Did you know that cigarettes act as the ultimate proof that death can be beaten, formidable organisers of time and linear integrators, life’s common denominator, mood regulators, promoters of self-possession, cognitive shifters, actuality filters, event distancers, suspenders of reality, promise of pleasure never satisfied, expressions of freedom especially in the face of death, forms of resistance, symbols of revolutions, universal connectors, illusions of stability, inducers of optimism, purgatory fire, self-reconciliators, loyal companions, the perfect tools of representations, thought stimulators, instruments of (tele)communication, master storytellers, rites of celebration, activity generators and time encapsulators?

1. WHY DO
WE SMOKE ?

2. We do not just buy cigarettes. By
integrating intrinsic functionality
with predefined meaning we
create and express the master
narratives of our lives.

3. Underlying all behavior
are fundamental
motives, evolutionarily
preserved mechanisms
that enabled us to
survive and thrive

4. Put a raster….
Biological Value Brain &
Body
Systems
Cognitive
Operations
Psychological
States
Human
Morality
Behaviour
Rewards
Engagement
To ensure we never
forget our life-
boosting forces,
nature established an
array of systems in
our brain and made
their satisfaction
Intrinsically Engaging

5. As abundant and
varied as our
emotions are, they
all stem from our
fundamental
human motives

6. Concepts are neural
structures that allow us
to order and categorise
all stimuli around us

7. Our psyche consists of a
code. We are an ordered
pattern of fundamental
motives capable of
generating life.

8. Successful brands
coherently express
the very patterns
of our psyche

9. Using , for the first time, a
multidisciplinary approach,
including workshops with
clients, brand communication
decoding, motivational
research, psychology and
affective neuroscience, BRAND
AVIATORS™ has studied and
presents the fundamental
motives underpinning buying
behaviour related to cigarettes

10. The motives are presented in
order of increasing relative
importance in line with their
power to influence our buying
decisions

11. PLAYFULNESS: Why do we
smoke? On an initial level of
motivation, smoking is a
playful activity, a mood
enhancer, a minor celebratory
rite. Smoking helps us to focus
us on the immediate reality
which is life. We smoke to
capture and exalt life.

12. PROTECTION: More
significantly, what makes
cigarettes sell is that while
we smoke we feel
protected from a sentiment
of an internal or external
danger.

13. Smoke is one of the
protective screens we
conveniently use to
distance events, to
filter them through

14. CONTROL: Embedding the capacity
of smoking to act as a formidable
time organizer and linear
integrator, some of the most
successful brands allow us to
punctuate our life, to rhythm our
actions and conversations. We
experience the duration of time
and life in fractions that we impose
on ourselves.

15. The reiterated aspect of smoking
introduces a permanence on
which the smoker constructs
his/her everyday life. Adjusting
their nicotine intake to
environmental demands, the
smoker introduces a mechanism
into his/her life which permits
him/her to fluctuate arousal in
order to feel in control of the
situation.

16. TRANSFORMATION: Cigarettes
suspend reality to introduce a kind
of transcendental experience.
Cigarettes make time pass quickly -
explaining why waiting periods
almost automatically stimulate the
desire to smoke.

17. Capturing our subjective time is one
of the ways cigarettes make us feel
able to manipulate the forces of the
universe. Smoke acts as an
instrument of (tele)communication, a
device which conceals and raises
the smoker above his/her body.
While our character expands, we
also breathe in and interiorise the
world around us.

18. INTELLECTUALITY: Moving a step
closer to the motives that govern
the category, what makes
cigarettes sell, is their ability to
solve contradictions. There is
evidence that smoking can have
positive effects on sustained
attention, confirming the assertion
of smokers that smoking enables
them to think and concentrate.

19. Cigarettes help us
concentrate the
movements of our mind
and stimulate the
primary process of
thought. In many ways,
cigarettes trigger
contemplation and
encourage a
philosophical mood.

20. PLEASURE: What
makes cigarettes
sell is the infinite
and violent passion
they instigate.

21. Smoking a cigarette is a truly
multisensory ritual. The lips and other
tissues of the mouth are delicate and
sensitive zones, the first experiencing
part of the body in infancy.

22. In the real smoker, the eyes,
stomach, lungs, fingers, ears and
mind also smoke. Smoking’s
natural rhythm ends with an
exhaustion but its satisfaction is
temporary, it leaves the smoker
always unfulfilled, preparing
the way for the next one.

23. EXPRESSION: On a deeper
layer of motivation, we
smoke to express our
subjective individuality. The
way we smoke is usually
characteristic of our whole
personality.

24. The brand of cigarettes we
smoke is always visible to
everyone. Along with the
mobile phone, the packet of
cigarettes we always have with
us is a sure sign of the kind of
people we are.

25. CONNECTEDNESS: Going into
a deeper layer of motivation,
cigarettes are so successful
because they readily lend
themselves to reciprocity,
unity, sharing and belonging.

