About to launch your company’s branding but don’t know where to start? Looking for guidance when it comes to medical device branding and how to do it?
We understand that branding your company is a huge and daunting task, which is why we’ve put this breakdown together of the different types of branding you can employ in your marketing, to help you find the right path for you and your company.
Branding, at its core, helps companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and build connections with their customers, but it’s more than just a logo or a set of colours.
Branding is all about brand personalities and personas, which can be used to reach out and build a bridge between yourself and your audience. This article will run through all the different types of personalities or archetypes that work well in medical devices in order to help you find a brand persona that works for you.
What are archetypes?
Archetypes are a set of different personality types that are considered to be hardwired into human nature.
According to Carl Jung, every person falls into one (or sometimes more) of these categories. Companies can use these archetypes to inform and consolidate their brand messaging and external expression.
As archetypes are based on real human personalities, they add depth and complexity to brands beyond just looking good. Brands can become like their own person, with traits and characteristics that customers can relate to.
Why do archetypes matter?
Archetypes help brands achieve consistency, connection, and differentiation, all of which are essential for effective branding, especially in medical devices.
Here, we’re going to break down the top three reasons why incorporating an archetype or persona into your medical device branding will help make your brand stand out more against the crowd.
Consistency
The importance of consistency in branding cannot be overstated, as you want your customers to be able to recognise you when they come across you, wherever that may be.
Aligning your brand tightly to a single archetype allows your brand personality to feel familiar to your customers. It allows you to communicate with the consistency and humanity of a real person.
It’s estimated that your audience has to come into contact with your brand 15–25 times before they take action. By keeping your branding consistent, you can take advantage of this and help move your audience through their buyer’s journey faster than ever before.
Connection
There is so much choice out there for customers now, and it is so easy to compare companies, so how do you stand out?
Medical branding is all about creating something tangible that an audience can connect with and feel loyalty towards. The merit of your device isn’t enough on its own; instead, customers want to buy from a brand that they respect.
Building connection through branding is all about being relatable. When a person sees humanistic traits in a brand, they can relate to it and connect with it. That is why archetypes are so important because they give you something to model your brand on.
Differentiation
The medical device industry is narrow and populated by lots of very similar products. This means that your medical device might be competing with lots of similar devices, making it hard to separate yourself from the crowd.
It might not be enough to focus on the features and benefits of your medical device, as they may be similar to other products out there.
The solution to this problem is simple: personality.
Personalities are unique and have infinite possibilities; this means they can help to tell your customers who you are and your brand story.
Using archetypes to develop your medical device’s brand personality can only make this stronger, allowing you to appeal to what your customers want rather than just what they need.
For example, customers looking to buy trocars have lots of choices, but they are probably more likely to choose to buy from a brand they align with personally.
Want to talk to a branding expert?
Book a 30-minute call with our experts today!
Book my call | Learn more about branding
What are the 12 different branding archetypes?
Let’s have a look at the different archetypes. As a medical device marketing agency, there are 12 archetypes that we come across most often, so we’ll be focusing more closely on those.
The Creator
The Creator archetype is defined by free-flowing creativity within the parameters of control. They promote self-expression, imagination, and innovation. They believe that if you can imagine it, you can create it.
Lots of medical device brands fall under this category due to their ambition to drive forward innovation. Due to their archetype, the marketing materials for these brands tend to be very creative, almost like pieces of art themselves.
- Desires: Free the flow of creativity to create something of everlasting value.
- Traits: Expressive, imaginative, innovative, but also melodramatic and perfectionist.
- Examples of Creator brands: Apple, Adobe, Lego, Medtronic, Willy Wonka, and Steve Jobs.
The Ruler
The Ruler is a dominant personality that seeks power above all else. Rulers are confident, polished, and responsible, but they can also be controlling, entitled, and cold.
At their best, they seek to provide for others in need and to be a leader, but they can also seem power-hungry. Think of people like Winston Churchill, Hilary Clinton, and Jay-Z; these people all fit under the Ruler archetype.
Ruler brands evoke a sense of exclusivity and superiority. A few medical device brands, such as J&J Ethicon Endo, show some traits of the Ruler.
- Desires: Control and power.
- Traits: Confident and polished, but also can be cold.
- Examples of Rulers: Mercedes Benz, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, and Winston Churchill. Ethicon Endo-Surgery UK is defined by the Ruler persona through its use of strong language.
The Caregiver
As the name suggests, this archetype is all about taking care of others. They are driven by compassion to help others and will go out of their way to serve the greater good. The Caregiver exhibits parental-like traits to make sure that other people are taken care of.
Johnson & Johnson is one of the most famous examples of the Caregiver archetype. Their commitment to making the world a healthier place can be seen very clearly in their altruistic actions as well as their messaging.
- Desires: To protect others and the greater good. They are generous and benevolent but can be weak and masochistic.
