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How to Determine Your Brand Archetype

12/6/2023

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Knowing your Brand Archetype is an essential part of creating a distinct and memorable brand identity and voice.

There are 12 Brand Archetypes that brand strategist Margaret Mark and author Carol S. Pearson, derived from the psychological works and theories of Carl Jung.

​The version I use come from Jen Kem's Master Brand Institute, as these are more aligned with the audience I serve.

Without having a clear understanding and visual of who your brand really is, your messaging can be unclear, inconsistent, and even confusing. 

So, I'm going to briefly break down the Archetypes and show you how to determine your own.
First, I love helping brands figure out their Brand Archetype. It's really fun, because it's like one of those quizzes we used to do on Facebook that would tell us what our spirit animal is or which "Friends" character we're most like.

But unlike those quizzes, Brand Archetypes are far from silly. In fact, they're essential to creating a distinct and memorable brand identity. So how do you determine your Brand Archetype?

Let's first look at the 12 different archetypes.
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The 12 Archetypes, their core value, desire, drive, and fears are:
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  • Muse: Hope, optimism, possibility. Bridge between two worlds, source of inspiration and wisdom.
    • Core Value: Hope
    • Desire: To spread inspiration and hope, make people feel at ease and uplifted, getting things done with ease and joy
    • Drives: Do the right thing, be positive, choosing goodness, inspiring belief in what’s possible, helping others
    • Biggest Fears: To be punished for doing something wrong or bad
    • Dark Side: When life loses its purpose, unfocused energy that feels good but brings chaos, denial, repression, utopian fantasy expectations, naivete, over-romanticism of what was once before.
  • The Explorer/Adventurer: Adventurous, free-spirited, and independent. They're innovative, have a sense of limitlessness, and are rebellious but not for the sake of tearing down the system. Very aware of environment.
    • Core Value: Freedom
    • Desire: Seek paradise, experience a better, more authentic, fulfilling life
    • Drives: To try new things, go beyond the mundane, seek information and experience
    • Biggest Fears: Getting trapped, conformity, and lacking a strong sense of self.
    • Dark Side: socially judgmental, egocentric, pushing decisions off, all talk and no doing, lack of sufficient depth on a journey, self-indulgent, aimlessness
  • The Sage/Truthteller: Wise, thoughtful, and analytical. They like to self-reflect and use knowledge to find the truth. Life-long learner.
    • Core Value: Knowledge
    • Desire: Seek paradise, use intelligence and analysis to find the truth, share knowledge/truth
    • Drives: Self-reflection and better understanding of others/the world, teach, coach, inspire
    • Biggest Fears: Being duped, misled, or ignorant
    • Dark Side: The professional student - always learning instead of putting learning into action, righteousness, arrogance.
  • The Hero/Leader: Brave, determined, and driven. They want to be as strong, courageous, and competent as possible
    • Core Value: Mastery
    • Desire: to leave a mark, prove their worth and improve the world
    • Drives: to be as strong, courageous, and competent as possible, protect what matters
    • Biggest Fears: weakness, vulnerability, quitting before you finish.
    • Dark Side: Delusions of grandeur, arrogance, Ruthless or obsessive need to win.
  • The Disruptor: Tearing down the system, shake things up, bold, charismatic. Seen as radical and in your face, but must be innovative to create change.
    • Core Value: Liberation
    • Desire: to leave a mark, disrupt the status quo, do things differently
    • Drives: to disrupt, rebel, noncomformity, to shock/provoke intense reactions
    • Biggest Fears: to be powerless or ineffectual
    • Dark side: negativity, loss of boundaries, taking uncalculated risks, rebelling for the sake of breaking systems.
  • The Magician/Alchemist: Visionary, transformative, and charismatic.  Lone-ranger. Trust inner-self. Live by what they create. Futurists. Spot trends before others do.
    • Core Value: Transformation
    • Desire: to leave a mark, making the world a better place, creating things that never existed before and making everything special
    • Drives: develop a vision and live by it, find win-win situations. Understand the fundamental laws of the universe to turn dreams into reality
    • Biggest Fears: Unintended negative consequences, not being innovative
    • Dark Side: Being in the physical world, inner experience is priority and manifesting it for others is challenging, manipulation, recklessness, rampant egocentricity
  • The Advocate: Working for the greater good, pushing social change with purpose. Inspires and rallies people to join their mission. Here to leave the world better than found, bring out the best in people.
    • ​Core Value: Justice
    • Desire: Leave the world better than found
    • Drives: Everyone matters, justice & equity, bring voice to issues that afffect everyone
    • Biggest Fears: Marginalization, being less than, not having a voice, being ineffective
    • Dark Side: Becoming a victim to abusers of their good nature, giving up uniqueness to blend in, working for personal, seeking outside opinions instead of trusting self
  • The Lover: Passionate, collaborative, and empathetic. Love the good things in life and creating connection. 
    • Core Value: Intimacy/Connection
    • Desire: Deep connection with people, experiences, and beauty
    • Drives: Creating closeness, expressing appreciation, committing fully
    • Biggest Fears: Not being enough, being alone
    • Dark side: Obsessiveness, not having fun, getting into details, make decisions impulsively and have a flare for dramatics
  • The Provocateur: Playful, fun, clever, humorous, and fearless. Entertainer and agitator, makes up own rules. Interactive and innovative. Joy rebel. Charismatic
    • Core Value: Joy
    • Desire: Connect with others, live in the moment with full enjoyment, create positive change.
    • Drives: They love to play, have fun, and lighten up the world. Enlightened evolution. Live in the moment. Shakes people up with new perspectives.
    • Biggest Fears: Being bored or boring others
    • Dark side: Fear of boredom, over-indulgence, manipulation for selfish reasons, addiction to adrenaline, lack of seriousness
  • The Healer: Compassionate, nurturing, intuitive, and supportive. They want to create structure and stability, and a space for healing. Sensitive yet direct.
    • Core Value: Compassion
    • Desire: Structure/stability, to protect and care for others, be a safe space for others
    • Drives:To do things for others, showcase compassion and generosity
    • Biggest Fears: Selfishness and ingratitude
    • Dark Side: Overextending self, resentment, temptation to use power or gain control, egotism, passive aggressiveness
  • The Ruler: Fearless leader, guide, and teacher. Soul-driven.  
    • Core Value: Excellence
    • Desire: Structure/stability. Leads to create more leaders, not followers. Materialistic yet highly philanthropic.   Create a world of prosperity and possibility.
    • Drives:To exercise power, take responsibility, live life on their own terms.
    • Biggest Fears: Chaos, being overthrown, 
    • Dark Side: potential to disconnect from what really matters, letting ego take over, entitled arrogance, narcissism  
  • The Creator: Imaginative, innovative, and artistic. Expression is the mission, imagination is the gear. 
    • Core Value: Innovation
    • Desire: Structure/stability, to realize a vision and create things of enduring value. 
    • Drives: They love artistic control and skill, and fueling imagination and creativity.
    • Biggest Fears: To be inauthentic or mediocre
    • Dark Side: Getting caught in the details, creator initiates change even when others aren't ready, impatience, angry outbursts, lack of sensitivity towards others' plight

