MOTIVATION RESEARCH TECHNIQUE

By- Krishna Rathi

Introduction Interest in consumer attitude measurement now

seems to be at an all- time peak. A knowledge of attitudes helps the marketer predict consumer reactions to products and to advertising messages.

Motivation Research “is a term used to describe the application of psychiatric and psychological techniques to obtain a better understanding of why people respond as they do with products, advertisements and various other marketing situations.”

Motivation Research attempts to gather information buried in the unconscious mind of the consumer.

Nature Of Motivation Research

The biggest problem in Motivation Research is that direct approaches generally do no work. The researcher cannot simply go up to a consumer and ask him why he prefers one product brand over another and expect to get a correct answer. It may be due to three reasons:

The consumerdoes not know the “why” of purchase:

The consumer will not tell about their purchase:

The consumers may put forward illogical reasons for their purchase:

The consumer does not know the “why” of purchase:

Consumers are generally unaware of there own “true” reasons for specific brands and product selections. We can conclude that people have brand loyal not to a specific taste but to specific image of its manufacturer.

The consumer will not tell about their purchase

It can be assumed that a significant amount of deliberate misrepresentation will occur at any time the subject area is either morally sensitive or status related.

The consumers may put forward illogical reasons for their purchase

The reason for consumer preferences are seldom logical. The researcher who approaches the respondent in a direct logical and straight forward manner will often obtain very misleading answers.

Elements of motivation research:

Attitude research:-Assumptions:-Sensations:-Images:-Motives:-

Attitude researchAttitudes are assumed as the predictors of human

behavior. Consumers are believed to have stable sets of

attitudes. The stable set of attitude towards a product brand

may be favourable or unfavourable. The set of attitudes can be changed by forming

advertising appeals carefully aimed at a particular market segment.

Repeated soundings through advertising appeals are required to maintain a favourableness in the consumers attitudes.

They buy the high priced product on the assumption that high price is evidence of high quality.

AssumptionsConsumers have “frames of

reference” formed out of the information gathered form their experience.

They try to fit things in the frame of reference. If they do not fit they reject the things. Many of these reference points are subconscious mind.

SensationsSensations may be defined as the

reaction of mind to either a mental or physical stimulus.

Technically a sensation has to do with a bodily response to a stimulus, while an emotion (such as love, hate and fear) is the reaction of the mind resulting from the bodily response.

The word feeling describes what is felt by both body and mind.

ImagesImages are defined as the mental

pictures that are formed as a result of stimuli.

They are strictly tied to stimuli.Consumers develop some images

about the product . The brand image can be changed

over a period of time by the advertisements and other sales efforts for the brand.

MotivesMotive is one of the more

impelling determinants of a persons action.

Motive is , in other words , a need, want, drive or urge in the mind of an individual.

Limitation in studying buying motiveIgnorance of consumer groupDifficulties of expressionVariety & complexity to motivesVariability of motiveLimitation of sampling methodTechniques are in evolutionary

stage

Motivation research techniques

structured disguised

Non disguised Non structured

Disguised structuredNon-disguised structured

Disguised non-structured

Non disguised non-structured

Non-disguised structured techniques:-

This approach employs a standardized questionnaire to collect data on belief, feelings, and attitudes from the respondent.

Nothing about the purpose of the study is concealed from the respondent Different methods under this are:

Single question method Multiple-question method Physiological tests

Non-disguised structured techniques

Single- question

methodMultiple

Question methodPhysiological

tests

Single question method

The respondent is required to give one answer selected from various choices given to them.

Ex. Which one of the following responses best describe your feelings about X brand of product?

I think it is an excellent productI think it is a very good productI think it is a good productI think it is a poor productI think it is a very poor product

Demerits of Single question methodThere is no way to determine how much

one person differs in terms of “favorableness” or “unfavorableness”.

A person is not evaluate the question in terms of product brand and in terms of researcher wants.

semantic difficulties are likely to be accentuated because answers are limited to fixed alternatives which may not exhibit a clear meaning of response.

