The Soul of Marketing Research
By Drs. Glenn & Sharon Livingston
"All truth is subjective truth."
"To seek objectivity is to be in error."
(Soren Kierkegaard)
The classical existential philosophers, I think, if given the opportunity, would have had much to say about the subject of 'soul' in modern marketing research.
For example, Kierkegaard was very concerned with the way in which people sought truths about life, and wished to make a clear distinction about objective vs. subjective thought.
Take, for example an attempt to define a 'dog'. We can point to a dog's objective characteristics – those which can be consensually validated. It has four legs, is a mammal, has a superior sense of smell, demonstrates a tendency to protect its territory, and seems to easily adopt man as a member of its pack. Yet when we point to an animal and say 'this is a dog', the gestalt of what conjures in our mind is something much more than the sum of its objective parts. The essence of 'dog' is something which we cannot FULLY articulate in the language of particulars. To reach the essence or 'soul' of what each of us means by 'dog', we must make a 'leap of faith' from the objective particulars into the realm of subjective concepts. We may attempt read the expression on the person's face as he talks about the dog. We may think of a dog we know and imagine the other person is envisioning a similar dog. We access our own feelings and/or try to imagine the other person's feeling. To really know what a dog is to someone we need to experience both their conceptualizations AND their emotional connections. To one person, a German Shepherd is a large friendly teddy bear. To another, it's a fierce dangerous opponent. An interesting implication of this distinction (between objective and subjective truth) is that we tend to communicate in "essences" or subjective constructs despite the fact that the subjective can never be completely verified or validated.
When I tell you the story about my dog stealing a chicken wing from my table - I generally won't check with you to see if you have understood each of the particulars. I don't say "a four legged mammal with a keen sense of smell and a previously demonstrated tendency to protect the territory in my home raised itself on its hind legs, rested its front paws on the inanimate object with four legs typically used to hold nutritive items, then used the opening on the upper half of it's body to procure a piece of meat". Rather I look in your eyes, listen to the tone of your voice, gaze briefly into your soul, if you will, to "see" whether you have connected to my subjective experience. I say 'you won't believe it – my dog stole the chicken bone!' – And if your face lights up and you laugh a little, I assume you have connected to my subjective truth – you have seen the 'dog' in my soul. (Yes, I have one in there, right next to the frozen pizza and my Beatles White Album 8-track tape).
I don't think it's a far stretch to claim that it is this 'essence' or 'soul' of the story which contains the gold nuggets we seek in marketing research. It's not the particulars we want to know – it's how the particulars combine to tell the story of our consumer's relationship with our products and services. What we want to know is, how does our consumer's desire relate to the soul of our offering? How does the product "come alive" in their hands, how does it live and breathe in their daily lives, what is the burning desire in their soul which we might provide for with our advertising, new product features & fixes? For example – the following particulars are of little use alone:
"A significantly greater number of men as compared to women want a deodorant which makes them feel 'powerful' (72.6% vs. 34.7%), 'heroic' (65.5% vs. 12.2%), and relaxed (58.4% vs. 38.0%)"
Yet, somewhere, subjectively hidden in these particulars is the 'soul' of our consumer's relationship with their ideal deodorant. But to get there, (no matter how scientifically we derived these original facts), we need to make a 'subjective leap of faith'. To make these facts useful, we have to conceptualize, theorize, and strategize. For example, here is OUR unique subjective understanding of the above facts:
"Consistent with the fact that scent is the most primitive of the human senses, core desires in the deodorant category seemed to closely follow a primitive paradigm. The MALE emotional deodorant experience, for example, might best be described as 'defeat the beast, then relax and enjoy the conquest with a mate'. For most men, except those who are regularly and significantly stressed on a day to day basis, relaxation without a prior adventure & challenge is unsatisfying. Conversely, the stress of adventure without the promise of a peaceful resolution and a soothing mate is nerve-racking. In sharp contrast to women (who would prefer to almost never notice the odor of perspiration), the Emotional Benefits desired by men seem to suggest that they like (at least on a gut level if not cognitively) to notice their odor at times, providing they have the power to control it - to conquer the beast. While the odor is not a "badge" of identity they want to display to others, it is a self-reminder of their virility. It is a beast they enjoy conquering again and again."
Can I ever fully validate this subjective conception of the emotional drives in the deodorant category? Of course not – but what use are the particulars without the 'leap of faith' to the conceptual? Isn't the above paragraph of infinitely more use for creative direction (or packaging) than the simple objective facts above?
So we have a paradox in marketing research. Without the particulars we have no basis to reach the conceptual – but to assume that a purely objective truth is possible at all is an error.
