The birth of consumer behavior: motivation research in the 1940s and 1950s

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how 1940s and 1950s motivation research laid the foundations of present day consumer behavior as a discipline. Design/methodology/approach - This research uses standard historical methodology - heavy reliance upon primary sources, avoidance of anachronism, heavy use of contemporary quotations, and effort to explain and interpret. Findings - Using sociology, anthropology, and clinical psychology to explain how and why consumers buy, motivation research provided business with valuable information, and, in the long run, began today's consumer behavior field of study. Originality/value - This paper offers a different view of motivation research, stressing its use of sociology and anthropology. It offers a corrective to the prevailing over-emphasis on Ernest Dichter.

The motivation research of the 1940s and 1950s was an important precursor to the field of consumer behavior. Before the 1960s, as even a perusal of one of the encyclopedic marketing texts of the 1920s through 1950s will show (e.g. [6] Converse and Huegy, 1952), marketing covered a great many subjects, including ones today left to other disciplines (e.g. hedging) - yet it had almost nothing to say about consumer behavior. But largely outside the academic world the motivation research done in the 1940s and 1950s focused entirely on the consumer, attempting to explain why he or she did what they did. Motivation research laid many of the foundations for what became the discipline of consumer behavior, in particular a strong topical focus on the full scope consumer motivations, which were interpreted in light of findings from several of the social sciences - clinical psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Some motivation researchers, e.g. Ernest Dichter, made extravagant claims of unfailing insight, which terrified many. Many scholars found motivation research ill-founded. The controversies that swirled around motivation research have been ably presented by [47] Tadajewski (2006). My focus here is on the research itself, which was considerably broader and more multi-faceted than conventional portraits of motivation research (e.g. Ernest Dichter) portray. I explore what the research uncovered - how it vastly enriched understanding of consumers - and how it kept developing under the public surface. After its time of great media attention from the mid- through late-1950s, motivation research seemed to disappear from public sight. I soon realized, however, that it did not disappear at all, but continued on, ever growing, in the work of marketing practitioners, and was developed by university researchers at a few major institutions - Harvard and the University of Chicago, for example.

In concluding a major monograph study of motivation research, Harvard's Joseph [41] Newman (1957) wrote:

In our examination of ... motivation research, we found a number of systematic efforts to make use of the behavioral fields ... Together, they constitute a movement, now young, which promises important conceptual growth and therefore appears destined to be a major landmark in the history of marketing ([41] Newman, 1957, p. 504).

Methodology

I used standard historical methodology ([17] Fullerton, 2011). In particular, I relied almost exclusively on what historians consider to be "primary" sources - sources that were written at the time of the events discussed, and did not read into these sources things that did not exist at the time they were done - in other words, avoiding the sin of "anachronism". Thus, I have intentionally used few sources written after 1961, and most of those are the remembrances of a major motivation researcher. Where the marketing discipline eschews long quotations, history relishes them, and thus I have used several long quotations to let contemporaries speak to us, again avoiding the sin of "anachronism". It is pointed out what these quotations represent. I attempt to explain - to interpret - the factual material that I present.

Motivation research

Motivation research drew upon work that had been developed over decades in several of the behavioral sciences: in the depth psychology of Freud, Adler, and others, but also in sociology and anthropology and even in some areas of economics. Consultants picked up this diverse university-generated work and directed it towards answering "why"; why does a consumer buy or not buy a product. There were the beginnings of motivation research as far back as the work of Paul F. Lazarsfeld and his colleagues in Vienna during the late 1920s through the mid-1930s, and in the USA during the later 1930s ([28] Lazarsfeld, 1934, [29] 1937; [50] Wheeler, 1937; [15] Fullerton, 1990, [16] 1999). Work really began to pick up right after second world war, for example, with the founding of Social Research Inc. in Chicago and Ernest Dichter's institute in New York State.

