Did you know that we buy underwear because it acts as a bodyguard, a refuge and sanctuary, performance enhancer, means of self-exploration, personality shaper, instrument of torture, dangerous encounter, mood modifier, formidable teaser, multifunctional suggestion, foundation of personal life and balancer, instrument of support and distance keeper? This pioneering research cracks the code of buying behaviour related to underwear and puts forward a framework for shaping brand strategy and for growing revenue.

1. (RE)DEFINING
UNDERWEAR
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
shoes are presented in a
summarised form in order
of increasing relative
importance in line with
their power to influence
our buying decisions*

13. CONFORMITY: On an
initial layer of motivation,
we wear underwear
because everyone else
does. Today underwear
has become an “equal
opportunity”.

14. To become an equal
member of society, one
of the abstract majority,
we have to perform the
right kinds of practices,
and experience the right
kinds of pleasure.

15. BALANCE: More significantly,
underwear has a lot to do
with the correct posture of
the body. The right
underwear makes us feel
knowing and experienced.
Underwear constitutes a wise
purchase, one that is worth
the investment.

16. PROTECTION: On an even
deeper level of motivation,
undergarments act as
bodyguards. As they are the
final barrier to the fully nude
body, without them we feel
physically and psychologically
exposed.

17. SELF-CREATION: Underwear
helps us express ourselves in a
particular way. The eternal
feeling that we are imperfect
makes us search for ways to
redesign our body. Underwear,
sculpts the body and makes us
feel as if we are a work of art
ourselves.

18. EXPLORATION: More
significantly, in embodying the
capacity of underwear to help
us seek release from
boredom, some of the most
successful brands claim the
essence of underwear to
make us explore the body
and feelings as their own.

19. By its clandestine nature, underwear allows the wearer to be
released from social boundaries and explore his/her own instead

20. Underwear favours a process of
invention, permitting us to use
our body as a possible source of
numerous pleasures

21. INNOCENCE: Even more
significantly, embedding the
capacity of underwear to
intrinsically protect our
modesty, some of the most
successful brands mark the
essence of underwear to help
us find comfort within as their
own territory

22. Underwear by
its very nature
is a delicate
item, brevity is
its essence

23. Purity and fragility
attract us as we get a
feeling that something
“new” has been
created only for us

24. PLAYFULNESS: On an even more
profound layer of motivation,
underwear sells because it
involves serious fun. Underwear
teases and flirts its way into our
minds. Underwear adds
detours, delays, exuberance to
satisfaction. Satisfaction brings
with it the extinction of desire.

25. PERFORMANCE: Moving
another layer closer to the
motives that dominate the
category, the reason we
buy underwear is the
power it confers on us.
Underwear firms up,
solidifies the body and
never lets us down at
critical moments.

26. The right underwear
makes us think of success
and then the desired
outcome always results in
some way. As self-
acceptance radiates
outwardly, confidence is
sexy.

27. ORDER: With confidence comes
control. We buy underwear
because it symbolises neatness.
Underwear disciplines and controls
the body. It helps us keep a
distance. Expensive underwear
makes the wearer feel a distinctive
person.

28. DISRUPTION: With
discipline comes torture.
Still another motive for
buying underwear is its
underlying capacity to
raise and solve conflicts.

29. Throughout history people have
worn clothes and accessories that
restrict the movement of the body

30. Strategically torn tights,
handcuffs and silk ties
restraining the limbs evoke
an inactive status. A pale
complexion, slow languid
movements and a hint of
bondage trigger one’s
conquering feelings.

31. In discipline we experience fear, even terror,
then exhilaration: the spectrum of sensation,
arousal and discomfort are intimately connected

32. DESIRABILITY: A deeper
reason we buy underwear is
to feel its intricate architecture
of desire, its sensual balance
of elastic forces and potential
energy bound against our
vulnerable flesh.

33. Underwear touches our body
and complements its movement,
it has its own smell, colour, form,
design, fabric and sound.
Deferred gratification is no
sacrifice of pleasure but a state
of increased excitation, at once
frustrating and enjoyable.

34. TRANSFIGURATION: On the
innermost layer of human
motivation, a piece of
underwear changes the
perception of one’s own body,
changes oneself: The wearer
becomes her or his own
fantasy.

35. As it strategically reveals,
conceals, and highlights the
wearer’s form, underwear
has an intrinsically miraculous
aptitude to render the absent
present by its own negation.

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

37. 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.

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. 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

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

46. (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

47. 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