Scribd
Upload
55 views3 pages

Zaltmans Theory

ZMET was developed by Gerald Zaltman to explore unconscious consumer motivations through the use of metaphors and images. It involves interviewing consumers who bring images related to a topic and probing them about the meanings and feelings represented by the images. This provides insights that are deeper and more accurate than verbal interviews alone by tapping into hidden consumer knowledge represented by the metaphors. ZMET research aims to develop a fundamental understanding of how consumers think and feel in order to build effective marketing strategies that address consumer needs.

Uploaded by

krish bhatia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views3 pages

Zaltmans Theory

ZMET was developed by Gerald Zaltman to explore unconscious consumer motivations through the use of metaphors and images. It involves interviewing consumers who bring images related to a topic and probing them about the meanings and feelings represented by the images. This provides insights that are deeper and more accurate than verbal interviews alone by tapping into hidden consumer knowledge represented by the metaphors. ZMET research aims to develop a fundamental understanding of how consumers think and feel in order to build effective marketing strategies that address consumer needs.

Uploaded by

krish bhatia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

ZALTMANS THEORY

ZMET stands for the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique and was
developed by Harvard Business School Professor Gerald Zaltman, the Joseph C.
Wilson Professor of Business Administration and Co-director of the Mind of the
Market Laboratory. The Mind of the Market Laboratory has moved to Olson
Zaltman Associates. Please see their website for updated information.
ZMET has been used in over 20 countries around the globe by the world's
leading companies to explore business to business and business to consumer
issues. It is also being used increasingly to address organizational issues.

A Consumer-Based Approach to Marketing Strategy


Managers have been saying for years that their organizations should be
consumer-oriented and market-focused. Of course, expressing a goal and
fulfilling it are not the same thing. Achieving this goal requires basing
marketing decisions on a thorough understanding of current and potential
consumers. Gaining this knowledge is not easy, but it is essential to gaining and
sustaining competitive advantage.

Business executives deal with a variety of interesting and challenging issues in


managing their products and brands, including the following:

 What basic value or equity does my product or firm have in the


consumer1s eyes?
 How can I build or reinforce this value?
 How can I establish a loyalty relationship with my consumers?
 How can I anticipate and understand consumer needs, especially those
they find difficult to express?
 How do the habits of mind among my managers influence their thinking
about consumer issues?
 What am I really saying about my product or company in my advertising
and by my promotions?
 How can I establish a consumer focus as an integral part of my corporate
culture?
Answering such challenging questions requires an in-depth, fundamental
understanding of how current and potential consumers think and feel about a
product.

Typical Research Purpose


To develop creative strategic solutions to marketing problems managers need:
(1) detailed knowledge of the consumer and the marketplace, (2) clarity of
thought guided by effective models and theories, (3) creativity and imagination,
and (4) reasoned judgment and experience. Where these needs exist it is
appropriate to consider using ZMET.

ZMET research provides fundamental understandings of consumers, by


identifying a broad set of meanings, at several levels of experience. It helps
understand how unconscious and conscious processes interact to: (1) create
needs, (2) influence the criteria for satisfying them, (3) shape the experience of
satisfying needs, and (4) spawn judgments about those experiences. These
understandings are necessary foundations for building effective marketing
strategies.

A Word on Images
ZMET uses visual and non-visual "images" gathered and/or generated by
consumers to elicit and probe the metaphors that represent consumers1 thoughts
and feelings about a topic.

Images are important units of analysis for marketing managers. When


augmented by consumers1 explanations during careful probing by an
interviewer, the images provide a clear idea of what consumers really think and
feel. Almost invariably these insights are far deeper and more clear than the
insights to be gained from verbal discussions alone. Although many images are
visual, images may take other forms (tactile, olfactory, auditory, etc.). Whatever
the form (technically, every image is a neural activation), an image represents a
thought or feeling consumers have about, say, privacy, treating heartburn and
indigestion, or the meaning of art in their daily lives, or what they think a
company thinks of them. For this reason, we refer to images as metaphors.

A metaphor is the representation of one thing (a thought, feeling, action) in


terms of another thing (a picture of someone screaming, a swimming pool, the
color blue, the sound of a breeze). During a ZMET interview, we collect verbal
descriptions of the thoughts and feelings represented by these images to help us
understand their meaning. Strong evidence exists that these verbal descriptions
are far more complete and far more useful to managers because they were
stimulated initially by these images or metaphors.

By having people select their own images, the ZMET process gives participants
control of the research stimuli and a greater sense of involvement with the
interview topic. Thus, participants are able to represent their thoughts and
feelings more completely and accurately than when responding to stimuli
presented by the researcher. The pictures participants bring to the interview are
metaphors that serve as entry points into their thinking process. Exploring the
meaning of these metaphors allows us to elicit many important ideas. ZMET is
especially effective in helping consumers uncover hidden or tacit knowledge--
understandings they didn't know they had.

You might also like