Abstract:

For several years now motivational research has been successfully applied to more and more categories of consumer goods, that is, goods consumed by individuals or households. Although it is taking its place more and more frequently in the marketing mix, this technique is still very much outside the realm of industrial products, i.e. those products destined for the manufacturer rather than the consumer: raw materials, semifinished and finished products, industrial machinery. For this kind of product, it is commonly thought that purchases are based on a rational analysis of the manufacturers' needs from which derives a list of the characteristics required: (type, quantity, price, delivery times etc.) This state of affairs is based on the classic distinction between the world of consumer goods where irrational, emotional motivations are predominant and the technical world where the universe is no longer an individual but a rational entity: the manufacturer. In addition, we think that the non-use of motivational research in the world of industrial products derives from ignorance of the possibilities that this technique offers in its modern form.