Projective Techniques in Marketing and Management Research - Literature review Example

? Projective Techniques Ahmed Zaini, 3422826, section#3, Individual assignment (2) of New Brunswick Saint John MBA 7605 applied business Research Methods and Statistics Instructor: Kim Lemky November, 5th 2012 Introduction A research work which covers all the major areas of concern is considered authentic and appropriate. While carrying out the research work, various tools, techniques and tactics are applied so that findings would be understandable. From the inception of research work till date, diverse research methodologies have been adopted by the researchers to uncover the hidden data. Projective techniques are immensely applied in the field of psychology, law, sociology and business management-especially marketing (Wood, Nezworski, Lilienfeld & Garb, 2009). Projective techniques have been viewed by psychologists and marketers in different perspective but the main idea still remains to make research work strong and powerful. Different set of tactics of the projective techniques help out to get accurate results quickly. Psychologists should be appreciated for presenting such powerful and useful deduction method (Donoghue, 2010). Projective techniques basically are structured indirect method of investigation which urges to get the hidden and unseen data. Psychologists came up first with these techniques and got commendable results. Reveling concealed data from people is the main purpose and usage of this technique. These are mostly used in psychology for various personality tests and clinical treatment. It has sheer importance in business management which has made research work more systematic (Krippendorff, 2012). It has explained many complex and unexplained structures of business research work. In marketing and consumer research, projective techniques are known as motivation research. It does not primarily focus on one’s motivation towards a brand or product. Improvement in qualitative measures is usually the center of discussion while using this technique. The purpose of this method is not to measure but to uncover the untold truth beliefs, ideas, feelings, motivation, and concepts, thoughts which a customer has about a certain product or service (Ogden, 2012). Projective Techniques Implications In psychology, projective techniques have colossal importance. Many psychologists are dependent on using this method to find out the untold answers. Business management, marketing and consumer research field also depends upon projective techniques. It cannot be underestimated in any course of study (Georgescu, 2012). Following are some of the techniques which are followed to find out the hidden points. A. Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) This is one of the kinds of projective techniques. It is very famous and a common tool used by many psychologists all around the globe. Different scenes with ambiguous state are shown to the subject. The subject is asked to explain these scenes, basically those scenes are from the previous life of the subject and they are shown so that it would recall its memory. An emotional and motivational factor comes in and plays a vital role. The test evaluator on the other end critically examines his moves, behavior and attitude. Subject’s responsive attitude after watching those scenes has gigantic importance and is considered as the backbone of this test (Cherrier, 2012) B. Rorschach Inkblot Test (Colakoglu & Littlefield, 2011) depicts that this is yet another type of projective type which is used at first place to determine behavior, response and hidden secrets. In this form of test subject has shown ten symmetrical inkblots. Those inkblots are irregular in shape and a full series is shown. While watching those inkblots, subject is asked that what they see. If the subject has been gone through some trauma, or pain, then he’ll explicitly split out. Some patients have strong nerves and do not respond fast so a full series is than shown to them. This is a successful tool and used widely. Psychologists at first start their proceedings, with patients who have memory loss problem through this technique. Remembering previous life incidents and explaining them is the name of the game. Focus is crucial and if the patient focuses on the inkblots, than surely positive outcomes arose. The examiner position remains integral as he has to check out that what kind of facial expressions, gestures and words subjects splits out. C. Draw a Person Test This test requires a hand driven drawing by the subject. The center of attention is what sort of drawing subject will draw, and about what? For instance if he draws a man with gigantic height, width and shape then what kind of person he looks like, and what relationship psychologist examines from subjects track record. This mechanism requires judgmental philosophy and to what extreme subject would portray the picture. This technique was criticized by many analysts as this leads to miss-leading information as some people have poor drawing (Amundson, 2012). D. Sentence Completion Technique Completion of sentence by subject is required in this technique. A vague statement is spoken or written by the examiner and subject is than required to complete the sentence. This technique has not long lasting strong impacts and subject many not respond according. However the behavior and wordings of the subject carries colossal value in this study (Ogden, 2012) E. Holtzman Inkblot Test This is somewhat depiction of the Rorschach inkblot method. The assessment and