In week 6 we discussed brand archetypes. These are personality traits that are assigned to brands to help make customers relate to a brand. Brands like Yeti or The North Face are the archetype “explorer” these brands identify with keywords like wilderness, adventuring, and ruggedness. People often relate to brands through their values. For me I’m a big fan of Yeti, Carhartt, Timberland Pro, and Levi’s. These brands all embody hard work, and their products are meant to last. These are values and traits that I look for when I buy something. I don’t mind spending more money if I know that the product is going to last me a long time. I don’t think there has been a day where I haven’t walked into our classroom without a yeti in my hand, most of the time I am wearing a T-Shirt from Carhartt or Timberland Pro. That’s because these brands embody a life that I live. I will never be able to own designer clothing because I am often working on cars or in the shop when I am at home, I need clothes that work as hard as I do. When we look at some of the brand’s websites you can see that they embody these traits on their pages. They want the potential customer to feel that they belong in their workwear before they purchase it.
This also relates to one of our guest speakers this week. We heard from Kayla Stuckart who is a senior communications strategist. A key takeaway that I got from Kayla is that when you are working with content online you need to know who you are and what your identity is online. These brands need to understand who they are marketing to. Carhartt has a separate high fashion branch where they do all the streetwear stuff that has become popular for workwear brands. But they keep this as an entirely separate brand, this is because at their core they are still a workwear brand, and their main customers purchase their products to protect them from the elements working long days outside.