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. Storytelling 2. Missed images 3. Kelly Repertory grid and ladering 4. Sensory images 5. Vignette 6. 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