A method of developing product characteristics for a new automotive vehicle comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of vehicle attributes including usage experience attributes, driving experience attributes, and design attributes; classifying each of the attributes; generating a preferred vehicle brand position as a function of the vehicle attributes; and, generating target vehicle characteristics as a function of the vehicle attributes and the preferred vehicle brand position. In this manner, the target vehicle characteristics represent customer-driven objectives for each of the plurality of vehicle attributes. An advantage of the present method is that it provides customer-driven products with identifiable brand images.