Running head: DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? Do Montblanc, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton brands align with the Ruler archetype? Ieva Masaityte ISM University of Management and Economics 1 DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? Abstract This paper suggests three luxury brands (Montblanc, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton) that may be considered as The Rulers while examining them using Stephen Houraghan’s (2018) framework on brand archetypes as an analytical tool and then evaluates if these brands align with The Ruler archetype. Even though most aspects of the brands under examination satisfy the criteria and represent the features of The Ruler archetype through their color palette, symbols and the way of communication, some characteristics may also be applicable to the other archetypes as well, according to Houraghan (2018). However, since most of the analyzed content of Montblanc, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton only matches with the description of The Ruler archetype provided by Houraghan (2018), these brands may be considered as The Rulers that demonstrate power and superiority and strive for control, status and prosperity. Key words: brand, archetype, The Ruler 2 DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? 3 Do Montblanc, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton brands align with The Ruler archetype? Most global companies form their brand image and associate themselves with specific feelings or situations using brand archetypes. According to Stephen Houraghan (2018), archetypes are an extremely useful tool when defining the position of a company’s brand and personality traits that the intended audience would resonate with. There are 12 specific archetypes that match with basic human desires (ibid.), including The Ruler, which represents the human need of control. The brands that might be referred to the latter archetype usually provide luxury quality and imply the strategy of exerting leadership and demonstrating superiority. According to Houraghan (2018), Rulers represent power, prosperity, status, success and avoid showing weakness, insignificance, failure, poverty and destitution (ibid.). The Ruler archetype brands convey their messages through specific color palette which includes dark shaded colors, most frequently, blue, red and black (ibid.). All the features mentioned earlier may be demonstrated through brand’s symbols (logotype meaning, overall symbolism), the way of communication (vision, taglines) and color palette. This paper aims to examine three global brands (Montblanc, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton), that may be considered belonging to The Ruler archetype by using Stephen Houraghan’s (2018) framework as an analytical tool and evaluate if the latter archetype is being represented through these companies’ symbols, color palette and the way of communication. To begin with, Montblanc, the luxury brand of writing instruments, watches, jewelry etc., may be ascribed to The Ruler archetype. Considering the visuals, Montblanc commercials and official page mostly consist of black and other cold and dark shaded colors, while the company’s logotype is black (Montblanc, 2020). Taking these insights into the perspective of brand DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? 4 archetypes theory, the color palette that is being used by Montblanc matches The Ruler archetype, even though black color is also widely used by The Explorer, The Creator and The Hero archetypes brands as well (Houraghan, 2018). Moving to symbolism, Montblanc brand symbol represents the peak of the highest mountain in Europe covered in snow (Montblanc, 2020). This is to reflect “the commitment to the brand’s highest quality and European craftsmanship” (ibid.). This symbol represents company’s superiority, leadership, wealth and power which are the traits that, according to Houraghan (2018), describe The Rulers. Having analyzed some communication content of Montblanc, it could be stated that this brand refers to The Ruler archetype. For instance, in the company’s description it is said: “At Montblanc we believe that everyone can leave a mark” (Montblanc, 2020). This sentence reflects brand’s passion for wealth, status and success as well as indirectly shows the fear of failure (of not “leaving the mark”), weakness and insignificance. Since wealth, status and success are the features that drive The Ruler archetype brands (Houraghan, 2018), some of Montblanc communication content also aligns with this archetype. Thus, taking it’s symbols, color palette and communication approach into consideration, Montblanc brand may be considered as matching The Ruler archetype. The other brand that may belong to the archetype under examination, is Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the British firm known for manufacturing high quality vehicles. The brand’s overall dominant color is black (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, n.d.), which means that its color palette aligns with The Ruler archetype, as it also matches some of the other archetypes on this criterion (Houraghan, 2018). Furthermore, analyzing company’s product promotion, some symbolic meanings may be perceived. For example, the symbol of the Black Badge model is infinity and, according to the company’s webpage, it is “a statement of infinite power” (Rolls-Royce Motor DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? 