Abstract:

This paper presents research into a method for deriving a consumer relevant emotional image set for a traditionally 'functional' product category such as Fabric Softeners. It begins by deconstructing one of the key basic level consumer benefits for the category 'freshness'. Consumers are led through a series of exercises including choosing images that connote freshness and creating image groups according to their own beliefs and rules. The second phase of the research involves a quantitative validation of these images using a Procustes technique in order to confirm the image grouping and to relate this to the more concrete arena of semantics and word-based scaling. This work then serves as a basis for constructing a range of emotional probes appropriate for use in traditional quantitative research which measure fragrances' - or other concrete product features' - differential ability to cue relevant emotions.