“Pseudo‐scientific hokus pokus”: motivational research's Australian application

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine motivational research (MR) – the most maligned and misunderstood branch of market research. It argues that MR has been too easily dismissed by researchers. In so doing, they have ignored a potentially significant insight into the post World War II consumer's motivations and domestic life.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper utilises previously unexamined primary source material to examine David T. Bottomley's construction of MR.

Findings

By looking at in‐depth market research studies, a greater, more rounded picture of the postwar consumer can be gained. Throughout the 1960s, some market researchers turned to consumer motivations to uncover the psychological dimensions of purchasing behaviour by determining the symbolic meanings goods had to their consumers. Rather than viewing consumer behaviour as predictable by factors such as economic class, motivational researchers held that consumers are multi‐faceted subjects and life‐stage and attitudes to colour are important factors influencing consumer behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

Research that considers consumer motivations should not be so easily dismissed as deceptive or corruptive research without genuine merit for historical research. Nor should Dichter's style of research be considered to be the only version of MR.

Originality/value

Previous scholars have largely ignored the significance of market research to the development of the consumer market and the construction of the postwar consumer. Given the dearth of scholarly examinations, the paper is based almost entirely on primary research data.

Citation

McLeod, A. (2009), "“Pseudo‐scientific hokus pokus”: motivational research's Australian application", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 224-245. https://doi.org/10.1108/17557500910974596