The Key to Success: Understanding Needs, Motives, Implicit Goals.

Chapter of "WHY Brands Grow"

What did Apple do when develop a computer? What did they do when they introduced a new phone? It was not about putting a logo on a piece of electronics and doing advertising. It started with a vision of a product that has features different to the category norm: Easy and pleasant to use enabled by a proprietary hard & software philosophy. Steve Jobs saw the need of users to interact with machines in more natural, frictionless way, so that users could focus on creating. In a sense, all started with defining its own “category”.

But it’s not for the sake of innovation and not for the sake of defining a new category (that nobody may want). It all starts with understanding the unmet needs and implicit goals of customers.

This means the first question a company needs to ask is not “how to position its brand”. It’s purely about: who do we want to serve and what are their needs and wants? Are we willing and capable of fulfilling their implicit goals?

Why “implicit”? When you ask consumers what they want, the conscious brain (System 2) answers with a story that is consistent with its belief about itself. The problem: this same brain beliefs it takes decisions, which is an illusion. In the same way the answers this brain gives, an illusion. That means we need to research first and foremost System 1 – the intuitive mind.

The path of an established company is typically set, because they have certain capabilities and knowledge that serve a certain range of existing categories. Still, it is worthwhile to dig deeper into understanding the underlying unmet needs.

Apple understood that computers being complicated and ugly are the main hinderance for larger audiences to adopt it. Likewise, they understood the smartphones being complicated and ugly are the main hinderance for a computer-in-the-pocket category – which a phone today is.

T-Mobile USA understood that mobile customers felt screwed up and overpriced by dominant players like AT&T and Verizon and were longing for liberation, longing for a “robin hood”.

Two categories with very different strategies for growth. Apple tapped into flaws of existing product design. T-Mobile tapped into a higher order need: the want for autonomy and self-agency.

This means it’s not enough to center your view on your category. It’s important to look at the total range of human motives. There are two frameworks that can serve you well, when doing so.

Maslow’s Motive Pyramid

Here is a quick reminder of the eight need or motive categories:

1. Survive: Core implicit goal: Stay alive, avoid harm. Derived wants: Food, water, sleep physical safety, health, pain avoidance, thermal comfort, energy conservation. This implicit goal dominates behavior under stress caused by illness, poverty, crisis, or hunger. Brands here compete on functionality, reliability, trust.

2. Stability & Control: Core implicit goal: Make the world manageable. Derived wants: Security, Order, Routine, Financial stability, Control over environment, Reduced cognitive load. This implicit goal dominates behavior under anxiety.

3. Belonging: Core implicit goal: Don’t be excluded. Derived wants: Love, Friendship, Family, Community, Social approval.

4. Status: Core implicit goal: Improve or protect my rank. Derived wants: Respect, Recognition, Success, Achievement, Prestige, Authority Competence signaling. Brands here deliver indicators of social status like luxury.

5. Autonomy & Agency: Core implicit goal: I choose. Derived wants: Freedom, Independence, Self-determination, Flexibility, Choice, Personal boundaries. This often emerges after basic stability is secured and conflicts with belonging (freedom vs acceptance). Brands here can deliver a means to manifest the want for freedom.

6. Identity & Self-Coherence: Core implicit goal: Know who I am. Derived wants: Authenticity, Consistency, Self-expression. This is where brands become mirrors. If brands stand for non-trivial values that are narrated in the identity belief of the audience, it becomes magnetic: “This is me. Love it”

7. Meaning, Purpose & Contribution: Core implicit goal: My life matters. Derived wants: Purpose, Contribution, Legacy, Moral alignment, Impact beyond self, Belonging to something bigger. This drives belief-led brands and can be seen as an advanced version of the identity motive.

8. Growth, Mastery & Self-Transcendence: Core implicit goal: Become more than I am Derived Wants: Learning, Mastery, Wisdom, Self-actualization, Flow, Transcendence of ego.

The motives 1 to 5 are the core motives that every one of us has. The higher motives evolve when the lower ones are met. Therefore, they relate to niches and increasingly niche categories.

While one can argue that animals are also driven by motives 1 to 5, the motives 6 to 8 are clearly a result of our ability to self-introspections which is performed by System 2 – the prefrontal cortex. It evolves with the evolution of a self-concept, that builds itself an identity, constructs purpose and meaning, to arrive at higher motives of learning and finally and eventually transcendence of this very identity (ego).

Why do people buy a product or service? Because it is of value to satisfy a motive.

To find out how a product is associated with the motives you can use the implicit association test (IAT). Here are adjectives that can be used:

Motive - Positive adjective - Limiting adjective

1. Survive - Safe - Dangerous

2. Stability & Control - Secure - Chaotic

3. Belonging - Accepted - Excluded

4. Status - Prestigious - Ordinary

5. Autonomy & Agency - Free - Restrictive

6. Identity - Authentic - Fake

7. Meaning & Purpose - Meaningful - Pointless

8. Growth - Elevating - Stagnant

If products are not fulfilling the motives yet they will not be associated and those associations will not explain (in the context Causal AI modeling) product choice.

