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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
IMC PERSPECTIVE 4-3
132
II. Integrated Marketing
Program Situation Analysis
4. Perspectives on
Consumer Behavior
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Want to Name a Car or Develop an Ad Campaign?
Try Archetype Research, Hypnosis, or Something Else
Unconventional
Marketers are constantly trying to determine what
goes on in the mind of consumers when they consider
purchase decisions, view advertisements, and so on.
Packages, brand names, ads, and commercials are commonly
researched in an attempt to improve their likelihood
of success. Surveys, focus groups, in-depth
discussions, and a variety of other methods have been
employed to find the “holy grail” of research that will
provide insight into consumer’s minds. Recently some
companies have turned to mind probing through less
traditional methods, including hypnosis and “archetype
research.”
Take DaimlerChrysler, for example. In searching for a
“breakthrough” car, the company shunned traditional
marketing research techniques and instead employed
an unconventional approach known as archetype
research. With billions of dollars of investments on the
line, Chrysler recently shifted the bulk of its research
to this methodology, which was developed by a Frenchborn
medical anthropologist, G. Clotaire Rapaille,
whose previous work involved working with autistic
children. To gain insights from deep inside consumers’
minds, Rapaille conducted three-hour focus group sessions,
in which—with lights dimmed and mood music in
the background—consumers were asked to look at a
prototype of the newly designed PT Cruiser and to go
far back into their childhood to discuss what emotions
were evoked, as well as to write stories about their feelings.
After the sessions, Rapaille
and a team of Chrysler employees
read the stories, looking for
what they refer to as “reptilian
hot buttons,” or nuggets of
revealing emotions. According
to Rapaille, remembering a new
concept is dependent upon associating
it with an emotion, and
the more emotions evoked, the
greater the likelihood of recall.
The process led to significant
design changes that resulted in
a less-than-traditional-looking
car that won an award as North
America’s Car of the Year.
Actually, Chrysler was not the
first to employ archetype
research. Archetype research
has also been applied to the
naming of SUVs. What comes to your mind when you
hear Bronco, Cherokee, Wrangler, Blazer, Yukon, Navigator,
or Denali? What about Tahoe, Explorer, Range
Rover, or Bravada? As SUVs are increasingly adopted
by women (men are going for trucks), it is important to
convey some image of the vehicles that meets the target
market’s needs—conscious or subconscious.
According to archetype research, these SUV names
conjure up the wilderness, ruggedness, and the new
frontier. To women, the size and safety of these vehicles
are what they need to compete in this “less than
civilized” environment. Does it work? No other product
class has seen greater growth over the last 10 years.
But don’t think that it’s only the auto companies
that want to know what’s in your head. The list of subscribers
to archetype research includes AT&T, Boeing,
GE, Lego, Kellogg, and Samsonite, just to name a few.
At least 10 years prior to Chrysler’s use of the technique,
Procter & Gamble employed Rapaille to determine
that aroma sells more coffee than taste because
of the emotional ties to home. The Folger’s coffee ad in
which a young soldier returns home and brews a pot of
coffee that causes his sleeping mother to wake up and
sense that he has returned is a direct result of that
research. General Motors has also used this research
methodology.
In an equally unconventional approach, California
wine maker Domain Chandon and its ad agency D’Arcy