The Magician Brand Archetype
The revolutionary. The Magician brand archetype is an innovator, creating remarkable things seemingly from thin air. They are masters of transformation, frequently reinventing themselves. They’re capable of turning a negative into a positive, but they can also do the reverse.
The core of the magician brand is transformation. Like the rebel, they challenge the status quo. They often combine disparate elements or items to create something new, shocking, useful or entertaining. The magician brand often, but not always, has a reputation for having access to restricted knowledge, interesting expertise or seeming prescience.
Transformative
Magician brands are masters of transformation, creating remarkable things from thin air and reinventing themselves constantly.
Innovative
These revolutionary brands combine disparate elements to create something new, shocking, useful, or entertaining.
Visionary
Magician brands have access to restricted knowledge, interesting expertise, and seeming prescience.
Strengths
Brand Promise: Uncommon knowledge
Goal: Make dreams come true.
Strategy: Develop a compelling vision.
Personality to project: The catalyst, the innovator, the inventor.
Ideal Customer: Customers who are loyal to this brand archetype need to feel as if they’ve grown smarter, wiser or just plain better from using the brand’s products or services value. These folks are valuable customers to have because they provide word of mouth advertising.
Color: Orange
Weakness
Weakness: Can be perceived as too off the wall or eccentric. But if the brand strategy focuses on evocative marketing infused with enigma, then this archetype can be quite effective.
Eccentricity is not always a bad thing. Look at the Virgin brand to see how they used that persona to maximum impact!
Potential solutions:
- Focus on evocative marketing infused with enigma to harness the power of eccentricity.
- Balance innovation with reliability—show transformative results with concrete evidence.
- Ground your visionary messaging with customer testimonials demonstrating real transformation.
Suggested Color Palette
This is just a suggested palette. Colors should be selected based on a robust brand strategy and should be part of the brand identity development.
Magician Brand Examples
Mary Kay
On the surface, there’s not much to Mary Kay. They sell cosmetics and skin care products. But under the hood, they provide a potentially lucrative business opportunity. Their slogan, Enriching women’s lives, speaks to this. Of course, the products themselves offer transformation—younger looking skin, blemishes that vanish, etc.
Snickers
Snickers’ recent ads, with their ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry,’ tagline, elevate the brand from a mere confection to a cultural phenom. The ads suggest that the candy bars have some eerie transformational power. Of course, the transformational ‘power’ here is sugar. But the messaging is clear. The implication is clear too: you’ll be a better you with some Snickers in you.
Dyson
Dyson took something rather boring—the vacuum cleaner—and turned it on its ear. In so doing, it became a household name. A vacuum cleaner that improves upon the tried and true standard design is indeed a magic trick.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can my brand help customers feel they have grown smarter, wiser, or better after using our products or services?
To make your customers feel like they have grown smarter, wiser, or better after using your products or services in alignment with the Magician archetype, consider these strategies:
1. Educate your Customers:
- •Provide valuable and insightful content that helps customers better understand your industry, product, or service through blog posts, webinars, tutorials, or product packaging.
- •Establish your brand as a thought leader by publishing original research, insights, or innovations.
2. Enhance their Skills or Abilities:
- •Design products that help customers improve skills, become more efficient, or solve complex problems.
- •Offer additional resources like workshops, coaching sessions, or interactive tools.
3. Create Transformative Experiences:
- •Make the customer journey an experience of transformation using storytelling to illustrate significant positive changes.
- •Use customer testimonials and case studies showing real-life examples of growth.
4. Foster a Community of Learners:
- •Create community platforms where customers can learn from each other and grow together.
- •Encourage customers to share their stories of growth and transformation.
By implementing these strategies, your brand can embody the Magician archetype and help customers feel they have grown smarter, wiser, or better from using your products or services.
What compelling vision can I develop that aligns with the goal of making dreams come true?
