Did you know that we buy trainers because they act as self-maximisers, potential enhancers, means of halting the aging process, therapeutic devices, signs of freedom, personality transformers, character compliments, artistic manifestations, measures of perfection, means of self-discipline, life shapers, epitomes of informality and equality, and desire builders? Did you know that we prefer trainers because they make us feel formidable combatants, unbeatable winners, strong, adequate, in control, intelligent, balanced, part of the family of athletes and runners and unconventional? This pioneering research cracks the code of buying behaviour related to trainers and puts forward a framework for shaping brand strategy and for growing revenue.

1. (RE)DEFINING
TRAINER
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. Successful brands
coherently express
the very patterns
of our psyche

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 trainets are presented
in a summarised form in order of increasing
relative importance in line with their power to
influence our buying decisions*

13. DESIRABILITY: On an initial layer of motivation we prefer
trainers because by exercising, we get a better looking
body. A beautiful body connotes youth and high
reproductive potential.

14. While psychological
characteristics take time to
discover, physical features are
immediately obvious in a
person. Physical exercise or just
thinking of the results of it is
intrinsically pleasurable. Trainers
make us feel more attractive
even if we never exercise.

15. PLAYFULNESS:
Proceeding into a
deeper layer of
motivation, while in
the real world life
plays with us, in
training we play
with life.

16. Physical exercise
releases endorphins,
the best antidotes to
depression

17. TRANSFORMATION: More
significantly, what motivates
people to buy trainers is that
putting them on, somehow
changes our mood: We feel light
and still strong, on the earth yet
flying at the same time.

18. Trainers are viewed as
magical objects that
endow their owners
with supernatural forces.
Technology and fashion
transform our
personality.

19. EXPRESSION:
Embedding the
capacity of the
trainers to express
our style, some of the
most successful
brands mark
trainers’ essence of
being artistic
manifestations as
their own territory.

20. In trainers the brand is more
obvious than in clothes, making
them ideal moving displays of the
self, the “automobile for the poor”.
With their huge number of types
and even the possibilities to be
tailor-made they complement our
character.

21. CONTROL: Moving into a deeper
motivation, successful brands of
trainers put us in control of our life.
How far we can run is one sector of
our life over which we can prove
that we can exert control. By being
in total charge of the shape of our
body, we feel in total control of our
environment.

22. BALANCE: On a deeper layer,
physical skills are directly
linked to mental capacity.
Strenuous exercising deepens
our character. And, as we
have known since at least the
ancient Greeks a healthy
mind lives in a healthy body.

23. Preparation and patience
can lead to perfect balance
with the aid of science and
technology

24. Despite the fact that a large percentage of those
produced never end up in athletic use, “implied
performance” makes us feel part of the family of
athletes and runners

25. EQUALITY: Trainers are the
epitome of informality,
accessibility

26. Wearing the same shoes as
the superstars, we make our
own contribution to their
triumph, the breaking of
records.

27. FREEDOM: Trainers are
naturally associated with
freedom of movement and
liberation of the spirit.

28. When we run we feel free.
The dream to fly is one of
the most ancient and
universal human dreams.

29. REBELLIOUSNESS:
Trainers are associated
with unconventionality,
irreverence, and even
annihilation and waste

30. Powerful chemicals are released
during strenuous activity, our
natural painkillers. Endorphins do
not alter pain signaling per se,
they just alter the pain experience.
They do not necessarily eliminate
the pain; they just make us not
care about it. In essence, they get
rid of the emotional part. This
explains our love for pain.

31. SECURITY: Trainers give the impression of
continuous action which can be one of the
walls we erect around ourselves to hide
behind: as long as we run we feel safe.
We go outside these walls only when we
consider it safe enough. Racing ourselves
towards that non-existent finish line, we
relax only just before we drop dead,
seeking to fill every minute in order to
avoid meeting ourselves.

32. The pain that comes through the effort
confirms that we have effectively executed
our task. What we deep down search for is
eternal adolescence.

33. WILLPOWER: On the deepest
level of human motivation
about trainers, rests our
biological predisposition for
continuous growth. Activity is
significant for our survival and
brings a sense of purpose.
Physical self-improvement
evokes visions of personal
experience of growth.

34. Breaking time records we feel that
eventually, we will gain immortality.
In our mind, good shoes help us win
the race. By association, fantasies
about athletic possibilities extend to
all possibilities in all areas of life:
Along with the race we win life. As the
sense of accomplishment exhilarates,
we are reassured that we can
overcome all obstacles, push ourselves
to any extremes, in pursuit of our
goals.

35. * 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 *

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

37. 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

38. Phase 1: Psychographic mapping
• Mapping the meaning people derive from the category
• Deconstructing the meaning systems of the brands
• Tracing underexploited territories and meaning-
saturated areas

39. Phase 2: Brand (re)definition
• Liberating the core of the
brand from its nonessential
elements
• Mobilising the core to give a
unique answer to what
consumers have always
wanted from the category

40. 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

41. 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.

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

43. (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

44. 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