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The fundamental principle underlying the marketing discipline is satisfying consumer needs. Therefore, the key task of any marketer is to find out what consumers want or why do they prefer a competitor’s product and then deliver something better. However, consumers do not necessarily know why they prefer one brand over another. When asked, they give us sound, tangible reasons. But these are not necessarily the real motivating reasons, because brands satisfy strong emotive needs in addition to the functional ones. It is difficult enough to identify and understand these emotive needs, let alone how we might position a brand to tap them.

The emotive needs are a result of the consumer’s psychological makeup. Consumers satisfy these needs through a variety of means. Brands provide a symbolic dimension, which enables the consumers to establish a relationship with products. The brand, therefore, provides a symbolic overlay to the product, enabling the establishment of a strong emotive relationship.

Let’s illustrate what we mean by emotive needs. Imagine someone who is very powerful and likes to project his status in everything that he does. Therefore, he picks elements, which can measure up to the standards that he lives by and which make him feel the same way. If something does not fit in with this scheme of things, a great deal of anxiety results, as this person has a strong emotive need to project his status and authority.

Products and brands may assist this process by providing the appropriate gratification. For some people, cars may serve such a purpose. Certain car brands can be used to help in projecting power and status. The product has both the physical and emotional effect of being a symbol; providing the user in this case with added status and the feeling of being powerful.

Apart from being individuals, human beings are social animals as well. They have a strong need to fit in, to belong and to identify with a particular group. Patriotism, parochialism, family, club, and peer group identification are all expressions of this social identity need. Social roles are also expressions of identity need, the businessperson, the homemaker, the student to name but a few.

Here also, brands serve an important function. Brands can become icons for a group, helping to define group belonging and role identification. One of the most overt ways brands are used is to display membership to a particular social stratum in its brand communication.

Functional needs are the third and most accessible layer of needs. Such needs are quite tangible, and have a strong rational component. Price, availability and convenience are examples of this group of needs.

Functional needs are easily identified through direct questioning. Consumers are very comfortable talking at this level. However, in many cases these functional needs are no more than rationalisations for the more hidden emotive needs. The key is to understand that they are not the drivers of brand preference, but the rationalisation for it.

So far, we have talked about the three layers of needs. The other side of the coin is the brand image and how this works to satisfy consumer needs. As we have categorised the needs into three layers, we can divide brand image into three corresponding layers.

Symbolism (personality): All brands to some degree have a symbolic meaning, a personality. The meaning is derived from the product itself and is molded by the brand’s image. Different automotive brands express this through product design and the symbolism of the brand, the brand’s product character, styling and advertising. The symbolic meaning of the brand satisfies the more emotive needs because they are both operating at the same implicit level.

Social values: The second layer of the brand’s image is its social value. For example, where does the brand fit into the social hierarchy; is it ordinary or up-market, is it male or female, young or old? If the brand’s social values do not send out the right signals it won’t be particularly attractive. The brand’s social values satisfy our social identity needs. For example, when we get a promotion, we often have the inclination to buy a larger car, to show that we are progressing in life. Therefore, we would look for a brand with more sophisticated social values.

Product features: The outer layer of the brand image is its tangible product features. These satisfy our more functional needs. While not necessarily acting as the driver of brand preference, these do provide a means of differentiation and in many cases rationalisation for preference.

To understand these three layers of needs in the car category, we employed NeedScope, which is a qualitative, and quantitative research system owned by TNS. It utilises a proven psychological framework of “projection” to go deeper and beyond the functional needs. We conducted more than 2,500 interviews (each lasting more than an hour) with owners of various car brands across 21 cities of India.

Based on this study, we concluded that the Indian car buyers can be divided into six segments on the basis of their needs.

Potency buyers are motivated by a need to feel attractive and sexy and appear dashing/dynamic; product styling, which is high tech/futuristic while being tough and rugged, appeals to this group.

Status buyers are motivated by the need to be successful/accomplished, influential and powerful/authoritative; the personality that they want to exhibit is one of sophistication and style. They seek a product design that is powerful and imposing, capable of driving at high speed and equipped with the latest entertainment gadgets and luxurious interiors.

Control buyers have a personality that is rational, risk averse and focused. Hence, the primary gratification that they seek from their car is to feel in-control and efficient/competent.

Security buyers perceive the car as a support peg, which makes them feel good about themselves. This in turn makes them feel secure/protected. Buyers in this segment are largely conformist in nature, loyal, dependable and have a sensitive/gentle personality.

Comfort buyers strongly believe that life is not about personal success but more about bonding with their family and society. They take pride in being providers with a heightened sense of duty and responsibility. This segment of customers stays away from radical styling, choosing a more practical and elegant design and seek cars that offer good fuel economy and low maintenance costs.

Liberation is the smallest of the six need segments, but which has grown significantly over the past year—these buyers have a carefree, enthusiastic and upbeat personality. This segment of buyers, like to feel excited, young and exhilarated when using a car.

These need segment change and evolve as consumer needs evolve and marketers find ways to satisfy their needs. The sizes of need segments have changed from the last time TNS conducted a similar study in 2006.

Overall we can conclude that in an emerging market like India, car brands are not just names; they have a deep symbolic meaning for the buyers. They are not mere symbols of quality or an international network but are the cause of a very strong emotional relationship with customers.