This pioneering research redefines the way we market lipstick. Artificial segmentations based on personality differences offer weak foundations on which to build brand strategies. To deeply engage us, a brand must have a solid inner architecture deeply rooted in the fundamentals of humanity. Beneath all the phantasmagoria of global marketing communication, lies order and rhythm, the source code of our human behaviour.

1. (RE)DEFINING
LIPSTICK BRANDS
THROUGH
HUMAN
FUNDAMENTALS

2. Hi! My name is Constantinos
Pantidos and I believe that
companies could improve
people’s lives even more
effectively if they had
deeper human insight.

3. For consumer satisfaction
to be as complete as
possible, we must take
care not only of the needs
consumers understand
and are able to evaluate
but also and especially
the ones they are not
consciously aware of

4. While 95% of our purchase
decision making takes place in our
unconscious, we tend to spend a
disproportionally high time on
product characteristics and price
and promotions because they are
easier to grasp

5. Instead, this
presentation delves into
the unconscious mind of
the consumer, the 95%
that really matters, and
makes it possible for
marketers to build
irresistible brands

6. Biological Value Brain &
Body
Systems
Cognitive
Operations
Psychological
States
Human
Morality
Behaviour
Rewards
Engagement
The
pathways
of human
behaviour
While the models for shaping
brand strategy used by most
multinationals today ignore
the contribution of modern
sciences such as
neurobiology and cognitive
science, BRAND AVIATORS™
use a comprehensive model
having an evolutionary
foundation and a
multidisciplinary approach
enabling marketers to build
consumer propositions that
are impossible to resist

7. Our psyche consists of a code

8. We are an
ordered pattern
of fundamental
motives capable
of generating life

9. Having captured our
fundamental human
motives, the irreducible parts
of our nature, all the way
from their biological values,
to the inherent concepts they
imbue into our everyday life,
this model traces emotions
from their roots, and creates
concepts that bear the
freshness of the source.
CONNECT
CONTROL
The wheel of motives™
GROW
CARE
BALANCE
DESIRE
FEEL
SAFE
SEEK
PLAY
CREATE
DEFY
TRANSFORM
TM

10. Motive Main biological
advantages /
survival value
Possible
neurosystems
involved
Examples of
cognitive
operations
Main psychological
states
Main sociocultural
manifestations and
reinforcers
Feel safe Detection of threats,
Dissipation of fears,
Endurance via
rewards,
Creation of
optimism that
facilitates success
Reward systems
(opioid
neurosystems that
induce a sensation of
pleasure and
suppress pain), Fear
dampening systems,
Defensive system
Retrospection,
Reminiscence,
Comfort and
enjoyment,
Believing,
Increasing positive
emotions,
Constancy, Coping,
Resolution of
emotional conflict,
Incognisance,
Anthropomorphism
Stability,
Regression,
Renewal, Nostalgia,
Daydreaming,
Comfort, Hope,
Happiness, Satiety,
Plenitude, Joy, Bliss,
Instant gratification,
Reward,
Perfectionism
Postponement,
Shame, Guilt,
Humbleness, Self-
sacrifice, Narcissism
Belief systems such
as religion, Morality,
Ethics, Mores,
Folkway, Tradition,
Authenticity
Example: the pathways of our motive to feel
safe.

11. Beneath all the
phantasmagoria of
global marketing
communication, lies
order and rhythm,
the source code of
our human
behaviour

12. * A book will shortly be published,
extensively analysing the motives
underpinning 20 categories of
everyday consumer goods and our
fundamental human motives. It puts
forward the most integrated platform
for engaging people to date.
The motives for buying
lipstick are presented in a
summarised form in order
of increasing relative
importance in line with
their power to influence
our buying decisions*

13. SOCIABILITY: On an initial
layer of motivation, what
makes lipstick sell rests in
its communicative nature,
its capacity to connect us
with others. Our mouth
invites interaction. In fact,
orality plays a founding
role in our relationships
with others.

14. Lipstick transforms
one from one’s
private to our public
self. Through the
lipstick one can
participate in a
dream identity
shared by millions
all over the world.

15. INTELLECTUALITY: More
significantly, lipstick gives the
impression that it helps punctuate
the logos and orientate the mind.
An organ of speech (logos, verbum)
and of breath (pnoe, spiritus), the
mouth is the symbol of high
conscience and reason.

16. We unconsciously
believe that
thoughts are
uttered from our
mouth through
words

17. ORDER: Lipstick enables us
to mark our territory. By
marking limits and defining
boundaries, we advertise
the meticulousness of
personality, we put some
order in our life.

18. Ranking is connected
with time dedicated
to oneself, to self-
pampering and
indulgence. Lipstick
signifies a taste for
the good life.

19. SELF-EXPRESSION:
Proceeding into a deeper
layer of motivation,
wearing lipstick is an
outlet for creativity.

20. Highly visible, affecting not
only the characteristics of our
face but mainly our psyche,
the particular characteristics
of our personality, lipstick is
the convenient means to paint
our self-portrait

21. With our lips we talk, we
bring forth. In talking we
are giving birth.

22. CARE: On yet another layer of
motivation, embodying the caring
and protective nature of lipstick
some of the most successful brands
help us feel cared for and
understood. Without lipstick
people feel exposed in public.

23. TRANSFORMATION: No other
single item has the power to
transform appearance and
mood, to give a new identity,
to cast a spell, to transcend
quite as dramatically as a
lipstick.

24. Our mouth has always
been considered the
aperture through which the
world intrudes and through
which its representation
comes out, and today as
ever, it represents the open
sesame of seduction, the
theatre of life.

