Resource/Ammirati, unveiled a provocative analysis of the most studied but potentially least understood generation in U.S. history—millennials. Results show the complex, paradoxical group are statistically more likely to identify as Heros, Creators, Lovers and Explorers, as defined by Carl Jung.

1. THEN LIFE HAPPENED
MILLENNIALS OUT OF THEIR FORMATIVE YEARS
AND INTO THE FIRE
Volumes of research on millennials have painted a picture of a paradoxical cohort:
self-entitled, stressed and exhibiting a lax work ethic, yet inclusive, optimistic and
entrepreneurial. It’s complicated—which is why Resource/Ammirati decided to meet
millennials’ complexity head-on with a research approach at once empirical and
theoretical, modern and historical. We identified the Jungian archetypes that are
statistically most dominant among millennials and explored the sociocultural and
economic reasons those archetypes rose to the top. These archetypes provide insight
into the ways in which people organize understanding of themselves and the world,
which is critically important in an OPEN world where consumers expect to be heard.
MILLENNIALS’ FOUR DOMINANT JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES
FREEDOM
ADVENTUROUS
EGO SOCIAL
BUILDING A BRAND FOR THE HERO
BRANDS DOING I T WE L L :
WALTUO
ORDER
HERO
DISCIPLINED
ARDENT
EXPRESSIVE
GREGARIOUS
IMAGINATIVE
ICONOCLASTIC
INDIVIDUALISTIC
AUTHENTIC
ORIGINAL
SKILLED
COMPETITIVE
1
2
For this generation more than any other, brands have social contracts. Make your corporate social
responsibility initiatives part of your brand, not a sideline, and enable your Hero fans to identify with
and contribute to your causes.
Stress levels are high for older millennials, so demonstrate to the achievement-oriented Hero how your
products, services and business are at the top of their game and will help them get to the top of theirs.
EXPLORER
BUILDING A BRAND FOR THE EXPLORER
1
2
Explorers prize autonomy, but the economy has thwarted rites of passage into adulthood for many
millennials. Empower the Explorer to achieve independence in small acts and/or unconventional ways.
Assure millennial Explorers that in a conformist age, you’re with them as they journey down the road
less traveled, and associate your brand with movement, free will and the pursuit of higher truths.
BRANDS D O I N G I T WE L L :
CREATOR
BUILDING A BRAND FOR THE CREATOR
1
2
The challenge for many millennials is to create and self-express, not out of obsessive FOMO (fear of
missing out), but in order to forge an identity and do work that is authentically one’s own. Align your
brand with the Creator’s quest for self-knowledge.
Millennials are the first generation to have their entire life, juvenile faux pas and all, exposed to the
public, but Creators need the possibility of reinvention. Provide ways for your Creator fans to inhabit
another world and persona temporarily.
BRANDS DOING I T W E L L :
BUI LDING A BRAND FOR THE LOVER
1
2
Millennials are nothing if not egotistically developed, so the Lover brand’s role is to encourage a
fuller giving into Eros (not Ego)—passionate involvement with a cause, culture, place, idea or set
of experiences.
Millennials expect more from brands than other cohorts: brands should know their Lover fans
personally, court them deftly and facilitate more social graph intimacy and interactivity.
BRANDS DOING I T W E L L :
LOVER
Does your brand know how to communicate with the millennial Hero? How to be a Creator brand for
the millennial generation? To learn more, contact Brian Heffernan at bheffernan@resource.com.