Modern brand archetypes must tap into the timeless quality of myths to tempt, seduce, and arrest attention. A brand must not be a mere peddler of products – it must be an interconnected strand of meaning that adds layers to the richness of the consumer’s life.
An archetype is a cipher. To provoke a purchase, a brand must use an archetype that can create an instant meaning in the mind of its audience. More than creating a story, like all good narratives, a modern brand archetype must poke and prod, and let an idea take root.
Most brands underestimate the intelligence of the consumer. Today’s buyer is sophisticated, multi-layered, cosmopolitan, and can call your bullshit from a mile away. So, rather than hammer the plea to buy things, a brand must present a story that thrills and enraptures the fertile fields of our unconscious imaginings.
The audience needs something filling that can answer the craving for symbolism, a tantalizing resonance of their own yearnings. Something grander, something more numinous than flat commercial impulse. The modern brand archetypes must be inscrutable, and not give themselves up for hasty interpretation.
One of my mentors once said that Apple’s brand iconography touches on Edenic echoes (forbidden fruit), a sense of wounded innocence (expelled from paradise), a sensual invitation (the semi-bite), and also as a symbol for the blazing consciousness of experience. It’s an entire perspective, but perhaps he’s reading too much into it. Nike’s Hermetic symbol has a hint of musculature, an invitation to transcend all and to combine and create something visceral in the mind of the viewer. More recently, Pepsi explicitly mentioned a rebranding budget of 1 million dollars to create a logo that incorporates elements of Feng Shui, the earth’s magnetic field, the golden ratio, and other fields of knowledge. One need not cram philosophy into every pixel but must try to create a sense of mystery and a narrative that, like a piece of art, always gives.
The branding mythographer does not lure and invite attention through dusty didacticism but through the siren call of mystery, and a rich insinuation. Semiotics, although rather problematic in arts, is an excellent tool for creating modern brand archetypes.
We are mythological creatures, hardwired by immemorial instincts to impute meaning into symbolic meta-patterns spanning culture, psyche, and nature’s leitmotifs. To alchemize desire through mythology is to hack into the very depths of the psychology of want.
As a mythographic branding professional, one must:
- Unearth the nested symbols and mythic arcs dormant in your brand archetype
- Inject hints and nuance to what your brand story and brand assets
- Bewilder and captivate, weaving tapestries of allusion that glissade into greater possibilities
At the dusky crossroads where mythology and merchandising intersect, those brands who slake our atavistic cravings for symbolic resonance shall reign as the 21st century’s supreme modernist brands.
Modern Brand Archetypes
By looking at modern brands, I propose 5 modern brand archetypes that communicate in interesting ways with the self-aware consumer.
The Disruptor
Brands embodying The Disruptor smash conventions and challenge norms. They are radical change agents, unafraid to upturn the status quo and agitate the comfortable. Disruptor brands don’t just think outside the box – they light the box on fire. Their messaging crackles with avant-garde provocation, daring consumers to be bold heretics who overthrow hidebound orthodoxies. With something like an anarchic glee, they demolish shopworn tropes and birth new paradigms.
Examples
- Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line disrupted the beauty industry by providing inclusive shade ranges for all skin tones.
- The clothing brand Wildfang promotes disruptive gender norms with their tomboyish, masculine designs marketed towards women.
The Paradox
The paradox archetype is a modern brand archetype that delights in embodying confounding juxtapositions. They thrive in being walking, talking oxymorons that upend simplistic binary thinking. One brand might fuse brutal masculinity with delicate femininity, another weds spiritual transcendence with carnal indulgence. Paradox archetypes don’t offer straightforward identities – they dare consumers to embrace seeming contradictions, to contain multitudes of apparent opposition within a unified experience.
Examples
- Red Bull balances natural ingredients with editorialized extremism in their “Redbull Gives You Wings” paradoxical branding.
- The luxury brand Patek Philippe juxtaposes fine craftsmanship with rebellious, anti-establishment messaging like “You never actually own a Patek Philippe, you merely look after it for the next generation.”
The Sacrilege
Nothing is sacred to the Sacrilege archetype – they unapologetically profane the hallowed, iconoclastically desecrating societal taboos with relish. Sacrilege brands traffic in once-unspeakable controversies, mocking pious hypocrisies and flouting dogmas. From blasphemous irreverence against organized religion to vulgar lampooning of cultural sacred cows, they delight in subversive humor that shocks the sanctimonious. Embracing them is an act of rebellious defiance against bourgeois propriety.
Examples
- The Swedish Satanist trademark “Behemoth” put out an Antichrist beer that caused outrage among religious groups.
- Fashion brand COVRT Project uses upside-down crosses and satanic imagery in its clothing graphics.
The Enigma
Among modern brand archetypes, the enigmatic brand archetypes are inscrutable ciphers daring us to decode their mysteries. Their symbolic language is a web of esoteric signs and occult sigils open to infinite interpretations and conspiratorial readings. With each product launch or campaign, new breadcrumb trails of arcana emerge, luring truth-seekers into labyrinthine riddles without a solution. Enigma archetypes offer glimpses of hidden knowledge perpetually veiled, cultivating a sense of initiation into eldritch realities.
Examples
- The MySmart Pistons phone cases incorporate undecipherable hieroglyphic patterns and codes as part of their aesthetic.
- KIN Euphorics markets itself with mystical symbolism and an enigmatic “entry into the shared rooted feelings of our ancestors.
The Primordial
This archetype immerses the consumer in a dreamscape of primeval, atavistic themes. Drawing from the wellsprings of ancient folklore and aboriginal mythologies, Primordial brands evoke sensations of being suspended in a timeless, presapient reverie. Their messaging swirls with fertile symbols, ritualistic iconographies, and raw naturalistic motifs. They reacquaint the modern soul with mystic impulses, shadow selves, and Jungian psychic underworlds repressed by hyper-civilization.
Examples
- Snō Clothing features tribal tattoo designs and indigenous patterns in its athletic apparel collections.
- Líllė baby products attempt to reconnect modern mothers to primal nurturing instincts with earthy, natural branding.
By upending conventions and crafting profoundly counterintuitive identities, brand mythologies manifesting modern brand archetypes must dare consumers to radically rethink their relationships with products and corporations. Equal parts shocking, alluring, and alienating, they open portals to uncharted experiential realms of consumption.
