STUDIOVN talks with Dr Constantinos Pantidos

Dr Constantinos Pantidos is the founder of BRAND AVIATORS™. He leads the team, which created THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES™, the most integrated tool for forming a brand strategy to date. Applying neuromarketing techniques, BRAND AVIATORS™ helps companies identify the DNA of their brands and answer the fundamental brand questions: “Who Am I?” “What Do I Stand for?” and then align all touchpoints answering the question “How Am I recognized?”

In your opinion, what are the most outdated techniques in the present-day marketing industry? And why do you think they are still in use?

One reason why the value offered by brands to consumers is not optimized today is the emphasis on functional USPs, mixed with the gut feelings the stakeholders have about the brand instead of developing a holistic, scientific approach that elevates product benefits to their symbolic and emotional values. This practice is still in use as it is easier to rationalize rather than navigate the space of emotions that play the most important part in any decision. Besides and perhaps most importantly, up to now, there has not been a simple, effective, integrated model to establish the links between the disciplines required to understand and predict consumer behaviour.

At STUDIOVN, we often speak about the importance of experience design as well. What do you consider to be the most crucial aspects of a brand experience?

Consumers and clients experience the brand through many different touchpoints. Consequently, it is important that all these touchpoints are aligned and coherent with each other. The only way for a marketer to achieve this is to have a clear, deep, non-negotiable brand strategy in place. The brand strategy should come from the brand’s genetic codes, it should derive from its soul. To be effective it must be based on inherent hierarchies of concepts in the brain that transcend time and culture. THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES™, helps clients decipher the DNA of their brands and capture their rich neural network associations. Without this strategic approach, the brand is managed as if we were driving blindfolded and, as the brain is designed to spot inconsistencies, brands that are not coherent are de-selected or ignored.

* Diagram 1

In brief, how would you explain the importance of understanding “THE PATHWAYS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR™” for creating memorable experiences?

“THE PATHWAYS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR™” establishes the links between System 1 and System 2, the mental and physical availability to create meaning in the neurophysiological and psychological interface. Using this framework, the marketer has now the ability to develop strategies and creative executions that trigger brand choice. The strategic concepts identified are translated into colours, shapes, scents, sounds etc. according to their neural impact, forming solid narratives that are impossible for competitors to match. “THE PATHWAYS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR™” helps create campaigns that work time after time, after time. Each creative execution builds on the previous ones, creating synergies and syntonic symphonies instead of just dissonant noise.

* Diagram 2

Do you consider frameworks such as “THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES™” a representative of the future of the industry? And why?

As emotions come from neural activity, I believe the future of marketing will be based on the understanding of how emotions arise in the brain. THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES™ is the only tool that can provide structure by establishing for the first time the links between many scientific disciplines. Much of our behaviour, though unconscious, is not arbitrary. Marketing is all about associations, but for associations to work they must be the right ones. To make a lasting statement of substance, brands have to activate suitable associations in our brains. Consumers know unconsciously what a certain brand represents in their brains. As any creative execution that does not come naturally from the brand is immediately de-selected, we now know which 50% of the budget does not work and so can eliminate it.

For a more detailed understanding of the framework explore Dr Constantinos' book, as well as visit https://nmsba.com/ for further information on neuromarketing.

*Diagram 1. The Pathways of Human Behaviour, Living Brands, How Biology and Neuroscience Shape Consumer Behaviour and Brand Desirability, Dr. Constantinos Pantidos, Lid Publishing, London, 2018

*Diagram 2. The Wheel of Motives, Living Brands, How Biology and Neuroscience Shape Consumer Behaviour and Brand Desirability, Dr. Constantinos Pantidos, Lid Publishing, London, 2018

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STUDIOVN is an experiential interior design studio with an interdisciplinary approach to interior architecture, interior design and experiential design. We believe that curated design experience provides the novelty that will indeed become the real differenti­ator. For collaborations & opportunities get in touch.