But one can measure the association of the adjectives with being “important” or “less important” in the described context. That is how we can identify unmet motives – unmet needs – with an implicit, System 1 based instrument.

Motiv “Accelerators” - and the 7 sins.

The “seven deadly sins” idea started with early Christian monks who listed eight main temptations (Evagrius Ponticus), and it later became a list of seven when Pope Gregory the Great revised and combined some of them, which medieval theologians then popularized. While you may reject the idea of sins, the concept is based on the observation of obsessive human behaviors, that do not lead to a positive state of bliss or satisfaction. These behaviors can be interpreted as destructive for humans, independent of the moral meaning.

Obsessive behavior must be caused by certain motivators. This makes the subject interesting to marketing and branding. What are the underlying motives that course behavior – which in turn can be buying behavior for my product.

The seven sins can be read as excessive, self-reinforcing behaviors rather than “bad traits.” Each one is a recognizable pattern that tends to surface when a person is under pressure, emotionally charged, or depleted—and when a quick, reliable shortcut to relief or reward is available. In that sense, the sins describe how humans’ overshoot: we reach for something that works fast in the moment (comfort, control, validation, power, pleasure), and we keep repeating it because it delivers immediate payoff, even if the long-term costs accumulate.

What triggers these patterns is often surprisingly specific.

• Pride is commonly triggered by evaluation and identity threat—criticism, comparison, or public status cues—and it can flare as a defense against shame. Stereotypic brand: Rolex.

• Greed is triggered by uncertainty and scarcity signals—real or perceived—because “more” feels like insurance and control. Stereotypic brand: Ryanair.

• Envy is triggered by upward comparison and perceived unfairness, especially when the comparison target is close (a peer rather than a distant celebrity). Stereotypic brand: H&M

• Wrath ignites with disrespect, boundary violations, humiliation, or chronic frustration, because anger rapidly mobilizes energy and restores a sense of agency. Stereotypic brand: T-Mobile USA.

• Gluttony is often triggered by stress, fatigue, and emotional discomfort—anything that makes immediate soothing attractive. Stereotypic brand: ALDI

• Sloth is commonly triggered by overwhelm, decision fatigue, fear of failure, or unclear next steps; avoidance brings instant relief. Stereotypic brand: Apple.

• Lust is triggered by novelty, loneliness, boredom, stress, and constant cue exposure; it is among the strongest natural reward signals and can narrow attention to the immediate “yes.”. Stereotypic brand: Viktoria Secret or Playboy

These triggers are powerful because they exploit the brain’s tendency to prioritize the short term under emotional load. When stress rises or self-regulation drops, attention narrows and time horizons shrink: the mind becomes biased toward what reduces discomfort now or produces reward now. That’s why the sins can feel like they “happen to us.” They are not mysterious impulses; they are predictable loops: a cue creates an affective spike (shame, fear, craving, anger, emptiness), the person takes a shortcut behavior that works immediately, and the brain learns “this works,” strengthening the habit for next time.

The following table shows adjectives that can be used in IAT to identify the association of a situation (CEP), a product or brand to one of the seven accelerators.

How do you find out what matters?

How to find the needs, motives, or implicit goals that will unlock growth?

Maslow’s motives and the 7 sins “accelerators” are basic frameworks a brand can search for blind spots. Typically, brand owners know the >80% of implicit goals active in the category. They can be retrieved by interviewing domain experts. With this you can create your domain specific list of implicit goals. You can start with the product features that you typically assess and ask yourself which implicit goals it caters for. Here is an example from an OTC pharma brand

Typically, we want to detail the implicit goals into stages, stages that may be logically and causally connected. The objective property “clinically proven” can translate into the functional goal “Immediate relief” this in turn a lifestyle goal of “stay productive” which can foster an even higher identity goal of “being/acting smart”.

Stage 0: Objective properties – which properties are objectively given and claimable.

Stage 1: Functional implicit goals – what direct consequence do consumers what from category products

Stage 2: Lifestyle – which lifestyle related goals does the brand support

Stage 3: Identity – does the brand is associated with things the customer values and views as a part of his personality. People want to be consistent in what they do and speak. The identity or personality is a self-constructed “me” (a set of properties “I am a … person”) and behavior is selected to fit that profile

Those lists we can create based on domain knowledge, qual research and general frameworks like Maslow and 7-sins. But what’s typically not well known and understood is:

1. What are the key driving implicit goals in the category today? Even in most categories we research, we found surprising insights – even for common categories like beer, skin car or grocery discount.

