What should a brand’s North Star actually be built on?
In this article, Keith R. Reynolds explores that question through my work and Living Brands.
His starting point is simple but powerful: instead of building a brand around product features, price or other easily replicated advantages, what if its central idea connected with the fundamental human motives shaped by millions of years of evolution?
Drawing on our conversation, Reynolds examines how brands such as Harley-Davidson, LEGO, Coca-Cola, Nike and Budweiser have become associated with deeper motives such as Defy, Create, Feel Safe, Grow and Connect. These motives provide a more fundamental explanation of why certain brands acquire meaning beyond their functional benefits—and why that meaning can transcend markets, cultures and languages.
The article introduces THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES®, my model of 12 fundamental human motives, and the multidisciplinary thinking behind it, bringing together biology, affective neuroscience, cognitive linguistics, psychology, anthropology and other fields to reach beneath consumers’ rationalized explanations of what they want.
But Reynolds also points toward the practical implication of the model. Understanding the emotion is not enough. The critical question is what a brand does with it.
A fundamental motive can become the basis for the brand’s strategy and positioning—its North Star—and from there provide direction for the way the brand expresses itself. Communications, content, experiences and other touchpoints can then reinforce the same underlying emotional meaning rather than operating as disconnected marketing activities.
This is the role that THE WHEEL OF MOTIVES® has progressively evolved to fulfil: providing the missing system for making emotion operational across the brand, from strategy and positioning to communications, concepts, experiences, products, formulations, packaging and other brand touchpoints.
Reynolds captures the idea particularly well in his conclusion: at the core of purchasing decisions lie basic biological programs that have helped human beings survive and thrive.
That, he argues, is where the brand’s North Star belongs.