The importance of being ernest: Commemorating Dichter's contribution to advertising research

This article is a tribute to Ernest Dichter, whose introduction of motivation research (MR) left a legacy of ideas that shaped advertising practice and study in the twentieth century.

The Importance of Being Ernest: Commemorating Dichter's Contribution to Advertising Research

Barbara B. SternRutgers. The State University of New Jersey

FOR MUCHof his life (1907–1992), Dichter was acknowledged to be the “father” of motivation research (MR), a name derived from the study of human motives (Williams, 1957). Dichter (1964) built on Freudian psychoanalysis to unearth hidden motivations, defining MR as a research approach that tapped into the consumer's subconscious to discover feelings about products (Wiebe 1958, Williams, 1957). Dichter was hailed as a pioneering change agent (Coolsen, 1947; Savitt, 1980) who introduced “the use of projective techniques...

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