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12 Brand Archetypes That Marketers Use to Get Your Attention

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Every day, we get bombarded with over 5,000 ads or brand messages vying to capture our attention.

Most of them get deflected by our unconscious minds and hold little relevance or appeal to our daily lives. But at the same time, a select few of these messages get through to us, and we may even feel a sense of personal identity with them.

Sure, these brands might sell products that we like – but it’s also the storytelling behind the brand’s messaging that can resonate with our individual lives.

Brand Archetypes

How do brands craft symbolism and messaging that have consistent appeal?

There are many strategies and techniques used by marketers to accomplish this, but one interesting way to view it is through the lens of archetypes. Brands can anchor their communications to enduring personas or profiles that feed into the human experience, and this allows consumers to identify narratives and symbolism quickly and effectively.

Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand because they convey a meaning that makes customers relate to a product as if it actually were alive in some way, they have a relationship with it and care about it.

– The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes

The following 12 archetypes were defined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and are commonly cited in the fields of marketing, psychology, anthropology, and other social sciences. The graphic comes from a guide put together by Iconic Fox:

Brand Archetypes

Each brand archetype slots in with the common narratives we see and experience regularly in our culture.

Which do you think Harley Davidson matches the best? What about a brand like Apple?

Brand Archetype Examples

Here are two example archetypes – also from Iconic Fox – that will help better demonstrate the concept. It’s worth looking closely at the brand voice, strategies, and values exemplified by each archetype, and thinking about how they connect to human storytelling and the types of characters we are familiar with throughout history.

We’ll start with “The Outlaw”

The Outlaw Archetype
The Outlaw Archetype

About “The Outlaw”

James Dean. William Wallace. Hermoine Granger. Jack Sparrow.

These are all people or characters that see rules as things that are meant to be broken, especially in the name of liberation. The Outlaw appeals to people and stories driven by independence, righteousness, change, and even revenge – and when used as a brand archetype, The Outlaw conveys a message that one can do better than the status quo.

Harley Davidson is a fantastic example of a brand that fits with this archetype.

Next up is “The Creator”

The Creator Archetype
The Creator Archetype

About “The Creator”

Tony Stark. Carrie Bradshaw. John Hammond. Nüwa.

These are all people or characters that see the value of creation of new things. The Creator appeals to those that value self-expression, vision, imagination, and inspiration.

Apple is the iconic brand associated with this archetype, but Lego, Adobe, and Etsy could be considered good fits as well.

More Brand Archetypes

In a world with no shortage of media stimuli, brand archetypes enable marketers to pin down specific imagery and ideas that they know can make a direct impact with their audience. Archetypes are enduring, tried-and-true representations of the stories we have told ourselves for centuries, and that some would even say are entrenched in human nature.

For more on archetypes in marketing, including expanded definitions on the other 10 that we did not cover in depth here, we recommend reading the graphical guide put together by Iconic Fox.

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United States

Mapped: How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?

An annual income anywhere between $360,000-$950,000 can grant entry into the top 1%—depending on where you live in America.

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A cropped map of the U.S. listing the annual income needed to be in the top 1% in each state.

How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?

There’s an old saying: everyone thinks that they’re middle-class.

But how many people think, or know, that they really belong to the top 1% in the country?

Data from personal finance advisory services company, SmartAsset, reveals the annual income threshold at which a household can be considered part of the top 1% in their state.

Some states demand a much higher yearly earnings from their residents to be a part of the rarefied league, but which ones are they, and how much does one need to earn to make it to the very top echelon of income?

Ranking U.S. States By Income to Be in the Top 1%

At the top of the list, a household in Connecticut needs to earn nearly $953,000 annually to be part of the one-percenters. This is the highest minimum threshold across the country.

In the same region, Massachusetts requires a minimum annual earnings of $903,401 from its top 1% residents.

Here’s the list of all 50 U.S. states along with the annual income needed to be in the 1%.

RankStateTop 1% Income
Threshold
Top 1% Tax Rate
(% of annual income)
1Connecticut$952,90228.40%
2Massachusetts$903,40127.15%
3California$844,26626.95%
4New Jersey$817,34628.01%
5Washington$804,85325.99%
6New York$776,66228.29%
7Colorado$709,09225.86%
8Florida$694,98725.82%
9Illinois$660,81026.35%
10New Hampshire$659,03726.25%
11Wyoming$656,11824.79%
12Virginia$643,84826.11%
N/ANational Average$652,657N/A
13Maryland$633,33325.94%
14Texas$631,84925.83%
15Utah$630,54423.77%
16Minnesota$626,45125.53%
17Nevada$603,75125.19%
18South Dakota$590,37322.99%
19Pennsylvania$588,70224.95%
20North Dakota$585,55624.76%
21Georgia$585,39725.06%
22Oregon$571,81324.66%
23Arizona$564,03125.22%
24Idaho$560,04023.17%
25North Carolina$559,76225.31%
26Montana$559,65624.46%
27Kansas$554,91225.03%
28Rhode Island$548,53125.26%
29Tennessee$548,32925.12%
30Alaska$542,82425.38%
31Nebraska$535,65124.10%
32Delaware$529,92825.37%
33Vermont$518,03923.63%
34Wisconsin$517,32124.90%
35South Carolina$508,42724.40%
36Michigan$504,67125.01%
37Maine$502,60524.04%
38Missouri$500,62624.93%
39Ohio$500,25325.09%
40Hawaii$495,26324.12%
41Iowa$483,98524.09%
42Indiana$473,68524.55%
43Alabama$470,34123.82%
44Oklahoma$460,17223.68%
45Louisiana$458,26924.80%
46Arkansas$450,70021.11%
47Kentucky$445,29424.14%
48New Mexico$411,39523.35%
49Mississippi$381,91923.04%
50West Virginia$367,58223.26%
N/ANational Median
Household Income
$75,000N/A

California ($844,266), New Jersey ($817,346), and Washington ($804,853) round out the top five states with the highest minimum thresholds to make it to their exclusive rich club.

On the other end of the spectrum, the top one-percenters in West Virginia make a minimum of $367,582 a year, the lowest of all the states, and about one-third of the threshold in Connecticut. And just down southwest of the Mountain State, Mississippi’s one-percenters need to make at least $381,919 a year to qualify for the 1%.

A quick glance at the map above also reveals some regional insights.

The Northeast and West Coast, with their large urban and economic hubs, have higher income entry requirements for the top 1% than states in the American South.

This also correlates to the median income by state, a measure showing Massachusetts households make nearly $90,000 a year, compared to Mississippians who take home $49,000 annually.

How Much Do the Top 1% Pay in Taxes?

Meanwhile, if one does make it to the top 1% in states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, expect to pay more in taxes than other states, according to SmartAsset’s analysis.

A chart showing how states with the top highest and lowest average tax rates for their top 1% residents.

The one-percenters in the top five states pay, on average, between 26–28% of their income in tax, compared to those in the bottom five who pay between 21–23%.

And this pattern exists through the dataset, with higher top 1% income thresholds correlating with higher average tax rates for the wealthy.

State RanksMedian Tax Rate
Top 1026.65%
20-3025.09%
30-4024.65%
10-2025.07%
40-5023.75%

These higher tax rates point to attempts to reign in the increasing wealth disparity in the nation where the top 1% hold more than one-third of the country’s wealth, up from 27% in 1989.

Where Does This Data Come From?

Source: SmartAsset’s America’s Top 1% Is Different in Each State uses data from 2020 individual tax filings from the IRS, adjusted to 2023 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.

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