Archetypes: The Stories Brands Tell

The Lover’s Drive

The Lover is brave enough to go against convention, driven by the need to connect with another. They are positive and courageous, bringing out the best in others and seeing love as a universal force. The Lover creates meaning, passion, and connection.  Frownies has been building this way for over 130 years, and the Fifth-Generation Female Owner and Face of Frownies, Helen Morrison, gifted us with some incredible insight into what it looks like to be a Lover in the world of commerce. REAL CONNECTION * {00:03:43} “Jumping on board and getting involved with Frownies, what I wanted to do most of all was just connect with people. I love this version of business so much because it is so connected. It's all about just creating those relationships and reaching out to people and caring for people and supporting people on this skincare journey.” - Helen * {00:10:23} “When you build that human connection and you create a culture of we connect with each other, we take care of each other, we support each other, then yes, the customers are doing that in the comments together for each other.” - Helen * {00:13:16} “I think you see that or you see people, you see before and after photos or ads for people with skincare. And it's like, oh, come on, you did not achieve that with moisturizer, and I get that. And because I feel that way, I have leaned so far in the opposite direction when it comes to our content and what comes to the honesty surrounding Frownies. Now, I'll tell you, you can't take this approach if you don't have a good product. Frownies is a great product. It's been around for over 130 years.” - Helen * {00:15:23} “We just want to say, "Here is this product and this is what it can do. And before you buy it, I'm going to set the expectation of all the weird things about it, of all the reasons you might not like it, so that when you start using it, your expectation is realistic and then you see the results and you're blown out of the water and it's like, "Wow, this is worth it.'" - Helen * {00:18:28} “The way you handle that delicately is part of why people feel so connected to you. This through line of connection, connection, connection is really what is such an imperative part of The Lover archetype and why we need The Lover archetype in the landscape of commerce and in our lives.” - Kristen ASSOCIATED LINKS:  * Learn more about Helen Morrison [https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-morrison-09469769] and Frownies [https://www.frownies.com/] * Check out other Future Commerce podcasts [https://futurecommerce.com/podcast] * Subscribe [https://futurecommerce.com/subscribe] to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world!  Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com [https://futurecommerce.com/], or reach out to us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/futurecommerce], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/futurecommercepodcast/?ref=br_rs], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/futurecommerce/], or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurecommercepodcast/]. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Daring Creator

The Creator naturally tears down and rebuilds, moving toward positive change. A tenacious visionary and a dreamer who pursues their goals with unwavering dedication, confidence, and willingness to take risks. The Creator has a strong sense of vision, sometimes restructuring traditional forms.  When it comes to brands that exhibit this archetype, Só Dança is an easy choice. Helena Hines, Chief Operating Officer at Só Dança, shares what it's like to be a Creator in a space that's needed some restructuring for a very long time. A VISION THAT DELIVERS * {00:04:32} “There was one sentence here in the definition, which is "a strong sense of vision and an ability to take ideas from nothing into reality." And I love to do that. Whenever an idea is dead, whenever a concept is dead or people consider it gone, I like to bring it back and say, "But is it? Can we challenge that? How can we bring it back?’" - Helena * {00:06:58} “Really understanding the tools you have to work with and who's in the room is something that maybe comes naturally to a Creator, to see what I have to work with here to make something.” - Kristen * {00:09:15} “From the beginning, we were innovators and we were creating things that made sense for the brand and made sense for the dance world, even if the dance world didn't even know it yet.” - Helena * {00:12:10} “{During the pandemic} I thought, "Is this the right move for us to continue to bet on ourselves?" because we don't know how long this will take. We don't know how long this will be. The whole time everybody in leadership said, "We move forward. We don't stop. We don't halt because we believe in our people and we believe in this company. And we know we need to be reliable. We need to invest in ourselves because when the consumer needs it, we need to be able to deliver.’" - Helena * {00:14:46} “It's about following through with who you say you are. Staying true to the message that you're sending out there for your internal team and external as well. Are you going to deliver what you said you're going to deliver through the good times, but most importantly through the hard times? And that takes vision.” - Helena ASSOCIATED LINKS:  * Learn more about Helena Hines [https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenahines] and Só Dança [https://www.sodanca.com/] * Check out other Future Commerce podcasts [https://futurecommerce.com/podcast] * Subscribe [https://futurecommerce.com/subscribe] to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world!  Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com [https://futurecommerce.com/], or reach out to us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/futurecommerce], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/futurecommercepodcast/?ref=br_rs], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/futurecommerce/], or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurecommercepodcast/]. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Relatable Everyman

