CREATING A FEMININE BRAND: THE LOVER ARCHETYPE IN BRANDING
Written by Kat Fletcher
Both boundless and bounding, woven into each woman, you’ll find a lover. Intimately connected to the beauty of life, she’s here for it all. To feel deeply, love fully, live passionately, and express wholly. Both in awe of the world and an inspiration to it, her beauty, joy and creativity is a gift, and although perhaps forgotten, never truly lost.
WELCOME TO THE FEMININE BRANDING SERIES
Just as a woman can be many different things, so can a feminine brand. Gone are the days of just splashing a bit of pink and a swirly font onto a design and saying it’s for women. As the world awakens, women are blooming into their multidimensionality, embodying each and every facet of themselves, and it’s beautiful.
When we fully integrate the idea that a woman is not just one thing, it’s easy to see that a feminine brand can embody different styles, values and energies. In this blog series, we explore the various feminine archetypes and how they can be infused into branding. Welcome to the Lover…
OVERVIEW
Lover brands are often rooted in themes such as connection, intimacy, love, beauty, sensuality and creativity. It is the most dominant archetype in most women, therefore lover brands, when done well, hold a special power to resonate with women on a deeply ingrained level. They are all about reigniting that overflowing passion for the human experience, helping people to fall in love with themselves, others and life itself all over again.
AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIP
You create moments for your audience that feel special, and in doing so help people embrace who they are and the experience they are in. The key to this is to help people immerse in the present, whether it’s using skincare as a self love ritual, indulging in the pleasure of a bite of chocolate, or coming home to oneself through the act of journaling.
Ultimately, your brand gives people the connection they long for, and for this to happen they must also feel connected to your brand. Your marketing and messaging should be meaningful and human-centred, fostering genuine relationships with your audience that make them feel seen, valued and inspired.
TONE OF VOICE
The Lover’s voice is often sensual, intimate, emotionally resonant. Your warm words help people feel invited into your world and want to be a part of it. Avoid speaking in a way which is too snappy, as this can feel jarring and forceful instead of soft and captivating. Avoid pain point messaging that puts people into a fear state, and instead speak to people’s desires in a way that helps them feel worthy and inspired. You can play with descriptive (and even slightly poetic) language to paint a picture in people’s minds of their potential experience with your brand.
BRAND AESTHETIC
Overall the Lover’s aesthetic is sensual, beautiful and elegant. Lover brands don’t do trends, and instead focus on creating a visual language that’s timeless. Think art nouveau, Chanel No5, Hotel Chocolat… Key visual themes include flowing shapes, intricate details, soft or minimal colours, and elegant photography.
BRAND PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography will play a powerful role in how people feel about your brand. It is often one of the first things people notice and can evoke profound feelings in them.
One of the most important feelings for a Lover brand is connection, and you can create this by showing photography that depicts moments of human intimacy and relationship. You can also evoke feelings of beauty and sensuality through photography of things such as the female form, luscious fabrics, and beautifully curved natural elements like flowers, pearls or shells.
Also notice how many of the photos below have soft flowing shapes and lines that work to create a sensual feel…
DESIGN ELEMENTS
This could be art that captures the essence of the female form and evokes feelings of intimacy and self love. Or perhaps detailed patterns that feel elegant and luxurious.
Fonts with soft and luscious curves can be used to evoke feelings of sensuality and create a look that feels both delicate and indulgent.
Colours can include softs creams and nudes, or for a more sophisticated feel, dark greens and blacks. See below examples of brands designed by Crafted Wild that are infused with the Lover’s essence….
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
As a Lover brand, you play an important role in connecting people back to their natural state of love and joy. You encourage them to slow down, appreciate the moment, and not just to see but feel the beauty in the details, the beauty in themselves.
