The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands through the Power of Archetypes is a book written by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson.

In the book, the authors build a case for understanding and leveraging archetypes and using them in our brands to give them greater meaning. Few of us really know how brand meaning works, how to manage it and how to use brand meaning strategically. The authors show that the most successful brands are those that most effectively correspond to common archetypes.

It was Swiss psychiatrist – Carl Jung – who introduced the concept of psychological archetypes. He looked at 12 key archetypes, including the hero and the outlaw that symbolise basic human motivations. The attached article looks at the 12 archetypes – study them to understand which archetype your brand is closest to. Once you have figured that out, you can create a consistent image for your brand. Mark and Pearson’s book looks at a number of examples from the world of brands and you could gain valuable insights by reading the book.