Chapter 4: Interviewing the Mind/Brain Metaphor Elicitation

1. Chapter 4:Interviewing the Mind/BrainMetaphor Elicitation Peter HayashidaLynn MaikkeMarketing 642Fall 2003

3. Metaphor-Elicitation • Information collection is conducted interview style • Participant brings a relevant picture related to a topic • Probing v. Prompting • Probing encourage participants to open up • Prompting encourages them to affirm interviewers assumptions • Mental Hiccups • Will throw a participant off balance… • But, the person may then reveal a deeply held idea

4. Metaphor-Elicitation • Trust is essential for participant to share • Substantial information sharing may occur, even more than the person intended • Emotionality and intensity are not uncommon • It’s important not to push the participant in those areas, even if relevant information may emerge • Socioeconomic status – don’t make erroneous assumptions about individuals’ ability or inability to share deep insights

5. Research Methods • Traditional/Quantitative Methods • Sometimes work well, but may miss important issues • Asking more open-ended and “why” questions will often reveal richer, more useful information • Limitations are often a function of the researcher; typically mismatch between method and problem • Radical products rely more on the unconscious mind; nontraditional approaches are better

6. “Penetrating the Mind by Metaphor” • Metaphors – expressing one thought in terms of another • Includes similes, analogies, allegories, parables, etc. • There are neurological foundation that relate to how the brain makes non-obvious connections to stimuli • Can hide or reveal thoughts/feelings – especially those that defy words

7. “Penetrating the Mind by Metaphor” • Firms use metaphors to access unconscious • Surface important thoughts through free association • Helps firms develop more effective marketing and ask better questions in their research • Lifetime Television

8. Embodied Cognition

9. Social Constructs • All cultures face the same basic problems and key events in life. • Belief and social systems worldwide include common ideas, such as family and community, religion, justice, war, money, and games. • These fundamental influences appear in every society’s day-to-day speech.

10. Social ConstructsExamples Games “As soon as corporate passes me the ball, I’m ready to run with it.” War “They shot us down with the precision of a fighter pilot.”

11. Metaphors in Action • Increasingly, firms use metaphors as a formal way to understand the mind of the market. • Companies adapt communications to meet the needs represented in consumers’ metaphors. • Metaphors allow companies to envision new, more effective ways to respond to consumers needs through specific products and service offerings. • Metaphors can be used to address internal organizational issues.

12. Identifying Core Metaphors • Some metaphors are surface-level and explicit while core metaphors are deeper and more tacit. • Focusing on core metaphors allows the company to address most of its customers’ needs at once, rather than trying to address individual and often conflicting, surface-level needs. • Metaphors exist as networks of abstract mental nodes. • When shared by a group of people, these networks are called consensus maps.

13. Core MetaphorsAn Example • Consumer experiences with food and indigestion. • Consumer #1: The sin of overindulging is offset by paying later. • Consumer #2: There is a fine line between not too much and not too little. • Consumer #3: It is important to eat foods that go together. • Common mental image of “balance”. • Moral balance, material balance, or system balance. • “Balance” then is the core metaphor related to the experience of indigestion.

14. Utilizing Core Metaphors • Core metaphors are helpful in several ways. • To generate ideas for positioning a product. • To guide the development of a firm’s image. • To represent profound needs, rather than surface needs. • To guide the development of advertising strategy. • To signal new product opportunities.

15. Core MetaphorsThe “Ideal Company” • Resource • Consumers want companies that provide them with knowledge or save them time. • Nurturing • Consumers want companies to have their best interests at heart. • Support • Consumers want companies that provide support when needed, and in the way needed.

16. The “Ideal Company”Consumer Image

17. The “Ideal Company”Company Image

19. Conclusion Metaphors are the primary means by which companies and consumers engage one another’s attention and imagination. Understanding the diversity and importance of deep metaphors in human expression helps marketers tap into consumers’ unconscious minds and offer more effective communications and products that meet consumers’ needs.

20. Questions? Peter HayashidaLynn MaikkeMarketing 642Fall 2003