Projective Techniques in Marketing Research PDF

Projective Techniques in Marketing Research Author(s): Mason Haire Source: Journal of Marketing , Apr., 1950, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 649-656 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of American Marketing Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246942 JSTOR is a not-f...

Projective Techniques in Marketing Research Author(s): Mason Haire Source: Journal of Marketing , Apr., 1950, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 649-656 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of American Marketing Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246942 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms American Marketing Association and Sage Publications, Inc. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Marketing This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  TIHE al o Volume XIV APRIL, 1950 Number 5 PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES IN MARKETING RESEARCH MASON HAIRE University of California, Berkeley IT IS a well accepted maxim in merchan- what kind of people drank each kind, and dizing that, in many areas, we are particularly, what differences there were selling the sizzle rather than thebetween steak. the two groups of consumers. Our market research techniques, Ahow- survey was conducted which led up to ever, in many of these same areas, the are questions "Do you drink directed toward the steak. The sizzle is beer?" (If yes) "Do you drink the Light the subjective reaction of the consumer;or Regular?" (These were the two trade the steak the objective characteristics of names under which the company mar- the product. The consumer's behaviorketed.) After identifying the consumers will be based on the former rather than of each product it was possible to find the latter set of characteristics. How can out about the characteristics of each we come to know them better? group so that appropriate appeals could When we approach a consumer di-be used, media chosen, etc. rectly with questions about his reaction An interesting anomaly appeared in to a product we often get false and mis-the survey data, however. The inter- leading answers to our questions. Very viewing showed (on a reliable sample) often this is because the question whichthat consumers drank Light over Regular we heard ourselves ask was not the one in the ratio of 3 to i. The company had (or not the only one) that the respondent been producing and selling Regular over heard. For example: A brewery made twoLight for some time in a ratio of 9 to I. kinds of beer. To guide their merchan-Clearly, the attempt to identify charac- dizing techniques they wanted to knowteristics of the two kinds was a failure. 649 This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 650 650THEJORNA THE JOURNAL O OF MARKETING MREIN What made them represent the truth, but the respondent m When will feel likesay we a fool and the interviewer "Do Regular?" will not go we are away. Much better produce brand isa cliche and be rid of him. used, but saying "Do you drin the-mill THE NATURE OF PROJECTIVE TESTS or product that is more Still other kinds of refine motives exist of crimination which the respondent andmay not be ex- t ance of "Light" un plicitly conscious himself. The product this kindmay beof distort seen by him as related to things When we ask or people or values qu in his life, or as having about the produc a certain role in the scheme of things, asking also and yet he may be quiteabout unable, in re- only dosponsewe say to a direct question, to describe " product theselike?" but aspects of the object. Nevertheless, you like?" Our these characteristics may be ofresgreat up of both elemen importance as motives. How can we get woven. at them ? The answe tion will carry cli Clinical psychologists have long been blocks, inhibitions, faced with a parallel set of problems. It ever we is approach quite usual for a patient to be unable the person's or unwilling to tell idea of the therapist directly There are what kinds ofmany things are stirring in his t to know about a consumer's reaction to motivational pattern. Information about a product that he can not tell us because these drives are of vital importance to they are to some extent socially unac- the process of cure, so a good deal of re- ceptable. For instance, the snob appealsearch has been directed towards the de- of a product vitally influences its sale, velopment of techniques to identify and but it is a thing that the consumer will define them. The development of pro- not like to discuss explicitly. In otherjective techniques as diagnostic tools has cases the consumer is influenced by mo-provided one of the most useful means tives of which he is, perhaps, vaguely to uncover such motivations, and the aware, but which he finds difficult to putmarket-researcher can well afford to bor- into words. The interviewer-respondentrow their essentials from the therapist. relationship puts a good deal of pressure Basically, a projective test involves on him to reply and to make sense inpresenting the subject with an ambigu- his reply. Consequently, he gives us ous stimulus-one that does not quite stereotypical responses that use cliches make sense in itself-and asking him which are commonly acceptable but do to make sense of it. The theory is that in not necessarily represent the true mo- order to make it make sense he will have tives. Many of our motives do not, into add to it-to fill out the picture-and fact, "make sense," and