Abstract
This chapter discusses projective techniques, an increasingly popular formative research method in social marketing. Projective techniques involve the provision of ambiguous and indirect stimuli such as images or stories to research participants to encourage them to project their own experience onto the stimuli. Projective techniques may also rely on participant-provided stimuli. In marketing and consumer behaviour research, five main categories of projective techniques have been identified: association, completion, construction, expressive and choice ordering. The case study included in the second part of this chapter showcases a research project that uses a construction technique, namely collages, to explore the sensitive relationship between alcohol consumption and sexual behaviour among university students.
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Key Internet Sources
Qualitative mind: http://www.qualitativemind.com/projective-techniques/
SAGE research methods: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909.n342, http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985529, http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412985543
The Association for Qualitative Research: http://www.aqr.org.uk/glossary/projective-and-enabling-techniques
Key Readings
Boddy, C. R. & Croft, R. (2011). Special issue of Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 13(4).
Donoghue, S. (2000). Projective techniques in consumer research. Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences, 28, 47–53.
Rook, D. W. (2006). Let’s pretend: projective methods reconsidered. In R. Belk (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative research methods (pp. 143–155). Northampton, MA: Elgar Publishing.
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Kubacki, K., Siemieniako, D. (2017). Projective Techniques. In: Kubacki, K., Rundle-Thiele, S. (eds) Formative Research in Social Marketing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1829-9_10
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