Health Care Branding: 6 benefits to discovering your archetype.

Do you want to build trust and be top-of-mind with your audience in a way that is more authentic and true to your brand? Do you want to leave no doubt in your health care consumers’ minds about what differentiates you from your competition? Dig into archetypes, what they are and how to use them successfully with our director of visual identity, Joe Gunderson. Most organizations know who they are but they have a hard time communicating that to an audience. So, that’s why we’re going to talk about archetypes today. Let’s start out with the definition of what archetypes actually are. They are universal characteristics or symbols that help develop your brand. An easy way to understand archetypes would be to look at celebrities such as Oprah or John Wayne. They each have certain qualities that we quickly and immediately associate with who they are and what they’re about. When I think of Oprah, I think of giving. I think of a connector. I think, for some, she’s hope. John Wayne was very blunt, stoic. Other cowboys wanted to be him, that’s how big of a cowboy he was. There are six reasons archetypes can help benefit your organization:

1. They humanize your organization. Consumers and audiences are looking for organizations that they can trust and connect with. And being authentic in the marketplace is priority number one.
2. Archetypes provide a clear purpose. We’ve worked with a lot of organizations, health care primarily, that need to be defined with their purpose. They do understand who they are, but they need to better understand how to communicate that outwardly to their audience.
3. They define your voice. This would be your brand voice. When you have an authentic voice that is true to you, it really helps build that trust with your audience.
4. Archetypes can benefit you through your visual identity or visual strategy. Here at Hailey Sault, we have an icon that we created for our visual brand. Symbols just like this immediately impact your audience in the same way a personality characteristic can.
5. Archetypes can differentiate you in the marketplace. By knowing who you are, you can better position yourself so your audience knows exactly what you are about.
6. Which leads me to my final point and that is to know your competitor. When you better understand their archetypes, you can better understand how you can position yourself in the marketplace.

These are my six reasons you can benefit from using archetypes. Hope you enjoyed this and learned something. Comment below or reach out to us on haileysault.com if you have questions or want to discuss archetypes with us.