Why Your Brand Messaging Feels Off — & How Knowing Your Branding Personality Can Fix It

Have you ever looked at your own brand and thought, “What’s our voice?” or “Why does something seem off?” 

Maybe your messaging feels inconsistent, your visuals are all over the place, or your team can’t agree on what your brand actually stands for. There’s a reason it’s happening…

Brands without a defined personality often feel jumbled because they lack a clear identity and messaging framework. And without a clear identity that customers can recognize and align with, it’s nearly impossible to build trust with your audience.

3 Signs You Might Need a Solid Brand Personality or Archetype

Here are three big signs potential Greenlane Marketing clients exhibit when they have no idea what their brand personality is:

1. Your team can’t agree on how to describe your brand. If your copywriter, designer, and sales rep each give a different answer to “what’s our brand voice?” — that’s a red flag.

2. You’re trying to be everything to everyone. Without a guiding personality, it’s easy to water down your messaging in hopes of appealing to more people. Unfortunately, it usually backfires.

3. Your content feels disjointed across channels. Maybe your website reads like a research paper, your social feels like a comedy routine, and your ads are completely serious. It’s hard to trust a brand when it doesn’t sound or look the same from one place to the next. Consistency is so often linked with trust.

The Real Problem Isn’t Just Messaging — It’s Misalignment

Many companies jump straight into marketing tactics before they’ve nailed down the foundation: who they are, what they stand for, and how they show up in the world.

When your tone shifts between professional on your website to playful on social media, or your PPC ads sound like they’re coming from different people entirely, you confuse your audience. 

Confused people don’t convert. They scroll past. 

You need to clearly define what your brand’s messaging and personality are to your team, so they can consistently communicate it to your audience.

Enter: knowing what your brand’s personality is, or what experts within the space call “archetypal branding.”

What are the Common Brand Personalities?

Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, identified 12 core personality types — which he coined “archetypes” — that appear across cultures, and yes, even branding. 

These Jungian archetypes are tropes we’ve seen time and time again in personalities in stories, from characters in books to television shows. These archetypes help people connect emotionally and instinctively to characters… and the same is true for your brand.

“A study conducted by scholars Michael A. Faber and John D. Mayer in 2009 found that certain archetypes in richly detailed media sources can be reliably identified by individuals. They stated as well that people’s life experiences and personality appeared to give them a kind of psychological resonance with particular creations,” according to Wiki.

Photo: The 12 Brand Archetypes, from our E-book

But who are these 12 mysterious brand personalities in the pictures above?

Think:

• The Hero brand that inspires you to push limits (Nike). That’s our firefighter image above!
• The Caregiver who supports you through life’s hard moments (TOMS). The doctor in the graphic.
• The Outlaw who rebels against the status quo (Harley-Davidson). Can you guess which picture is represented above?

When your brand embraces an archetype from Carl Jung’s framework, it gains a personality. That personality influences everything from your voice to your visuals to the way you connect with customers.

Speaking to Your Audience’s Core Desires

Brand archetypes are powerful tools because they tap into universal human desires — core emotional motivators that shape behavior and decision-making. These desires (like belonging, mastery, or freedom) go deeper than demographics or psychographics; they resonate at a psychological level. 

When a brand aligns with one of these innate desires, it becomes more than just a product or service, it becomes a symbol of meaning in a customer’s life. For example, a brand rooted in “Belonging” might foster community and inclusion (think Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign), while one that channels “Mastery” may appeal to ambition and achievement, like Nike’s celebration of personal greatness.

Photo: The 12 Core Desires of Your Audience, from our E-book

The graphic above outlines twelve core desires, each mapping to the emotional foundation of a brand archetype. When brands clearly articulate which desire(s) they fulfill, they create stronger emotional bonds, more authentic messaging, and ultimately, more loyalty. 

“Liberation” and “Freedom” reflect the call for personal autonomy and exploration, while “Control” and “Safety” address the need for order and stability. “Transformation” speaks to our fascination with change and identity, often found in fashion or beauty brands. Meanwhile, “Enjoyment” and “Intimacy” target joy and emotional closeness. 

These desires are not arbitrary — they align closely with psychologist Carl Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious and the archetypes that emerge from it. 

Knowing Your Brand Archetype Brings It All Together

When you choose to define your brand personality by assigning it a formal brand archetype that speaks to your customer or client’s core desires or motivations, you’re choosing clarity. You’re deciding:

More importantly, you’re choosing a consistent experience for your audience, and that consistency builds trust.

Ready to Learn About the 12 Brand Personalities & Determine Yours?

That’s where we come in. We created a free, comprehensive guide that walks you through the 12 core archetypes and how they tie to your customers’ deepest desires. 

It’s packed with real-world examples, exercises to help you self-assess, and actionable tips for bringing your brand’s true personality to life.

If your brand feels off, it’s not a lost cause — it’s just waiting to become who it really is. Hopefully, our guide gets you on the right path, but feel free to reach out about our Branding Services for even more support along the way.