Multiple question method

In this method a number of questions are asked about the attitudes and total score from all the questions responses give the score or total attitude of the respondent

Physiological tests

Various laboratory tests such as galvanic skin response, eye movement, and pupil dilation are used to measure one’s attitude

Non-disguised non-structured techniquesIn this technique questions are not

predetermined and the purpose of the study is revealed fully to the respondent

The techniques are also called depth interviews, clinical interviews, unstructured interviews and soon.

Respondent’s response obtained through this technique are spontaneous, highly specific and concrete and are self revealing. Demerit: data obtined are qualitative and ambiguous

Disguised non-structured techniques1.Purpose of the study is not

revealed. 2.Main projective techniques are

Disguised non-structured techniques

Word association

test

Thematic apperceptio

n test

Sentence completion

test

Paired Pictures

test

Research of ink-blot

test

Word association test

There are a number of ways of using word association tests:

A list of words or phrases can be presented in random order to respondents, who are requested to state or write the word or phrase that pops into their mind;

Respondents are asked for what word or phrase comes to mind immediately upon hearing certain brand names;

Similarly, respondents can be asked about slogans and what they suggest;

Respondents are asked to describe an inanimate object or product by giving it "human characteristics" or associating descriptive adjectives with it

Thematic Apperception TestIn the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the

respondents are shown one or more pictures and asked to describe what is happening, what dialogue might be carried on between characters and/or how the "story might continue. For this reason, TAT is also known as the picture interpretation technique.

Although the picture, illustration, drawing or cartoon that is used must be interesting enough to encourage discussion, it should be vague enough not to immediately give away what the project is about

Sentence Completion TestIn the sentence completion method, respondents

are given incomplete sentences and asked to complete the thought. These sentences are usually in the third person and tend to be somewhat ambiguous. For example, the following sentences would provide striking differences in how they were completed depending on the personality of the respondent:

"A beach vacation is……………………"Taking a holiday in the mountains is….""Golfing is for…""The average person considers skiing….."

"People who visit museums are…………"

Paired Pictures testIn this techniques paired pictures

are used. For ex., one picture shows a

woman opening a popularly priced refrigerator and another shows a similarly dressed woman opening a refrigerator of another brand.

Research of ink-blot testsNo discussion on motivation research is

complete without a mention of famous research tests of ink-blot tests. These tests are not in much use in marketing research.

The research test expresses in a classic way the rationale behind all projective tests, that is, in filling the missing parts of a vague and incomplete stimulus, the respondent projects himself and his personality into the picture.

Disguised structured techniquesWhen we are to measure those attitudes which

respondents might not readily and accurately answer, we can use this technique

Ex. To measure attitude towards management-labour relations questions like this can be asked “average wage of workers in pre-independence period was: i) Rs. 2,ii) Rs. 5.

Here it can be assumed that few people know the answer. The prolabour respondents would guess the low figure and the pro-management respondents would guess the high figure.

Uses of Motivation Research:- Knowledge and measurement of the true attitude of

customers help in choosing the best selling appeal for the product and the best way to represent the product in the sales talk, and determining the appropriateness and weightage of various promotional methods.

Motivation research leads to useful insights and provide inspiration to creative person in the advertising and packing world. They will now be able to create more effective appeals aimed at the private world of customer hopes, dreams and fears rather than merely economic or rational appeals.

This means that the message content and message presentation both should be based on research.

Motivation research can help as in measuring changes in attitudes , thus advertising research.

Knowledge and measurement of attitudes provides us with an imaginative market segmentation tool and also enables estimating market potential of each additional segment.

Limitations of Motivation Research Cautions are required to be exercised not only in the

application of these techniques but also the resultant data should be analyzed and interpreted according to the psychological theory.

Originally these techniques were developed to collect data from a single individual over a period of time. It is not free from drawbacks while we apply these techniques to gather data from a number of individuals.

The designing and administering of these techniques need qualified and experienced researchers. Such personnel are hardly available.

Generally , small samples are taken for conducting motivation research; Generalizations if drawn on this basis are misleading.