5 Cars, n.d.). These words demonstrate the ambition for power, status and superiority which is typical for The Rulers (Houraghan, 2018). Continuing the analysis of the Black Badge model description, it should be mentioned that it features taglines such as “Crafted to dominate” or “Designed with more torque, control and power” (ibid.). These sentences represent The Ruler archetype as they mention dominance, power and control which are the characteristics that, according to Houraghan (2018), drive the brands of this archetype. However, even though the Rolls-Royce vision which is “Inspiring greatness” (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, n.d.) may be ascribed as an inspirational brand message of The Creator archetype brand (Houraghan, 2018), the word “greatness” still may be considered as representing success, power and exclusivity which are the features that align with The Ruler archetype (ibid.). Therefore, The Ruler archetype traits are reflected in the color palette, symbolism and communication content of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, even though some aspects might also match with other brand archetypes. Not only may luxury products brands be described as The Rulers, but also the brands of service providing companies, such as The Ritz-Carlton, the multinational chain of luxury hotels. Firstly, examining the brand’s color palette, it should be mentioned that it’s logotype is black and the company’s official website mostly consists of black and different tones of blue (The RitzCarlton, 2020) which align with The Ruler’s brand color palette, despite that the colors may also match with the palettes of The Caregiver or The Hero archetypes as well (Houraghan, 2018). Besides, the brand’s logotype, which is the lion and the crown, according to the company’s webpage (The Ritz-Carlton, 2020), is to demonstrate “elegance, refinement and noble bearing” (ibid.). From the perspective of the archetypes theory, this logotype may be perceived to represent a voice of a refined brand and it’s strive for recognition, status and success which all are the DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? 6 features of The Ruler (Houraghan, 2018). Taking The Ritz-Carlton vision, which is “Inspiring life’s most meaningful journeys” (The Ritz-Carlton, 2020) and is quite similarly constructed as the vision of Rolls-Royce, under examination, it may be stated that The Ritz-Carlton brand might be described as an inspiring creator (The Creator archetype) but at the same time as a controlling ruler (The Ruler archetype). This is due to the second part of the brand’s vision, since it is dedicated to highlight the status of the brand (Houraghan, 2018) interpreting that The Ritz-Carlton hotels may contribute to their customers journeys becoming the most meaningful in their lives. In this way, The Ritz-Carlton may be defined as The Ruler due to it’s color palette, symbolism and the way of communication. Taking everything into account, the three analyzed luxury brands (Montblanc, RollsRoyce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton) may be considered to adopt The Ruler archetype strategy due to their color palettes, symbols and communication, according to the framework of the topic of brand archetypes of Houraghan (2018). However, it should also be mentioned that all these brands use the color palette that matches not only The Ruler, but also some other archetypes, such as The Explorer, The Creator, The Hero or even The Caregiver. Furthermore, the visions of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and The Ritz-Carlton may be considered as partially representing The Creator archetype brands’ value of inspiration, while also demonstrating traits of The Ruler. Thus, even if the most of the examined content aligns with The Ruler archetype, not all the features that brands represent through their color palettes, symbols and the way they communicate may be applicable only to the latter archetype exclusively, but also to other archetypes as well. DO BRANDS ALIGN WITH THE RULER ARCHETYPE? References Houraghan, S. (2018). Brand Archetypes: The Definitive Guide [36 Examples]. Iconic Fox. Retrieved from https://iconicfox.com.au/brand-archetypes/ Montblanc, (2020). In Montblanc website. Retrieved April 25, 2020, from https://www.montblanc.com/en-shop/home.html?glCountry=LT Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, (n.d.). In Rolls-Royce Motor Cars website. Retrieved April 25, 2020, from https://www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/en_GB/information/legal-information.html The Ritz-Carlton, (2020). In The Ritz-Carlton website. Retrieved April 25, 2020, from https://www.ritzcarlton.com/ 7
