Michael Campion: So let's talk about the Warrior, who is equipped by the Craftsman, no less.

Bob Sheard: Empowered by the Guide and serves the king or the Leader. This is a really important role, because the greatest of brands usually reconcile an anxiety, an anxiety that exists in the consumer psyche and it's no mistake that most teenagers in their wardrobe will have a pair of Nikes. And that's because most teenagers have a crisis of confidence at some point in respect of their identity, and one of the roles of a brand is to fill the gap of our character that we wish was there. And so Nike is the Warrior brand and it's all about the effect of confidence. So if there's a crisis of self-confidence, then it's a brand for you, and that's why I think many teenagers wear Nike. If the effect you're wanting to create for your brand is one of confidence, then that confidence comes from the place of the battle. If that battle is walking into a classroom or that battle is walking into a meeting room, it's that place and it's that product that gives you confidence. It's the rituals of achievement, and the time that you own is the time of triumph. The rational values of this role are discipline, excellence and determination, and that brings with it the emotional values of honour, prowess and courage. The charisma and conviction from this brand comes from standing for victory and against defeat. It is famously in culture, Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator. For a female version, it's Ripley in Alien, it's Maggie in Million Dollar Baby, it's T'Challa in Black Panther and so, I suppose, most famously of all, it's James Bond in Skyfall and other James Bond movies. This is a brand that represents a protector of the establishment. Warriors don't live very long, so they live in the present. So it's all about living in the present. And it's about being, mastery of skillfulness and prowess. It's about rituals and narratives of preparation. It's being so skillful that the sword becomes an extension of your arm, so it's intuitive skill. And it's also about the spoils, the spoils of victory. So we see this in brands as well as culture. It's obviously, as we've just discussed, it's Nike, it's also Under Armour, it's BMW, it's Lucozade and then it's also Royal Marines as a brand, and as brands they communicate that they are there to protect the orthodoxy and the establishment there in the present. So it's a very strong archetype that creates a brand system that gives people confidence and reconciles anxiety.

Michael Campion: So just to be clear, because warriors don't always live for a long time, that doesn't mean that the brand should burn and fizzle out quickly. It's just merely a stance to take, that you are willing to go into battle on behalf of the establishment to protect people.

Bob Sheard: Brands need to choose whether they are a brand of destination or a brand of transition. A brand of destination is a brand that we consume when we've arrived. A brand of transition is a brand that we travel through on our journey through life. So, in automotive terms, someone might travel through Audi to arrive at Mercedes. So in that situation, Audi is the transitionary brand and Mercedes is the destination brand. In luggage terms, we might travel through Louis Vuitton to get to Goyard or to Hermes. So brands that are brands of transition, which Warrior brands often are, are in a process of continual reinvention. For example, Nike its cohort is 16 to 24 year olds. People move on and during, like Nike's 50 year history, people have moved on. They move beyond Nike and into All Birds or whatever it is that older people are wearing these days. But basically that means that Nike has to continually reinvent what it means to be 16 to 20 years old, and they do that with a Warrior. So it's quite helpful that warriors don't live long and you have to recycle. They can't, some of their first athletes Steve Prefontaine fortunately died, but then you've got Jimmy Connors, McEnroe, Nâstaze was a n early Nike endorser, Agassi they all have their time and they move on. Michael Jordan you know, Kobe, they all move on and you have to continually reinvent, so it's a source of continual inspiration.