Ah, the Wizard – helping us keep the magic alive. A wondrous promise to those of us who live in the real world, the Wizard helps us suspend disbelief and really imagine a world of endless possibilities.
There’s a reason the Disney and Harry Potter franchises transcend time, space, and generations – because we want to believe. Please, please, please let there be a world where we can charm needles to knit on their own, and brew potions of Liquid Luck, and Disapparate to get around. Because here where we live, we have to sit in traffic, and fumble along to knitting tutorials on YouTube, and rely on good ol’ fashioned crossed fingers for luck.
It’s a powerful friend, The Wizard Archetype – it promises transformation, from ageing to youthful, from chaotic to peaceful, from difficult and inefficient to easy and productive.
As we discussed previously, Archetypes help create a tangible, relatable persona for a brand that invites its target market to build a deeper connection with them. Each of the twelve branding Archetypes are symbolic of a particular set of personality traits and characteristics that seek out and speak to the kind of consumer that brand is targeting.
The Wizard contains three sub-Archetypes, each representing a different face of the Wizard – the Transformer, the Influencer, and the Engineer. On the whole, the Wizard is driven by the desire to create change for the greater good, particularly the Transformer who combines the scientific and the spiritual to form a new vision for the world. The Influencer believes anything is possible, and will make unexpected connections to influence a change in the status quo, while the Engineer effects change by providing a new, structured process for others to follow.
It’s someone who believes there must be a better way than things currently are – they’re unhappy with the status quo, they’re sick of daily chores taking so long, they wish the crows feet settling into the corners of their eyes would go back where they came from. A Wizard customer might truly believe in magic, whether the cinematic Harry Potter variety, or the spiritual, crystals and herbs variety. A Wizard customer might keep their eye on Kickstarter regularly, to make sure they know which new innovations are appearing in the world.
Polaroid
The Magic of Instant
At a time when such technology probably was akin to sorcery, Polaroid burst onto the scene with its magic instant camera. Its ability to capture and create magical moments, instantly immortalizing every emotion that enters its shutter, has turned it into an icon.
In addition, the intricate chemical processes going on as the pictures emerge right before our eyes, even in this digital age, adds a sense of magic and wonder to the photo-taking process.
Lynx
The Lynx Effect
Built on a long-standing campaign wherein a single spritz of Lynx body spray will make any man an irresistible magnet for women, Lynx recently rebranded to create a more mature, sophisticated identity. Their new tagline? Find your magic.
The transformative promise of Lynx’s marketing is the entire premise for its existence. Don’t bother bathing, brushing your teeth, or laundering your clothes – a spritz of Lynx Africa is literally the only thing standing between you and seducing every woman you see.
Dyson
“As engineers, we have to see beyond existing technology and ask, ‘Is there a better way?’”
It’s easy to go down the route of magic wands, spells, and potions when you imagine the Wizard, but it can, of course, conjure up images of lab coats and inventors as well. For Wizard brands, it’s all about innovation and transformation, about doing something revolutionary.
It might be the last appliance you’d expected this from, but somehow Dyson made the humble vacuum magical. As they are wont to do, Dyson forgot everything they knew about vacuum cleaners and built a new one from the ground up, harnessing the newest technologies and concepts to completely transform an appliance we thought we knew everything about. Not content to simply revolutionise the vacuum, Dyson went one step further by literally harnessing an unpredictable and uncontrollable weather pattern, and put a freaking cyclone inside a vacuum cleaner. What kind of voodoo is this?!
MasterCard
There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.
Perhaps best known for its Priceless campaign – which has now been the crux of their marketing message for twenty years – MasterCard wants you to believe they’re in the business of making dreams come true.
And they’re not wrong; MasterCard certainly can afford people opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise be able to seize, the implications of which are for another discussion, another time.
In any case, through its many iterations across the years, the message of their advertising remains the same: MasterCard creates magical moments and allows people to experience them fully.
For the Wizard, the danger lies in becoming manipulative. There’s no bigger risk for Wizards than other Archetypes, but unfortunately for consumers, a wayward Wizard tends to be one of the most commonly seen examples of Archetypes Gone Bad. There are a few red flags around the Wizard – “as seen on TV” products, pyramid schemes, miracle eye creams, and basically anything accompanied by the line “You won’t believe your eyes”.
People want to believe that there’s a better/easier/quicker way, and thus can become low-hanging fruit for wily marketers. This is certainly not to say that the Wizard isn’t a trustworthy or valiant identity for your brand, but in today’s fast-paced world of microwave dinners, multitasking, and Roombas, people are very willing to suspend their disbelief if it means having more quality time with their family (or, perhaps even more shiny and desirable, quiet alone time).
A worthwhile piece of advice for Wizard brands might be to avoid any “extreme transformation” marketing – anything that leaves consumers thinking your product is too good to be true – to make sure you’re not unintentionally driving potential customers away.
The right way to market a Wizard is to come across as dynamic, influential, and charismatic – it’s important to remain trustworthy and professional. Your communication can use words like transform, imagine, change, and dream to best reflect the tone of voice for your brand.
To be the Wizard requires consistency across your language, visual communication, social media, and company culture. Brandonian can help you awaken your Archetype, so get in touch today.