Chapter 4: Interviewing the Mind/Brain Metaphor Elicitation

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Chapter 4 Interviewing the Mind/BrainMetaphor
Elicitation

• Peter HayashidaLynn MaikkeMarketing 642Fall
  2003

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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

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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
• Its important not to push the participant in
  those areas, even if relevant information may
  emerge
• Socioeconomic status dont make erroneous
  assumptions about individuals ability or
  inability to share deep insights

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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

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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

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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

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Embodied Cognition
HUMAN Dead, lively, living, over-work, bring to mind, dissect, mutilate, flesh out, body, back-bone PLANT Take root, uproot, peel, transplant, plant, blossom, bud, barren, green, seasoned GAMES Volley, balls in your court, kick off, start the ball rolling, opponent, goal, strike out, foul
WAR/FIGHT Battle of wits, in-fighting, truce, attack, strike, defend, resist WATER Spout, leak, pour, spit, brim over, dry up, in midstream MONEY Cheap, rich, payback, time is money, cash cow, social currency
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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
  societys day-to-day speech.

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Social ConstructsExamples

• War
• They shot us down with the precision of a
  fighter pilot.

• Games
• As soon as corporate passes me the ball, Im
  ready to run with it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Utilizing Core Metaphors

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

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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.

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The Ideal CompanyConsumer Image
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The Ideal CompanyCompany Image
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Conclusion

• Metaphors are the primary means by which
  companies and consumers engage one anothers
  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.

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Questions?
Peter HayashidaLynn MaikkeMarketing 642Fall
2003