A Study On Brand Archetype

TV commercial is an important tool for brand establishment and communication. By granting products with certain meaning, it turns them to become cultural and emotional brands. TV commercial is not only beneficial for marketing, but also takes cultural characters, emotional symbols, meaningful system and personality styles to brands, which become spiritual and cultural symbols for consumers in an era.It has been found that most mighty brands show eternal and universal archetype. Brand archetype has the power to communicate deeply with consumers, which makes brands to be international and strong. However, brands in China don't regard the archetype consciously as a powerful weapon. What is worse, there are only few theoretical studies on brand archetype, thus fail to provide brands in China with theoretical supports. As a result, there are many profound questions and challenges concerning consumer communication and value identity during brand establishing and spreading process in China.The paper, using TV commercials as objects and adopting theories of archetype and structuralism semiotics, explores character archetype suitable for Chinese culture from the theory framework of the western brands archetype and puts forward narrative archetype, image archetype, symbol archetype, ceremonies archetype and so on that are of Chinese culture characters. This study takes a further step to establish archetype theory system suitable for Chinese brand building, which fill the blank in the researchs of Chinese brand archetype. On the other hand, this study demonstrates archetype theory of brand has significant effects on the communication and shaping of brand from the aspect of brand practice and based on empirical analysis of brand archetype in Chinese TV commercials. It explores ways to implant archetype in brand image, providing theoretical and strategic support for brands in China.This research takes both practical significance of brand archetype research and speculation of theory research into consideration, connects researches of advertising, archetype and culture, and explores codes for human consuming and communication. It aims to expand theoretical horizon for advertising research in China, and provides theoretical foundation for Chinese brands participating in international competition.