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The consumer on the couch
What makes soap interesting? Why choose one brand over another? Dichter’s first contract was with the Compton Advertising Agency, to help them sell Ivory soap. Market research typically involved asking shoppers questions like “Why do you use this brand of soap?” Or, more provocatively, “Why don’t you use this brand of soap?” Regarding such lines of inquiry as useless, Dichter instead conducted a hundred so-called “depth interviews”, or open-ended conversations, about his subjects’ most recent scrubbing experiences.
The approach was not unlike therapy, with Dichter mining the responses for encoded, unconscious motives and desires. In the case of soap, he found that bathing was a ritual that afforded rare moments of personal indulgence, particularly before a romantic date (“You never can tell,” explained one woman). He discerned an erotic element to bathing, observing that “one of the few occasions when the puritanical American [is] allowed to caress himself or herself [is] while applying soap.” As for why customers picked a particular brand, Dichter concluded that it wasn’t exactly the smell or price or look or feel of the soap, but all that and something else besides—that is, the gestalt or “personality” of the soap.
This was a big idea. Dichter understood that every product has an image, even a “soul”, and is bought not merely for the purpose it serves but for the values it seems to embody. Our possessions are extensions of our own personalities, which serve as a “kind of mirror which reflects our own image”.


A. 어휘
couch 소파. provocatively 자극적으로, 도발적으로. inquiry 질문.
open-ended 개방적인. subjects 피실험자.
scrub 북북 문지르다, 빨다, 洗淨(세정)하다. scrubbing experiences 빨래경험.
therapy 치료. mine 갱도를 파다, 採掘(채굴)하다.
encoded 암호화된, 기호화된. motives 動機(동기). ritual 儀式(의식), 祭禮(제례).
afford 공급하다, 할 수 있게 하다. indulgence 耽溺(탐닉), 은혜, 방종.
discern 식별하다, 알아보다. occasions 기회, 경우, 행사, 儀式(의식).
puritanical 청교도적인. caress 애무하다, 쓰다듬다.
As for ...에 관해서는. besides 게다가, 그 외에. gestalt 형태, 심리적 총체.
personality 個性(개성), 인성. embody 구현하다. possessions 소유물.
extensions 延長(연장).