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Understand and Harness the Power of Archetypes in Marketing - Moz Blog

Understand and Harness the Power of Archetypes in Marketing

Posted on: Thursday 12 March 2015 — 01:14

Posted by gfiorelli1

Roger Dooley, neuromarketing expert, reminds us in his book Brainfluence that in 80% of cases we take a decision before being rationally aware of it.

Although Dooley explains this effect in terms of how our brain works, in my opinion, distinctly separating neuroscience and the theory of archetypes would be incorrect. On the contrary, I believe that these two aspects of the study of the human mind are complementary.

According to Jung, archetypes are "[...] forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the Earth as constituents of myths and—at the same time—as individual products of unconscious". He then, added something that interests us greatly: "The [forms and images] are imprinted and hardwired into out psyches".

Being able to design a brand personality around an archetype that connects unconsciously with our audience is a big first step for: brand loyalty, community creation, engagement, conversions.

The Slender Man is the "Internet age" version of the archetype figure of the Shadow

Archetypes can be also used for differentiating our brand and its messaging from others in our same market niche and to give that brand a unique voice.

If we put users at the center of our marketing strategy, then we cannot limit ourselves in knowing how they search, how they talk on social media, what they like to share or what their demographics are.

No, we should also understand the deep psychological reasons why they desire something they search for, talk the way they talk, share what they share, and their psychological relation with the environment and society they live in.

Knowing that, we can use archetypes to create a deep emotional connection with our audience and earn their strong positive attitude toward us thanks to the empathy that is created between them and us.

Narrative modes, then, help us in shaping in a structured way a brand storytelling able to guide and engage the users, and not simply selling or creating content narrative doomed to fail.

The 12 archetypes

graph by Emily Bennet

The chart above presents the 12 Jungian archetypes (i.e: Hero), to what principal human desire (i.e.: leave a mark on the world) they correspond and what is the main behavior each one uses for achieving that desire (i.e.: mastery).

Remember: if the audience instinctively recognizes the archetypal figure of the brand and its symbolism and instinctively connect with it, then your audience is more ready to like and trust what your brand proposes.

On the other hand, it is also a good exercise to experiment with archetypes that we would not think are our brand's one, expanding the practice of A/B tests to make sure we're working with the correct archetype.

The Creator

In my last post I used Lego as example of a brand that is winning Internet marketing thanks to its holistic and synergistic use of offline and online marketing channels.

I explained also how part of its success is due to the fact Lego was able to shape its messages and brand personality around the Creator archetype (sometimes called the "Builder") which is embodied by their tagline, "let's build".

Creators tend to be nonconformist and to enjoy self expression. A Creator brand, then, will empower and prize its audience as much as it is able to express itself using its products.

View image | gettyimages.com

The Ruler

The Ruler is the leader, the one setting the rules others will follow, even competitors. Usually it's paired with an idea of exclusiveness and status growth.

A brand that presents itself as a Ruler is suggesting to their audience that they can be rulers too.

A classic example of Ruler brand is Mercedes:

The Caregiver

Altruism, compassion, generosity. Caregiver brands present themselves as someone to trust, because they care and empathize with their audience.

The Caregiver is one of the most positive archetypes, and it is obviously used by nonprofit organizations or governmental institutions like UNICEF, but brands like Johnson & Johnson have also shaped their personality and messages around this figure.

The Innocent

The Innocent finds positive sides in everyone and everything.

It sees beauty even in things that others will not even consider, and feels in peace with its inner beauty.

Dove, obviously, is a good representation of the Innocent archetype.

The Sage

The Sages wants to know and understand things.

The Sage is deeply humanist and believe in the power of humankind to shape a better world through knowledge.

However, the Sage also has a shadowed side: intolerance to ideas others than their own.

Google, in both cases, is a good example a Sage brand.

The Explorer

The Explorer is adventurous, brave, and loves challenges. He tends to be an individualist too, and loves to challenge himself so as to find his real self.

Explorer brands prompt their audience to challenge themselves and to discover the Explorer within.

Red Bull is a classic example of these kinds of brands, but REI and Patagonia are even better representations.

