Are There More Than 12 Brand Archetypes?

Most successful businesses have a brand archetype, and the archetype that they choose will dictate their marketing strategies, their approach to consumers, and their goals in maintaining profits. If you want to choose a brand archetype for your newly-formed business, there are actually twelve of them. These twelve archetypes are The Innocent, The Hero, The Everyman, The Rebel, The Explorer, The Creator, The Ruler, The Magician, The Lover, The Caregiver, The Jester, and The Sage.

Each of those archetypes has a “personality,” and whatever archetype fits for your company’s products or services, you would also have to adapt to its personality. For example, Apple sticks to “the Magician” archetype, which means they are seen as “visionaries” that creates special items, and in their case, those special items are their new smartphones and other gadgets. Almost every company around the world choose one of the 12 brand archetypes to represent their business’ “personality,” but are there actually more than 12? Let us find out as we discuss the possibilities of having 13 or more brand archetypes.

Is There a 13th Brand Archetype?

Carl Jung, the psychologist responsible for determining the 12 archetypes, stood firm during his lifetime that there are only 12 archetypes that people tend to fall to when it comes to identifying their traits and personalities. So, it is really safe to say that there isn’t actually a 13th brand archetype that you can choose outside the 12.

However, it is possible for a single company to have more than one brand archetype, but how and why does this happen? The multiple archetypes that a company stick to would actually depend on the attributes of the business’ goals and marketing plans.

Can A Company Have More Than One Brand Archetype?

business meeting with employees

A company can have more than one brand archetype if it chooses to, but having two or more archetypes would sometimes complicate things for the admins and the employees of the company. Having more than one brand archetype would sometimes make it harder for the marketing team to determine their approach to advertising or marketing a company’s product, as two archetypes may have contradicting personalities. For example, having both The Innocent and The Rebel archetypes in one company can be conflicting, as the former focuses on goodness, happiness, and optimism while the latter is centered on breaking the rules and starting a revolution.

It is okay for your business to have more than one brand archetype, but it is also important to consider how compatible each archetype you choose to each other so that they can work in harmony. There are some brand archetypes that can work together well, with two being the Hero and The Sage, as they both can serve as an inspiration to people while also giving back to the community by providing knowledge to others.

Knowing Your Supporting Archetypes

Even though you can choose multiple brand archetypes for your business, you can only choose one “primary archetype” while the rest will be called “supporting archetypes.” Knowing what the supporting archetypes are for your primary archetype is fairly easy, as you can find out when you take a brand personality quiz, which determines the archetypes that your business belongs to based on its products, services, and specialties. The brand personality quiz can be found online, and you can find dozens of websites that offer these quizzes. However, if you do take the quiz on multiple websites, you may come up with different answers.

If you want to find out your brand’s primary archetype and supporting archetypes on your own, you would need to learn more about the details and intricacies of each brand archetype. Read our guide on the 12 brand archetypes to know more about them, or you can download a 12 brand archetypes pdf online so you can read it even if you are on the go.

Is it Important to Have More Than One Archetype?

According to recent studies, companies that have a stronger primary archetype tend to have more profits than the ones with stronger supporting archetypes. The reason why those who stick primarily to one archetype are more successful is that they are more relatable to people since consumers can easily identify the company’s personality, attributes, and goals.

To have a better understanding of the said phenomenon, let us take a look at Apple, a company that is considered to only have The Magician archetype. Since they rely on only one archetype, which is primarily focused on making dreams a reality and creating revolutionary gadgets, people can easily identify and remember their brand because they stick to one marketing formula based on The Magician archetype.

So, as most business experts would say, you would need to have a stronger primary archetype in order for your business to be more successful, although you really should rely too much on archetypes to reach success, as you would also need hard work and dedication to achieve your goals in the business.