Personal Brand Archetypes

Brand archetype

The Hero

The Hero is the redeemer and society’s savior. Characterized by self-sacrifice, courage and triumph, Heroes bravely endeavor to help everyone achieve their goals and bring a positive change in the world. Brands falling into the “Hero” archetype shout out their accomplishments from the rooftop and persistently work to improve and prove themselves.

  • Bravery
  • Courage
  • Honor
  • Inspiration
  • Growth
Promise
To go above & beyond to solve your problem
Goal
to provide uncommon solutions
Strategy
to act in a bold, forward-thinking way
Weakness
Heroes be prone to focusing too much on brand image and not enough on quality. The thin line between showing strength and arrogance is a huge challenge and great care must be taken in messaging.

How the Hero sounds

Tone of voice is the most immediately useful part of an archetype, because you apply it every time you write anything at all. For the Hero, the register to aim for is:

  • self-assured
  • actionable
  • motivational
  • defends the underdog
  • direct
  • confident
  • unshakeable

Write a post, then read it back against that list. If it does not sound like those words it will not sound like you either — and that gap is exactly the friction that makes publishing feel like work.

What the Hero fears

Every archetype is defined as much by what it avoids as by what it wants. These are the things this one instinctively moves away from:

  • Weakness
  • Incapability
  • Injustice
  • Cowardice
  • Incompetence

The blind spot: Heroes be prone to focusing too much on brand image and not enough on quality. The thin line between showing strength and arrogance is a huge challenge and great care must be taken in messaging. Naming it is what stops it running the show — an archetype used well leans on its strengths and plans around this one.

Colour direction

The Hero palette leans towards energizing and strong, like all shades of blue, with a pop of bright yellows.

#7F7F7F
#F2E987
#CAB43F
#443F39
#0F1C56
#ADB2BF

Type direction

Typefaces for the Hero should feel powerful and strong.

The Hero characters you already know

Recognisable examples of the pattern, described rather than pictured — these are other people's characters.

Simba from The Lion King

Aragorn from Lord of the Rings

Rocky Balboa

King Arthur

Is the Hero actually you?

Reading an archetype and recognising yourself in it are different things. The test scores you against all twelve and shows you the whole spread, not just the winner.

Discover Your Archetype

The other eleven