The Hero

In many aspects, the Hero archetype is similar to the Explorer and Outlaw ones, with the difference that the Hero many times never wanted to be the hero, but injustice and external events obliged him to find the courage, braveness, and the honor to become one.

Nike, and also its competitor Adidas, shapes its brand voice around this archetypal figure.

The Magician

The Magician is clever, intelligent, and sometimes his ability can be considered supernatural.

The Magician is able to make the impossible possible. Because of that some of the best known technology brands use this archetype as their own to showcase their innovation and how they use their advanced knowledge creatively.

Apple—even if you are not an Apple fan—created a powerful brand by shaping it around this archetype.

The Outlaw

The Outlaw is the rebel, the one who breaks the rules in order to free his true self.

The Outlaw goes against the canon and is very aware of the constrictions society creates.

A great example of a brand that very well represents the Outlaw archetype is Betabrand.

The Everyman

It is perfectly fine to be "normal," and happiness can come from simply sharing things with people we love.

Brands targeting the Everyman audience (and painting themselves as such) craft their messages about the beauty of simple things and daily real life.

Ikea is probably the brand that's achieved mastery in the use of this archetype over the past few years.

The Jester

Fun, irreverent, energetic, impulsive and against the established rules at the same time, the Jester is also the only one who is able to tell the truth with a joke.

Jesters can be revolutionary too, and their motto could be "a laugh will bury you all."

A brand that presents itself as the Jester is a brand that wants to make our lives easier and more bearable, providing us joy.

The Lover

Sensuality is the main characteristic of the Lover archetype, as well as strong physicality, passion, and a need for deep and strong sensations.

But the Lover can be also the idealist, the romantic longing for the perfect love.

Archetypes and brand storytelling

Our brain, as many neuroscientists have proved, is hard-wired for stories (I suggest you to watch this TEDx too).

Therefore, once we have decided what archetype figure best responds both to our audience and our values as a brand, we must translate the psychology we created for our brand into brand storytelling. That storytelling must then be attuned to the psychology of our audience based on our psychographic analysis of them.

Good (brand) storytelling is very hard to achieve, and most of the time we see brands that miserably fail when trying to tell branded stories.

Introducing the Theory of Literary (or Narrative) Modes

In order to help my clients find the correct narrative, I rely on something that usually is not considered by marketers: the Theory of Literary Modes.

I use this theory, presented first by Northrop Frye in it essay Anatomy of Criticism, because it is close to our "technical marketer" mindset.

In fact:

The theory is based on a objective and "scientific" analysis of data (the literary corpus produced by humans);
It refuses "personal taste" as a metric, which in web marketing would be the same as creating a campaign with tactics you like but you don't really know if your public is interested in. Even worse, it would be like saying "create great content" without defining what that means.

Moreover, the Theory of Literary Modes is deeply structured and strongly relies on semiotics, which is going to be the natural evolution of how search engines like Google will comprehend the content published in the Internet. Semantic thinking is just the first step as well explained Isla McKetta here on Moz few months ago.

Finally, Northrop Fryed considers also archetypes this theory because of the psychological and semiotic value of the symbolism attached to the archetypal figure.

Therefore, my election to use the Theory of Literary Modes responds

To the need to translate ideal brand storytelling into something real that can instinctively connect with the brand's audience;
To make the content based on that storytelling process understandable also by search engines.

The Theory of Literary Modes in marketing

To understand how this works in marketing, we need to dig a little deeper into the theory.

A literary work can be classified in two different but complementary ways:

1) Considering only the relation between the nature of the main character (the Hero) and the ambient (or environment) where he acts.

2) Considering also if the Hero is refused or accepted by society (Tragedy and Comedy).

In the first case, as represented in the schema above, if the Hero:

Is higher by nature than the readers and acts in a completely different ambient than theirs, we have a Romance;
Is higher by nature than the readers, but acts in their same ambient, we have an Epic;
Is someone like the reader and acts in the reader's own ambient, we are in field of Realism;
Is someone lower by nature than the readers and acts in a different or identical ambient, we are in the realm of Irony, which is meant as "distance."

A fifth situation exists too, the Myth, when the nature of the Hero is different than ours and acts in an ambient different than ours. The Hero, in this case, is the God.

