184 The Marketing Book
Projective exercises may be classed as struc-
tured–indirect research techniques and they
receive their name from the way in which
respondents ‘project’ their feelings, attitudes,
beliefs etc. onto a third party or object, emo-
tions which might have remained hidden if the
chosen research technique had tried to gain
access to their ideas/opinion by means of more
direct questioning etc. It is not a technique
whereby measurements are made, but more
one where those emotions which the majority
of the population might have difficulty in
articulating are uncovered. Piotrowski and Kel-
ler (1993) say that they are a popular method of
personality assessment, on a worldwide basis,
because of the absence of standardized objec-
tive tests.
Projective techniques may be used:
(a) to explore and generate hypotheses, which
may then subsequently be tested by more
quantitative methods;
(b) to expose feelings, beliefs and behaviour
patterns which would have remained hidden
if a more ‘direct’ research method of
investigation had been used.
There are a great many techniques used in this
method of research, but they may be con-
veniently grouped under the following head-
ings: completion, association, construction,
choice ordering and expressive techniques.
Advantages of projective techniques
They are very useful in exploratory studies
where emotional guidance, feelings etc. are
sought and where inputs to be used in hypoth-
esis generation are required.
They enable researchers to gain access to
data which they might have been denied if a
more direct, interrogative, technique had been
employed.
They may be used to ‘break the ice’, and
help in establishing rapport in the initial stages
of qualitative studies.
Disadvantages of projective
techniques
They are expensive. To be of use, highly skilled
research workers need to be employed; also, it
is only possible to employ small samples using
these methods, so the ability to generalize
about the results is severely restricted.
They are time consuming, both to admin-
ister and to analyse the results.
Some respondents may be too shy to take
part in the exercises and refuse to join in –
therefore, non-response may be a problem.
There are many opportunities for the
results to become ‘contaminated’ by measure-
ment error; the role of the researcher thus
becomes of great importance in the reduction of
such error.The research process and measurement
Having chosen the type, or types, of data
collection method to be used to meet the
research objectives, market researchers now
have to choose the system(s) of measurement to
be used. Measurement is part of everyday life;
food is bought by weight, petroleum/cooking
oil/beer is bought by volume, fabric by length- each product being dispensed by using a
characteristic (weight, volume, length etc.) by
which certain amounts of the object may be
isolated.
In marketing research, measurements are
also common; for example, the research objec-
tives might stipulate that the project should
ascertain the number of people in a certain age
group who buy a certain newspaper, or the
number of companies using certain distribution
systems over a stipulated time period. Such
measurements are relatively easy to make as
the characteristics of interest are overt, easily
accessed, and of a unitary status, i.e. they only
have one dimension – number, length, age
grouping etc. However, other marketing