Coulter, et al.

Understand impressions of advertising Economic effects of advertising

Better products and promotion of competition Most consumers don’t believe advertising lowers

prices Personal uses of advertising

Source of information about products, social rules, lifestyle imagery

Source of personal enjoyment Societal effects of advertising

Encouraging materialism and unnecessary purchases Corrupting society’s values

Qualitative research Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

(ZMET) Two hour depth interviews Greater Boston area 6 men, 8 women in a stratified sample

Gender, age, income, occupation Photos as stimuli

Brought by respondents Reflecting their views of value of advertising

1. Storytelling2. Missed images3. Kelly Repertory grid and ladering4. Sensory images5. Vignette6. Summary image

Respondent asked how each picture related to his or her impressions of value of advertising

Respondents asked if there were any perceptions about advertising for which the respondent couldn’t find an image to bring

Respondents asked to describe that impression and an image that would illustrate it

Kelly established Repertory Grid in 1963 Complicated five step process for respondents Step 1 – explain to the respondent Step 2 – focus the respondent on the subject

area Step 3 – list their first group of ideas on the x

axis (between 6 and 36 ideas) and select 3 to start

Step 4 - Which two seem most alike (check) with answer in pair column and different from the third (X) with answer in single column; iterate through all combinations of numbers

Laddering relates product attributes (A) to consequences (C) to Values (V)

Typical ladder for snack chips might be:

Flavored chip (A) > strong taste (A) > eat less (C) > don’t get fat (C) > better figure (C) > self-esteem (V)

Triadic sorting (Kelly, 1955) Provide respondent with sets of 3 products

and ask about differences and commonalities Preference-consumption differences

Respondents say why they prefer their brand to second place or third place brands

Differences by occasion Examine the context of the stimulus (dinner,

restaurant, etc.)

Respondents really don’t “know” the answer Higher levels of the ladder become too

sensitive for respondents to want to continue To remove blocking, use different techniques

Role playing or third person projection Interviewer reveals personal fact that makes

respondent feel less inhibited by comparison Make note of problem area and return later

This leads to hierarchical value map for analysis

Respondents use their different senses to describe their impressions of advertising Much more affective than cognitive

Sensory metaphors can be a way of uncovering unconscious thoughts (Lakoff, 1993)

Respondents asked to imagine a short movie that would describe their thoughts and feelings about advertising

Composite image of thoughts and feelings about the subject area

Graphic artist composited a full summary from the respondent instructions

Respondent then interpreted the composite image

Develop thematic metaphors (Table 1) Abstract the thematic metaphors to

conceptual metaphors (labels) Group the conceptual metaphors and

thematic metaphors into deep metaphors Deep metaphors are fundamental

orienting concepts that can serve as an organizing framework