Motivation research "represents the introduction into consumer or market research of new concepts drawn from the whole range of the social sciences, especially clinical psychology, sociology, and anthropology" ([18] Gardner, 1959, p. 36). It introduced new methods to marketing research "by applying methods which have been used successfully in other branches of social science and psychology ... turning away from ... the mere collection of facts without interpreting them, " according to a typical definition ([44] Schrier and Wood, 1948). A committee convened by the American Marketing Association in 1950 concluded that "Motivational research is so important to the development of the applied science of marketing that a constant effort should be made to see that the truest insights of the other social sciences be made available to marketing in a form in which they can be made to bear on marketing problems" ([54] Woodward et al. , 1950, p. 32). "The case for making greater use of the behavioral fields," wrote [41] Newman (1957, p. 386), "rests on the recognition that buying and consumption are human acts serving human purposes about which marketing has known too little ... They can be better understood if ... behavioral theories, concepts, and methods enter the picture."

Motivation research especially attempted to uncover underlying motivations. It attempted to "focus attention on the whole battery of inner conditions that play a dynamic part in a person's buying or not buying, responding favorably or unfavorably to some communication" ([46] Smith, 1954, p. 5). "In motivational research," explained one of its founders in 1943, "we change our focus ... to sub-surface phenomena" ([30] Lazarsfeld, 1943). This was essential, he continued, because some buyer motivations were unconscious, others only partly conscious; buyers might have forgotten, or they might well have rationalized their motives. Mainstream economic thought, which then heavily influenced marketing thought, posited "economic man," a totally rational decision maker as the buyer. People would have been embarrassed to admit to anything but rational thinking in their purchases. By using various projective techniques and "depth interviews" motivation researchers believed that they could reveal people's full motivations.

Motivation research drew upon several social sciences, which represented differing perspectives. No one captured this better than [38] Martineau (1957):

However, psychology is only one of the approaches in motivation research. The human individual doesn't live alone. He develops as a personality through his interactions with the other people around him ... That is why he has to be viewed as a member of various groups. ... He will be influenced in large measure by what his friends and associates think. Several sciences like sociology, social psychology, and social anthropology, are important for turning up these group attitudes ... It is also important to consider the individual as a member of a much larger society. He is an American; therefore he inherits a whole set of values ... Anthropologists also approach the problem of personality differently than the psychologists. They want to know most of all how does the individual get along with other people. The point is that all of these disciplines belong in motivation research because, each in a different way and yet concurrently through a closely overlapping relationship, they contribute some light on that obscure and complex thing we call human nature" ([38] Martineau, 1957, pp. 30-31).

Academia and consumer behavior

Academia produced a great deal of social science research in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; indeed, the feeling was that the social sciences had come of age and were progressing rapidly. But aside from a few scholars, mainly at the University of Chicago, the application of social science to understanding consumer behavior was done by for-profit organizations. Inevitably, much of the research was proprietary hence not made public. But a fair amount of it was disseminated; there are, for example, complete explanations of projects in [41] Newman (1957) and [38] Martineau (1957), who relied heavily upon the consumer behavior findings of the Social Research Inc. researchers who were loosely affiliated with the University of Chicago ([25] Karesh, 1995).

A branch of the discipline of economics did address consumer behavior. There was a short-lived movement which published a journal called Consumer Behavior from 1952 to 1954; the movement was dominated by economists but also contained industry people and diverse university social scientists, and was financially supported by the Consumers' Union. It favored standard empirical work based upon surveys. In 1954 there was a symposium at the University of Nebraska resulting in an important monograph ([24] Jones and Atkinson, 1954). A few years later Clark ([39] Morgan, 1958) published a monograph that contained a lengthy bibliographic essay by Morgan. Much of the cited literature was written by economists, for example George Katona, and much of that was extremely specific, e.g. sales of potatoes and eggs in small geographic markets, but Morgan was open to, and listed contributions from, other disciplines, even psychoanalysis.

The motivation research community in the 1950s

Both the popular (e.g. Fortune , Business Week , Printer's Ink ) and the more academic (e.g. Journal of Marketing , Harvard Business Review ) press devoted considerable attention to motivation research during the 1950s. The attention climaxed in 1957-1958 with the tremendous public reception given to Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders , a thoroughly researched yet deeply biased book which accused motivation researchers of secretly manipulating consumers.