If we consider also if society refuses or accepts the hero, we can discover the different versions of Tragedy and Comedy.

I will not enter in the details of Tragedy, because we will not use its modes for brand storytelling (this is only common in specific cases of political marketing or propaganda, classic examples are the mythology of Nazism or Communism).

On the contrary, the most common modes used in brand storytelling are related to Comedy, where the Hero, who usually is the target audience, is eventually accepted by society (the archetypal world designed by the brand).

In Comedy we have several sub modes of storytelling:

"The God Accepted." The Hero is a god or god-like kind of person who must pass through trials in order to be accepted by the society;
The Idyll, where the Hero uses his skills to explore (or conquer) an ideal world and/or become part of an ideal society. Far West and its heir, Space Opera (think of Interstellar) are classic examples.
Comedy sees the hero trying to impose his own view of the world, fighting for it and finally being awarded with acceptance of his worldview. A good example of this is every well ending biopic of an entrepreneur, and Comedy is the exact contrary of melodrama.
On a lower level we can find the Picaresque Comedy, where the hero is by nature inferior to the society, but – thanks to his cleverness – is able to elevate himself to society's level. Some technology business companies use this narrative mode for telling their users that they can "conquer" their market niche despite not having the same economic possibilities as the big brands (this conquering usually involves the brand's tools).
Finally we have the Irony Mode of Comedy which is quite complex to define.
1. It can represent stories where the hero is actually an antihero, who finally fails in his integration into the society.
2. It can also be about inflicting pain on helpless victims, as in mystery novels.
3. It can also be Parody.

Some examples

The Magician, gamification, and the Idyllic mode

Consider this brand plot:

The user (the Hero) can become part of a community of users only if he or she passes through a series of tasks, which will award prizes and more capabilities. If the user is able to pass through all the tasks, he will not only be accepted but also may have the opportunity to be among the leaders of the community itself.

And now consider sites, which are strongly centered on communities like GitHub and Code Academy. Consider also SAAS companies that present the freemium model like Moz or mobile games like Boom Beach, where you can unlock new weapons only if you pass a given trial (or you buy them).

The Magician is usually the archetype of reference for these kinds of brands. The Hero (the user) will be able to dominate a complex art thanks to the help of a Master (the brand), which will offer him instruments (i.e.: tools/courses/weapons).

Trials are not necessarily tests. A trial can be doing something that will be awarded, for instance, with points (like commenting on a Moz blog post), and the more the points the more the recognition, with all the advantages that it may offer.

Gamification, then, assumes an even stronger meaning and narrative function when tied to an archetype and literary mode.

Ikea, the Everyman, and the Comedic mode

Another example is Ikea, which we cited before when talking of the Everyman archetype.

In this case, the Hero is someone like me or you who is not an interior designer or decorator or, maybe, who does not have the money for hiring those professionals or buying very expensive furniture and decoration.

But, faithful to its mission statements ("design for all", "design your own life"...), Ikea is there to help Everyman kind of people like me and you in every way as we decorate our own houses.

On the practical side, this narrative is delivered in all the possible channels used by Ikea: web site, mobile app, social media (look at its Twitter profile) and YouTube channel.

Betabrand, the Outlaw, and Picaresque Comedy

A third and last example can be Betabrand.

In this case both the brand and the audience is portrayed using the Outlaw archetype, and the brand narrative tend to use the Picaresque mode.

The Heroes is the Betabrand community who does not care what the mainstream concept of fashion is and designs and crowdfounds "its fashion."

How to use archetypes and narrative modes in your brand storytelling

The first thing you must understand is what archetype best responds to your company tenets and mission.

Usually this is not something an SEO can decide by him- or herself, but it is something that founders, CEOs, and directors of a company can inform.

Oftentimes a small to medium business company can achieve this with a long talk among those company figures and where they are asked to directly define the idealistic "why?" of their company.

In case of bigger companies, defining an archetype can seem almost impossible to do, but the same history of the company and hidden treasure pages like "About Us" can offer clear inspiration.

Look at REI:

Clearly the archetype figure that bests fits REI is the Explorer.

