The Role of Archetypes in B2B Digital Business Development

What Are Archetypes? And Where Do They Come From?

Archetypes are common symbols, patterns, or themes found throughout human history and culture. The word comes from ancient Greek philosophy, where it means “original model” or “first impression.” It’s made up of two Greek words: archē (meaning “beginning”) and typos (meaning “model” or “type”).

Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, popularized the idea of archetypes in the 20th century. He believed these archetypes were part of the collective unconscious, shared by all people, and reflected universal experiences like the hero, mentor, or villain.

The Chinese Influence on Archetypes

After the Greek and Jungian views of archetypes, other cultures contributed their interpretations. Chinese philosophy and medicine brought in ideas of balance and harmony, especially through the concept of Yin and Yang. These ideas focus on how opposites, like the wise sage and the warrior, create balance in both individuals and societies. This insight has helped shape the modern understanding of archetypes, especially in personal and business development.

Why Do We Use Archetypes in Business?

In business, archetypes help companies understand their customers at a deeper level. Using archetypes in Digital Business Development (DBD) helps you connect with your audience more effectively by tapping into shared cultural and psychological patterns. Here’s why they matter:

• Universal Understanding: Archetypes go beyond borders, offering insights that work across different cultures, industries, and geographies. This is valuable when targeting diverse global markets.
• Emotional Connection: Archetypes connect with customers on an emotional level. When businesses understand these deep-seated motivations, they can create products, content, and services that resonate more strongly with their audience.
• Consistency: Archetypes guide companies to deliver consistent branding and messaging, ensuring a clear and unified identity across all communications.

Archetypes help companies build better relationships with customers by aligning with their core values, needs, and behaviors. This makes branding, marketing, and engagement strategies much more effective.

Archetypes vs. ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles) vs. Personas: What’s the Difference?

Let’s break down how archetypes differ from ICPs and personas, two other common tools used in B2B business development.

1. Archetypes

• Focus: Archetypes represent broad human traits and patterns. They reflect universal characteristics that apply to many different types of people and businesses.
• Application: Archetypes help businesses set the overall tone for branding, messaging, and customer connection strategies. They are used early in strategic planning.
• Example: A business might identify its customers as the Sage archetype, focusing on wisdom, trust, and expertise. This archetype would guide content like thought leadership articles or educational webinars.

1. ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles)

• Focus: ICPs are based on data. They define the type of company a business should target, such as size, industry, or revenue.
• Application: ICPs help businesses identify which companies would benefit most from their products or services.
• Example: A company might target mid-sized tech startups in the healthcare industry with an annual revenue of $10M+.

1. Personas

• Focus: Personas describe specific individuals within a company, detailing their goals, motivations, challenges, and behaviors.
• Application: Personas are more detailed and specific than archetypes, used to personalize marketing for individual decision-makers.
• Example: A persona might describe a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a healthcare company, aged 40-50, focused on reducing costs through technology.

Why Archetypes Matter in Digital Business Development

Archetypes offer a more emotional and psychological way to understand your customers. Here’s why they are so valuable in Digital Business Development (DBD):

• Deeper Insight: Archetypes help businesses tap into the emotional motivations that drive decisions, making it easier to create meaningful content and forge stronger relationships.
• Cultural Relevance: Since archetypes are universal, they can be applied across different industries and cultures. This makes them ideal for businesses that cater to diverse global markets.
• Strategic Alignment: Archetypes help businesses align their marketing and development strategies with customers’ deeper needs, leading to better customer engagement and loyalty.
• Consistency: Archetypes provide a foundation for consistent messaging. As your business grows, they ensure your communication stays unified and recognizable.

Example Archetypes in B2B

Here are some businesses that clearly align with certain archetypes:

• IBM – The Ruler archetype. IBM portrays itself as a leader in tech, focusing on trust, structure, and reliability.
• Microsoft – The Caregiver archetype. Microsoft emphasizes empowerment through technology, making tools that are user-friendly and accessible to all.
• KPMG – The Sage archetype. KPMG positions itself as an expert in financial services, offering guidance and trusted advice.
• Intel – The Innovator archetype. Intel is known for being at the forefront of technological advances, particularly in semiconductors and computing.
• Nvidia – The Explorer archetype. Nvidia is seen as a pioneer in high-performance computing, with a focus on exploration and new technologies.

How Digital Business Development Drives B2B Growth

Digital Business Development (DBD) is crucial for B2B companies aiming to scale and thrive in today’s digital-first world. Here’s how DBD can drive growth:

1. Attracting More Clients: DBD tools like SEO, paid ads, and content marketing help businesses reach new customers and generate high-quality leads.
2. Enhancing Client Relationships: With tools like CRM software and email marketing, businesses can nurture existing relationships, leading to repeat business.
3. Building a Strong Brand: Whether your archetype is the Innovator or the Trusted Expert, your online presence plays a major role in establishing credibility and recognition.
4. Improving Efficiency: DBD tools automate processes, saving time and resources that can be used to focus on business growth.
5. Driving Measurable Results: Every DBD strategy can be tracked and optimized, ensuring your efforts lead to measurable outcomes.

Tailoring Your Digital Strategy Based on Your Archetype

To get the most out of your DBD efforts, you need to tailor your strategies based on your business’s archetype. Here’s how to do that:

1. Identify Your Archetype: Understand which archetype best aligns with your business. This will guide your communication, strategy, and marketing efforts.
2. Align Strategies with Strengths: Once you know your archetype, focus on strategies that play to your strengths. For instance, a Trusted Expert might prioritize building a strong content library, while a Performance Driver may focus on paid ads and analytics.
3. Measure Success: Use analytics to track the effectiveness of your strategies and adjust them based on what works best.

How Agencies Use Archetypes:

1. Brand Strategy and Positioning: Agencies often use archetypes to help define a brand’s core personality and positioning in the market. By aligning a brand with a particular archetype (e.g., The Hero, The Sage, or The Explorer), agencies can create a clearer and more consistent brand identity. This helps differentiate a company from its competitors and makes the brand more relatable to its audience.
2. Target Audience Understanding: Archetypes help agencies better understand the emotional and psychological drivers behind consumer behavior. By using archetypes to define audience segments, agencies can craft more targeted and effective messaging that resonates on a deeper level, influencing buying decisions.
3. Content Creation: Archetypes serve as a guideline for agencies to create content that speaks to the core needs and desires of the target audience. For example, a brand aligned with the Caregiver archetype might focus on creating content that emphasizes care, empathy, and trust, while a Ruler brand might lean into content that highlights authority, leadership, and control.
4. Campaign Development: When agencies are developing marketing campaigns, they use archetypes to ensure the campaign aligns with the brand’s values and resonates with its target demographic. The archetype serves as the backbone of the campaign, guiding the tone, visuals, messaging, and even the call to action.
5. Visual and Design Guidelines: Archetypes can also inform the visual identity and design elements used by agencies. For instance, a Magician archetype brand might have bold, mystical, and transformative design elements, while a Jester archetype might lean toward fun, playful, and vibrant visuals.

At Digital Growth Architects, we help businesses build digital strategies that lead to measurable results. Ready to take your B2B business to the next level? Let’s discuss how we can help you create a marketing strategy that works for you