- Examples of Caregivers: Johnson & Johnson, WWF, Toms, and Mrs. Weasle
The Sage
The Sage revolves around finding knowledge and truth. They believe that by gathering knowledge and sharing it, they can make the world a better place. As their main ambition is to seek out knowledge, Sage brands are considered experts in their fields.
Marketing materials from Sage brands are usually refined and perfected, using a neutral or muted colour palette, and they don’t feel the need to impress with any additives to what they produce.
- Desires: Knowledge and truth to understand the world.
- Traits: Wise, articulate, but occasionally cold and self-absorbed.
- Examples of Sages: The Mayo Clinic, Google, BBC, Yoda, and Podymos.
The Hero
The Hero values honour over everything and will do whatever they can to avoid losing. They are ambitious and persistent, with a drive to gain power. Rocky Balboa is one of the most famous examples of the Hero archetype.
Often, sports brands take on the Hero archetype as they want to encourage people to push themselves to achieve bigger and better things. They often feature strong colours and bold shapes, as they want to challenge you and inspire achievement.
- Desires: To prove their worth, to have power.
- Traits: Brave, determined, ambitious, and unrelenting.
- Examples of Heroes: Nike, Adidas, FedEx, and Wonder Woman.
The Outlaw
The Outlaw goes against the norm at every opportunity. They want to do things differently and go against society’s expectations, either for selfish reasons or to help others. Think of Robin Hood. Outlaw brands often use edgy, unexpected advertising to shake things up.
- Desires: To disrupt the status quo.
- Traits: Sharp, free-spirited, but sometimes out of control.
- Examples of Outlaws: Harley Davidson, Mountain Dew, Jack Daniels, and Batman.
The Innocent
The Innocent archetype has a desire to keep things simple and live happily. They seek to do things free of corruption to bring harmony to the lives of others. Innocent brands tend to use muted colours and soft imagery with a clear and honest message.
- Desires: Harmony, paradise.
- Traits: Optimistic, moral, and honest but can be irritating and childish.
- Examples of the Innocent: Aveeno, Coca-Cola, Dove, and Forrest Gump.
The Everyman
The Everyman is wholesome and genuine. These brands don’t try to impress or shock customers with bold claims and messages; instead, they try to appeal to the masses with straightforward messaging. Their branding is nothing fancy; rather, it is relatable and focuses on helping as many people as possible. It is broad, noncommittal to any stance or view, inoffensive, and offers a wide variety of solutions and products.
- Desires: Belonging and enjoyment.
- Traits: Friendly, genuine, reliable, but they can be mundane.
- Examples of the Everyman: IKEA, eBay, Tesco, and Dr. John Watson.
The Jester
The Jester, as the name suggests, is about humour and fun, but there is also a deeper level to the Jester as they use humour to illuminate hypocrisy and level the power playing field. They can take a serious subject and make fun of it in a way that is comfortable for the consumer.
- Desires: To live joyfully, innovation.
- Traits: Joyful, carefree, original, but sometimes irresponsible and cruel.
- Examples of Jesters: M&Ms, Old Spice, Skittles, and Chandler Bing.
The Lover
The Lover brand is all about evoking emotion and making people feel special. They aren’t just about evoking romance but all types of relationships such as familial and friendships. They evoke a sense of connection and intimacy. In practice, these brands use adjective-rich language and passionate imagery.
- Desires: Relationships, to create a special feeling in others.
- Traits: Passionate, but occasionally obsessive and shallow.
- Examples of Lovers: Chanel, Haagen-Dazs, M&S, and Princess Diana.
The Magician
Magicians make dreams come true. They are always coming up with solutions for problems through their knowledge of how the world works. Magician brands are all about bringing something special into the lives of their customers.
- Desires: To transport people and create something special.
- Traits: Charismatic, healing, but occasionally dishonest and distant.
- Examples of Magicians: Disney, Dyson, Tui, Sky, and Gandalf.
The Explorer
The Explorer has the goal of living an inspiring and fulfilling life. They are independent thinkers, forging new paths to find purpose in life. Any brand that veers off the beaten path and forges its own way can be considered an Explorer.
- Desires: Freedom, fulfilment.
- Traits: Independent, ambitious, spirited, but also restless and flaky.
- Examples of Explorers: Jeep, National Geographic, Patagonia, and Huckleberry Finn.
Aligning with a branding archetype
When it comes to figuring out which archetype your company aligns with, it is not always straightforward.
It isn’t as simple as choosing the archetype you like the most or the one you want to be. Instead, it is about figuring out which one you already are. A company trying to be something they are not can appear inauthentic and may damage their reputation.
Occasionally, companies may find that they don’t align comfortably with just one archetype. They may have characteristics of two archetypes, but companies should never choose to align with two archetypes with more than a 70–30 split. As in, your brand should be at least 70–100% one archetype.
Which archetype are you?
Archetypes are fascinating, but they are also useful.
They are a great tool to give your branding a clear direction, but remember it is incredibly important that you base your medical branding on an archetype that your company already aligns with, not the one you want to be.