Demographic and psychographic data that come from traditional consumer surveys may not always tell marketers everything they need to know. Often, the insights reflect what members of the surveyed group believe drives their brand choices, media habits and purchase decisions. But that might not be the full picture.  

Enter Vividata Drivers, a new data set that dives deeper to reveal the subconscious motivations of Canadian consumers. The data was created in partnership with U.S.-based Research Measurement Technologies (RMT) and is available through Vividata’s flagship database, the Study of the Canadian Consumer. 

Through a combination of measurement science and artificial intelligence, RMT identified 15 Vividata Drivers that can be tied to brands, consumer profiles and media, including television ads and shows. The Vividata Drivers range from love to success and heroism to fitness, and they are not mutually exclusive – everyone embodies a mix of these key motivators at different stages of their lives. 

“Vividata Drivers are life motivations. They’re the things that determine who we marry, what jobs we take, what our aspirations are, what we want to be when we grow up,” says Bill Harvey, co-founder of RMT. Equally, they also influence the products we buy, the shows we watch, the websites we visit and the brand messages we resonate with, he says.  

“Marketers will try to understand a target audience based on a number of different factors, including demographic, psychographic and life events,” says Rahul Sethi, VP of research and development at Vividata. “So you have an understanding – from what individuals have told marketers—of the profile of your target consumer. But now imagine if you could also see the deeper unconscious layer that’s actually driving their decisions. That’s what this data is showing.” 

Whereas most consumer data is tied to a specific group, product or media, Vividata Drivers promise to help marketers see and make connections between them all, using motivations as the unifying factor. In other words, they can be used to align brand messaging with advertising and media buys, leading to greater marketing effectiveness. 

Harvey offers toothpaste as an example. Traditionally, in CPG especially, marketers would craft their ads around the product attributes their target customers believe are most important, as self-reported in surveys. A brand might emphasize decay prevention, tooth whitening or breath refreshing attributes. The advertiser would then buy ad placements during TV shows that moms (the traditional household buyer) are most likely to watch. 

But in recent years, as consumer expectations shifted, brands moved away from rational product-based messages in favour of more emotional and socially conscious messaging. That’s where traditional measurement methods can sometimes fall short. Survey respondents might not really understand what unconsciously motivates them, or they don’t always answer as honestly as marketers would like. Is a consumer’s preference for Tesla cars really driven by environmental concerns or is it motivated by a desire for status and prestige? A survey may not provide the most complete answer, but Vividata Drivers will. 

If it’s toothpaste, says Harvey, Vividata Drivers may reveal that fresh breath and white teeth “relates to a life motivation of hedonism, of wanting to have as much sex as possible.” Unlike a product-specific consumer insight, this Driver would manifest itself across categories and media. So, the marketer could create advertising that speaks to hedonistic desires and place the ads on shows or websites that cater to appropriate audiences. 

In another example, Vividata research has shown that BMW drivers over-index on the security Driver by around 40%. In comparison, GMC drivers under-index by around 30%. BMW might then use this insight for creative development and buy ads on specific programs or media associated with security, something that can also be determined from the dataset. 

Among consumers looking for a new bank or considering switching banks, meanwhile, the most common Vividata Drivers are wealth/success, status/prestige and love. So, when Vividata was examining the in-market ads from five Canadian bank brands, Harvey says, “we were expecting to see scores of 100% for wealth/success – that seemed obvious.” However, in most cases, only 5% to 30% of the ads aligned with the targets’ three biggest Drivers. That’s a missed opportunity. 

Vividata Drivers are available as a self-serve option within the SCC, so users can run them against every other question and variable available within the flagship survey, including brand data, media data and specific consumer targets and profiles. Custom research is also available.

Learn more about the Vividata Drivers here.