BUILDING CONFECTIONERY BRANDS THROUGH INTRINSICALLY ENGAGING NARRATIVES ™

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

Intrinsically Engaging Narratives™ are capable of generating life. They express the motives which have helped us survive and grow during the course of evolution, and are spontaneously pursued for their own sake.

Applying, for the first time, a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the motives underpinning consumer behaviour in over seventy categories of goods including confectionery products, BRAND AVIATORS™ has captured our fundamental human motives at the deepest levels of their deployment, all the way from:• their biological value • to the neurosystems they engage • 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 lifeThis methodology helps marketers develop Intrinsically Engaging Narratives.™

CONNECT

CONTROL

The wheel of motives™

GROW

CARE

BALANCE

DESIRE

FEEL SAFE

SEEK

PLAY

CREATE

DESTROY

TRANSFORM

TM

Far from just

being tenebrous

and menacing,

our unconscious is

colourful and

bursting with life

Successful brands coherently express the very patterns of our psyche

What follows is a brief analysis of the deep motives for buying sweets. 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 confectionery category.*

* A book will shortly be published, extensively

analysing the motives underpinning 33categories of everyday consumer goods and our fundamental human motives. It puts forward the most integrated platform for engaging people to date.

INDULGENCE: On an initial

layer of motivation we

consume sweets because

they are not for nourishment.

The meaning of their

purchase is precisely that it is

non-essential. We buy them

as “luxurious indulgences”,

expressions of snobbery,

gourmet at times.

PLAYFULNESS: Proceeding into a deeper layer

of motivation, some of the most successful

narratives are based on the intrinsic capacity

of sweets to enliven us. Sweets are an

essential part of playfulness, flirting and lifting

the spirit. They are things that we do things to -

we want to handle them before we commit

them to our tongues, where we play with

them anew. As they delicately explode in the

mouth, the glucose rush elevates the mood,

removes mental pain, and tips the balance of

life in favour of amusement. Above all, sweets

mock seriousness.

ESCAPE: More significantly, sweets help

us “get away” from the monotonous

grind of our everyday work. Anticipation

has always been associated with sweets

that come in huge varieties that excite

curiosity like in a treasure hunt. And we

are impatient to see the different pieces

that each box contains, to reach the core,

to find the gift inside.

STRENGTH: On a deeper layer of

motivation, what makes sweets

sell are narratives that make us

experience them as “usable

energy”. Intrinsically, sugar is a

fuel producing heat and energy

and the primary energy source

for brain cells.

SOCIABILITY: Sweets are democratic, unpretentious and

convivial. They are made for sharing. Sweets have

always been used to build relationships. The most shared

product in the world, chewing gum is the quintessential

candy. Eating a sweet is itself a substitute of company.

DEFIANCE: The very nature of

sweets is to be ambivalent

and subversive. As is the case

with all passions, sweets are

dimorphic: We want more of

that which is forbidden.

METAMORPHOSIS: Sweets are

subtle, paradoxical, alchemical,

polymorphous substances, magical

objects that change our mood: Our

eyes open wide, our face and

body are filled with energy, the

volume of our voice increases, we

are filled with an appetite for life,

with an appetite to solve our

bigger problems understanding

that all depends on our mind and

our mood.

HEDONISM: On a more profound

layer, embodying the inherent

gustatory and emotional pleasure

of sweets, some of the most

successful brands claim the sensual

nature of sweets as their own.

Don’t we call our lover “honey”,

“sweetie”, “sugar baby”? Don’t

we often give chocolate as gifts on

a first date? For our mind love

itself is sweet.

SECURITY: On the innermost level of

human motivation, sweets are the

most efficient emotional

compensators. Humans want to have

good feelings now. The speed with

which sugar is digested is one of the

reasons we like sweets. Sugar

provides swift sensations of fullness

and satiation and with this the

feeling of security.

This map

illustrates the

way some

leading brands in

the confectionary

business are

positioned in the

consumers’ mind

The brands which effectively embed the deeper motives and the inherent concepts that dominate our behaviour related to confectionery are most competitively positioned to achieve sustained growth

We are trusted by some of the world’s leading companies:

Ask here for your FREE eBOOK “The Intrinsically Engaging Narratives™ Of Confectionery Products” to boost the sales and profit of your brand:

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