judgment criterion however is changed and modified. In this test reaction time of the subject is examined first, the ultimate response after seeing the inkblot and reaction one gives after watching it. Examiner has to sit tight and watch this whole scenario very deeply in order to get desired observations. F. Graphical Presentation (Bond and Ramsey, 2011) state that it is one of the kinds of projective test in which subject is asked is asked to write anything. It is also commonly known as handwriting analysis. The output of this test lies in the written words. Examiner evaluates that whether subject has written words in a proper line, do the words have irregular shape, any other irregularity in writing style etc. Graphology is yet another name of this analysis. Handwriting is very critically examined and deductions are made from it. G. Picture Arrangement This test deals with the arrangement of pictures. Normally there are 3 pictures and 25 different sets are made of those pictures so that subject would arrange them in every possible manner. Subject who has the best arrangement can be said as recovering however the mental aptitude of subject is easily judged through it (Demko, 2012). This test faced a lot of critique as patients who has any disease other than mental disorder will score better in this test thus the evaluation criteria is vague and has no proper boundaries. H. Metaphor Tactic This is a widely used test at different places; at educational institutes, clinics and human resources recruitment. In this type of test subject is asked to write a story in which he is significantly involved at any stage. Pictorial story is also preferred to examine the whole scenario well. Subject involvement in the story is made sure and it is seen that to what extent subject talks about and what is the conclusion of the story. The analytical reviewing of the story is done by the psychologists to find out the reasons behind story telling (Demko, 2012) Significance in Business Management Projective techniques have also served the field of business management in various directions. Business management is now dependent upon the projection techniques and after the commencement of these techniques, fields like consumer research and marketing are the most beneficiaries. They have done extensive projective techniques to find out customer’s responsive behavior towards their brand. Marketing consultants and brand managers apply these techniques in their strategy formulation and get desired results (Soley, 2010). Some of its services in the fields of business management are discussed below: A. The looking Glass Tactic It is a widely used business management technique to find out customer’s response. Subjects are requested to close their eyes and feel relaxed, than they are taken to different doors of brands through glass. In those doors they are described with various product features and their benefits. Subjects walk around all the doors. After the completion of this whole phase, they are asked to describe the benefits in which brands they see more and which one would they choose (Donoghue, 2010). B. Telepathy (Helkkula & Pihlstrom , 2010) emphasize that this is a kind of story telling technique with specific and certain goals. Respondents are given certain characters, time and location and a subject which they would use in their story. Respondent’s job is to continue the story from where it’s left. The whole idea behind this tactic is to examine that what they think about the brand and what changes company has to adopt. Strategic planning is thus done by observing the behaviors depicted by the respondents. C. Transformed TAT In business management a modified version of TAT is utilized in order to find out the behaviors of people towards a brand. Billboard advertisements, guerilla marketing, TV and print ads are given in which, brand name and product is not told. Just hype is created so that people would start thinking that what sort of product is going to come. The responsive behavior of people is examined that whether they are ready to accept such kind of a brand, or should they adopt some other strategy to invade into the market. Marketing plan of the policy is thus openly challenged in general public and prior decision making is done after reviewing the response. If the response got is positive, than they go through their advertisement in a flow (Vidal & Ares, 2012). If the response attained is negative or ambiguous, than company advertises in a new way which does not depict any relevance with previous advertisement. This thus gives a healthy new start to the brand. Projective Techniques Propositions in the Business Context All the above described projective techniques have made huge landmarks in the field of business administration and management. These techniques act as the backbone in the discipline of consumer behavior, human resource management, organizational development, marketing research, integrated marketing communications and business transactional communications interface. Critically examining each and every technique depicts that some of the techniques have a vast implication and usefulness than the other (Bond, Ramsey & Boddy, 2011). For instance the usage of Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) can be seen even more in the field of business administration. In the development of ads and various promotional activities, TAT, Graphical presentation, looking glass tactic and telepathy has enormous role and their implicit behavior becomes essential in the successful marketing endeavors. Their