are not logical. in so doing he projects part of himself The question-answer relation demandsinto it. Since we know what was in the sense above all. If the response does notoriginal stimulus we can quite easily represent the true state of affairs the in- identify the parts that were added, and, terviewer will never know it. He will go in this way, painlessly obtain informa- away. If it does not make sense it may tion about the person. This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING 651 Examples of these tests come readilyuse instant coffee?" (If No) "What do to hand. Nearly everyone is familiaryou dislike about it?" The bulk of the with the Rorschach Test, in which a sub- unfavorable responses fell into the gen- ject is shown a series of ink-blots anderal area "I don't like the flavor." This asked to tell what they look like. Here is such an easy answer to a complex ques- the stimulus is incomplete in itself, andtion that one may suspect it is a stereo- the interpretation supplied by the pa- type, which at once gives a sensible re- tient provides useful information. Thissponse to get rid of the interviewer and test yields fairly general answers aboutconceals other motives. How can we get the personality, however, and often webehind this facade? would like to narrow down the area in In this case an indirect approach was which the patient is supplying informa-used. Two shopping lists were prepared. tion. They were identical in all respects, ex- The Thematic Apperception Test of- cept that one list specified Nescafe and fers a good example of this function. Let one Maxwell House Coffee. They were us suppose that with a particular pa- administered to alternate subjects, with tient we have reason to suppose that hisno subject knowing of the existence of relation to figures of authority is crucial the other list. The instructions were to his therapeutic problem. We can give"Read the shopping list below. Try to him a series of pictures where people are project yourself into the situation as far shown, but where the relationship of as possible until you can more or less authority or the characteristics of thecharacterize the woman who bought the authoritarian figure are not complete. groceries. Then write a brief description He is asked to tell a story about eachof her personality and character. Wher- picture. If in each story the subordinateever possible indicate what factors in- finally kills the figure of authority wefluenced your judgement." have certain kinds of knowledge; if, on Shopping List I the other hand, he always builds the story so the subordinate figure achievesPound and a half of hamburger 2 loaves Wonder bread a secure and comfortable dependence, bunch of carrots we have quite different information. It is I can Rumford's Baking Powder often quite impossible to get the subjectNescaf6 instant coffee to tell us these things directly. Either he 2 cans Del Monte peaches cannot or will not do so. Indirectly,5 Ibs. potatoes however, he will tell us how he sees authority. Can we get him, similarly, to Shopping List II tell us how a product looks to him in hisPound and a half of hamburger private view of the world? 2 loaves Wonder bread bunch of carrots APPLICATION OF PROJECTIVE TEST INi can Rumford's Baking Powder MARKET RESEARCH I lb. Maxwell House Coffee (Drip Ground) Let us look at an example of this kind cans Del Monte peaches 2 of thing in market research. For the5 lbs. potatoes purposes of experiment a conventional Fifty people responded to each of the survey was made of attitudes towardtwo shopping lists given above. The re- Nescafe, an instant coffee. The question-sponses to these shopping lists provided naire included the questions "Do yousome very interesting material. The fol- This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  652 THE yOURNAL OF MARKET1NG lowing main characteristics of their de- On the other hand, coffee has a pecu- scriptions can be given: liar role in relation to the household and I. 48 per cent of the people described the the home-and-family character. We may woman who bought Nescafe as lazy; well have a picture, in the shadowy past, 4 per cent described the woman who of a big black range that is always hot bought Maxwell House as lazy. with baking and cooking, and has a big 2. 48 per cent of the people described the enamelled pot of coffee warming at the woman who bought Nescaf6 as failing back. When a neighbor drops in during to plan household purchases and sched- the morning, a cup of coffee is a medium ules well; I2 per cent described the of hospitality that does somewhat the woman who bought Maxwell House same thing as cocktails in the late after- this way. 3. 4 per cent described the Nescaf6 woman noon, but does it in a broader sphere. as thrifty; I6 per cent described the These are real and important aspects Maxwell House woman as thrifty. of coffee. They are not physical charac- 12 per cent described the Nescaf6 wo- teristics of the product, but they are real man as spendthrift; o per cent described values in the consumer's life, and they the Maxwell House woman this way. influence his purchasing. We need to 4. I6 per cent described the Nescaf6 know and assess them. The "labor-sav- woman as not a good wife; o per cent ing" aspect of instant coffee, far from described the Maxwell House woman being an asset, may be a liability in that this way. it violates these traditions. How often 4 per cent described the Nescafe woman as a good wife; i6 per cent described have we heard a wife respond to "This the Maxwell