Despite all the attention, the number of firms actually doing much real motivation research was relatively small, although it grew as the decade proceeded. It was hard to find well-trained analysts ([53] Wolf, 1955; [2] Brown, 1955). Some university-trained analysts found it difficult to work with businesspeople ([3] Carlson, 1953). For a while motivation research was so hot that many market researchers (e.g. Alfred Politz) made ridiculous claims to be doing it. Universities did not teach the subject, but they did teach a growing number of social science courses ([53] Wolf, 1955, pp. 35-7, pp. 49-50).

Who were the major motivation researchers?

The researchers included university social scientists and independent marketing consultants; among the later were Louis Cheskin and James Vicary, who were later made notorious by Vance Packard. Several organizations operated on a large scale. Ernest Dichter's Institute for Motivational Research was one of them, of course. Others are presented in Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.]. These were generally highly respected figures; names such as Britt, Twedt, and Gardner will be familiar to many marketing academics. People of stature assured client companies that they were getting motivation research expertise from estimable sources.

Conceptualization during the 1950s

In 1954 the Advertising Research Foundation published The Language of Dynamic Psychology as Related to motivation Research , part of its ongoing series of publications, which included five on motivation research. The book was a dictionary of terms from dynamic psychology and other social science fields; it was intended to guide advertising practitioners. While some of the book consists of Freudian terms that have since passed out of general use -, e.g. "castration complex" and "penis envy" - much also consists of social science terms that feature large in today's consumer behavior texts. The terms from Wulfeck and Bennett's The Language of Dynamic Psychology ([55] Wulfeck and Bennett, 1954) are: accommodation; acculturalization; affect; aided recall; apperception; attitude; character/personality; (social) class; closure; compulsion; conditioned response; cultural deviance; culture; drive; eidetic imagery; frame of reference; group analysis; identification; body image; (physiological) impression; memory; social mores; motivation; need; persuasion; perception; social pressures; reaction (to a stimulus; recall method (unaided, aided); recognition; reference group; retention (in memory); ritual; role playing behavior; self-concept; social control; socialization; subliminal stimulus; symbol; and trait.

An example of the use of some of these terms is [39] Morgan (1958), who discusses reference groups, status roles, theories of consumer learning, and personality; he distinguishes between extensive and casual decision making by consumers much as we would today, although the terms high and low involvement had not yet come into use. He argues that more research is needed on attitudes and changes in them, and on family and reference group influences ([39] Morgan, 1958, pp. 101-102, p. 119, p. 121).

Another use of Wulfeck and Bennett and by Morgan was made by [46] Smith (1954): "Frames of reference thus merge with personality traits and habit systems ... Attitudes are important because they tell us not only what people will accept or reject, but how something can be presented to them" ([46] Smith, 1954, p. 7). Smith continued:

Sensations, Images, Feelings ... These three terms have played a classic role in the development of psychology. Sensation is the experience which follows the application of a stimulus - seeing the blue in a Wedgewood vase ... Feelings refer to the pleasant-unpleasant, excitement-depression qualities of experience. Emotions are more complex states (anger, hate, pity), which contain feelings and attitudes as well as sensations from pounding heart, drying mouth, tightening muscles, and churning viscera. Sensations, images, and feelings, together with unspoken words and many minute muscle movements, seem to make up the content of consciousness at any particular time ([46] Smith, 1954, p. 8).

To these terms, [38] Martineau (1957) added "style of life", or lifestyle, and combined it with "self-ideal", or self-concept: "In an intelligent, normal person, virtually everything is motivated by subtle reference to the person's self-ideal - the kind of character ideal he wants to become ... In this yearning for self-expression, we reach for products, for brands, for institutions which will be compatible with our schemes of what we are or want to be" ([38] Martineau, 1957, pp. 45-46).

