Branding Archetype Deep Dive: The Creator

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Who Is the Creator?    |    Personality Traits   |   Color Palette   |   Ideal Audience for Creators   | 
Creator Brand Examples   |   How to Own Your Archetype

The Creator is one of 12 brand archetypes that help you define your brand personality, relate to your target audience, and find your brand voice.

Why is this important? When you truly own your brand archetype, you're setting yourself apart from competitors who offer similar B2B products and services. You’re getting clear on your identity.

This allows your ideal audience to be able to see you for who you truly are: What you represent, what drives you, and how they can benefit from engaging with you.

Think of your brand as having a certain personality type. This will help you find your voice and consistently relate to your customers on a deeper level. When customers know what to expect from you, this consistency drives revenue.

What Is The Creator Brand Archetype?

The Creator brand archetype has a vision of how things should work in their industry. They're a doer who can truly say they "did it before it was cool," and they attract an audience that wants to see themselves as creators too.

Their messaging needs to portray unapologetic self-expression, as inauthenticity and a perceived lack of originality often lead them straight to failure.

You bring imaginative ideas to the table — before everyone else starts trying to copy them. But as the original, you hold a special place in the hearts of customers that makes it hard for copycats to knock you from your pedestal.

Whether you see your brand as a Creator or not, defining your archetype is vital to your brand’s success. An archetype brings a human face to your brand. It signals to the right audience (B2B and B2C alike) that you're someone they want to "hang out with" and spend their hard-earned money on.

The Creator Brand Archetype Personality

Creator archetype brands live to innovate and inspire. They have an idealistic vision of how things should work, which appeals to those who share their vision. They paint a picture that anything is possible.

The way they use language, imagery, and the way they connect with their community all align with their highly inspirational and fearless personas.

Brands that embody the Creator archetype are as passionate about their own authentic self-expression as they are about others. This is why you can often see them encouraging and inspiring others to leave fear behind and go for what ignites their fires.

What Creator Archetype Brands Should Avoid

While eternally optimistic, kryptonite is around the corner if you don't stay self-aware.

A Creator might run out of ideas, feel disillusioned by an indifferent audience, dream big while actually being average, or appear to copy others while claiming to be original. Authenticity is the name of the game here, and a Creator should accept nothing less.

The Creator Brand Archetype Color Palette

Studies have shown that certain personality types are attracted to specific colors. With this in mind, it’s important to use color theory as a tool to better understand what attracts your ideal audience while also expressing your brand personality best.

Let’s take a look a potential color palette that aligns with the Creator brand archetype:

Who Is the Ideal Audience for Creator Brands?

Before deciding that your brand is a Creator, it's important to think about your audience. The ideal audience for a Creator brand is drawn to the following brand traits:

• Imagination
• Authentic self-expression
• Outside-the-box thinking
• No fear of bringing "unproven" ideas to market
• Flexible to change

People are drawn to the brand archetype Creator because they share characteristics with it or because the brand represents how they want to see themselves.

You speak this audience's language when you give them an avenue to express themselves through their life, career, business, or outlets. You're helping them create the world they want by using your tools.

Creator Archetype Brand Examples

Taking everything from above into account, ask yourself the following question: Is my brand a Creator brand archetype … or should it be?

To find out, let's take a look at a few successful Creator brand archetype examples.

Adobe

Adobe's vision is "creativity for all." They seek to make it possible for people who don't see themselves as artistic to create what they see in their heads.

For better or worse, you know you're an innovator when one of your branded products becomes a verb — like Photoshop.

From interactive eBooks to video editing, collaboration tools, graphic design, and virtual signatures, Adobe has remained a must-have suite of business tools by living up to its vision — and despite being founded in 1982, it's still as relevant and fresh today as ever.

YouTube

YouTube expresses its own creativity by building and maintaining a platform for self-expression for the entire world. Leaning into Creator brand archetypes, they never stop innovating and trying new things.

They’ve consistently listened to their creator community over the years, making it easier for them to find their audience, build a following, diversify their revenue streams, and engage with them across social media platforms.

At the same time, they've adapted to the needs of their advertisers by setting reasonable community guidelines. And despite showing time and again that they deliver an original experience, they weren't afraid to adapt to the audience's demand for short-form videos by adopting an alternative TikTok-style video format.

GoPro

GoPro took the camera where cameras had not gone before — at least not without outrageously expensive professional equipment. Underwater, on muddy trails, hanging off the side of a cliff, parasailing … the list goes on.

Over a decade before Apple's 2014 "Shot on iPhone" campaign, GoPro made it possible for everyday people to showcase their adventures and build audiences that want to experience that adrenaline rush with them.

They helped usher in extreme sports culture and continue innovating their product to celebrate and support a dedicated following of product users and those who watch the videos from the safety of their homes.

How to Own Your Creator Brand Archetype

Is Creator archetype branding a smart move for your company? Before you think about how to build a Creator archetype brand, it's essential to answer this question honestly.

First, think about your audience and how you relate to them at the moment. How will they respond if you lean into the Creator archetype branding? Does a Creator archetype brand align with your product, service, or the way you do business, or will this change lead to a disconnect with your audience?

As a Creator brand archetype, you need to be able to express yourself in these ways:

• See what's not working in the industry and fix it
• Inspire others to be original and their authentic selves
• Be unapologetic about creative expression, even when some don't like it
• Color outside the lines
• Celebrate "rebelliousness" without seeming "flighty"
• Build an environment where people can collaborate and share how they use your product to express themselves (user-generated content, or UGC)
• Offer the audience something they don't expect or ask for once in a while
• Generate consistent and original content

Your brand would not be best served as a Creator if you would feel inauthentic in using the Creator brand archetype tone of voice.

Many people want to be a Creator archetype brand because ... who doesn't want to innovate and inspire? But there are other brand archetypes that do these things in unique ways, so it's important to consider all archetypes before honing in on one.

It’s also key to get your archetype right the first time and fully commit to it. You may seem disingenuous if you lean into the wrong archetype only to find it's not for you. Not to mention, it can be difficult for your audience to see you in a different light once you try to let your inner Creator out of the bag.

Create a Better Brand Strategy

Embracing the right brand archetype will help you find a voice that your target audience responds to while differentiating your company from the competition.

If you’re innovative, fearless, and creative at heart, your brand may very well align with the Creator brand archetype!

If your business is considering adopting the Creator archetype or exploring other branding possibilities, schedule a free 20-minute branding assessment with our team.

We’ll help you evaluate your current branding strategy and explore opportunities for growth and alignment with the archetype that best suits your brand.