structured indirect approach is able to watch certain unnoticed things behind the window which gives projective techniques a competitive edge over other research methods (Soley, 2010). Customer’s loyalty cannot be judged in quantitative amount, and to mould a loyal customer towards another brand is not that easy task. To examine such complex behaviors and making sure that customer is mould- looking glass tactic and telepathy makes ground breaking developments. These methodologies ensure that a customer would consider for other options and the element of emotional and personal attachment with a particular brand would be examined (Doherty & Nelson, 2010). There are certain techniques which do not play a significant role in the field of business management neither in research methods but still their implications sometimes bring miraculous results. Draw a person test is also one of its kinds. Its importance is way less than the other techniques but it provides adequate results. In human resources management, while recruitment of employees, metaphor tactic is widely used so that right candidates are selected for the job (Bond, Ramsey & Boddy, 2011). Conclusion Projective techniques have tremendous magnitude in the field of business management. It has helped a lot to carry out research works in various fields. Lawyers adopt these techniques to get full in depth analysis and psychologists use it for the cure of human mental problems. On the other hand, business management and research methods utilize these techniques usually for the marketing process. Although examination of labors/employees also take place by applying several of these tactics but its supremacy is clearly in the marketing field. These have helped the students, marketers, research analysts to expand their research work and get uncover the vital hidden data. Research analysts report that above all the techniques is thematic appreciation test, due to its remarkable and terrific interface. TAT has not only vast implementation in psychology, sociology, law and business management but political science is also one of its beneficiaries. Marketing campaigns utilizing transformed TAT which demonstrate recreational objects is the most accepted and admired tactic for seizing customer’s attention. References Ogden, T.(2012) Projective identification and psychotherapeutic technique. Karnac Books Soley, L.(2010). Projective techniques in US marketing and management research: The influence of< IT> The Achievement Motive. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 13(4), 334-353. Cherrier, H. (2012). Using Projective Techniques to Consider the Societal Dimension of Healthy Practices, An Exploratory Study. Health Marketing Quarterly, 29(1), 82-95 Tantiseneepong, N., Gorton, M., & White, J. (2012) Evaluating responses to celebrity endorsements using projective techniques Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 15(1), 57-69 Vidal, L., Ares, G., & Gimenez, A. (2012) Projective techniques to uncover consumer perception: application of three methodologies to ready-to-eat salads, Food quality journal. 18(2), 117-132. Bond, D., Ramsey, E., & Boddy, C. R. (2011) Projective techniques: Are they a victim of clashing paradigms? (No. 33331) University Library of Munich . Germany. Colakoglu, S., & Littlefield, J.(2011) Teaching Organizational Culture Using a Projective Technique: Collage Construction. Journal of Management Education, 35(4), 564-585. Georgescu, M. (2012) Projective technique – Introductory interactive projective psychology software produced by an applied psychology department, A case study, In conference proceedings of" eLearning and Software for Education."  No. 01, 161 Gibbs, P. M. (2012). Chapter 11-Psychological assessment: Projective techniques. Routledge Online Studies on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 1(44), 101-110. Donoghue, S.(2010). Projective techniques in consumer research, Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences, 28(1). Demko, D. R.(2012). The Relation Between Adjustment As Shown On The Pikunas Graphoscopic Scale and Teachers' Ratings of Children Between the Ages of 10 and 12 (Doctoral dissertation). Amundson, N. E. (2012). Using projective assessment techniques in career counseling, Canadian Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 13(4) Helkkula, A., & Pihlstrom, M. (2010) Narratives and metaphors in service development. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 13(4), 354-371. Wood, J. M., Nezworski, M. T., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Garb, H. N. (2009), Projective techniques in the courtroom Donoghue, S. (2010), Projective techniques in consumer research, Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences Krippendorff, K. (2012). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage Publications, Incorporated. Bond, D., Ramsey, E., & Boddy, C. R. (2011), Projective techniques: Are they a victim of clashing paradigms? (No. 33331), University Library of Munich, Germany Soley, L. (2010). Projective techniques in US marketing and management research: The influence of< IT> The Achievement Motive. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 13(4), 334-353. Doherty, S., & Nelson, R. (2010), Using projective techniques to tap into consumers' feelings, perceptions and attitudes... getting an honest opinion. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 34(4), 400-404. Krishnaswamy, K. N., Sivakumar, A. I., & Mathirajan, M.(2009). Management Research Methodology: Integration of Methods and Techniques. Prentice Hall Read More