Metaphor Marketing by Daniel H Pink - Essay Example

Zaltman’s Theory and the Development of Zaltman Elicitation Technique (ZMET): “People give us only what we give them the opportunity to provide.” (Zaltman). Because of his marketing experience and interdisciplinary background, Zaltman was able to apply the idea that people respond with what is below the surface of language, thinking in pictures and memories when deciding what it is they want. He used his study in Nepal to support his theory, saying “Everything we see hides something else we want to see.” (Zaltman). With that in mind, he moved from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, to Harvard Business School, where funding was provided for him to set up his ZMET site and staff it appropriately.

ZMET “combines neurobiology, psychoanalysis, linguistics and art theory” (Pink, 1998) to bring out what people really feel about a product. Once this is established, then sellers have an additional, creative marketing tool. The example of the Nestle Crunch Bar is a good illustration.
Step 1. Pictures: Subjects are asked what they think and feel about the chocolate and asked to bring about 12 images to reflect thoughts and feelings.
Step 2: Interview: A two-hour discussion with a trained interviewer-therapist takes place.
Step 3: Collage: With the help of a technician and Adobe Photoshop, collages are created, reflecting the thoughts and feelings fully.

The chocolate showed up as a metaphor for ‘time’, as the images provided related to the simple, easy-going days of childhood. The product brought back happy memories; this was the metaphor the ZMET process turned up. The same test discovered women’s feelings about wearing pantyhose, that dogs were a metaphor for safety and security and that executives identified ‘customer-focused’ as “having integrity, caring about customers in an authentic way, being a company worthy of trust.” (Pink, 1998).

Application: Zaltman’s projects are treated as individual tests, which have consistently delivered “metaphor-based insights” (Zaltman) He believed that the technique is not going to solve every problem for every company but that it does provide a creative addition to other market research processes. He pointed out that in the final analysis, it is up to managers to know what they want, before trying to decide what is in the mind of potential customers. Nevertheless, he has been involved in advising Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble, as well as DuPont. Daniel Pink confirmed the effectiveness of ZMET when he took part in the test, regarding his coffee drinking.

The Future: Zaltman and Stephen Kosslyn, of the Mind, Brain, Behavior faculty, have been using brain scans to identify which part of the brain elicits what responses. Using car dealership scenarios, read to 6 right-handed female subjects, they identified that the ‘bad’ scenario showed withdrawal, while the ‘good’ showed up as a positive emotional response. Some responded to auditory stimuli, others to visual. The hypothesis is, that once the way people think and feel in the brain is known, then marketing campaigns can be directed accordingly. Zaltman and Kosslyn were seeking additional funding to experiment further. However, ZMET continues to flourish as a creative research tool. Metaphorically speaking, it would seem that ‘what lies beneath is very powerful indeed. Read More