Social class

The famous sociologist and journalist William [51] Whyte (1953) noted how residents of then-new suburbs tended to share and conform to the same values and attitudes, which included a strong dogma of not showing off. Another article by Whyte emphasized the influence of the neighborhood social group's word-of-mouth on the buying decisions of its members for air conditioners ([52] Whyte, 1954). The social class scheme devised by W. Lloyd Warner and Pierre Martineau was used in textbooks for decades. Martineau stressed that membership in a particular social class meant adhering to a code of values, which in turn heavily influenced consumption ([38] Martineau, 1957, chapter 14). Writing of class differences, [38] Martineau (1957, p. 165) said: "We must realize that between us and the vast majority of the market there are vast differences in communication skills, differences in moral viewpoint, differences in what constitutes humor, differences in sophistication ... The symbols we use for communication are often meaningless to the class we are trying to sell".

Product symbolism, a topic which features large in at least some consumer behavior texts today, was extensively discussed by [38] Martineau (1957), by [41] Newman (1957), and by [31] Levy (1959). Martineau, who relied heavily upon the findings of the SRI researchers at the University of Chicago, emphasized that consumers often buy the symbols that products represent to them rather than just the products ([38] Martineau, 1957, chapter 11). "We do not just want any toothpaste, any cigarette. We want the brand which emphasizes our identity - our status, sex, personality, age group" ([38] Martineau, 1957, p. 189).

Use of motivation research

Motivation research was used for product design, trade relations, training of salespeople, and store layout ([41] Newman, 1957, p. 393); it was especially used by advertising agencies in stimulating creativity ([10] Evans, 1957; [27] Krugman, 1956-1957; [38] Martineau, 1957, p. 8). Such lifestyle values as the worship of youthfulness, the search for individuality, and the trend towards more casual and informal living; need to be emphasized in successful advertising, stressed [38] Martineau (1957, chapter 13). Martineau pointed out that: "By contrast with the dismal deficits of railroad passenger operations, every airport is bulging with travelers, who see present air transportation as what they want in their style of living: excitement, adventure, super up-todateness (sic), ... " ([38] Martineau, 1957, p. 157). This was written before jet passenger airplanes were introduced.

The extensive case examples discussed by [41] Newman (1957, chapters 5-10) each produced findings that were used in several ways, from changed advertising appeals through training and the design of premiums and installment plans.

Research methods

The most-used research methods were the "depth" (today "long") interview and the several projective techniques. But a variety of other methods were also used, sometimes in the same study, reflecting the overall breadth and diversity of motivation research. This is illustrated by the in-depth reports of motivation research studies presented by Newman in his 1957 book. Table II [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] illustrates this.

Although widely used, depth interviews presented several problems. The greatest was that there were relatively few really good depth interviewers, hence, the quality of results was erratic. Probably referring to Ernest Dichter's firm, [2] Brown (1955), p. 79) wrote: "There is no doubt that the head of this organization can conduct extremely productive depth interviews himself. It is found, however, that other staff interviewers are unable to develop the same quality of penetrating information, in spite of the fact that they have studied extensively in the field of psychology. Depth interviewing ... is a highly personal matter."

Focus groups, then a relatively new social science technique, were used more as the decade went on. But survey research with statistical analysis was also used ([12] Ferber, 1958; [45] Scriven, 1958; [22] Gustafson, 1958; [53] Wolf, 1955). Herta Herzog, for example, after using depth interviews, checked their results by using structured questionnaires on samples up to 3,000 people ([42] Packard, 1957, p. 203). Many experts came to accept that the qualitative methods were important at the idea gathering or hypothesis generation stages of research ([12] Ferber, 1958).

The value of motivation research

At its best, motivation research vastly increased understanding of consumers. This was appreciated by business; many businesses profited from results engendered by implementing motivation research studies. Martineau reported studies, for example, showing that gasoline station cleanliness was the most important determinant of whether drivers would stop there; or that instant coffee was even consumed by coffee connoisseurs who were in a hurry; or that smoking had an enormous variety of meanings that could overweigh its negative associations ([38] Martineau, 1957, p. 35, pp. 55-61). The Young and Rubicam study of dieting described by [41] Newman (1957) found that weight consciousness increased as one went up the social status scale. The State Farm Insurance study described by [41] Newman (1957) found that buyers of automobile insurance considered price important, but also that they wanted assurance that the insurance company cared, that it would support them in case of a problem. The State Farm senior executives were tremendously impressed and influenced by the psychological dimensions uncovered by the study. One practitioner-oriented article stressed that "you can gauge [your] customers' wants" by motivation research studies" ([22] Gustafson, 1958).

