PART 3: SOME POINTERS
Let us consider a few brands and their specific messages which leveraged their archetypes well during this period.
Looking at Patagonia and the manner in which the brand behaves, its founder, Yvon Chouinard, has been talking about voting the assholes out for several years and by “assholes,” he means “politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science.” Such empowering rhetoric is strongly reminiscent of being an ‘outlaw’ that encourages us to break rules to make way for a new, transformative society.
Source: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/11/03/the-best-campaigns-encouraging-us-voters-head-the-polls
Coca Cola continues to leverage its archetypal values of ‘innocence’ extremely well during this period of crisis. Coca-Cola’s COVID-19 Film calls on the human race to regain its ‘Faith in Humanity’. Coca-Cola has adapted one of its most famous Spanish-language ads, created by Martín Mercado in 2002 to address the Argentinian Great Depression, as a statement of strength and unity against Covid-19. Both communications espouse the message of celebrating and rethinking togetherness, a call to unity, and be inspired with hope and idyllic positivity.
Nike showed its support for social distancing and isolation with a twitter post message: “If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world.” with #playinside, #playfortheworld. An additional caption accompanying the post read: “Now more than ever, we are one team.” which reflected an ‘regular guy/girl’ archetype value. These messages were generally relatable and well received.
While there is nothing wrong with its message, and is clearly sensible, a slightly different message could have hit the values and tone of its brand archetype as the hero. This is not to disregard the many other efforts such as a commitment of more than $15 million to support Covid-19 response efforts.
Nonetheless, imagine for a moment, if the message was about a call to action, not putting the spotlight on staying at home, but an acknowledgement and encouragement of those who choose to fight as frontline workers, volunteers, community organizers. Such a message could have celebrated digging deep for courage to fight for a higher cause.
PARTING WORDS
Despite lifting lockdowns & easing of restrictions, there is an argument to be made for people feeling disoriented and self-doubting their otherwise instinctive trust of deep-rooted beliefs & institutions. Our contention is for brands to leverage our understanding of the collective subconscious to build long term brand relationships, in an era where consumer context might appear fractured.
A quick browse of global brands also indicates a tendency to rely on tried and tested archetypes such as Hero, Sage, Caregiver, Ruler or Magician. We implore brand custodians to look through the full spectrum of archetypes before activating their brand as all archetypes have the ability to connect with the psyche in a deep & meaningful way rather than a few.
This is part 3 of 3 for this article
