Projective techniques are seeked as they help in going to the deep sub consciousness. The way they work is as follows:
All those who are participants in the research that follows this technique, expects them to project their feelings and thoughts onto other things that may not be otherwise apparent. For instance, if Pepsi was a bird then which bird would it become? The most common kind of projective techniques used are:
- Completion of sentences
- Completion of cartoons
- Stereotyping
- Personification of brands
After completing the first step, the participants are expected to explain their answers. This stage in the technique is important and the participant plays a crucial role in fairly answering the “Why” in this question. It is important because the projective techniques work towards releasing the sub conscious and attempting to reveal the real explanation by the means of probing. For example here, if Pepsi is seen as a pigeon by the participant then the explanation in the second stage may be that it is dull, silly and a trend follower rather than a trend creator in the market.
There is a lot of fun element that is involved in the projective techniques. It is found to be breaking the mundane monotony of the research and researchers, academicians, clients, respondents often look forward to the use of this technique. At the same time, it is very important to take care while using these techniques, particularly with the measurement of abstract things. It may create confusion between the truth and the error. The sub conscious is something that is more deep and profound than the abstract and often researchers are found struggling with new words and people, more than often do not even think about the sub conscious.
The development of projective techniques happened in psychology. The reliability of these techniques has been a concern for the alternate disciplines of research. Another area where projective techniques pick the mainstream is market research. This is largely because the other techniques are not able to generate an insight into the factors that lead to brand preference and buying.
The ambiguity in the projective technique responses can be minimized using these techniques:
- The probing technique is very useful
- Use of multiple techniques to draw out the most common conclusion
- Combining data of multiple people with same responses.