Enter the 1960s: the birth of consumer behavior

As the 1960s entered, motivation research received considerably less media attention. The academic journals, for example, came to prefer more quantitative approaches; they were newer - and they were now in vogue. The practitioner publications avoided motivation research as old hat. One could think that it had died out - but that would be very wrong. Motivation research continued to be used by practitioners; in fact, its use increased ([5] Collins, 1970; [32] Levy, 2003, [33] 2005).

The feeling that some had articulated in the mid- to late-1950s - the feeling that motivation research was just getting started, that it had a great deal of growth ahead of it ([2] Brown, 1955; [41] Newman, 1957) - was proven accurate.

In 1961 a young academic published an article praising motivation research in a regional journal ([8] Engel, 1961). His name was James Engel, the single most important person in founding the discipline of consumer behavior ([26] Kassarjian, 2012). Seven years after his article on motivation research Engel was the lead author on the pioneering textbook on consumer behavior ([9] Engel et al. , 1968). The book's organization of topics - psychology, sociology, and anthropology - has continued to be used by most consumer behavior texts. This organization of topics was taken from motivation research. In 1968 Engel also organized a conference, which for the first time brought together all the disparate people who were working on behavior by consumers.

Many of these people were fairly new to the field of marketing. Some had come in after 1959 as the field of academic marketing opened up to newer perspectives, including heavily quantitative approaches such as operations research. The seminal [43] Pierson (1959) and [20] Gordon and Howell (1959) reports had decried the "descriptive" nature of much academic research in Marketing, and both reports strongly advocated more analytical work. No reports before or since have had anything like the impact of these two. There was a wave of newer, analytical approaches; the careers of the traditional "descriptive" researchers rapidly declined.

After 1959 there was an explosion in the volume of academic publications exploring various aspects of consumer behavior. [21] Guest's (1960) article on "consumer psychology" for example describes 96 publications, most of them journal articles. Four years later, writing for on the same topic for the same annual review, [48] Twedt (1964a) examines 172 recent publications dealing with "consumer psychology".

Some researchers continued to utilize motivation research (e.g. [34] Lockley, 1963, [35] 1964). Some veteran motivation researchers - for examples Dik Warren Twedt and Steuart Henderson Britt - continued active, but now publishing sometimes in academic media such as the Journal of Marketing (e.g. [49] Twedt, 1964b; [1] Britt, 1960). Most of the new people used different approaches to explore consumer behavior - which suddenly seemed to be a neglected and very promising field. They approached the subject with a variety of perspectives, many of them different from the research done by most - but not all - motivation researchers (e.g. [13] Frank, 1962; [40] Morrison, 1966; [37] Maffei, 1960). Most of the new people were affiliated with universities; few motivation researchers had been. But they more and more explored consumer behavior, especially its psychological dimensions. By late in the decade it was possible to talk about an emerging discipline of consumer behavior (e.g. [36] McNeal, 1969; chapter 37).

Whatever their approach, all of these researchers built upon the pioneering work done by motivation researchers, who had been seriously studying consumer behavior since the 1940s, at a time when university social scientists disdained doing "commercial", practical work - and marketing professors might specialize in the details of marketing oranges ([7] Cundiff, 1983).

Motivation research had opened up the whole field for marketing academics. It focused squarely on the topic of consumer behavior - especially consumer attitudes and motives for buying - which had been neglected by marketing. After 1959 the focus on consumer behavior was picked up by a growing number of marketing scholars as well as people from other disciplines such as psychology and sociology and, eventually, anthropology. Motivation research brought the growing expertise of the social sciences to bear on consumer behavior.

Studies in Business Policy

The Technique of Marketing Research

References

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6. Converse, P.D. and Huegy, H. (1952), The Elements of Marketing, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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18. Gardner, B.B. (1959), "The ABC of motivation research", Business Topics, No. 7, pp. 35-41.

