This pioneering research redefines the way we market dolls. Artificial segmentations based on personality differences offer weak foundations on which to build brand strategies. To deeply engage us, a brand must have a solid inner architecture deeply rooted in the fundamentals of humanity. Beneath all the phantasmagoria of global marketing communication, lies order and rhythm, the source code of our human behaviour.

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

13. PLAYFULNESS: On an initial layer
of motivation we buy dolls
because they entertain us, make
us laugh. Dolls, through their
intense lives, show us how
beautiful life really is, how good
humour abounds.

14. ATTRACTION: More significantly,
dolls are beautiful. We want to be
like them, to be dolls made flesh.
Adored. Wanted. Being the alter
ego of the doll, the little girl thinks
of herself as a marvelous doll:
“I’m what everyone wants”.

15. The Barbie doll, the leading doll
in the world represents the
symbolic (and biological) ideal
of the perfect woman

16. Deep down Barbie is a
fertility doll, embodying
some of the timeless
functions of a doll

17. EMPOWERMENT: Dolls are objects
with a will to live. As the image
that constitutes an object of
veneration and adoration soon
becomes an idol, what we actually
project onto our dolls are our own
goals.

18. Dolls become an exalted sense of
human potentiality, an attempt “to
negotiate with gods” - and when
we attempt something big, it is
hard to fail completely.

19. CONTROL: On a deeper level, dolls
are passive and obedient and inspire
the power to develop order and
enforce rules. In proximity to them
one feels important instead of being
a minor player.

20. Children take their position in the
rank of life, they become rulers
like their mothers. At the same
time, dolls are role models that
instruct us about the values of
society, tending towards the
normalization of experience and
the standardization of ideals.

21. COMPANIONSHIP: Moving
closer to the dominant
motives, dolls answer our
need for human company.
People have always sought
animate companions (pets,
robots).

22. Children know
that dolls are not
alive which helps
them to grasp the
illusion of
companionship
without the
burden of a
friendship

23. We are sure that dolls will never reveal
our secrets, as they are our “little
confidents”. In fulfilling the role of a
passive substitute, dolls allow children to
play and free themselves of their
passive dependence upon adults.

24. DESTRUCTION:
Having identified
themselves in
dolls, and by
transferring any
negative feeling
(aggressiveness,
threatening
thoughts etc.) on
to them, children
are liberated
from all the
“bads”.

25. Through transferring her
negative feelings on to the
doll and even destroying it,
the child confirms her own
existence

26. This transference bestows a sense
of comfort onto the child as she
can now rely on a self-composed
universe, something that the outer
world cannot and does not
provide.

27. Dolls exist on the threshold of
life and death. We become
confused and scared when we
are exposed to a not-quite-
living thing, our mind not
knowing exactly how to
proceed.

28. Dolls are reminders of
mortality, but playing in a
safe environment, even the
most monstrous of them
exercise a profound
attraction enveloping their
presence with mystery and
helping us to cope with the
unexpected - the fear of
death being itself a
survival mechanism.

29. The habit of playing with dolls,
is a strong influence that
modifies our taste. The child is
initiated into taste and
preferences as a doll-dressed
baby, further developing her
tastes and preferences on her
baby-dressed dolls.

30. CREATION: One of the deepest motives
for buying dolls is their capacity to help
us create opportunities to actually
express ourselves. Dolls need names,
clothes, houses, beds, a hairdo, and a
life.

31. As a true demiurge, the child
succeeds in transforming the
thing (doll) into a being. And this
creation will often - in the child’s
eyes - be more real than the
beings with whom he or she
stands alongside, because dolls
are more accessible, more
entirely her, more present.

32. ESCAPE: Dolls liberate us from space and
time, they take us out of the prison of
reality where customary logic dominates,
and thus no logic applies. Going a little
further each time, we discover things
about the universe and ourselves.

33. It is through exercising inner
tendencies, and manipulating,
improvising and discovering
that children and adults alike
explore their own character.
Seeing alternatives can be
promising as well as
frightening.

34. CARE: On a yet more profound
level, small and helpless, dolls,
inspire tenderness and fondness
in us. They need our loving care
to survive. The more one seems
to need us, the more we love
him/her.

35. Neotenous (from the Greek
for “stretch” or “extend”)
characteristics (large head,
large eyes), make sure that
dolls look cute, and as a
result, elicit our care giving
instincts.

36. Caring and nurturing
for another being is
inherent in human
beings and stronger
in human infants.
Younger brothers
and sisters, dolls and
pets can help fulfil
our caregiver needs.

37. SECURITY: The doll is a
“portable mother” that
ensures the child’s safety
when the real mother is not
there. Children, at some
point, come to understand
that they are separate
beings from their mothers,
and at this stage, it is dolls
that console.

38. This infantile attachment to
security-giving objects will
accompany us throughout
our life unless we understand
that the causes of phobias
are never actually the result
of our environment. We
survive by creating a private
reassuring world of our own
that helps us keep our
emotional nature alive.

39. The private life created by
a doll offers the illusion of
continuity where nothing
changes, where there is
anchorage reassurance
that everything is ok

40. Something inanimate always approximates an
ideal surpassing something living. There is a
sense of freshness in playing with dolls.

41. Being raised in a non-tactile
society we have to compensate
with nonhuman creatures and
objects, first with teddy bears
and blankets then with pets.
Comfort gives the illusion of
security.

42. In the case of mannequin dolls,
connotations of ascetic withdrawal
are connected to the belief in an ideal
world where we can reach the stars
or marry a wealthy and handsome
prince, or a god like our father.

43. Deep down they also embody the
pursuit of something “sacred” where
we strive to achieve perfection and
the visible ideal (the perfect body),
representing the innocent prisoner in
us. Anything existing outside of this
ideal world that becomes a religion,
i.e. what is not shared, is something
filthy in need of cleansing.

44. TRANSITION: on the innermost level of
human motivation, a doll is never merely
a physical phenomenon. Living on the
threshold of life, a doll suggests that it is
both alive and not alive. Dolls suddenly
become alive, they talk with a human
voice, reach, and exceed human
existence.

45. Objects given life, more
material and more spiritual at
the same time than humans,
dolls become captivating
incarnations of anyone and
anything we please.

46. Simultaneously objects and
subjects over whom we never
manage to become masters,
dolls do not just represent
reality, they are the reality

47. The vacuity of dolls becomes the
loyal mirror of all human mind
operations. Neither merely objects
nor just thoughts, dolls are “self-
objects” which oscillate amongst
the timeless, universal, and
profound human feelings. Thanks
to this projection, children become
aware of themselves and of
others.

48. The persona we give to the doll influences
us towards becoming that persona. Living
on the threshold of life, the verge of
humanity, dolls are witches, masters of
metamorphoses. They continuously change
personality, according to our mood.
Sometimes they are docile, sometimes
aggressive and absurd. We mirror dolls,
which mirror us. We lend them our soul.

49. * 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 *

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

51. 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

52. 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

53. 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

54. 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

55. 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.

56. 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.

57. 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

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

59. (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

60. 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: