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The most successful brands all have something we can identify with. We have an unspoken connection with them and it’s almost like we know them. But what is it about these brands that fascinates us? Why do we show loyalty to their products and services? 

Trade is a relatively simple concept: customers who need a company’s product or service will accept to pay a certain amount based on how valuable it is to them. But what happens when several companies are active on the same market/sector and need to differentiate themselves from one another? This is where brand archetypes come into play. People will generally trust the brand that feels closest to their needs and values, and this process actually comes down to a list of universal themes dominating human consciousness. These are the lenses through which we understand ourselves and the other people we encounter. 

One archetype to express your uniqueness

Renowned psychologist Carl Yung originally developed twelve archetypes to characterise people. Communication and marketing agencies then adapted these to provide brands with unique identities and started to develop more, with some existing models using up to 35 archetypes to allow for more refined brand profiling.

Besides these existing profiles, we can also create custom archetypes based on a brand’s values and motives, which will feed communication strategies where audience personas and brand archetype are aligned. While the personas help you understand what your audiences want, the archetype provides your brand with the characteristics most likely to appeal to these audiences.

There are about as many different archetype models as there are agencies creating archetypes, but all build upon Carl Yung’s theory. In the above chart from data and insights company Kantar, for instance, the archetypes are spread across six main groups or colors that are sentiment-related. Orange if for brands with a sense of community. Brown is for caring brands, blue for knowledgeable brands, purple for brands seeking admiration, red for independent brands, and yellow for the fun and carefree. These groups can help in the definition of suitable archetypes, especially when in need of custom archetypes where more than one group is suitable.

A five-step process

Fastlane uses various models to define archetypes for clients and usually defines them in five steps: 

• An analysis of your past and current communications to help us define your current positioning
• A benchmarking to define your main competitors’ archetypes (even if not defined officially, many brands follow one or several archetypes without even knowing it)
• An online survey allowing us to indirectly gather information on archetype preferences based on key characteristics and dismiss the most irrelevant archetypes from our list.
• A guided brainstorming session during which relevant members of your staff express their views on suitable and non-suitable archetypes. This step helps us refine our initial list by excluding non-suitable archetypes as perceived by management and coms/marketing people.
• A analytical comparison between brainstorming and survey results: this helps us define suitable archetypes with two key objectives: staying true to your own views and exploring opportunities for your communications to stand out.

All in all, archetype-based communication strategies drive stronger and more impactful messages. They present many advantages, such as:

• Shorter decision-making time in communication campaign creation and day-to-day communication efforts
• Greater consistency across all brand communication and marketing 
• A clearer (albeit mostly inconscious) characterisation of the brand among audiences 
• A clear positioning that differentiates yourselves from competitors
• Higher brand value and stronger business in the long run

This post will be updated regularly to keep up with relevant trends. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in the development of an archetype for your organisation.

Why is Twitter relevant to EU research projects? What are the best Twitter strategies for communication & dissemination activities for an Horizon Europe project ? If you’re running such project and want to gain visibility on Twitter, this guide is the perfect place to start. 

Twitter is the place where debates around key societal trends occur. A successful Twitter strategy can increase brand awareness and put you in the conversations that matter. When done right, it can add tremendous value to your Horizon Europe project. So, let’s look at some of the main reasons why your Horizon Europe project needs a tailored Twitter strategy:

Real-world conversations with metrics

Your audience is waiting for you on Twitter. Or is it? Whether you put yourself out there or not, valuable conversations will take place . Twitter is more than a ticked box in the list of mandatory dissemination activities for Horizon Europe projects. Your expertise is bringing concrete solutions to the table, so not including yourself in these conversations would be a mistake. Twitter can quickly widen your audiences and get you customers or contacts able to help take your research further. But that’s only if you avoid the common trap many community managers fall into: putting numbers before value. Success is first and foremost about considering engagement rather than followers, and inserting yourselves into conversations rather than posting on your account and hoping for the best.

Twitter is practically a replication of the real world, with audience groups that are organized based on common views and interests. We all interact in priority with people having similar interests and views, just like we would in the real world. Reaching the right audiences starts with the identification of relevant groups, finding out what they care about and identifying influences or Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who may help increase engagement.

From tracking groups to integrating them

Around seven-in-ten Twitter users (69%) say they use it to get news of interest. Chances are, the customers or partners you’ll be looking for after your Horizon Europe project is completed do too. You are amongst the true innovators in your field of study, but in the end your research needs exposure to become truly groundbreaking. This calls for three things: understanding of your audience groups (what they care about), identifying key messages that can raise their interest, and defining a strategy to get to them. This all starts with an ecosystem mapping that will identify relevant communities, conversations and influencers or, if you already have a Twitter account, with a Twitter account audit.

The ecosystem mapping is like the GPS you’re using to get from point A to point B. Without it, all that’s left is your best guess as to which direction you should take. Instead of gut feeling, the mapping is performed by dedicated AI and will provide you with all the information you need to develop your strategy.

Twitter strategy: a few guidelines for Horizon Europe projects

Once you’ve commissioned an agency to conduct your ecosystem mapping, you’ll end up with a list of relevant communities, tension points, common views and influencers who generate most of the conversations relevant to your Horizon Europe research. The strategy built from thereon will depend on the nature of your research and innovation, but there are some common threads:

• Create a Twitter calendar. Doing so will not only save you a lot of time, it will also help you keep up with your objectives and send your messages when they are likely to have the most impact. The calendar should cover predictable trends but also leave room for spontaneous campaigns if an opportunity arises.
• Follow trends closely: The pandemic has shown us how complex research can suddenly make the headlines. Nobody knew what an mRNA vaccine was in 2019, now we all do and the potential of this approach is still very much untapped.
• Share interesting & valuable content. It is important to make sure that the content you share is not only highly valuable and interesting, but also inspiring. Quality is better than quantity (Twitter is already flooded with new content). 
• Find out what influencers care about: Influencers are busy people with a lot of traction on Twitter. To turn them into multipliers, you’ll need to come up with the right information and the perfect way and timing to convey it.
• Know the best times to post. Trends aside, you’ll need to mind the time when you post: Where is your target audience located? What time is it for them? Awareness is key because people take to different social media platforms at different times. 
• Stick to a defined brand identity: Creating branded twitter image templates based on your visual guidelines, establishing a one of voice and defining key messages will help you create tweets that generate long-term engagement. Playing with the complementarity between text and visuals, for instance, is crucial. If your content has a specific look and feel, your audience will make a mental note of that and easily identify you from the crowd of posts.

There are some guidelines you can use to help manage Twitter for Horizon Europe projects, such as finding and following the organisations you define as targets. The unspoken rule of Twitter is to follow people who follow you, but it’s not always that simple as it may make your trend tracking efforts more complicated. The ecosystem mapping can help you make the right call. Another rule is a direct consequence of the short life cycle of tweet: you must tweet, retweet and engage in conversations at least 3 times a day. Tweets with images also get 89% more likes than tweets without images, and videos are retweeted six times more often. Therefore, adding pictures or videos to your posts will increase your chances of reaching more people.

This post will be updated regularly to keep up with relevant trends. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact us if you need ecosystem mapping, strategy or visual branding services.