Developing a compelling vision that aligns to make dreams come true through the Magician archetype involves creating a narrative that emphasizes transformation, innovation, and potential realization. Consider these elements:
- 1Identify the Dream: Understand what dreams your customers have that your brand can help fulfill. These could be personal, professional, or societal aspirations.
- 2Articulate the Transformation: Clearly communicate how your brand will facilitate the journey from where customers are now to where they want to be.
- 3Innovate Continuously: Position your brand as a pioneer that’s constantly pushing boundaries and exploring new possibilities.
- 4Inspire Belief: Create messaging that inspires customers to believe in possibilities and their ability to achieve their dreams.
- 5Demonstrate Magical Results: Showcase tangible examples of how your brand has helped others achieve their dreams through case studies and testimonials.
A compelling vision for a Magician brand should be aspirational yet attainable, inspiring customers to believe in the transformative power of your brand to help make their dreams come true.
How can my brand convey the personality traits of a catalyst, innovator, or inventor?
Conveying the personality traits of a catalyst, innovator, or inventor as a Magician brand requires intentional communication and actions:
- 1Lead with Innovation: Consistently introduce new products, features, or services that push industry boundaries and solve problems in novel ways.
- 2Share Your Process: Be transparent about your creative and development processes, showing the innovation behind your products.
- 3Challenge Convention: Position your brand as one that questions norms and presents better alternatives.
- 4Celebrate Transformation: Highlight stories of change and improvement resulting from your products or services.
- 5Use Visionary Language: Employ forward-thinking, transformative language in your brand communications.
- 6Create Magical Experiences: Design customer experiences that feel special, surprising, and transformative.
Remember, embodying these traits requires more than just messaging—it demands consistent innovation and a genuine commitment to catalyzing positive change for your customers.
How can I ensure my brand doesn’t appear too eccentric or off the wall while maintaining its unique appeal?
Balancing uniqueness with credibility is crucial for the Magician archetype. Here’s how to maintain appeal without appearing too eccentric:
- 1Ground Innovation in Results: Always tie your innovative claims to tangible, measurable outcomes that customers can verify.
- 2Maintain Professional Standards: Ensure your website, communications, and customer service maintain high professional standards.
- 3Use Social Proof: Leverage testimonials, case studies, and endorsements from credible sources to validate your transformative claims.
- 4Balance Mystery with Clarity: While enigma can be powerful, ensure your core value proposition and product benefits are crystal clear.
- 5Know Your Audience: Tailor the level of “magic” and innovation to what your specific audience finds credible and appealing.
- 6Deliver Consistently: Build trust by consistently delivering on your promises and maintaining product/service quality.
Remember, eccentricity can be a strength when it’s strategic and grounded in real value. The key is to be different in ways that matter to your customers while maintaining credibility through proven results.
What strategies can I implement to make my brand appear as a master of transformation and innovation, challenging the status quo?
To position your brand as a master of transformation and innovation that challenges the status quo, implement these strategies:
- 1Disrupt Industry Norms: Identify outdated practices in your industry and position your brand as the alternative that does things differently—and better.
- 2Showcase Transformation Stories: Create powerful before-and-after narratives showing the transformative impact of your products or services.
- 3Pioneer New Technologies: Be an early adopter or developer of cutting-edge technologies relevant to your industry.
- 4Create Thought Leadership: Publish original research, insights, and predictions about industry trends and future possibilities.
- 5Design Magical Experiences: Create customer touchpoints that feel transformative, surprising, and delightfully different from competitors.
- 6Continuously Reinvent: Don’t rest on your laurels—regularly introduce innovations and improvements that keep your brand fresh and forward-thinking.
- 7Build Strategic Mystique: Create some level of intrigue around your brand—special knowledge, unique processes, or exclusive insights that set you apart.
The Magician brand must walk the line between being visionary and being credible. The key is to consistently demonstrate that your innovations and transformations deliver real, valuable results for your customers.