Did you know that makeup acts as a concretion of what we could be, means to hide from ourselves, vehicle of self-discovery, tool for surfing from one self to another, protector of our feelings, social normaliser, entry pass to the world, ready-to-wear mask which depersonalises the face, instant loveliness, tool of control, expression of our selfhood, original placebo, symbol of rebirth, daily recharger, tool of aggression, survival strategy and transforming agent? This pioneering research cracks the code of buying behaviour related to makeup and puts forward a framework for shaping brand strategy and for growing revenue.

1. BUILDING
MAKEUP
BRANDS
THROUGH
INTRINSICALLY
ENGAGING
NARRATIVES ™

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

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

5. 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
The
pathways
of human
behaviour

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

7. Our psyche consists of a code

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 makeup

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

11. SHELTERING: On an
initial layer of
motivation, makeup
protects us from the
indiscretion of the gaze
of the others and the
external hostile world

12. Offering coverage from
the fear of exposing
the real self, makeup
protects our deepest
thoughts and feelings

13. SELF-DISCOVERY: On a
deeper layer of
motivation, makeup
enables us to
experiment. Trying
many faces on, playing
new roles, makeup
helps us understand
different aspects of our
character, and
ultimately escape from
it, if only temporarily.

14. DEFIANCE: More significantly,
embedding the capacity of
makeup to make us look and feel
unconventional, uncompromising
and untamable some of the most
successful brands mark the
essence of makeup to react to the
given, to the overly sanitized
rational social order, as their own.

15. By its very nature, makeup
draws attention to oneself,
helping one to assert oneself,
defying the rules, provoking,
speaking up or standing out.
What we essentially search for
is to temporarily lose control in
order to regain it.

16. HOMOGENEITY: On a deeper
level, what motivates people to
buy makeup products is the
reassurance it offers facing a
destabilising heterogeneity. The
nature of makeup is to be a
ready-to-wear mask, which
depersonalises the face.

17. Putting a face on, day
after day the desired
and always attained
result is to look like
everyone else,
reassuringly blending
ourselves into the
crowd

18. PLAYFULNESS:
Embedding the
seemingly superfluous
and purposeless nature
of makeup into their
narratives, some brands
allow us to take
everything lightly, to
take life as it comes.

19. The essence of
makeup is to be alive,
vivid, vibrant, flirty,
tantalizing, teasing,
artificial, colourful.

20. Makeup is a
fine device of
life, a spectacle
of the self

21. DESIRABILITY: On yet
another layer of
motivation, makeup
products sell because
they promise intimate
relationships and
sensuous encounters

22. Thinking of the actual effect
of one’s desired face on
others, makes one feel even
more desirable. Feeling
sexier in a nice-looking face
can be a big turn on for
others which can thus be a
big turn on for us.

23. OBLIGATION: Makeup gives
the impression to oneself and
others that if one can control to
perfection one’s image, one can
conquer anything, one is up to
the job and of value to the
company.

24. Physical perfection is achieved by
comparing it to the benchmark
and the standards. By adhering to
the social norms through
normalisation facilitated by the
use of makeup we derive an
increased sense of self-esteem,
status and power. Subjecting our
body to the disciplined rules of
reconstruction we feel masters of
ourselves.

25. REINVENTION: Makeup
gives us the opportunity of
continuously renewing the
possibilities, continuously
constructing and expressing
our selfhood

26. In order to become one’s
mask, makeup is worked and
reworked in depth as the artist
seeks to find essence. The user
has to erase, disguise, pretend,
to makeup, in a word to make
her personality visible.

27. EMPOWERMENT: On a yet
more profound layer of
motivation, makeup does not
only reinforce the limits of the
self, but it also extends them.
Makeup enables us to face
powers more significant than
ourselves.

28. It is intrinsically a tool of
aggression (as all masks
are), an unmistakable
proof of our will. For isn’t
everything in life a skill to
persuade, to survive and
develop?

29. SECURITY: In yet another motive
underpinning its success, into a
confusing world, makeup brings
security and gives us a belief in
progressive improvement towards
perfection. Perfection comforts and
reassures. Putting makeup on is a
ritual that provides reassurance, a
decision to have a new life from
now on. Makeup creates the
illusion of rebirth.

30. METAMORPHOSIS: On the
innermost layer of human
motivation, we buy
makeup for its capacity to
change us both physically
and psychologically.

31. Putting makeup on, one
seeks to suspend oneself

32. The person wearing
makeup is readily
identified with the
person it represents

33. Makeup like all masks has
the power to transform
the wearer. As happens
with the best actors and
their roles, we ultimately
identify ourselves with the
person we see in the
mirror.

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

35. CONNECT
CONTROL
The wheel of motives™
GROW
CARE
BALANCE
DESIRE
FEEL
SAFE
SEEK
PLAY
CREATE
DEFY
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

36. 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

37. 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.

38. 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.

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

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

41. (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 activities

42. 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 by
clicking on the icon: