An Archetype Brand map for web3.
What is a Brand?
Not a logo. It’s a Difficult question with numerous versions of answers, but it is important to say that a Brand is a basket of intangible assets that an entity may have. This brand can materialize, but it always remains in the field of ideas and perception.
Most brands come with a personality. You need time and branding work to identify that personality. Most personalities fit the Jungian Archetypes. What are these? Jungian archetypes are defined as universal primordial symbols and images that derive from the collective unconscious as proposed by Carl Jung. His study is much more complex and thorough than I will get here, but we can catch a glimpse of the twelve common archetypes in three sets of four – ego, soul and self – with each set sharing the same motivation for why we do things.
The 12 are:
1- The Innocent
2- The Sage
3- The Explorer
4- The Outlaw
5- The Magician
6- The Hero
7- The Lover
8- The Jester
9- The Everyman
10- The Caregiver
11- The Ruler
12- The Creator
Each Archetype can be developed and exemplified in countless stories that contain various characters with these same characteristics.
In this article I will focus on demonstrating brand archetypes within the web3 ecosystem. To create a guide on how brands here behave and how jung archetypes are applied here.
Okay, here's a disclaimer: the web3 ecosystem itself has its archetype. So all web3 native brands carry these characteristics culturally. Mainly of two archetypes: the Explorer, precisely because we are in a new environment, of testing, experimentation and pioneering... and we also see a lot of the characteristics of Jester, for being an environment internet native and that grows and goes viral with memes, that are usually born from a comical place... It's that old saying: things appear on 4chan, go to Reddit, enter twitter, then instagram... until suddenly your grandmother sees it on facebook or WhatsApp groups.
This article series in particular made me dedicate more time, because of the research involved in both archetypes and brands that could fit within these characteristics. The idea came up when I was already studying about archetypes in brands, and I saw that the examples used of brands in graphics were always the same. Coke, Apple, Johnson and Johnson's, Harley davidson, Disney... so I started looking for segments. Examples of archetypes within the segments of the automotive industry, fashion, Apps... until I had the idea to create this guide. But of course, to minimize errors and guesswork, I had to research a lot about brands, beyond what they appear on the surface, because many brands are a defined archetype but in "disguise." Or they have secondaries in which they move a lot from one to the other. It was necessary to get in touch with all the communication and media created by the brands and see if the evidence was presented that these archetypes really were the source material of the brand personality.
Let's go to the first archetype I'm going to mention: The Innocent.
Within web3 it was difficult to find any brand that fit into this archetype, which in my opinion is one of the most complex. There are several approaches to the Innocent. From the Peter Pan and nostalgic part, to the Family Friendly one.
But here I will mention Cool cats as the main representative of Innocent on web3.
There's no denying it, they're cute. They are known to have made a fully filtered and family friend project. Something you could "show to your Children" as Clon, one of the founders, said on the Overpriced JPEGs podcast: https://youtu.be/4aKJrG39V4w
"It's Cute." That's exactly what Animoca Brands representatives said in a Partnership Announcement Spaces: https://twitter.com/beast_eth/status/1579936716210982912?s=46&t=0chMVwvB9QG-ZaY_FVM4uA
Motto of the Innocent: “We are free to be you and me.”
"I appeal to the concepts of goodness, simplicity and purity. A more natural and simple lifestyle, removing social labels and opting for a quality of life above the ordinary, so that you can exercise your fullness and experience paradise."
That is to say, the goal of the innocent is to be good and to reach paradise.
What is the name of the Cool cats narrative ecosystem? Cooltopia.
Take a look at the official website and the game they are developing: https://www.coolcatsnft.com/
It's a playground. A place where you can have fun being whoever you want, "there will always be a place for you here."
Fleshed out as a person, the innocent archetype would be the general store owner; spending their days promoting small business products and their weekends volunteering at the local dog shelter. They’re dependable and honest, but usually predictable. The overall goal of the innocent is to be happy.
Now, Do you know what is the Clon’s pinned tweet?
What does that tell us?
It tells us that the Cool cats collection really encompasses the whole archetype of the innocent within their communication, the way their community behaves and it shows how well developed their identity is.
Archetypes can be found everywhere and this proves that they are universal. Observing and studying these archetypes helps us understand the stories around us.
Had you already noticed this?
The next case study will be with the Archetype: “The Sage.”
Which brand do you believe it will be?
