Editor's note: Faith James is vice president, strategic marketing, of Sentient Decision Science Inc., a Portsmouth, N.H., research company. She can be reached at fjames@sentientdecisionscience. This article appeared in the August 27, 2012, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

 

The quest for uncovering consumer emotions and understanding why they do the things they do has become the Holy Grail for marketers. The thinking goes like this: If you understand the emotions that move customers into action (i.e. buying the product, Liking a Facebook page, sharing an article, referring friends, promoting a brand, etc.), your brand will be destined for growth.

So how do marketers uncover those emotions that drive consumer behavior? There are several methods in the market research industry, ranging from the traditional focus group to more advanced neuromarketing and everything in between.

But before marketers settle on a method it's important to first determine the strategic path to take. To simplify the idea, there are two paths to consumer emotions: explicit and implicit. One (explicit) relies on self-reported data from the consumer whereas the other (implicit) is based on observing consumer behavior and deriving emotions from those actions. We know that emotion is the driving force behind human decisions and behavior, providing the value needed to make decisions. Emotion operates in large part implicitly - automatically and away from logical and rational reasoning.

 

Act on the implicit

 

Knowing the realities of the can't-say, won't-say effect on research participants, the savviest marketers will listen to the explicit but act on the implicit. If consumers can't tell us why they do what they do and won't tell us how they really feel, we can turn to qualitative methods absent direct self-reported data to uncover the answers.

While there are several qualitative methods available, projective techniques are especially suited for uncovering latent consumer emotions.

 

Projective techniques

 

Projective techniques are indirect, free-form methods of investigation, developed by psychologists for inferring underline motives, urges or intentions that cannot be obtained through direct questioning, as the respondent either can't or won't share their feelings and attitudes on a particular topic. These techniques are useful in giving respondents opportunities to express their feelings and perceptions without concern or fear of embarrassment and without answering any direct questions.

Projective techniques are often the first line of defense for market researchers because they allow participants to activate their creativity and access emotions at the deepest levels.

Some traditional methods of projective techniques include word association, completion tests, construction techniques and expression techniques. Next, I will describe five specific qualitative research approaches using projective techniques that can be used to uncover latent emotions.

Approach 1: Relaxation and imagination

In the first approach, the researcher puts the respondent in a relaxed state and sets up the scenario as a free-flow discussion where there are no barriers, guides or norms. The participant is encouraged to think both broadly and specifically about the topic or area of discussion. The mental space is imagined as a world of possibilities where there are no limits to their reality and all thoughts and feelings are fair game. This is intended to allow the participants to activate their thoughts and emotions for easier recall and associations.

It starts with the researcher setting up a specific scenario with the brand/topic during a specific moment in time. The participants are asked ponder that moment while at the same time taking note of the surroundings in this imagined space (i.e., color, smells, feelings, etc.) that they associate with the brand in question. Then the researcher probes on specific areas that are required to uncover core emotions that the participants encountered along the way.

Approach 2: Longitudinal ethnographic studies

Ethnography has long been viewed as one of the preferred methods of revealing consumer attitudes and emotions. Longitudinal ethnographic studies include multiple touchpoints with the same participant over a set period of time. The process of observing consumer behavior gives researchers a firsthand look into what consumers actually do vs. what they say they do.

And since longitudinal ethnographic studies allow for continued contact over time, researchers can track behavioral trends, as well as document events that impact or change the observed behavior. As with any ethnographic study, but especially with longitudinal studies, scheduling the various touchpoints with each participant often requires blocking out a great deal of time for the participants and the research team.

Approach 3: Psychodrama

Psychodrama involves people reenacting events in their lives with others so that true, de-rationalized emotions and feelings related to the events surface. Once surfaced, they can be examined. Since people's behavior, cognitions and emotions are neurologically associated and encoded when they occur, reenacting behavior in a psychodrama activates stored behavior-cognition-emotion neural networks, bringing the emotions and cognitions related to the behavior to the surface. Behavioral reenactment, as opposed to only conversational descriptions, increases opportunities for the emotions and feelings below awareness to surface.
 
Adapting this technique to consumer research involves having targeted respondents act out past consumer-relevant events. Along with the emotional activation and emergence described previously, these consumer reenactments allow examination of the experiences and cognitions encoded with them.

Approach 4: Designing a space

For this approach, the researcher asks the participant to imagine him/herself as an interior designer/decorator with the task of creating a space for a particular brand or product. This method activates the right-brain functions and presents the task in a fun, game-like manner.

As the designer, the participant has the responsibility for determining the features, textures and objects contained within the room. The researcher probes on motivations for inclusions and specifics around the selection of particular objects. A critical nuance is requiring the participants not only to include objects and elements that define the brand in question but also to include other brands/products that would coexist in that room. This allows the researcher to learn whether consumers see the brand as unique; as holding the preferred position in the consumer's life; or as one of many brands that would fit the room. 

 

Approach 5: Brand personification

This approach involves having the participant personify the brand as a person and then create a life for that brand. A familiar question that most researchers have, at one time or another, asked as part of a brand positioning exercise is, "What kind of car is Brand A?" Responses often include "a Honda" or "a BMW." However, with a brand personification approach, participants provide more in-depth and emotion-laden responses, such as "a brown 1979 Honda Civic." In this type of response we get an immediate picture of how the participant views the brand by the choice of the color and year of the car suggested.

 

Always worth trying

 

Each of the five approaches can be used in combination with each other or as a single exercise. Regardless of what projective technique is used, it's always worth trying to access what's underneath and motivating consumers to take action.   Â