Ernest Dichter Papers - Hagley Museum and Library

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SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE Accession 2407 ERNEST DICHTER PAPERS Proposals & Studies This series consists of 126 linear feet of proposals and research studies created by Ernest Dichter and his staffs between his arrival in the United States in 1938 and 1988. They include a few pre-Dichter reports from J. Stirling Gatchell, Inc., the earliest dated 1937. The studies have been kept just as they were removed from the Dichters’ house in 2008. Some studies may have been given away or not refiled, so that some important studies, such as those on the Plymouth and the “Tiger in your tank” campaign, are now missing. Dr. Dichter’s own card index, which cross-referenced the studies by number, client and topic, is included. The studies are arranged according to Dr. Dichter’s own numerical system which assigned numbers to clients in more-or-less chronological order. Preliminary proposals generally carry an “A” suffix, while full studies are denoted with higher letters and projects for a single client that resulted in successive reports are typically designated “12.1,” “12.2,” etc. During the later years, Dichter did not maintain his filing system with the same level of accuracy and occasionally filed reports for the same project under different numbers or out of chronological sequence. A very high percentage of the proposals did not result in commissions. However, the researcher should keep in mind that in some cases the proposal remains, while the final report has been removed from the files. The studies begin with Dichter’s work for J. Stirling Gatchell and the Columbia Broadcasting System. The CBS reports employ the Lazarsfeld methods of measuring audience response and include analyses of single programs, of daytime soap operas, of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s use of radio, and of public service programming, including one on anxieties raised by the atomic bomb. The mid-1950s to early 1960s are the high summer of Dichter’s independent work. Studies from the London office first appear in 1958 and run through 1969. Beginning in 1968, German-language studies from the Zurich and then Frankfurt offices make up an increasing share of the total. By the early 1970s, the percentage of the proposals being rejected is increasing, and by the mid-1970s, the volume of business is much reduced, and more of what remains deals with non-profits and employee motivation. The last surviving report dates from 1988, three years before Dichter’s death. 14
Accession 2407 ERNEST DICHTER PAPERS Proposals & Studies SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE (cont’d) Researchers should be careful to observe the distinction between proposals and studies. As noted, a substantial number of the proposals sent out failed to generate a response. Together, the proposals are most important as evidence of Dichter’s general stock of ideas (which may also be gleaned from his published writings) and the extent of his resourcefulness in seeking ways to apply them and sell his services to potential clients. The studies, on the other hand, offer a rare, if somewhat skewed entry into the minds of ordinary consumers in the U.S., Western Europe, and to a lesser extent Canada, Mexico and Israel. Unfortunately, Dichter himself destroyed his original raw data, including the full records of his depth interviews and the identity of his test subjects. Some supporting information survives only for a few of the very last studies. The only surviving example of something close to a full set of depth interviews is a series with residents of Arizona on their lifestyles and hobbies in 1985, and it does not match any of the completed, typed and bound studies. The surviving extracts that Dichter worked into his reports are still important and often make fascinating or occasionally outrageous reading, but the researcher should always remember that what remains has passed through the filter of Dr. Dichter’s own sensibilities. He clearly found the play of a Wednesday Addams-like little girl who imagines that her Barbie doll has a baby that soon dies more intriguing than less morbid scenarios. That said, Dichter was able to elicit rather candid responses from his subjects, in the case of the woman who used an interview on home cooking to tear into her nagging mother-in-law and her (in her view) spoiled husband, unexpectedly so. Dichter also paid more attention to class (as measured both by education and income) and racial/ethnic divisions in his research than Daniel Horowitz has implied. To the extent that the nature and test market of the product allowed, Dichter would try to include the differing responses of minorities, including African Americans, Puerto Ricans, French Canadians and the like. He also tried to balance his samples by age and gender, although in the latter case, the researcher needs to be ever-mindful of his tendency to classify women into a few types based on the polarity of the “new” woman and the traditional homemaker. 15
Page 1 and 2: Hagley Museum and Library P.O. Box
Page 3 and 4: HISTORY Accession 2407 ERNEST DICHT
Page 5 and 6: HISTORY (cont’d) Accession 2407 E
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Page 19 and 20: B-1 1 - 37 B-2 38C - 54D B-3 55 - 6
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Page 23 and 24: Indexes to Studies: (Cont’d) B-21
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Page 27 and 28: SERIES II NEWSLETTERS Accession 240
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