House woman as a good cake is delicious!" with a pretty blush wife. and "Thank you-I made it with such and such a prepared cake mix." This A clear picture begins to form here. response is so invariable as to seem al- Instant coffee represents a departure most compulsive. It is almost unthink- from "home-made" coffee, and the tra- able to anticipate a reply "Thank you, ditions with respect to caring for one's I made it with Pillsbury's flour, Fleisch- family. Coffee-making is taken seriously, man's yeast, and Borden's milk." Here with vigorous proponents for laborious the specifications are unnecessary. All drip and filter-paper methods, firm be- that is relevant is the implied "I made lievers in coffee boiled in a battered it"-the art and the credit are carried sauce pan, and the like. Coffee drinking directly by the verb that covers the proc- is a form of intimacy and relaxation that ess of mixing and processing the ingre- gives it a special character. dients. In ready-mixed foods there seems On the one hand, coffee making is an to be a compulsive drive to refuse credit art. It is quite common to hear a woman for the product, because the accomplish- say, "I can't seem to make good coffee," ment is not the housewife's but the in the same way that one might say, "I company's. can't learn to play the violin." It is ac- In this experiment, as a penalty for ceptable to confess this inadequacy, for using "synthetics" the woman who making coffee well is a mysterious touch buys Nescaf6 pays the price of being that belongs, in a shadowy tradition, to seen as lazy, spendthrift, a poor wife, the plump, aproned figure who is a little and as failing to plan well for her family. lost outside her kitchen but who has a The people who rejected instant coffee sure sense in it and among its tools. in the original direct question blamed This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE JOURNALI OF MARKETING ITP 653p its f De disli am In large seen "T they or in th an howe lat on this. wh caf6 andalsn bei thes av lazin ur Late to that tak that Sh Pe An Anal "S Some pu recei cof obta sh Thre ba below ma rie "I Descr th amon sen Hous at "I'd s All SheRu b like t gir powd fr figur ha food As "The verti we brand th quite lar stitut caf "I ha fr dred ha simil "o the on somefr th Mont Th singly ca indic ar either a 'tre is house he This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  654 THE JOURNAL OF MMARKETING Nescafe woman buys them it is evidence way. To test this a variation was intro- that she is lazy, since their "canned" duced into the shopping lists. In a second character is seen as central. experiment one hundred and fifty house- In terms of the sort of results presented wives were tested with the form given above, it may be useful to demonstrate above, but a sample was added t6 this the way these stories are coded. The group which responded to a slightly dif- following items are extracted from the ferent form. If we assume that the re- six stories quoted: jection in the first experiment came from Maxwell House Nescafe the presence of a feeling about synthetic I. practical I. single shortcuts we might assume also that the frugal office girl addition of one more shortcut to both likes to cook sloppy lists would bring the Maxwell House old maid woman more into line with the Nescaf6 2. influenced by advertising 2. lazy woman, since the former would now have set in her ways does not plan the same guilt that the Nescafe woman newlywed originally had, while the Nescafe woman, 3. interested in family 3. lazy already convicted of evading her duties, thrifty does not plan sensible office girl would be little further injured. In order to accomplish this a second Items such as these are culled from prepared foodeach was added to both lists. of the stories. Little by little categories Immediately after the coffee in both are shaped by the content lists of the thefictitious stories item, "Blueberry Fill themselves. In this way the Pie respondent Mix" was added. The results are furnishes the dimensions shown of analysis as in the accompanying table. well as the scale values on these It willdimen- be seen immediately, in the first sions. two columns, that the group to whom the Second Test original form of the list were given showed the same kind of difference as reported It is possible to wonder whether it is above in their estimates of the two wo- true that the opprobrium that is heapedmen. The group with an additional pre- on the Nescaf6 woman comes from her pared food, however, brought the Max- use of a device that represents a short-well Coffee woman down until she is cut and labor-saver in an area where virtually undistinguishable from the she is expected to embrace painstaking Nescafe. There seems to be little doubt time-consuming work in a ritualisticbut that the prepared-food-character, TABLE I. