Abstract:

The current competitiveness of the marketplace requires that qualitative research seek and deliver insights into a range of subject matter, including the nature and differences between brands. In pursuit of this, the sector has at its disposal a number of techniques and approaches, but given the nature of respondents' decision-making, where intuitive and unconscious processes are increasingly acknowledged to be significantly present, and the increasing sophistication of those respondents in decoding marketing messages/questioning, it is necessary to look for, and develop, new tools which will uncover respondents' inner decision-making processes and workings. Animal symbolism and totemism is one such approach, and this paper reviews how and why this route into respondents' psyche delivers against the most demanding requirements for brand insight, positioning and differentiation.