An effective brand personality is something your audience can relate to and interact with. In order to get this feeling, your brand personality should have a set of human characteristics that make your brand more human.
Creator brands promote creativity and imagination, thinking outside the box, while providing structure, so you know where the box is. Your brand’s main talents are creativity and imagination. Your brand’s voice is inspirational, daring, and provocative and your brand's strongest motivation is innovation.
Before you get deeper into the creator archetype, there are some questions I want you to think about and link your answers back to your brand strategy...
What does the word innovation mean to you and your audience?
What adjectives you would use to describe your brand?
What is the purpose behind your brand’s existence?
What are some brands you look up to and aspire to become like?
What drives the creator?
As the proud owner of a brand with a creator personality, you will want to have something behind your brand to help push it forward and to grow. These are your brand purpose and brand vision.
Remember that brand purpose is internal, it is what drives you and your brand to continue, and brand vision is the long-term goal you want to achieve.
Providing innovation
Innovation is what is most important to all creator personality types. Have you put any importance on that word or the meaning behind it?
Note. Keep in mind that innovation can be understood in many different ways. It can be the physical act of creating something new, the inner feel of having projects and ideas run wild, or the want to promote major changes in the world.
Whatever your definition or reason behind it, look deeper into yourself and your brand and pull that innovation out.
Important! Innovation does not always mean new! It can be something as simple as representing something old or classic in a different way.
The reason you come up with, this is what you want to talk about with your audience and provide to them.
Innovation
The Creator drives
When you were thinking of adjectives to describe your brand, these can be linked or related to your brand values. You already know all about brand values and you have your own and a few brand value statements.
Now, I want you to link the creator personality drives and your own brand values.
Creation
Originality
Self-expression
Vision
Imagination
Important! These are the drives behind creator personalities. If they don’t match your brand values, that is okay! Instead of looking at them as value words, look at them as the result you and your clients will have after working together.
As the creator archetype, your goal would be to give form to a vision. Your brand can do this through the gifts of... Creativity and imagination
Also, the creator archetype gets deep satisfaction from both the process and the outcome of creating something that did not previously exist. This archetype has a core desire to create something of enduring value.
The creator purpose
Every brand is as unique as the person that stands behind it. Even so, we use categories and archetypes, and different classifications to better understand how we fit with others.
Keeping that in mind, I want you to review the purpose behind creator brands and compare it with your own brand purpose.
Realize a vision.
You can do this by encouraging your audience to express themselves, work on DIY projects, and by fostering innovation. Your strongest strategy to do this is to develop artistic and technical skill.
The Creator examples
When you were working on your brand positioning, you got to look for aspirations for what you want your brand to become. You already have your own goals, but I want you take a look at these three examples of creator brands...
Apple
Adobe
Tesla
I want you to ask yourself if any of them could be an aspiration for your own brand and if so, how.
Note. Remember that we are not talking about the product here, but the brand personality that sells it (or the cost of said products and services).
How to reach out as a creator
As a creator personality type, your brand attracts a wide range of audience. No matter who you are addressing, though, your goal is to help them grow.
Here are some tips on how to talk to your audience and put your creator personality forward, as someone filled with creativity and imagination...
Use inspirational, daring, and provocative language.
Inspire your audience to unlock their imagination.
Encourage the pursuit of originality.
Draw out potential everywhere you see it.
Award creativity and imagination.
Bring ideas and concepts to life.
Allow people to connect to something on a deeper level.
Express yourself openly and be emotional.
Let your vision lead you, not consume you.
Celebrate all achievements and goals.
Connect with
Since the main goal of the creator is to give form to a vision, this brand personality attracts a wide range of audience, including most of the other archetypes. Below is a list of a few audience archetypes that are attracted to creator brands and what creator brands can use to appeal to them...
Sage. Truth, knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, factual
Outlaw. Revolution, change, challenge, encouraging, empowering
Magician. Transformation, opportunity, fantasy, knowledge, mystery
Hero. Empowerment, inspiration, opportunity, worth, recognition
Jester. Fun, happiness, entertainment, memorable, positivity, laughter
Lover. Attractive, passion, desire, belonging, intimacy
Start creating content for your audience
As part of your brand strategy, you already know who your people are and where to find them. Now, it's time to talk to them! Here are a few content and conversation prompts you can use to display your creator personality...