2. Which implicit goals unrelated to the category does the product already silently fulfills?

3. Which implicit goals are entirely unmet and could potentially be addressed by your brand?

The question is: what do people want that we can meaningfully fulfill and that is strong enough to create a maximal attraction to buy our brand’s products.

It consists of three aspects:

What do people want: this is a large universe once structured in motive research (think Maslow) and each motive can have different facets you can target.

What we can meaningfully fulfill: That’s the obvious filter. With our new customer model “smart lazy consumer” we do not want to fool or trick customers. The human intuition is a sniffing dog that may spot attempts within milliseconds. You can only hope that customers don’t care enough to oppose. Still, while lower-level motivators like hunger, safety, reproduction are a few, higher level motives can be countless, and a simple product like a shoe can be a means for self-expression not just a utility to walk.

That creates maximal attraction: that’s the critical part. There are countless motives and quite a few that your products could fulfill in principle. Motives however are contextual and situational (think CEP) and differ per person (personal context and history). In short, its complex.

There are two ways to answer the causal, complex question of what creates attraction for our products - ways that we can walk in sequence.

Method #1 - Asking Intuition:

That is what creatives do anyways since ever. They have an inspiration and write it down. The challenge, we do not know whether this creative output is truly a result of informed intuition or biased by ego and rationales.

The aEEG audio download method from SUPRA provides an objectivized approach. What we typically see is that two thirds of people that go thru the process come up with similar themes - a good indicator that the method works.

Deep Psychology Interviews are also a method to go behind the rationalization layer of human consciousness. It takes 2 hours of skilled interviewing to get into the deeper underlying motives of people.

aEEG is a faster, more consistent, more economically attractive methodology, while Deep Psychology can provide insights with more facets and granularities with the limit of interviewer biases.

Method #2 – Inferring with Causal AI

We can measure quantitatively e.g. with IAT which motives people associate with certain products and then also measure their readiness to buy the product. With this data we can feed Causal AI. The process will infer which motives are right now in use to choose products.

We can also show customers creative assets like TV spots that typically speak to one or two specific implicit goals. Again, with Causal AI we can infer from testing dozens of assets which objectively identified “implicit goal” stimuli have for existing advertising in the market the highest impact to spark interest in the product.

Sure enough, there are implicit goals not yet addressed in the market. When T-Mobile USA repositioned in 2013, they used the implicit goal of customer for revenge against the established carriers. When Apple entered the market they used people’s implicit goal for ease of use and beauty/esthetics.

Implicit goals that a brand in any category can cater for is to advocate core values – that are non-trivial but customers deeply care about – and put them into the center of the communication. Most of those attempts failed, because it must be authentic and true and relevant to customers. But when done truthfully like Patagonia for cloth, Tony’s for chocolate or FC St. Pauli for sports brand, it can be a growth driver.

The full exploration process

When a brand would want to go all in to understand the actual driving implicit goals and possibly untapped implicit goals, this is what could be done

Qualitative research

· Expert judgment workshop with internal expert collecting all the brand knows and believe it could play a role

· aEEG audio feedback study on active implicit goals

· aEEG audio feedback study on active frustrations (=unmet implicit goals)

· deep psychology interviews

Quantitative research

· We can measure the association of implicit goals with the statement of being important in an IAT setting. This is not for finding the relevance in the market but to identify unmet implicit needs. If products today are not associated with this goal but it turns out to be important, its an opportunity for your brand.

Causal inference research

· Active implicit goals: run an IAT based study and let consumers assess different products from different brands on items representing implicit goals and purchase intention. Infer with Causal AI.

· Untapped implicit goals: Test perception of a product and purchase potential after showing new creative assets that are designed to speak to new untapped implicit goals. Infer with Causal AI.

When T-Mobile USA reinvented itself in 2013 they did exactly this: Examined qualitative research and then conducted causal driver analysis to ultimately arrive at the “uncarrier strategy” that 4x the companies revenue in the years to come.

Let me summarize:

Success in building brands does not begin with positioning or advertising but with understanding the deeper, often implicit motives that drive human behavior. Companies like Apple and T-Mobile succeeded because they recognized unmet needs. Apple addresses --the frustration with complex, unattractive technology and T-Mobile tapping into customers’ desire for autonomy and liberation from dominant carriers. These needs operate largely in the intuitive mind (System 1), which means they must be uncovered through research rather than relying on what consumers consciously say.

Frameworks such as Maslow’s motive hierarchy and behavioral “accelerators” like the seven sins help identify potential drivers behind decisions. They can be complemented with functional, live style and identity oriented implicit goals. Those can be built based on domain knowledge and qualitative research.

The strategic task for any brand is therefore to determine which human motives are most relevant, which ones remain unmet in the market, and which the brand can credibly fulfill in a way that maximizes attraction. By combining qualitative exploration, implicit measurement methods like IAT, and causal AI analysis, companies can systematically reveal the motives that truly drive choice and build strategies around them—turning deep human needs into sustainable growth opportunities.