Then, using the information we retrieve when creating the psychographic of our audience and buyer personas, matching with the characteristics each archetype has, and comparing it with the same brand core values, we can start to understand the archetype and narrative mode. If we look at REI's audience, then we will see how it also has a certain affinity with the Everyman archetypal figure (and that also explains why REI also dedicates great attention to family as audience).

Once we have defined the best archetype commonly shared by our company and our audience, we must translate this figure and its symbolism into brand storytelling, which in web site includes design, especially the following:

Color pattern, because colors have a direct relation with psychological reaction (see this article, especially all the sources it links to)
Images, considering that in user-centric marketing the ideal is always to represent our targeted audience (or a credible approximation) as their main characters. I am talking of the so called "hero-shots", about which Angie Shoetmuller brilliantly discussed in the deck I embed here below:

Visual Marketing with Hero Shot Images from Angie Schottmuller

If you want to dig deeper in discovering the meaning and value of symbols worldwide, I suggest you become member of Aras.org or to buy the Book of Symbols curated by Aras.

Define the best narrative mode to use. REI, again, does this well, using the Idyllic mode where the Hero explores and become part of an ideal society (the REI community, which literally means becoming a member of REI).

We should, then:

Continue investigating the archetypal nature of our audience conducting surveys
Analyzing the demographic data Google Analytics offers us about our users
Using GA insights in combination with the data and demographic information offered by social networks' ad platforms in order to create not only the interest graph of our audience but also to understand the psychology behind those interests
Doing A/B tests so to see whether symbols, images, and copywriting based on the targeted archetypes work better and if we have the correct archetype.

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The 2015 Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) exam: tips & resources to help you pass

Posted: 09 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

At White, all members of the delivery team are expected to gain qualifications in Google Analytics, Google AdWords (Advertising Essentials, Advanced Search, and Advanced Display) and Bing Ads.

Hannah and Bobby became accredited in Google Analytics in January 2015, and have since been carrying out workshops to share their insights with colleagues. They’ve come together to create this blog post to help you get the most out of Google Analytics too.

Why should you bother with the GA exam?

To understand why it’s so important to pass the GAIQ, it’s necessary to recognise exactly why you use Google Analytics in the first place, which is to get to know your audience through data collected in the GA platform. In fact, Google sum it up quite nicely in the following sentence:

“Qualified users will be effective at leveraging Google Analytics within their organisations and at helping others to do the same.”

Knowing your audience, as well as what it is that they want is vital for any business, and through using Google Analytics, you can begin to learn all about the users and customers that visit your website as well as how they interact with it.

It’s by gathering and analysisng this data that you can begin to make informed decisions to improve yours or a client’s website.

By taking, and passing the exam, you not only prove that you can effectively and efficiently use this platform to guide business decisions for yourself and your clients, you also learn a fantastic set of practical skills that will likely help you throughout your career.

In essence, it’s not about the award, it’s about all the knowledge you gain in the run up to the award.

Secondly, you get a nice certificate, and who doesn’t love that? You can print it off, frame it, hang it in your bedroom, show your parents, take on your next date with you: the limits are endless.

GAIQ exam facts at a glance

The exam is made up of 70 multiple choice questions (including "select all of those that apply" options)
You have 90 minutes to complete it, and you must score at least 80% to pass (that's 56 correct answers)
The qualification is valid for 18 months
It's free to take at google.co.uk/partners
There are plenty of resources available online that you can study before you take your exam

GAIQ essentials

Now you know the benefits of taking the Google Analytics exam, you'll be needing some more details to get the task of actually doing it ticked off your to-do list.

It's a little known fact that the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) is available to take free of charge at google.co.uk/partners; this is because it was chargeable as recently as the end of 2014.

In our opinion, the passing score of 80 percent now seems slightly less daunting as it's possible to take a second or third exam attempt without needing to bleed your wallet dry.

Then again, you are unlikely to want to sit through 70 questions about Google Analytics on more than one occasion in a short amount of time, which is why you'll probably want to pass your exam in the first 90 minute period you're allocated.

But if you don't make the grade, you'll have the opportunity to sit the exam again a week later. If you do pass, you can take pleasure in knowing that your exam is valid for another 18 months before you need to do it again.