See potential everywhere
Creativity is a catalyst for positive change
Here are the tools for you to do it yourself
Explain how you provide structure to the world
Tip. You want to get your audience and clients thinking outside the box, but you should provide some structure as well. Make sure they know where the box is and, since we're talking to creators, let them know everything they want to know about that box, including what else is around it and where it's placed.
You can display your creator archetype through two main strategies...
Inspire to unlock imagination
Encourage the pursuit of originality
The Creator voice
Your brand voice is a unique element of your brand’s communication with your audience. It remains consistent throughout all the content that you create.
You will be working on finding your brand voice after this module, however, your brand voice has input from both you and your brand personality. In addition, a brand voice is often characterized by both what it is and what it isn’t.
Here are some examples of creator voices...
Inspirational, but not persuasive
Daring, but not reckless
Provocative, but not offensive
Encouraging, but not promising
The Creator character
You now know a lot more about your brand personality. You have a character, a brand that is a separate entity that will interact and befriend your audience. This character has their own goals, values, and ambitions, as you’ve discovered when working on your brand positioning and core.
But, if we want to make them more human, we want to add a bit extra to it.
At the moment, your brand’s personality is too perfect and structured. Your brand can become more human by being open with its fears, weaknesses, and characteristics.
Knowing these, will help you battle against them and, since there is no person out that doesn’t have these, you will make your brand more approachable to your audience.
The Creator weaknesses
The things that you should be most worried about as a creator brand are having a mediocre vision or execution. Make sure not to let perfectionism or bad solutions stop you. As a creator, you understand that it takes steps to get better, so be careful from having a mediocre vision or execution.
The five things you should avoid in your brand are...
Stagnation
Duplication
Familiarity
Disillusion
Indifference
Now consider your audience.
You’ve written their problems and emotions in your ideal client bio, so take a look at all the negative emotions in there and see if they connect with any of these fears. If so, then these are things you can help them with, as they are dangerous for you and your brand too.
Niching the creator down
Twelve personalities may seem very limiting, especially when you start thinking that there are almost 8 billion people on earth, half of them are on social media, and all of them fall into these twelve categories.
However, you can narrow your personality down to make it more unique to you. Every archetype has three levels and five sub-archetypes.
Note. Keep in mind that both of these are not static! They change over time as you and your brand evolve.
Creator levels
The three different levels for each archetype are based on the development within that personality. That means, the lower level is less mature while the higher level is more developed.
This is linked to your brand’s vision, figuring out what point you are at now and how your brand personality can grow with your brand, the closer you get to your vision.
Level one. The act of creating, but not truly innovating, by simply imitating others.
Level two. Form to one’s own vision and express authenticity through introspection.
Level three. True innovation and creates something enduring that can influence society.
Creator sub-archetypes
There are five related sub-archetypes within the creator archetype, which emerge based on particular attributes that are visible within that archetype. That means, each sub-archetype has different attributes. This is linked to your brand values and helps you split yourself from the collective within your archetype.
Creator
The creator has a passionate need for self-expression. While highly imaginative with non-linear thought patterns, the creator might be whimsical and appear flighty, bit they are, in fact, highly dedicated and achievement-oriented, with a highly developed aesthetic. Not surprisingly, perfectionism, fears of judgment, and mediocrity can hinder the creator.
Visionary
The visionary is insightful, perceptive, and a very good strategist. They bring an enlightened perspective along with a great imagination, and are able to see the potential for the greater good that others may not realize. However, the visionary must avoid the temptation to shift or change the vision in order to control the outcome or to please other people.
Storyteller
The storyteller emerges when imagination is combined with communication. They thrive on dramatic expression and are capable of bringing ideas and concepts to life to connect people on a deeper level. Exaggeration or misinformation for the purpose of a good story or to manipulate an outcome are a challenge to all storytellers.
Artist
The artist turns an idea into a tangible form. With a need to express themselves, artists are often very emotional. They have an inborn curiosity and playfulness, which will bring an unorthodox perspective to challenge the norm. Artists should be wary of the fear of failure, taking on too much, or becoming the stereotypical starving artists.
Entrepreneur
The entrepreneur is achievement-oriented and ambitious. Led by a vision, this innovative self-starter is strong at generating ideas and thrives on turning dreams into reality. Unfortunately, the entrepreneur may have a difficult time following through once the adrenaline wears off, or to turn that creativity outward to help others in achieving the same results.