A collage instead of 1000 words
Market Research: Most product launches fail. Jerry Zaltman has developed a formula to prevent this.
Market research Product launches usually fail. Jerry Zaltman has developed a recipe to combat this: four out of five products disappear from the shelves no later than six months after their launch. This is despite the fact that companies spend millions on market and consumer research. Gerald "Jerry" Zaltman believes that this money is being thrown out of the window. The professor at Harvard Business School doesn't think much of conventional "mafo". For him, neither questionnaires, focus group discussions nor individual interviews provide the answer to the question that is on the minds of all companies: "What are our customers willing to spend money on? According to Zaltman, who is one of the most quoted marketing gurus in the USA, we make 95 percent of our decisions unconsciously. This is why consumer and market researchers can ask who they want, how they want and as often as they want - they rarely get answers that really help them and, above all, their clients.
The power of images ...Jerry Zaltman has developed a complex formula to combat this industry disease. His "Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique" (ZMET), the first patented market research method in the USA, combines findings from anthropology, art, linguistics, neurobiology, psychoanalysis and sociology. With this method, metaphors are first produced and then analyzed; it therefore relies entirely on the power of images.
At home, the test subjects collect pictures from newspapers and magazines that illustrate their thoughts and feelings about the object of study. They take these pictures with them to the interview, which is so productive for Zaltman because the test subjects have consciously and unconsciously dealt with the product. In the interview, which lasts two hours, Zaltman tries to make the test subjects aware of their thoughts and feelings. Why did they choose these particular images? What do they mean in relation to the object of study?
In order to uncover this treasure trove of knowledge, Zaltman digs into the soul of his counterpart layer by layer. He uses methods and exercises that leave enough room to uncover things that remain hidden with a narrow focus of questions. Finally, an assistant who has followed the whole process creates a digital collage. This collage should say more than 1000 words because it gets to the heart of what really moved the test person.
... follows the powerlessness of words
According to Zaltman, this technology captures the entire emotional and cognitive cosmos that feeds our purchasing decisions. Which is why products that are developed on this basis can influence these decision-making processes. At least in theory. In practice, the author and his company Olson Zaltman Associates have conducted more than 200 such studies for clients such as Coca-Cola, General Motors, IBM, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.
With "How Customers Think", Zaltman is following a trend: write a book about your business, make a business out of your book - or ideally both. However, his current oeuvre is not light fare. The professor writes precise and comprehensible, but - surprisingly - not particularly pictorial scientific English. With him, the power of images often turns into the powerlessness of words. A pity, because his theses and findings are quite exciting. So exciting, in fact, that sooner or later they are likely to influence consumer and market research in our part of the world.
> How Customers Think. Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market by Gerald Zaltman. Harvard Business School Press, Boston 2004. 323 pages, Fr. 58.50
Roger Hausmann
The power of images ...Jerry Zaltman has developed a complex formula to combat this industry disease. His "Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique" (ZMET), the first patented market research method in the USA, combines findings from anthropology, art, linguistics, neurobiology, psychoanalysis and sociology. With this method, metaphors are first produced and then analyzed; it therefore relies entirely on the power of images.
At home, the test subjects collect pictures from newspapers and magazines that illustrate their thoughts and feelings about the object of study. They take these pictures with them to the interview, which is so productive for Zaltman because the test subjects have consciously and unconsciously dealt with the product. In the interview, which lasts two hours, Zaltman tries to make the test subjects aware of their thoughts and feelings. Why did they choose these particular images? What do they mean in relation to the object of study?
In order to uncover this treasure trove of knowledge, Zaltman digs into the soul of his counterpart layer by layer. He uses methods and exercises that leave enough room to uncover things that remain hidden with a narrow focus of questions. Finally, an assistant who has followed the whole process creates a digital collage. This collage should say more than 1000 words because it gets to the heart of what really moved the test person.
... follows the powerlessness of words
According to Zaltman, this technology captures the entire emotional and cognitive cosmos that feeds our purchasing decisions. Which is why products that are developed on this basis can influence these decision-making processes. At least in theory. In practice, the author and his company Olson Zaltman Associates have conducted more than 200 such studies for clients such as Coca-Cola, General Motors, IBM, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.
With "How Customers Think", Zaltman is following a trend: write a book about your business, make a business out of your book - or ideally both. However, his current oeuvre is not light fare. The professor writes precise and comprehensible, but - surprisingly - not particularly pictorial scientific English. With him, the power of images often turns into the powerlessness of words. A pity, because his theses and findings are quite exciting. So exciting, in fact, that sooner or later they are likely to influence consumer and market research in our part of the world.
> How Customers Think. Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market by Gerald Zaltman. Harvard Business School Press, Boston 2004. 323 pages, Fr. 58.50
Roger Hausmann