I would, however, as it concerns our marketing research endeavors, rephrase and extend Kierkegaard. To LIMIT our search to purely objective truth is to be in error. Objective truth is of no use in the absence of subjective interpretation. Objectivity does not motivate useful action – true market guidance arises only from objectivity combined with subjective truth and human values. In the end, we must always make a leap of faith if we are to truly gaze into the soul of our consumer's relationship to our products and advertising.
But there are several other, perhaps more important ramifications of conceptualizing the true 'gold nuggets' of research to reside within the soul of the consumer.
First – the 'soul' in and of itself is, has always been, and will always be a mysterious entity. (Note that I am not necessarily referring to the soul in the religious sense here, but to the 'essence' of who we are ... and in marketing terms – the essence of how we relate to our products). The soul is what is left over when I am done describing all the particulars about myself – it is the gestalt perception I have of myself that combines all of my objectivities into something greater, more cohesive, and perhaps more long lasting than any particular objective fact about me. This mysteriousness has generally placed the 'soul' outside the realm of scientific inquiry and thus is rarely discussed in marketing research.
Second – people often spend a frustrating lifetime attempting to connect to their own souls ... to learn the essence of who they are, which often remains painfully hidden from even the most introspective efforts.
Third – why should the consumer reveal their 'souls' ... the most intimate part of themselves - to us as researchers? Because we offer them $50 for 90 minutes of their time? Because we send them a mail survey? Because it's their opportunity to speak to or influence large corporations?
Because we want them to? How do they know we will not take advantage of this? Why should they trust us? Why should they look deeper inside of themselves than they are ordinarily accustomed to?
Yet, despite these obstacles, few will argue that what we are after in marketing research is just this metaphor – we want the essence of the consumer's relationship with our product – we need to know how to speak to their souls.
The upshot of all this is that the techniques we use to get at the 'soul' of the consumer-product relationship, if they are to have any chance of succeeding, need to be unobtrusive and observational, offering a great degree of protection to the consumer – and administered with integrity (with the sincere goal of being able to better bring to market products and services which meet the consumer's needs and truly improve their lives).
Of course, any of you who have been following our line of thinking will know that we recommend projective techniques for just this purpose.
Succinctly, a technique is projective when it encourages the expression of unconscious motivational material beyond the awareness of the respondent. Most projective techniques accomplish this by supporting the notion that what the respondent will say will not be taken to be a part of his personality. The subject then feels more comfortable to give voice to some of his more affectively charged perceptions. Since these perceptions are temporarily believed to be part of the "not me", the respondent feels comfortable to sit back, relax, and to view his responses as if he were watching a movie screen. He remains unaware, for the moment, that he wrote the film, and that he holds the projector.
Consider the following joke as an example of the protection provided by projective techniques:
A man goes to see a psychiatrist because he has obsessive thoughts. The doctor asks him if he would mind taking a psychological test to see what the matter might be.
The doctor shows him a series of geometrical shapes, each time asking "What does this remind you of?"
The first shape is a circle. The man quickly says "This reminds me clearly of you know... intimate relations".
The second shape is a triangle. Them again quickly says "Doc, that reminds me of sex too"
The third shape is a squiggly line. The man again says "Yup ... reminds me of you know ... intimate relations again"
The last shape is a square, and, not surprisingly, the man says "Doc ... uh ... it reminds me of sex".
The doctor enthusiastically interprets "Well, clearly you have sex on your mind!"
The man indignantly retorts "Me! I have sex on the brain? Doc, you're the one with all the dirty pictures!"
By removing the notion that one is talking about oneself, people become more willing to reveal their inner motivations, regardless of what they are or how well these motivations fit with their preferred sense of self. We contend that it is only when offered these types of protections that consumers will allow us a glimpse of how their 'soul' relates to our products and services.
For examples of the kinds of techniques which can earn this critical glimpse, we invite you to review many of our previous newsletter articles and trade publications in the appropriate section of our website (http://www.executive-solutions.com/art/), especially "Quantifying Emotional Drivers of Purchase – A Methodological Discussion", "Making Projectives Projectable", "Projective Techniques – 10 examples", "Projective Techniques Reveal Real Consumer Attitudes".
We also invite you to see how we can quantify this 'unobtrusive glimpse into the soul' and link it specifically to your product or advertising. Please see http://interface.executive-solutions.com for more details.
Of course, we also offer a one day introduction to projective techniques at our facility in Syosset, NY, and ALSO offer a version of the course ONLINE via WebEx and a telephone conferencing bridge. Just contact us for further details.