support and protection. There’s a few that are excellent, but Dove is great at this, especially with their commercials that started, I don’t know, probably about 15 years ago, but they focus on self-care and confidence and inclusivity, especially for women.

Their campaigns really promote self-love, real beauty, emotional well-being, so Dove does great job. Tom’s Patagonia. Yeah, they all do a great job.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Yeah. The Sage is another one that’s wise and insightful. We think about the Sage, someone who’s committed to the truth.

They’re the the soothsayers. They’re seeking knowledge and they use their expertise to guide and educate. No one does this better than Google.

That’s the trust of resource. I mean, it’s become so synonymous with finding, seeking the truth and finding knowledge that it’s literally a verb now.

Like, I’m going to Google it.

Lynn Howard

That’s that goes into everything. That goes into everything.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Have you googled yourself like that’s they made it a whole word because that’s seeking knowledge seeking the truth and it’s a resource for this vast repository of knowledge and information so that’s that’s their stick and I that’s what the sage is it’s finding the knowledge finding out the truth and I don’t think there’s a person alive who doesn’t know what googling is at this point.

Lynn Howard

Yeah absolutely the gesture is last and the gesture is fun loving spontaneous uses humor and playfulness to entertain and engage and a great example is Old Spice at least the more modern campaigns where it combines that humor with bold messaging to create a memorable brand experience so just think spontaneous fun loving just like nonchalant definitely 100% so thinking about archetypes like how is this going to affect your messaging style how is this going

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

influence what you do. And Lynn and I both believe that, and just like I said with the Mercedes-Benz, it trickles down into all sorts of things.

It’s not just declaring that this is your brand archetype, it’s in your visuals, it’s in your font choices, it’s in your color choices, it’s in your messaging, it’s in the tone that you take when you’re talking, like when you’re doing captions on Instagram, all of that can be in your brand archetype voice because it is going to be slightly different.

I mean, if you want a little chat sheet PT prompt to throw in there, throw in a random sentence and then ask chat sheet PT to write that same sentence in each of the brand archetype voices and you will see how different they are.

And they resonate with different types of audiences. So we all know that we don’t all have the same target market, we don’t have the same audience.

And the way you speak to people, it hits differently if you’re speaking to them in the way they want to be spoken to.

talk about the platinum roll the time, treat people the way they want to be treated. And the same goes…

with your archetype when you’re thinking about your brand archetype in the voice of the captions that you use and the way you write stories because people will start to notice your style and they will start to notice the way you talk and that will draw people in who are attracted to that brand archetype.

Lynn Howard

Yes, Amanda said it earlier, your archetype, you’re going to have one primary and up to two secondaries and it is not who you are, it’s who your company, your brand voices, even when you are your brand.

Sometimes there are similarities or sometimes it’s kind of blanket, but it’s who your potential prospects and your clients seem to see.

It also helps you to, again, we talked about the psychology of it, but it helps you more to, gives you more focus, you’re speaking almost to more than one person.

I will say when you speak in true, when we say speak, we’re also saying the graphics in everything that Amanda was talking about really with Mercedes, and I was talking about with Apple, like everything, the content, the branding, all of that.

It helps you that one person feels seen and heard to identify with them. So you’re cracking the right crowd, you’re not just blanketing, you’re targeting and nailing down who you’re actually speaking to.

And with that being said, it’s also like words are powerful. And using certain words, I love what Amanda just said about take one sentence, ask chat GBT to write it in the 12 different archetypes.

And because they’re going to use different words that will sit differently, either repel people or attract them or really move them.

And you’re able to really see the difference of the power of the word and the messaging. and where you can guide people with just the words, with just the words.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

And I also feel like it really helps you simplify your decision-making. When you’re trying to make choices for your brand for when it comes to marketing, if you think of it from the perspective of, is this clear to my archetype?

It will help cut out some of the noise of like, the color choices, like what your brand’s true essence is because there are a lot of ways to say the same thing.

There’s a million ways to say basically the same thing, to put the same, to advertise the same can of soup.

And how you’re gonna stand apart is how true you stay to your brand’s essence and staying to your brand archetype.

So not only is it gonna improve your storytelling, it’s going to build that customer loyalty and really speak to a specific person like Lin said, but it’s gonna make your decision-making a lot easier because if you know how your brand says it, then you’re not gonna wiffle waffle around with all the other options that there infinitely are when you’re making decisions.

It’s when it comes to branding and marketing and even advertising as well. all trickles down and do the same thing, if you can be a really cohesive unit of all those things, then all the decisions that you make for your branding and marketing and advertising become much more simplified because it has to fit within that one to three brand archetypes.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, and you build this consistency, these little green flags, because you’re talking to their soul throughout everything that you’re putting out there, which is absolutely essential for a business to sustain, let alone scale.

I read something, I can’t remember where I read it, but I saw this term that your clients or potential prospects, I think it’s like clients, but potential prospects need a, need a mirror, not a megaphone.

And I really thought, I keep hearing that as we’re talking about the archetypes because I think it goes back to what I was talking about of like being less of the hero, like we do this, we do that, we do blah blah blah.

Instead, you are being a mirror in their voice in the archetype way. So you go from the hero to guide, which is the hero’s journey, right?

so you’re letting them be the hero of their own story and you’re just that guide. And I think when you understand your archetype, it really helps you put this into a way that is that is attractive and resonates.

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

Absolutely mean about creating connection. And I love that idea that it’s shining a mirror, not speaking through a microphone because it is you want to have stories and personalities that are relatable and tapping into that universal human emotion and experiences that your ideal client is having not.

you have, but that your ideal client is having, because that makes your brand more memorable, it makes it more engaging, it makes it more relatable, and it makes it easier to be loyal to that brand.

If you know what they stand for and they are always consistent, and also this is a great way to differentiate yourself from like competitors, like if you have a similar product or a similar service, and they’re always speaking in the jester and you’re speaking in the sage, they’re just, it feels different, and so it’s going to resonate differently with different types of people, and so you’re going to be able to weed out, like who are your ideal people, and actually bring in a much more loyal customer base, because really when it comes to like-minded businesses, the more you can differentiate yourself the better, the more you can really draw on that unique selling quality that you have that USP, that’s really what you want to lean into, and brand archetype is a great way to get you that extra sap.

Lynn Howard

We are-

Amanda Furgiuele (afconsultingteam21@gmail.com)

across all platforms, that’s the hint there, across all platforms in that brand archetype voice, because you may inadvertently be pushing people away and planning those red flags, as Lynn says, because if it sounds like one thing on Facebook and another on LinkedIn and another Instagram, and then TikTok’s over here, it does trickle down and people start to feel like you’re not a genuine brand, or a genuine company to work with or whatever, and that’s not the kind of message we wanna be sending subliminally subconsciously to our ideal clients.

So take a look and we challenge you, look at it, see what are your top one, two, ask other people, ask other people, what do you think my brand sounds like?

Ask them what they think, ask your top 10% clients, what do you think I am? And see what they say, because it’s always interesting to hear other people’s views, and whether not you’re actually speaking in that brand archetype voice.

Lynn Howard

So share this with somebody who needs to hear this today, and leave a comment below, let us know what your archetype is.

We’re always fascinated. Believe me, we’ll do our research. if you put your archetype, we’re getting on your social. So if you want more followers, you’ll get more followers here.

Let us know what your brand archetype is and how you embody that brand archetype and how that’s working out for you.

Amanda – We’re excited to hear. And until next time, get after it.