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25. Karesh, M.A. (1995), "The social scientific origins of symbolic consumer research: social research", in Rassuli, K.M., Hollander, S.C. and Nevett, T.R. (Eds), Marketing History Conference Proceedings, Vol. VII, pp. 95-111.

26. Kassarjian, H. (2012), personal interview with the author, May 23.

27. Krugman, H. and 1957, . (1956), "An historical note on motivation research", The Public Opinion Quarterly, No. 20, pp. 719-23.

28. Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1934), "The psychological aspect of market research", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 54-71.

29. Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1937), "The use of detailed interviews in market research", The Journal of Marketing, No. 2, pp. 3-8.

30. Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1943), "Depth interviewing", unpublished talk given at the Market Research Council, New York City, October 15.

31. Levy, S. (1959), "Symbols for sale", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 37, pp. 117-24.

32. Levy, S. (2003), "Roots of marketing and of consumer research at the University of Chicago", Consumption, Markets and Culture, No. 6, pp. 99-110.

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38. Martineau, P. (1957), Motivation in Advertising, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

39. Morgan, J. (1958), "A review of recent research on consumer behavior", in Clark, L.H. (Ed.), Consumer Behavior: Research on Consumer Reactions, Harper, New York, NY, pp. 93-218.

40. Morrison, D.G. (1966), "Interpurchase time and brand loyalty", Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 3, pp. 289-92.

41. Newman, J.W. (1957), Motivation Research and Marketing Management, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA.

42. Packard, V. (1957), The Hidden Persuaders, Macmillan, London.

43. Pierson, F. (1959), The Education of American Businessmen, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

44. Schreier, F.T. and Wood, A.J. (1948), "Motivation analysis in market research", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, pp. 172-82.

45. Scriven, L.E. (1958), "Rationality and irrationality in motivation research", Motivation and Market Behavior, R.D. Irwin, Homewood, IL, pp. 64-72.

46. Smith, G.H. (1954), Motivation Research in Advertising and Marketing, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

47. Tadajewski, M. (2006), "Remembering motivation research", Marketing Theory, Vol. 6, pp. 429-66.

48. Twedt, D.W. (1964a), "Consumer psychology", Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 16, pp. 265-94.

49. Twedt, D.W. (1964b), "How important to marketing strategy is the 'heavy user'?", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 28, pp. 71-2.

50. Wheeler, F.C., Bader, L. and Frederick, J.G. (eds) (1937), , New York, NY, McGraw-Hill.

51. Whyte, W.H. (1953), "The consumer in the new suburbia", in Clark, L.H. (Ed.), Consumer Behavior, New York University Press, New York, NY, pp. 1-14.

52. Whyte, W.H. (1954), "The web of word of mouth", Fortune, p. 140.

53. Wolf, H.A. (ed) (1955), Motivation Research, A New Aid to Understanding Your Market: A Research Report, Motivation Research Associates, Boston, MA.

54. Woodward, J.L. (1950), "Depth interviewing", The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, pp. 721-4.

55. Wulfeck, J.W. and Bennett, E.M. (1954), Te Language of Dynamic Psychology: As Related to Motivation Research, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

   

Further Reading

1. Cheskin, L. (1962), Basis for Marketing Decision through Controlled Motivation Research, Business Publications, London.

2. Ferber, R. (1955), "Projective techniques from an analytical point of view", in Ferber, R. (Ed.), Motivation and Market Behavior, R.D. Irwin, Homewood, IL, pp. 133-42.

3. Frederick, J.G. (1958), Introduction to the New Science and Art of Motivation Research, Derek Bell Publishing, Liverpool.

4. Goode, M. (1958), "Motivation research in public relations", Public Relations Journal, pp. 9-14.

5. Henry, H. (1958), Motivation Research, Its Practice and Uses for Advertising, McGraw-Hill, London.

Appendix

About the author

Ronald A. Fullerton has been writing on marketing's history for over 30 years. He is currently teaching at the American University of Nigeria. Previous posts include the American University in Cairo, the University of the South Pacific, and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Ronald A. Fullerton can be contacted at: [email protected]

  

Illustration

Table I: Major motivation research leaders and organizations

  

Table II: Techniques employed in some major MR projects