Using archetypes to tell ancient stories: A semiotic analysis of a Turkish brand television commercial

Abstract

The emotional manipulative power of the concept of archetype developed by Carl Jung, which was sown in Plato's ideas reflected on the cave walls, will be discussed in the context of brand marketing strategy. With the transformations in the concept of brand strategy and the emergence of the concept of brand personality, psychological personality theories influence marketers and researchers trying to understand the dynamics of meaning creation and consumption. Advertising, which is one of the most important tools of brand communication, also plays a social role by contributing to the existence and functioning of the dominant system with its manipulative effect in legitimizing the values and beliefs of the capitalist system with the meaning structures they create. Although different brand personality scales have been developed, the most effective one by the importance given to its use today is The Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator that has 12 archetypal models and is called the PMAI scale. By the increasing model, brand personality, and the concept of archetype that they borrowed from Jung with the quantitative studies of Mark and Pearson (2001), they developed this model by adapting to brands and for use of brands to reach their target markets. This model also has brought the debates on whether archetypes are biological or cultural in the academic field and heralded a different era in advertising and brand communication.