The Luxury Brand Archetypes

Overview

The Archetypes of Luxury is a framework for building and shaping brands in the world of luxury and affluence. It applies depth psychology to a simple question: if the archetypes that shape mass brands don’t fit luxury, what stories do the most discerning consumers actually respond to?

The result is a system of nine archetypes, each a different way a luxury brand can tell its story. It was built for brands that aspire to be more than premium versions of their category.

The question

Brand archetypes have long been used to help brands tap into universal human behaviors, values and motivations. But luxury operates in a world of rarity, and as mass brands increasingly borrowed the way luxury looks and behaves, luxury began to feel less special.

We wondered whether luxury belonged to a different set of archetypes altogether. For brands that want to tell unique stories, the right archetype can create more differentiation from mass brands and more desire among discerning consumers.

The approach

As a team of four – two anthropologists, a strategist, and a Jungian psychotherapist/symbolic anthropologist – we designed a new research methodology.

Over a period of 2 years, we completed 4 phases of research, combining Jungian depth research with semiotics and digital qualitative research methods. Our participants were affluent luxury consumers.

Outcome

A system of 9 luxury / premium brand archetypes. Each one is defined by a name, a motto, a description, a visual mood board and a set of examples drawn from both brands and the wider culture.

What archetypes are

Archetypes are not personas, behavior themes or trends. They are recurring patterns of story and symbol found in the universal human experience, which show up in the world as myths, icons, images and products. For a brand, they work as an emotional shorthand. The archetype guides how the brand is expressed, but it doesn’t become the work.

How the system is used

The archetypes can strengthen a brand’s essence and identity, its tone and feel, its stories and provenance, and its emotional power. They’re useful for brands that are establishing who they are, and for brands that are redefining it. Inside the agency, I built the framework to support four things:

• Strategy: sharper insights and more differentiated language in briefs
• New business: thought leadership and interactive, workshop-style activities for pitches
• Clients: a basis for evaluating and defending strategic thinking
• Creative: new pathways to ideas, tone and feel