If you're like me, you may look at this list and see yourself/your brand in several of these archetypes. And to create our brand archetype, we identify a primary archetype, a secondary, and maybe even a tertiary.

Your primary archetype is who you are at your core. Your secondary is how you express your primary. And your third is your flavor.

Your brand's archetype is determined by your core values, your deepest desires, what drives you, and greatest fears. 

Take this archetype assessment to determine your brand archetype mix.
​
This test was created by Jen Kem, master Brand Strategist, and is the only archetype test that has been recognized by a top collegiate school of psychology.

Once you take the test, book a Magic Hour and let's talk about how to make your brand come alive with your Brand Archetype.

Stay curious,
​🎈Justine



Red Balloon Station is a creative hub for storytelling and brand messaging, dedicated to amplifying the voices of equity-driven Women of Color entrepreneurs and creatives. Through strategy, storytelling, and sales, we’re here to help you harness your own words and stories, forging meaningful connections with your dream audience and making a lasting impact on people, the planet, and culture.


Justine Wentzell-Chang is an Eldest Daughter of Immigrants, Mother, Activist, and your Station Master/Chief Word Witch at Red Balloon Station bringing you strategic messaging and story-centered, conscious copywriting services. 

With a law degree and over a decade of experience making & writing movies that sell globally, I learned a thing or two about writing stories that sell. Now I’m here to give you a spoonful of strategy and conviction to make your words convert...in the most unforgettable way!

Your story deserves to be told—by you. For too long, others have controlled the narrative, distorting the brilliance, resilience, and impact of Women of Color. But we’re here to change that, because you’re not just building a brand; you’re shaping culture, challenging the status quo, and creating a ripple effect of empathy, equity, and positive change. My job? To make sure your messaging reflects that power—clearly, confidently, and with staying power.

​
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