The power of metaphors
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see."
The boxing legend Muhammad Ali used this language to describe his fighting style before getting in the ring with Sonny Liston in 1964. And there is a reason why it became iconic almost overnight and has stuck with people for so long: it is vivid and precise imagery. The animal metaphors clearly - and beautifully - paint a picture of Ali in our minds as a graceful yet lethal boxer.

Metaphors are more than just literary devices; they are a fundamental way in which humans understand the world. By linking abstract concepts to familiar experiences, metaphors help us make sense of complex or unfamiliar ideas.
It's this concept-to-experience link that makes metaphors an effective tool in marketing and advertising. It's also why getting rid of said metaphors can cause so much controversy. Talking about Jaguar's recent decision to part ways with the 'leaper' (jumping jaguar) in their new logo, renowned marketing professor Scott Galloway had this to say: "To take the greatest visual metaphor in automotive history and kill it is to destroy shareholder value. It’s the essence of CMO malpractice. It’s just as stupid and wasteful as if Disney responded to a spate of weak releases by taking Mickey, Moana, Darth Vader, and Elsa out and shooting them." Yikes.
In the realm of consumer research, metaphors allow us to tap into the underlying emotions and thoughts that drive consumer behavior. For instance, when someone says, "Buying insurance feels like navigating a maze," they're obviously not describing a literal experience - but they're clearly conveying confusion, frustration, and a sense of being lost. It's amazing how one word - maze - can be so effective in bringing intensely-felt emotions about something as banal as insurance to life.
Metaphors reveal deeper insights into the consumer experience that traditional questioning might miss. Fortunately for us in market research, there is a technique that is readily available to tap into these deeper insights: the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, or ZMET.
What is ZMET and how to use it
The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was developed by Gerald Zaltman in the early 1990’s and is a powerful market research tool designed to uncover the underlying thoughts and emotions consumers associate with products, services, or experiences. ZMET does this by exploring the metaphors people use, which can reveal both conscious and unconscious beliefs.
Here’s how ZMET typically works:
Image selection: participants are asked to select or bring in images that represent their feelings or thoughts about a particular topic. These images are often symbolic rather than literal.
Storytelling: participants then explain the significance of each image through storytelling, describing what the image means to them in the context of the research topic.
Metaphor probing: researchers dig deeper into the stories by asking probing questions such as, "If this image could speak, what would it say?" or "If this experience were an animal, what would it be and why?"
Image construction: in some cases, participants create a collage of images that encapsulate their feelings and thoughts, helping to visualize the connections between their ideas.
Spontaneous questioning: a researcher may ask someone spontaneously and directly to lean on a metaphor to describe their experience, especially if they are struggling to formulate an answer.
Interpretation: researchers analyze the images, stories, and metaphors to identify recurring themes and deeper insights.
The ZMET technique excels at capturing the complex and often unconscious ways consumers think about and engage with brands, products, or services. As we explore in the next section below, there isn’t one way to employ metaphor elicitation techniques, making them a highly-versatile research tool.
Great for both qualitative and quantitative approaches
ZMET’s versatility makes it suitable for both qualitative and quantitative research.
In qualitative research, ZMET provides rich, nuanced insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors. It allows researchers to explore the underlying emotions and associations that consumers may not be able to express directly, offering a deeper understanding of their perceptions and experiences. Metaphors often rise naturally in conversation (variations of “I have butterflies in my stomach” to express nervousness come to mind), so qualitative researchers should be encouraged to bring it up naturally when talking to people in a focus group or interview. Do you notice someone struggling to convey an idea? Ask them to try a metaphor.
In quantitative research, the technique can be adapted to fit a range of survey tools and methodologies. For instance, researchers can incorporate metaphor-based questions into surveys, asking respondents to complete prompts like, "I wish shopping for [product/service] felt more like _____ and less like _____." These metaphorical responses can be quantified, allowing researchers to measure how common certain perceptions are and how they vary across different demographic groups.
Additionally, metaphor-based questions can be used to develop scales or indices that quantify the emotional and cognitive associations consumers have with a product or service.
For example, if a significant number of respondents describe a shopping experience as "like navigating a maze" in a qualitative setting, then this metaphor can be leverage as a metric to assess the complexity and perceived difficulty of the experience in a quantitative survey (e.g., On a scale from 0-10, where 0 is “Like navigating a maze without a map” and 10 is “Like a fun walk in the park”, how would you rate your experience shopping for [product/service]?”)
A few fun examples
To show how ZMET can unlock powerful insights, here are several examples from various research studies:
Shopping for Insurance: in one study, participants compared shopping for insurance to "a root canal" or "buying something in a foreign country where you don't speak the language." These metaphors vividly illustrated the discomfort, confusion, and frustration consumers often feel during the insurance shopping process.
Tech Gadgets: another study found that participants likened using certain tech gadgets to "having a superpower." This metaphor highlighted the sense of empowerment and control these devices provide, offering valuable insights for product developers and marketers.
Choosing a Career: in a study on career decision-making, participants compared choosing a career to "standing at a crossroads without a map." This metaphor revealed the uncertainty and pressure individuals feel when making life-altering decisions, insights that can inform career counseling and education programs.
Banking Services: in research about banking services, some participants likened the experience to "climbing a mountain," reflecting the perceived effort and challenge associated with managing finances. This metaphor underscored the need for more user-friendly banking solutions.
Dining Out: when asked about their dining experiences, participants in one study compared it to "opening a present," suggesting that dining out can be an exciting and delightful experience. This positive metaphor provided insights into what makes certain restaurants stand out in a competitive market.
To wrap it up: the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique is a powerful and flexible tool for uncovering deep consumer insights. By tapping into the metaphors that shape how people think and feel, ZMET allows researchers to explore the complex, often unconscious drivers of consumer behavior.
Whether used in qualitative interviews or adapted for quantitative surveys, ZMET can help unlock the rich, nuanced insights essential for successful market research.
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