Metaphor Marketing

The discovery: Yes, women do hate wearing panty hose. But it's more complicated than that. It's not that women have a love-hate relationship with nylons. Rather, they have a "like-hate" relationship.

"We got intensity, texture, and depth that we'd never gotten from other studies," Green recalls. "This was the first time we heard positive things that we could act on." For instance, the woman who chose the image of the fence posts encased in plastic wrap also selected the photo of the vase of flowers: Wearing the product made her feel thin and tall. The ice-cream sundae represented the embarrassment caused by stocking runs; the expensive car, the feeling of luxury. One woman's final collage pictured a cookie cutter wrapped in a garden hose, and set against the backdrop of a silk dress - conformity and discomfort on a field of elegance.

"The images also brought out subtleties related to sexual issues," Green recalls. "Women would say, 'They make my legs feel longer.' Why is it important to have long legs? 'Men like long legs.' Why do men like long legs? 'They're sexy.' And eventually women would say they wanted to feel sexy to men. You don't get that in a straight interview."

These findings led hosiery manufacturers and retailers to alter their advertising to include not only images of supercompetent career women but also images of sexiness and allure - even when pitching the product to supercompetent career women. Inspired by Green's findings, one hosiery maker began including in each package a small card decorated with a yin-yang symbol on one side (to emphasize the like-hate duality) and a personalized quotation on the other (to send a message of understanding and caring). "It was a little card of female affirmation," says Green.

Market Research by the Book

If the $3.9 billion market-research industry were a book, ZMET would open chapter three. Chapter one began in the 1930s, when newspapers and magazines launched public-opinion polls - first to predict elections, then to gauge sentiment on other topics. As statisticians and demographers refined their techniques, companies began to build much of their marketing on survey research. Ask people what they think, catalog their responses, tally them up, slice the data this way and that, and - voila! - you're inside the customer's head.

But numbers have their limitations, marketers discovered. Begin chapter two: qualitative research - whose impact on market research traces back to 1941, when Columbia University sociologist Robert Merton conducted the first focus group. Since then, a range of new qualitative techniques have burst onto the scene: in-depth interviews, participant observation (watch Billy play with a new toy from behind a one-way mirror), ethnographic research (move in with the Jones family and record their diurnal habits, like Margaret Mead in New Guinea), and projective techniques ("If this shampoo were a dog, what kind of dog would it be?").

But with more products filling store shelves, and with the Internet creating an entirely new way to reach customers, companies have grown restive with even the most innovative qualitative techniques. Zaltman thought he knew why: Market researchers didn't understand the human brain, and they were speaking the wrong language.

Cognitive scientists have learned that human beings think in images, not in words. But most market research uses words, not images: It relies on surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups. Sociolinguists know that most communication is nonverbal. But most research tools are, as Zaltman puts it, "verbocentric."

Poets and psychiatrists understand that metaphor - viewing one thing in terms of another - is central to thought and crucial to uncovering latent needs and emotions. But most marketers are so caught up in the literal, they neglect the metaphoric.

"People can give us only what we give them the opportunity to provide," Zaltman says. "To the extent that we structure the stimulus - whether it's a discussion guide in a focus group or a question in a survey - all people can do is respond. And there's value in that. But I see those as strip-mining techniques," Zaltman says, deploying - what else? - a metaphor. "Sometimes the valuable ore is on the surface. But often it's not. Strip-mining techniques are inappropriate when there's a great deal more depth to be had. Typically, the deeper you go, the more value there is."

Chocolate Clocks & Security Dogs

Bite into a nestle crunch bar, and you immediately savor the milk chocolate and crisped rice. It takes a more sophisticated palate to taste the metaphor.

When he used ZMET to probe the attitudes of 10 Nestle Crunch fans, Zaltman first uncovered what you might expect. Through their pictures and Photoshop collages, subjects revealed that they saw the candy bar as a small indulgence in a busy world, a source of quick energy, and something that just tasted good.