Another recent change to the GAIQ exam is the loss of the functionality to pause your test session. You're going to need to commit to the 90 minute exam when you know you will be free without distractions. Luckily the exam is open book, so you'll retain the ability to use other browser windows if you want to keep your resources to hand.

Make time to study

Taking 90 minutes out for the exam is one thing, but you’ll actually need to dedicate much more time when it comes to studying for it.

We know that life in the digital marketing industry can be hectic at the best of times, but it really is worth using a spare hour here and there to read some study material or watch a video on the Google Analytics Academy.

Consider that you will be broadening your wider understanding of Google Analytics as well as studying for an exam; if you can see how it will benefit your reporting and optimisation efforts you may find a little bit more inspiration to study in the evening or on the weekend.

The exam content can be broken down into the following areas, so make sure you take time to learn everything that you can:

Planning and principles
Implementation and data collection
Configuration and administration
Conversion and attribution
Reports, metrics and dimensions

Key study materials

During our studying for the GAIQ exam, we both used a wide range of resources to help learn the basics, as well as the more detailed parts of the platform. Below are a number of helpful guides, blogs, and resources that explain some of the most important parts of the tool, as well as a lot general elements you need to be shored up on:

You’ll need to know the definitions and examples of dimensions and metrics; luckily there is a page on dimensions and metrics on Analytics help
If you have no idea about the analytics data hierarchy of users, sessions and hits, you’d better head over to the Cutroni blog to read their post on the subject
When it comes to conversions, you’re going to need to know the difference between micro and macro; something also covered at Analytics help
It’s also an excellent place to learn more about attribution modelling including last interaction, first interaction and linear modelling
If you only have a limited amount of study time, you could at least use the Blast Analytics Google Analytics Reference Guide
Of course it is probably in your best interests to do it properly and watch the videos on the Analytics Academy – these will be a significant time investment for you, but it does give you a chance to listen and watch some of the core, and more in-depth principles of the GA platform explained in a more interactive form. You can also choose to read each of the lessons instead of watching, which depending on what type of learner you are, might be perfect!

Other resources

Along with the resources above, we also found these blog posts helpful both before and after taking our GAIQ exams:

Our personal top tips

Since we’ve ‘been there, done that’, we figured we might as well provide you with a few of our personal tips for taking the exam. We’ve included a few below, but we welcome any further questions you might have – please get in touch with us through the comments section below.

Hannah

Now that the exam is free to take, it makes sense to use your first attempt as a test run. This will give you the chance to see exactly how questions are presented, and will also show you what you're able to answer quickly or what you get stuck on. If you pass on your test run, this should be seen as a definite bonus
Try and get first-hand experience using Google Analytics before you take the exam. Spend time finding out where to find all key reports, how to filter your data, and experiment with goals and funnels (although it's best to create a test profile, or at least use a new view!)

Bobby

An obvious one, but make sure you’ve got the basics down. Don’t waste time during the test having to remind yourself as to the difference between dimensions and metrics or the hierarchy of the data, this time could be spent on tougher questions
Standard high school teacher tip – “read the question more than once, slowly”. Some questions can be very long winded, although the question may be very simple. Read the question a few times and it will become clear, don’t look up the answer just because it looks complicated!
Invest your time – it can be easy to just spend the 90 minutes looking up each question, but the skills you will learn from studying are genuinely super helpful! Yes it may take a month or two to really get ready for the exam, but it’s worth it!

Photo credit: kennymatic via Compfight cc

The post The 2015 Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) exam: tips & resources to help you pass appeared first on White.net.

Seth's Blog : Privilege

Privilege

We really don't understand privilege until we've lost it.

It's pretty easy to criticize or misunderstand those that complain about privilege (of any kind), but in fact, we have no idea what it is to be in those shoes, not right this minute.

• Email to a friend •

miercuri, 11 martie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Eye-Opening Arrogance From N.H. Police Union Members; How to Solve the Pension Crisis Overnight

Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:35 PM PDT

Many cities in New Hampshire use highly paid (overpaid) police officers for routine work like holding stop signs when utilities have to trim trees along roads.

A debate is now brewing in the legislature as to whether to use flaggers instead of police officers for such work.

Courtesy of the New Hampshire Union Leader, here is an image. Click on the link for an article and other details.

Police vs. Flaggers

For the third time in five years, a bill was introduced into the N.H. legislature requiring the use of flaggers instead of police where appropriate. The article noted that in many cities, police chiefs make the call.

The result is just what one might expect. Police cherry-pick the easy jobs, letting flaggers have the rest.

Police work pays in the range of $40 to $50 with an additional $25 or more per hour tacked on by the town for benefits and "administrative charges."

The utilities have to pay this expense. Of course, utilities pass that expense on to local taxpayers.

The police unions object to the new bill. They use storms, utility work, etc., to pad hours of police officers, typically giving the work to officers in their last five years because pensions are based on salary made in the last five years.

These guys get to retire at age of 45-50 with half their maximum salary.

Eye-Opening Arrogance

Check out the arrogance of union worker, Stephen Soares, from a Facebook comment regarding the New Hampshire Union Leader article.

At first I thought the above snip sent by reader Matt might be sarcasm. A perusal through more of Soares' Facebook comments shows that is the real deal.

This public union "servant" actually complains about having to work to age 47 where he can then retire collecting half his salary for perhaps another 30 or more years, making more in retirement than he ever did in public service.

Eye-Opening Arrogance

The absolute arrogance of people who are supposed to be "public servants" is staggering. The only reason pension benefits are as absurd as they are is because corrupt politicians got in bed with corrupt union bosses and screwed the people they were supposed to be serving.

Now they have the gall to complain about the slightest cutbacks in benefits gained by graft and coercion.

I wish I could say his attitude is atypical, but I don't believe it is.

Solve the Pension Crisis Overnight!

If Soares thinks a 12% IRA contribution (actually paid by taxpayers in the form of higher salaries) would have made him better off, then I say give it to him.

Let's take 12% of Soares' earnings for every year back to when he started working, and put those contributions in a back-dated S&P 500 account that also factors in reinvested dividends.

Better yet, let's do that for every police, fireman, and other public union worker in the country. It would solve the pension crisis overnight.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Zombie Banking System Takes Another Leap Forward; Sugar Crisp Buybacks

Posted: 11 Mar 2015 11:41 AM PDT

With the stock market at all time highs, corporations are in a mad rush to buyback more shares. Corporations just cannot get enough of their own shares, no matter how mispriced they are.

The means banks choose to finance buybacks and pay for dividend hikes is irrelevant to most (the unthinking crowd), but amusing or scary to others.

Zombie Banking System Progression

Reuters writer David Henry explains U.S. Banks' Buybacks, Dividends may be no Reason for Shareholder Celebrations.

Big U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) and Citigroup Inc (C), are expected to win Federal Reserve backing on Wednesday to buy back more shares and increase their dividends in the coming year, but the approvals may be as much about the institutions' financial engineering as any improvement in their health.

Much of the money for buybacks and higher dividends is coming from the banks issuing securities known as preferred shares. These shares are a type of equity that pays regular, relatively high dividends. To investors they look a lot like bonds that pay interest. But for regulators, preferred shares serve as a cushion against any future losses, in part because they never have to be repaid.

Critics of the strategy question how sustainable it is, as banks essentially take money from one set of investors and give it to another, and at an added cost.

Issuing preferred shares to pay for common share dividends and buybacks is a symptom of a "zombie banking system," said veteran banking analyst David Hendler of independent research firm Viola Risk Advisors.

"Banks should be building capital from normal lending and trading profits, but their operating income is terrible," he added.

Selling preferred shares to boost payouts to common shareholders can't go on forever without banks improving their results enough to boost their capital levels significantly.

INVESTORS HOLD THEIR NOSES

Buyers of preferred shares are attracted by the high dividends. They take a sizeable risk because often the bank will never redeem the shares, and they can only be sold to other investors. Dividends may also be suspended on the securities.

"Out of necessity, they hold their noses and buy it," Viola's Hendler said. The shares wouldn't have the same appeal if yields on bank debt weren't so low, he added.

Can't Get Enough

Link if video does not play: 1960's Super Sugar Crisp Commercial

What can possibly go wrong here?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com