Zaltman metaphor Elicitation Technique(ZMET)

Cognitive science refers to a very broad range of both intertwining and contradictory theories about how thinking works. Some of these theories are conceptually oriented in the sense that they either ascribe conceptual sense-making a central role in cognition or in the sense that they simply investigate how conceptual sense-making works. For the last 30 years it has been common for such theories to focus on metaphors as they relate to human thinking. That is, the idea that metaphors, more than just being aesthetic expressive ‘spice’ to language, are integral to the way we understand and reproduce the world.

Building on such notions, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique is meant to be a method for getting beyond surface thinking and ‘down’ to the underlying thought patterns that reveal how people really feel about product relevant categories. Thus, ideally the technique both provoke interviewees to tell about issues that might not arise in the course of an ordinary interview, and to reveal cognitive patterns that hopefully serve as better predictors of future behaviour than the opinions gathered by direct questioning.

Gerald Zaltman calls the latter ‘tapping into the cognitive unconscious’ because it is a way of helping people articulate ideas that under normal circumstances remain tacit, but nevertheless influential on cognition and behaviour. The general procedure is as follows. Approximately one week before the interview (or series of interviews), participants are asked to find pictures that express how they feel about the topic at hand. These pictures are visual metaphors that introduce topics that the interviewer then tries to dig deeper into. As such the pictures serve as initial probes, which the interviewer investigates further by use of verbal follow up probes. It is important that these follow up probes be open questions based on the ideas expressed by the interviewee and not attempts to affirm the conclusions of the interviewer.

As this procedure stimulates use of metaphoric language it facilitates the identification of core metaphors that underlie the surface discourse. For instance, a company selling a treatment for indigestion had based its communication of the product on the concept of relief. A ZMET study, however, found that the strongest underlying structure guiding consumers thinking about the product was based on the concept of balance. This concept was discovered as a core metaphor behind surface expressions like ‘moderation is the key’, ‘when I eat rich food, I’ll pay for it later’, ‘it’s like being on this seesaw’, etc. After implementing the concept of balance in their communication strategy the company increased its sales (Zaltman, 2003, s. 95).