Everyman brands may have amazing stories, great products, and incredible people behind them, but they aren't trendy. We do tend to forget how important they are and how different life would be without them. The Everyman is always within reach, always there for us. But this wasn't everyone's favorite result when taking the Archetypes quiz. Jesse Lazarus, Orchid Bertelsen, and Kris Gösser explain why their initial reaction to the Archetypes quiz result of “The Everyman” left them less than impressed and what they’ve come to think of themselves and brands in The Everyman category since then.  NOT JUST ORDINARY * {00:04:18} “To find out that you are "ordinary," if you think about it in our society, it is frowned upon to be basic, but I think what it negates is the fact that there are some things that are so universally loved and useful that of course everybody gravitates towards it. It is the fabric on which communities are woven.” - Orchid * {00:06:19} “The Everyman can relate in some respect to everyone in the most basic human sense of what it means to be human, the basic necessities that we need to live, but also the basic things that we need in order to start to become more of ourselves in order to flourish.” - Orchid * {00:07:50} “Brands that want to scale, that want to have longevity, that want to address a large audience or a varying marketplace, the core of that build has to be from the largest applicable perspective, and that is going to be The Everyman concept. There's a time for trendiness, for innovation, for pushing the envelope, but at a certain point when you are proving to enough of a varied audience, that has to be one tool in the kit, not the only tool.” - Jesse * {00:10:32} “I've actually started to now think even more aggressively than I was prior about who are the actual people behind the brands that are building these things. And I think Archetypes overall has been interesting and helpful in that way. I've actually started to see more businesses that I think are The Everyman.” - Kris * {00:14:06} “Going to Safeway or the grocery store every week is essentially my weekly Everyman journey. And you can always depend on the prices. You can depend on the products, you can depend on them solving a need for you without ever really kind of grandstanding about it.” - Kris * {00:15:40} “One, if your name is synonymous with the category, that's a good indicator of an Everyman brand. And second, anything that you have on subscription because you simply cannot live without.” - Orchid * {00:17:23} “In the end, you couldn't do it only as an Everyman. You have to have a mix of all of those attitudes and approaches, and brands that can effectively inhabit a majority of those things I think are the most successful that are in the market.” - Jesse ASSOCIATED LINKS:  * Learn more about Jesse Lazarus [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-lazarus-b196123b] and Kravet [https://www.kravet.com/] * Learn more about Orchid Bertelsen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/orchidbertelsen] and Common Thread Collective [https://commonthreadco.com/] * Learn more about Kris Gösser [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgosser] and Shipium [https://www.shipium.com/] * Check out other Future Commerce podcasts [https://futurecommerce.com/podcast] * Subscribe [https://futurecommerce.com/subscribe] to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world! ‍Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com [https://futurecommerce.com/], or reach out to us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/futurecommerce], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/futurecommercepodcast/?ref=br_rs], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/futurecommerce/], or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurecommercepodcast/]. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Lighthearted Jester

Brands that act as The Jester appeal not to the reason and logic center of our brains, but to the emotional center of our gut. In our personal lives and in business, we often need the reminder to not take things too seriously.  Denise Foley, Vice President of eCommerce and Direct to Consumer at The Bollman Hat Company, gives us her thoughts on the role of the Jester and why we could all use more of the levity the Jester brings.  FINDING THE FUNNY * {00:03:36 “Just because you're in the corporate world or have an important job, we spend way too much time working to not have fun. There needs to be some sense of levity and fun in the business and the work and it just makes it better, makes it easier to kind of see the humor in things and not take yourself so seriously.” - Denise * {00:05:29} “We're a manufacturer, so Bollman in and of itself, while we have a brand line under that is really the manufacturer and the umbrella brand. And we've been around for 155 years. Part of the levity we said was this was our second pandemic that we've gone through and survived and thrived through.” - Denise * {00:07:42} - “There's a lot of great history, not just about Bollman the brand and the company, but the people that have built it.” - Denise * {00:09:47} “One of the misconceptions I would hope that people would break from around The Jester is that having a sense of humor around the work you do or your brand doesn't mean that you're not serious about making it a success.” - Denise ASSOCIATED LINKS:  * Learn more about Denise Foley [https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisefoley1] and The Bollman Hat Company [https://bollmanhats.com/] * Check out other Future Commerce podcasts [https://futurecommerce.com/podcast] * Subscribe [https://futurecommerce.com/subscribe] to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world! Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com [https://futurecommerce.com/], or reach out to us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/futurecommerce], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/futurecommercepodcast/?ref=br_rs], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/futurecommerce/], or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurecommercepodcast/]. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Steadfast Hero

The Hero is the aspirational archetype that inspires and motivates with optimism and strength. Heroes are there for us, offering security and a reason to be better tomorrow than we are today.‍ We've looked at the Hero before in this season of Archetypes, but not all Heroes are alike. Listen now as Ian Leslie, CMO at Industry West, shares his take on what it means to be the Hero as a person and as a brand, including some of the pressures, the positives, the negatives, and why it all matters in the scope of the broader story. STANDING IN THE GAP * {00:04:14} “There's a lot of pressure that comes with like, "I need to fix it now. It needs to be right now. It needs to work right now." I think understanding and always kind of going back to what am I solving for, and can I solve for it?” - Ian * {00:06:03} “Batman is representative of something, and oftentimes he can't be in two places at once. And so he has to, just by his presence, empower Gotham to stand up for itself. That's really, I think, probably the most important part of the Hero archetype.” - Ian * {00:08:22} “I joke that a brand that doesn't come with a side order of world change is kind of looked down upon these days. But I think that's important, as the Hero brand that we are, that our side order of World Change is just accessibility and availability.” - Ian * {00:12:40} “I coach varsity soccer and that's something that is passed along to my soccer players and just truly when I instruct them, it's just like, "Hey, guys, this isn't because I don't trust you. It's because I'm trying to stand in the gap between you and a decision that could really change the trajectory of your life.’" - Ian ASSOCIATED LINKS:  * Learn more about Ian Leslie [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irleslie?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F] and Industry West [https://industrywest.com/] * Check out other Future Commerce podcasts [https://futurecommerce.com/podcast] * Subscribe [https://futurecommerce.com/subscribe] to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world! Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com [https://futurecommerce.com/], or reach out to us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/futurecommerce], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/futurecommercepodcast/?ref=br_rs], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/futurecommerce/], or LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/futurecommercepodcast/]. We love hearing from our listeners!