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS ASCRIBED TO USERS OF PREPARED FOODS No Prepared Food If They Use (Maxwell House Nescafe Maxwell House Nescafe alone) (alone) (plus Pie Mix) (plus Pie Mix) They are seen as: Number Per Cent Number Per Cent Number Per Cent Numb Not Economical 12 17 24 32 6 30 7 35 Lazy 8 II 46 62 5 25 8 40 Poor Personality and Appearance 28 39 39 53 7 35 8 40 N= 72 74 20 20 This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE THEJOURNAL OF MARKETING /OURNAL OP MARKETING 655 655 and the stigma buyofinstantavoiding hou coffee herself. The projected unacceptable characteristics duties is responsible for the go with p failure to buy, and it does not seem un- personality characteristics. warranted to assume that the association Relation to Purchasing is causal. It is still relevant to ask whether the Furthermore, these projected traits existence of these feelings in a potentialare, to some extent, additive. For in- consumer is related to purchasing. It isstance, if a respondent describes the hypothesized that these personality de-woman as having one bad trait only, scriptions provide an opportunity forshe is about twice as likely not to have the consumer to project hopes and fearsinstant coffee. However, if she sees her as having two bad traits, and no good and anxieties that are relevant to the way the product is seen, and that they(e.g., lazy, can not cook), she is ones about three times as likely not to have represent important parts of her motiva- tion in buying or not buying. To test this coffee as she is to have it. On the instant hypothesis, a small sample of fifty other hand, if she sees her as having two good housewives, comparable in every way totraits (e.g., economical, cares for the group just referred to, was givenfamily), the she is about six times as likely to original form of the shopping list have (Nes-it as not. It was pointed out earlier that some cafe only). In addition to obtaining the women felt it necessary to "excuse" the personality description, the interviewer, on a pretext, obtained permission towoman look who bought Nescaf6 by suggest- at her pantry shelves and determine ing that she lived alone and hence could notin- personally whether or not she had be expected to be interested in cooking, stant coffee of any brand. The results of or that she had a job and did this investigation are shown in thenot ac-have time to shop better. Women companying table. who had instant coffee in the house LE II By Women Who Had By Women Who Did Not The woman who buys Nescaf6 is seen as: Instant Coffee in Have Instant Coffee the House in the House (N=32) (N= 8) Number Per Cent Number Per Cent Economical** 22 70 5 28 Not economical o o 2 II Can not cook or does not like to** 5 6 o1 55 Plans balanced meals* 9 29 2 II Good housewife, plans well, cares about family** 9 29 0 0 Poor housewife, does not plan well, does not care about family* 5 6 7 39 Lazy* 6 19 7 39 * A single asterisk indi samplings of a population ** A double asterisk ind is no difference between The trend of these data shows con- found excuses almost twice as often as clusively that if a respondent sees thethose who did not use instant coffee (12 woman who buys Nescaf6 as having out of 32, or 42 per cent, against 4 out of undesirable traits, she is not likely i8, to or 22 per cent). These "excuses" are This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 656 656 THE JOURNAL THE yOURNAL OF OF MARKETING MARKETING vitally individual's important forbehavior is oriented with merchandizing need for an excuse respect to shows these characteristicsthere as much is as to the rier to buying in the"objective" ones. In the area consumer's The presence of ofexcuses shows merchandizing, a product's character that is a way around ofthe being seen barrier. The co as a path to a goal is usually of the excuses themselves very much more important as a determi- pro valuable clues for directing nant of purchasing than its physical appeal di- ward reducing buying resistance. mensions. We have taken advantage of these qualities in advertising and mer- CONCLUSIONS chandizing for a long time by an intuitive There tosortbeof "playing-by-ear" seems no question on the subjec- tha tive aspects the experimental situation of products. It is time for a desc here: systematic attack on the problem of the phenomenological (I) Motives exist which description are of objects. below What kinds of dimensions are relevant level of verbalization because they a to this world of goals socially unacceptable, and paths and bar- to ve difficult riers? What kind of terms will fit the balize cogently, or unrecognized. (2) These motives phenomenological characteristics of an are intimately rela object in the to the decision to purchase same sense that the centi- or not purchase, and metre-gram-second system fits its physi- cal dimensions? (3) It is possible to identify We need to know the and as such motives answers by to approaching such questions, and the psy- the indirectly. chological definitions of valued objects. The second general point is the Two important general points come methodological one that it is possible, out of the work reported. The first is in by using appropriate techniques, to find the statement of the problem. It is out from the respondent what the phe- necessary for us to see a product in terms nomenological characteristics of various of a set of characteristics and attributes objects may be. By and large, a direct which are part of the consumer's "private approach to this problem in terms of world," and as such may have no simple straightforward questions will not yield relationship to characteristics of the satisfactory answers. It is possible, how- object in the "real" world. Each of us ever, by the use of indirect techniques, lives in a world which is composed of to get the consumer to provide, quite more than physical things and people. unselfconsciously, a description of the It is made up of goals, paths to goals, value-character of objects in his environ- barriers, threats, and the like, and an ment. This content downloaded from 154.59.124.137 on Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:27:26 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms