Brand archetypes are the secret sauce to creating stronger brands, and are an essential tool for any marketing toolbox! To learn more, read the introduction here.
Our free brand archetype quiz has been used by organizations of all shapes and sizes. One question that pops up every now and then is, “why did our people get different results?” This usually means one of two things:
One of the challenges of surveys or assessments is ensuring reliability and validity.
By the way, for these reasons, your quiz results give you points of reference that need to be confirmed (generally by surveying your actual clients or customers). In this way, the brand archetype quiz serves as a jumping off point for further exploration, including for internal brand culture.
If this is you, you’re not alone! Establishing internal culture is difficult and requires intentional effort. Not every company takes the time or sets aside the resources to do this effectively and consistently. Colin Mitchell of famed ad agency Ogilvy & Mather (now VP Director of Global Brand at McDonald’s), suggests that when looking at your target market, employees should be considered on an equal level as your customers. He advises that you plan “a full-blown communications strategy [targeting employees] … that mirrors a consumer marketing strategy. In thinking about the campaign, top executives should first answer some key questions: What do employees think of the company? What do we want them to think? What will convince them of this? And why should they believe us?”
Having your people take the brand personality quiz can give insight into how they do currently perceive the brand. And sometimes this can be quite telling:
As your company becomes larger, it becomes all the more important to manage your brand’s meaning, simply because, fundamentally, you have less control over it. As you create more and more touchpoints with your brand, there comes an increased potential to elevate your brand, but also an increased risk of undermining it! If one employee has one bad day and is rude to a customer, guess what? That has impacted your brand negatively. Ouch. If another employee consistently acts with an elitist, know-it-all attitude, and you are supposed to be an Everyman brand, this manifests as a huge discrepancy for the customer, and creates distrust of your brand. Again, ouch.
Short of hiring programmable robots as employees, what can you do?
Your internal culture is determined by a lot of little things, but below are three big ones that will heavily affect your brand. The big takeaway here is be clear on these three things, and communicate them well:
The above points are the “what”. The “how” can be challenging, as it takes strategy, creative execution, and time to build a strong internal brand — getting everybody on board and living the brand enthusiastically. But once you do, that internal energy will spill over to your customers and the world, making your brand even more authentic and impactful. The kicker — eventually you’ll start to attract people who want to be your employees for no other reason than your internal brand culture, and as they naturally embody it, your brand only continues to gets stronger.
One last thing I want to point out. Out of all the results from the people in your organization that take the brand personality quiz, you should see an overall pattern of 1-2 archetypes that keep appearing, and at most, three. (Ideally, of course, this should just be one!) Even if they aren’t yet clear on which one is primary and which ones are supporting, you need to at least be able to discern your top archetypes, and they should be apparent by a wide margin from any others. If not, this is a clear case of brand multiple personality disorder, and may indicate not just that you don’t have a clear internal brand, but that you don’t have a clear brand identity at all.
As brand expert and author Denise Lee Yohn says, “If your culture and brand are mismatched, you can end up with happy, productive employees who produce the wrong results.” And wouldn’t that be unfortunate!
Do you have a burning question about brand archetypes? Want to dig deep and explore the hidden potential of your brand’s personality? Let us know! We will be happy to schedule a consultation to find out how you can use the power of brand archetypes in your marketing. Still haven’t taken the quiz? Set aside ten minutes and do it here: brandpersonalityquiz.com.
So this is a pretty frequent question, because, well, do the math, right? There are only 12 brand archetypes and…. hundreds (thousands?) of others in your industry. So, how do you differentiate from your competitors who may also be the same archetype as you?
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