News

WPP like every brand, wants to say they are many things. In their case being:

"The Creativity Transformation Company, using the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities."

They also want to talk about being 'extraordinary and exploring opportunities across their network to foster a culture of inclusion and openness'.

Communicating multiple ideas is never easy and compromises always have to be made. That's why brands pay agencies like WPP to help them find the right balance in the design of their website or brand.

So, has one of the biggest brand agencies in the world done a good job on designing their own website?

Based on our research and data, YES and I want to... Read more

Sport is a way of life. It requires devotion and commitment every single day and involves many facets that go beyond practice sessions and matches.

This is also true of their fans.

Brands that blend devotion into the traditional mix of performance and strength tap into the primary motivational needs of both athletes and fans.

Devotion expresses loyalty and even worship, qualities found within the feeling tone of the Romantic.

That's why fans always have faith and believe.

It's because of their Romantic love and devotion.

At RADNB we love to find patterns of ‘feeling tones’ within brands. Identifying the blends of feelings + needs used within communication to shape and influence choice.

So, just for fun, we looked to identify similar patterns within some great profile pics.

Each column is a specific 'feeling tone' and each represents a unique set of human values and needs. Basically, each 'feeling tone' is code for how someone might think and behave in the future. Therefore your picture tells a story and shares which primary needs motivate you the most.

The Shapeshifter or Trickster archetype, is used by brands like Squarespace or Confused.com to blend the fear of the unknown with humour to communicate new possibilities.

From Elephant Man to Burning Man, people have attended shows to be entertained and laugh at the unknown; the weird and frightening.

A human need that's often represented through the spirit of the carnival's magical and grotesque realism as shown in this Squarespace campaign. Something Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher, who worked on the philosophy of language talked about.

“The principle of laughter and the carnival spirit on which the grotesque is based destroys this limited seriousness and all pretence of an extratemporal meaning and unconditional value of necessity.... Read more

some brands just make you feel good!

You enjoy mapping their communication. Experiencing a string of sensorial encounters — a synaesthetic interplay of sensations blended together.

Like having a good meal, visiting a new city or a night out with friends. Certain brands make you laugh and cry one minute then feel confident and empowered the next. They leave you feeling good because there was a lovely blend to the different feelings you experience.

Whereas other brands make you feel, well almost ill or at least it didn’t feel good to map them. There’s an unease, something doesn’t feel right and it always takes longer to work out what they’re about!

Now, that may seem the most blindingly obvious statement ever!
Read more

Exploring the changing role of brand archetypes in customer-brand relationships: Why try to be a hero when your brand can be more?

Authors

Dr Omar Merlo – Associate Dean and Academic Director of the MSc Strategic Marketing programmes at Imperial College Business School

Andreas B. Eisingerich ­– Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School

Richard Gillingwater – Founder RADNB

Jia Jocelyn Cao ­– Doctoral Researcher Student at Terry College of Business University of Georgia

Abstract

For over two... Read more

Just as a sommelier tunes into the elements within a glass of wine, so we need to tune into the elements – complex emotional drivers and feelings – that lie at the heart of any piece of branded communication. RADNB (Research: Archetypes, Design, Narrative & Brands) helps you tune into these drivers and identify the elements that make up each archetype. RADNB gives you the tools to read the subtlety, the nuance, the tonal blend of emotion within a brand’s visual language. So, you can map your own brand, identify the emotional triggers brands use to influence behaviour and become an expert in archetypes.

Brands look to communicate different and often opposing aspects of themselves, such as being fun and frivolous while also being concerned about social justice. They may in... Read more

For over two decades, many consultants and agencies have encouraged managers and marketers to leverage archetypal meaning to strengthen their brands. The idea that when a brand taps into one specific archetype, it can trigger associations, universal patterns and emotional responses that influence consumer behaviour. Archetypes, the theory says, help brands connect with customers on a more human and emotional level. They give brand’s stronger personalities and make what they say more engaging, believable or distinct.

However, although research on the use of archetypes in marketing has been very limited, increasingly concerns have been raised about a lack of managerial usefulness and the applicability of the concept, and recent evidence seems to suggest that the single... Read more