25. PLAYFULNESS: As lipstick helps
us externalise emotions at the
moment they are felt, seizing
every instant, we feel newly
attuned to the richness of life.
As there’s no life without
breath, the mouth itself comes
to symbolise life. It laughs,
enjoys, invites interaction. Lips
themselves are symbols of life.

26. Thus, by brightening lips, a
lipstick promises to brighten
our life. Lipstick gives vivacity
to the face and lifts the spirits.
We make of it a remarkable
antidepressant that makes us
see the world in a more
optimistic way.

27. REBELLIOUSNESS: Embedding
the impudent and obsessive
nature of lipstick, some of the
most successful brands make us
feel irreducible, obstreperous,
and formidable transgressors. It
is no accident that the original
sin symbolically came through
the mouth.

28. In tasting the world, we lost
our innocence. It is through
the mouth that human
beings receive their first
pain from the milk that is
not forthcoming.

29. Once you try lipstick on, there
is no turning back. The way it
looks and feels, the ritual of
putting it on and especially its
effects make lipstick nothing
less than a formidable drug.

30. REASSURANCE: On a more
profound layer of motivation,
wearing lipstick helps us build
a secure domain of self-
sufficiency, an individual
dimension of space-time,
allowing us to remove
ourselves from the march of
time and making us
unconsciously feel able to be
reborn again and again

31. The lips and other tissues of the
mouth are delicate and sensitive
zones, the first experiencing part
of the body in infancy: Through
the basic satisfactions in feeding,
oral sensations develop great
significance

32. By applying lipstick,
women are achieving an
infantile look, mimicking
the swollen lips of a
nursing infant

33. DESIRABILITY: The mouth is a
primary erogenous zone, an area
of permitted sexuality. The infant
derives pleasure from oral
stimulation through gratifying
activities such as tasting and
sucking. Throughout our life, our
mouth continues to be an
instrument of erotic pleasure.

34. Lipstick is intrinsically
meant to attract attention
to the most sexual part of
the face

35. The sound of clicking, the
feel of the colour, the scent,
the taste and the texture on
the lips are intrinsically
pleasurable. Lipsticks are
made to feel good.

36. WILLPOWER: On the
innermost layer of
human motivation,
lipstick is the carrier of a
huge responsibility: It
fuels our willpower,
helping us to express
ownership and impress
others and even
ourselves.

37. Lipstick assembles
all the dimensions
of the personality
into one strong
focal point

38. Our mouth is
the place where
opposition and
argumentation
are articulated

39. Lipstick acts as a
highlighter, it
amplifies the
message

40. Lipstick is a declaration. No
other cosmetic can have such
impact: It conquers our
demons, whatever they may
be. It scares competitors and
challenges the gods.

41. * In some cases, the
same brand can be
manifested in
different ways in
different countries
Leading brands
express the
fundamental
human motives
driving their
category *

42. Having used the same
approach in a consequent
manner, I have traced the
motives underpinning
buying behaviour in over
seventy global categories of
goods and services all the
way back to their biological
values, in turn developing
the most integrated model
for engaging people today
CONNECT
CONTROL
The wheel of motives™
GROW
CARE
BALANCE
DESIRE
FEEL
SAFE
SEEK
PLAY
CREATE
DEFY
TRANSFORM
TM

43. Deep category
understanding is just the first
step in creating engaging
narratives. To build a
proposition that is both
authentic and deeply
engaging, the brand must
germinate the bare motives
that drive the category in a
unique and profoundly
human way.

44. CONNECT
CONTROL
The wheel of motives™
GROW
CARE
BALANCE
DESIRE
FEEL
SAFE
SEEK
PLAY
CREATE
DEFY
TRANSFORM
TM
The Wheel Of Motives™ can
help us activate the unique
codes of a brand, those that
engage people at a
profound human level
based on a three-phase
methodology *
* For the complete theory about
how the fundamental human
motives work please contact the
author or wait until the
publishing of the book

45. Phase 1: Psychographic
landscaping
• Mapping the meaning
people derive from the
category
• Deconstructing the meaning
systems of the brands in the
category
• Tracing meaning-saturated
areas and fundamental
motives which are catered
for less effectively

46. Phase 2: Brand
(re)definition
• Locating the core of the
brand (based on the
fundamental motive(s) it
activates)
• Mobilising the core to give a
unique answer to what
consumers have always
wanted from the category

47. Phase 3: The unique
language of the brand
• Imprinting brand strategy
into our fundamental human
motives, the roots of human
communication
• Translating brand strategy
into Intrinsically Engaging
Narratives™ - tangible and
ownable experiences based
on the profound code

48. To capture the deep
resonances that make
a brand successful,
and its consonances
with the category, a
profound knowledge
of the rich hierarchies
of inherent concepts
of our mind, and their
underground
connections, is
required.

49. In tracing the pathways our mind
uses to create reality and by
activating the very forces of life,
The Wheel Of Motives™ offers
considerable advantages over the
brand strategy models used by
multinational companies today.
Brands and concepts developed
through The Wheel Of Motives™
are heartfelt, and profound.

50. Above all, by founding
brand strategy on our
fundamental human motives
the brand becomes deeply
humanistic in that it offers
holistic, universal
experiences that no longer
simply satisfy some
individual needs but the
needs of the species

51. BRAND AVIATORS™ are trusted by some of the world’s
leading companies:

52. (Re)define your brand through the
human fundamentals if you seek to:
• Deeply engage people locally and
across cultures
• Develop genuine concepts that work
year after year after year
• Align all brand communications
under one master idea
• Increase the ROI of all your brand’s
activities

53. My mission is to help clients
around the world build brands
that liberate the very forces of
life. Contact me now for a free
discovery audit at
c.pantidos@brandaviators.com
or by clicking on the icon:
BRAND AVIATORS™
Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
+44 (0) 203 693 3933