Political Leaders As Archetypal Brands

Sammanfattning

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore political leaders as archetypal brands. Moreover, this study aims to add knowledge to the concept of archetypes in political brand communication. Methodology: This study combines qualitative and quantitative research. Therefore, three cases of different political leaders (Donald Trump, Angela Merkel & Volodymyr Zelensky) are being examined. Secondary data was collected, by doing a literature review to explore the archetype for each political leader. Primary data was created by conducting a questionnaire where the perception of the sample about different archetypes relating to the presented cases was asked. Findings: The paper found out that the model of Mark and Pearson (2015) about archetypes in branding can be applied to political leaders. Furthermore, we found out that the brand core framework of Urde (2016) is compatible with Mark and Pearson's (2015) framework of archetypes. Next to that, we determined suitable archetypes for each of our introduced cases, according to our used methodology. This showed that different political leaders can have the same archetypes, but for different reasons. Original/value: The paper is the first of its kind to combine a concept of archetypes with an established theoretical framework in rhetoric.