…This is a man’s world…
But it wouldn’t be nothing
WITHOUT A WOMAN OR A GIRL…
James Brown was spot on!!!
We live in a patrifocal society today, though at one point society was matrifocal; women were the leaders, the worshipped deities, the elders. So inevitably when we made this cultural shift, the entire system for life, business, and brand building is masculine design in modern day life.
As an international brand strategist, I have worked with clients in a variety of industries: retail, consulting, doctors, lawyers, creatives, etc. I started to see a pattern in my clients. At first I was using the “best practice” and formulas that were successful for many clients and “the textbook companies” but then there were clients that it just didn’t work for, some were so resistant to these “best practice marketing tactics” they weren’t able to bring themselves to even implement them. I decided I needed to find a different approach.
What they were resisting was not the strategy but the masculine approach that felt uneasy and unnatural for their more feminine energy.
At the time, I started studying the work of Carl Jung and other Jungian analysts and this was when I had an “AHA” moment. I felt like NEO stepping into the Matrix and taking that red pill, disrupting the singular pattern, that one-size-fit-all box to discover that…
ALL BUSINESS, MARKETING STRATEGIES, TACTICS, TOOLS AND STORYTELLING are ARCHETYPAL.
The storytelling formulas that have been developed for marketing, and adapted by Hollywood in movies have largely been based on the idea of the HERO’s Journey developed by Joseph Campbell in 1987 which was supposed to represent a universal idea of our journey in life.
It’s a very successful formula… for some…
YET THIS BLUEPRINT…
Isn’t working for many female-led brands and even those led by men who wired differently archetypally.
We have “herorized” everything and created a world and business model centered on winning, searching for battles to overcome and people to rescue. Yet an entire spectrum of human experience and customer journey’s exist and these archetypes are left to force fit themselves into the accepted model.
This is why so many women feel so disconnected in business and even men who do not identify with a heroic quest. Some feel like failures in their career because they are not aware that they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Building a model of success for themselves in the wrong mold. Conditioned into a singular archetype that does not represent the vast spectrums of human experiences, world-views, ways of being, and building a brand.
The rise of influencer brands has shown us that this archetypal aspect of brands is very real whether we are conscious of it or not. Unconsciously, most of these influencers are tapping into archetypes that resonate with their followers while businesses continue to use the “textbook marketing”, retracing proven case studies of some other brand’s best fit archetype. It’s a very masculine logical approach with little integration of the more feminine emotional and psychological aspects of the humans we are as leaders and the people we seek to influence and build commercial relationships with.
Many brand owners today are afraid to draw a line in the sand and frankly many are simply not aware of the options available to them. So when we don’t know what we don’t know, we follow the mold, the industry standard even when it clearly isn’t working or helping you create a stand out brand and success you desire.
In my over a decade of experience consulting for and studying great brands I have found that the market leaders tend to be more tapped into their own distinct archetypal blueprint called their brand identity and this gives them an unfair advantage; an IT FACTOR. They weave it into their marketing, customer service, branding and public relations.
Here is one way they do it and I have also used this to help our clients stand out and earn more their services and products online:
The Double Threat of Clarity and Courage in Positioning
Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans artwork is a great example. Some still ask “why is this even art?” It either fascinates or infuriates. He knew he had to be different and was bold enough to defy the status quo of what is “art”. What was important is that people took notice and were talking and that it was archetypally aligned with what would become the Andy Warhol style. Andy took the advertising graphic of a common product and positioned it in the fine art world. By repositioning the graphic, he invited us to find more meaning in what else this visual represented. He didn’t feel the need to impress us with his artistic brush strokes or some breakthrough technique. The simplicity of the idea is what makes it so attention grabbing. There is something very seductive about this type of irreverence.
For brands to be successful, distinctive position is key. It is about being courageous enough to think differently and being authentic to stand apart.
Lululemon used a similar approach. The brand did not take the positioning of an athletic wear company but more of a wellness brand with a fashion twist. They fostered a community (a tribe) and incorporated the culture of self-improvement into a commodity making it more than just workout apparel. If I had to compare this approach to Greek mythology, Lululemon would be Artemis (goddess of hunting, the explorer, who loved nature and sisterhood) compared to Nike which embodies Athena, the goddess of victory and embodies the classic “hero” who loves to win. Lululemon rewrote the script and changed sportswear apparel forever just by aligning with an archetype that was true for the brand. One of our clients discovering their unique brand identity was able to leverage a more Aphrodite energy for their consulting company and this led to more compelling marketing messages, attracting more high-value sales, and more high performing talent who are excited about their unique culture.
Many businesses are not standing out today because they have branding and not a brand identity. Many are afraid to take risks and be different. Everyone is doing what is either trendy or what they think consumers want to hear and see. Instead of leading people to experience something different perhaps something they too long for but cannot yet define. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and my most successful clients are the ones who are courageous enough to create their own box and own it unapologetically. One of the IT Factors of a great brand is that they are playing to win while others are playing not to lose by following a script. If you want to win you must rewrite the script in your own brand language
BIO: HANNA FITZ is an international brand strategist and the founder of the Brand Atelier at hannafitz.com. She helps legacy-driven entrepreneurs, service-based experts and public figures elevate their authority, celebrity, income, and impact online by uncovering their Brand IT Factor to create a world-class brand. She has been featured in global media like Huffington Post, Goalcast, ThriveGlobal, and WhereMilan. In August 2020, Anglia Ruskin University (UK) featured her as their Alumni of the Month.
