WHAT MAKES

CARS SELL
We do not just buy cars. By
integrating intrinsic functionality
with predefined meaning we
create and express the master
narratives of our lives.
We derive the maximum
value from narratives that
are automatically identifiable
and viscerally classifiable as
evolving parts of our human
experience
What deeply engages us always
fulfils some fundamental motive,
evolutionarily-preserved dispositions
that have helped us survive and grow
Concepts are neural
structures that allow us
to order and categorise
all stimuli around us
Our psyche consists of
a code. We are an
ordered pattern of
fundamental motives
capable of generating
life.
Successful brands
coherently express
the very patterns
of our psyche
Using, for the first time, a
multidisciplinary approach, including
brand communication decoding,
motivational research, psychology,
affective neuroscience, cognitive
linguistics, cultural anthropology,
sociology, philosophy and their
proprietary tools, BRAND AVIATORS
has studied the motives underpinning
buying behaviour in more than 70
global categories of goods including cars
Beneath all the phantasmagoria of global
marketing communication, lies order and rhythm,
the source code of our human behaviour
What follows is a brief analysis of the
deep motives for buying cars. The
motives are presented in order of
increasing relative importance in line
with their power to influence our
buying decisions. The further we
read, the stronger the associations
they build in our mind, the more
powerful their influence on the sales
and profit in the automobile
category.
FORESIGHT: On an initial layer of motivation, what actually
makes cars successful is their prodigious intelligence which
makes us feel more mature and experienced, it makes us
look and feel smarter. As we trust our life to the car, buying
and using it calls for our good judgment. Driving, itself, is an
experience that calls for our prudence and wisdom. Cars
help us assume nothing, and be prepared for anything.
ALIVENESS: More significantly, cars sell
because they make us feel alive. Their very
mobility stands for life itself. Speed exalts the
moment. We experience life as a series of
cars.
EXPRESSION: On a deeper level, cars
constitute an excellent means of displaying
our personal taste. Choosing a car,
personalising it (adding new gadgets,
individualizing it), living with it, we feel like
we have participated in its creation. In turn,
the type of car we have, influences the way
we behave.
COMPANIONSHIP: Cars bring us closer
to other people. For our cars, there is a
deep feeling of attachment.
PROTECTION: Embedding the enveloping
and secure nature of cars, some of the
most successful brands help us feel that
the car protects us. Cars are moving
shelters. Through them we protect
ourselves and others. In turn, the car
needs our care. Like our pet, or our baby
it requires our attention.
TRANSFORMATION: Going into a deeper motivation, cars promise motion
without effort, manipulation of space and time. They give us unusual powers.
A car is a fetish object to fascinate oneself over natural reality with the
powers of transcendence of existence.
DEFIANCE: On a yet deeper layer of motivation, going very fast involves
excitement connected to the underlying danger of an accident, the
dangerous play between fear and exhilaration. Speed is almost like taking
some drug: Speeding up, reckless driving, and making a noise that disrupts
tranquility can be an unconscious form of protest against a perfectly
operated complex society which is perceived as a threat to the
independence of the individual.
PLEASURE: Moving closer to the heart of the matter, what
actually makes cars sell is the inherently pleasurable experience
of driving. Driving extends the senses. Speed itself is intrinsically
erotic. A car that runs is a sensual object. We glide in space with
the superb serenity of total pleasure. An energy of penetration
of space creates in front of the car a void that absorbs it. The
body, by definition virile and dynamic is spread out in space.
Cars are sexy machines and mastering them is inherently erotic.
CONTROL: Cars offer us the ability
to direct potential powerful forces.
The ability to control this mass of
enormous energy gives the
illusion of dominance, superiority,
personal mastery and command
of basic human impulses. It gives
us the sense of self-control.
SECURITY: Moving into a deeper motivation,
inside the car we exist in a secure world, well
protected against the external dangers. Travel
in our unconscious symbolises the eternal
search for paradise beyond the surrounding
chaos. As, in our mind, speed is associated
with youth, we feel that driving makes us
younger. By crossing space we deny time.
INDEPENDENCE: The car is the symbol of freedom par excellence.
Cars extend our boundaries, create virtually unrestricted
horizons. Through them we achieve freedom of action, at least
subjectively, we become independent at least in our mind.
WILLPOWER: On the innermost
layer of human motivation,
what makes cars sell is their
capacity to turn the driver into a
super being. Intrinsically,
moving is power and the car
supplies more power to
individuals than they have ever
controlled before. When we
drive, the primordial instincts of
strength and aggression are at
play.
This map illustrates
the way some major
brands in the global
automobile industry
are positioned in the
consumers mind
Deep category understanding is just
the first step in creating engaging
narratives. To build a proposition
that is deeply engaging, the brand
must germinate the bare motives
that drive the category in a unique
and profoundly human way.
Having captured, for the first time, our
fundamental human motives at the deepest
levels of their deployment, all the way from
their biological value to the neurosystems
they engage in our brain, to the cognitive
operations and psychological states they
activate, to the major social reinforcers they
cause and to the rich hierarchy of inherent
concepts they infuse into our everyday life,
BRAND AVIATORS helps marketers
develop Intrinsically Engaging Narratives
Based on in-depth research and practical
implementation, BRAND AVIATORS helps
marketers develop brands with a solid inner
architecture deeply rooted in the fundamental
human motives, using a three-phase
methodology
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
peoples mind
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.
Phase 3: Enrich peoples 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.
There is a direct correlation between our
fundamental human motives and the level
of sales and profit
Nothing fuels creativity more than
understanding and mobilising our
fundamental motives and the rich
hierarchy of inherent concepts they
infuse into our everyday life
The efficiency of
communication budgets is
maximised when the authentic
codes of the brand match the
deepest motives which drive
sales and profit in the
category. Nowadays, we have
no excuse for saying that we
waste half of our advertising
budget but we dont know
which half.
Above all, by founding brand strategy on our fundamental
human motives, and by embedding Intrinsically Engaging
Narratives 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
To discover more about the deepest motives for buying cars and
how to boost your brand feel free to contact us:
http://www.brandaviators.com/contact-us
research@brandaviators.com