26. We can more or less address
anybody and ask them for a
cigarette. And most will offer a
cigarette along with a lighter as
a response - fire itself has
always been a focal point of
social cooperation. Not to give a
cigarette to someone who asks
for one is rude. Sharing a
cigarette helps us exculpate
other less straightforward
actions making us feel honest
and generous.

27. LIBERATION: Proceeding into a deeper
layer of motivation we smoke to
demonstrate our freedom, while the
round and healthy future is
postponed. When we lose all the fear
and understanding we have nothing
to lose, we are no longer afraid of
anyone or anything; especially free in
the face of death, we gain everything
in this short time frame.

28. A cigarette helps us break
from the normal flow of life
inviting us to travel in time.
Smoking liberates: it relieves
the pressure on our chest just
like after we have cried.
Above all, experiencing risk is
a significant drive in smoking.

29. SECURITY: Moving closer to
the dominant motives of the
category, smoking is a ritual
through which we connect
with ourselves and demand
provision against chance,
and can be compared, in a
way, to the regenerative
ritual of prayer.

30. The smoker constructs an
individual dimension of space-
time, which is familiar, constant
and reassuring, as opposed to
a less known, less controlled
environment. This domain that
substitutes for the universe,
gives, through the illusion of
stability, a form of resistance
to time.

31. Smoke, nicotine and the
repertoire of physical motions
and manipulations of smoking,
quickly relax our body and
transform us into patient people
when we most need it – i.e. when
we’re anxious or expecting
results.

32. DEFIANCE: The masochistic
motives in which we
deliberately hurt ourselves
are significant in smoking.
Danger is part of its appeal.
As it is exactly this danger
that we want from smoking,
prohibition makes cigarettes
more desirable.

33. We use death pre-
emptively in small doses
as a way of countering
anxiety - the ultimate
anxiety is about death

34. In consuming cigarettes and
appropriating their meanings,
we emerge renewed from
destruction, we become
nothing in order to leap
forward. We go through hell
to remain humans, to remain
alive with dignity. Ultimately,
smoking is a gesture of
defiance, a form of rebellion. It
is no accident that most
revolutionaries were great
smokers.

35. EMPOWERMENT: On the
innermost layer of human
motivation, offering the
illusion of continuous action,
cigarette smoking makes us
feel that we triumph over
adversity and become aware
of our powers. Because
dopamine enhances our
alertness, a cigarette gives the
perception of improvement on
performance.

36. We smoke to prove our
competency, energy,
vigour and potency, to
look older, to look
younger. Cigarettes are
masks that conceal fear
behind the aggressive
gestures of the ritual.

37. The gestures rebuild our egos
and self-confidence. Through
cigarettes we fortify ourselves
for more effort potency, we feel
successful, high achievers,
daring. Breaking from the
normal flow of life, one can
imagine a world full of
possibilities.

38. With each cigarette, the smoker beats
death by looking it in the face in a
momentary and infinite connection to
the universe. By smoking, we live after
our death many times. In smoking one
cigarette after another we prove that
the invincible destroyer is conquered.
With the last cigarette, we feel our
power. We beat harsh life, we go
further, we last longer. Accordingly, the
continuous effort to give up smoking
can give a purpose to life. It keeps us
busy.

39. Cigarettes embody
speed and a hectic life
style. In fact, more than
other forms of tobacco,
cigarettes best capture
the rhythms of cities
which are “riding”
rather than “walking”
habitations.

40. Leading
brands
coherently
express the
fundamental
human motives
driving their
category

41. CONNECT
CONTROL
The wheel of motives™
GROW
CARE
BALANCE
DESIRE
FEEL
SAFE
SEEK
PLAY
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TRANSFORM
TM
BRAND AVIATORS™
specialises in activating
the unique codes of
your brand, those that
engage people at a
profound human level
using a three-phase
methodology

42. Phase 1: Map the territory
The first phase of the methodology
deconstructs the fundamental human
motives driving the sales and profit of the
category, establishes the relevant
psychographic territories and reveals the
way that the brands are mapped in
people’s mind

43. Phase 2: Give soul to your brand
To be authentic and engaging, narratives
must always be sourced from the core of
the brand. The second phase captures the
core of the brand, and mobilises its genuine
codes in order to satisfy our common
motivations relative to the category.

44. Phase 3: Enrich people’s lives
Powerful strategies require effective
articulation. In this third phase, the
consumer proposition is translated
into ownable experiences written in
the language that uses our primary
emotions as structural elements.

45. Engage BRAND AVIATORS™
to help you:
1. (Re)define your cigarette
brand through human
fundamentals
2. align all brand
communications under a
master idea that works
across different cultures
3. develop Intrinsically
Engaging Narratives™

46. BRAND AVIATORS™ is trusted by some of the world’s
leading companies:

47. What does your brand stand for?

48. My mission is to work with
consumer insight managers
and marketers around the
world in order to better
understand and liberate the
very forces of life. Contact
me now for a free discovery
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