ZMET

This study explores the food perception of young Taiwanese consumers, a growing market segment in the restaurant industry. An innovative qualitative tool known as the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was employed to elicit deeper thoughts and emotions of young consumers. Twelve Taiwanese from Generation Y were invited to participate in a ZMET interview where they expressed their perceptions concerning food and eating through self-collected images. The data were analyzed using constant comparative method and charted on a consensus map. Five themes have evolved from the consensus map: health, trying new food, sharing, enhancing knowledge, and happiness. Findings reveal that young Taiwanese consumers are health-conscious and have high acceptance of novel food. They perceive food as a means of enjoyment and fostering social relationships. This study has contributed additional perspectives to existing literature by revealing the function of food in enhancing knowledge, as well as unveiling the deep-seated meanings of food associated with consumer's personal relevance values. Marketing implications for the restaurant industry targeting young Taiwanese consumers are proposed.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to gain deeper insight into the meanings that structure and impel consumer choice by overlaying findings from a metaphor elicitation study onto the results of a traditional means‐end laddering study.

Design/methodology/approach
– First, laddering interviews were conducted to elicit the reasons that structure the college choice decision of students. A second study using metaphor elicitation techniques surfaced additional meanings that constitute and connect students' thoughts and feelings about their experiences at the college. Together, the two modes of interviewing yield deeper insight into personal relevance and consumer choice than offered by either alone.

Findings
– Combining two modes of interviewing provides views at various levels of detail. Whereas laddering interviews use direct questioning to identify consumers' choice criteria, projective techniques rely on indirect questioning to surface the enduring and ephemeral feelings that charge consumer beliefs. Panning and zooming from the general structural overview provided by means‐end research to the nuance and detail surfaced by metaphor elicitation provides uncommon insight into the drivers of consumer choice.

Research limitations/implications
– The time, effort, skill, and expense required for data collection, analysis, and interpretation are non‐trivial and may limit adoption of the two study approach.

Practical implications
– The superimposition of metaphoric meanings onto consumer decision maps provides tremendous added value to managers aiming to enhance the creativity, relevance, and effectiveness of their marketing initiatives.

Originality/value
– Melding two interview methods adds depth to means‐end research and lends structure to projective associations. The deeper insights into personal relevance and choice benefit academics and practitioners alike.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perception of Malaysian Chinese towards food and eating by using a qualitative marketing research tool, known as the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique. Twelve Malaysian Chinese were asked to collect photographs that represented their thoughts and feelings about food and eating. The results surfaced six broad meaning themes Malaysian Chinese have about food and eating: (a) health, (b) trying new food, (c) people, (d) home cooked food, (e) enjoyment, and (f) happiness. The findings were supported by rich description and meaningful images that capture both the spoken and tacit thoughts and feelings of the respondents. The findings reflected the health concerns and food neophilia tendency of Malaysian Chinese. The findings also revealed the positive emotional value of food and eating linked to enjoyment and pleasure. These findings suggest numerous important implications for scholars and practitioners in the industry.

Purpose – This paper aims to report a qualitative investigation of perceptions of climate change among young South Koreans to illustrate the benefits of complementary qualitative approaches. Successful marketing communication campaigns require a thorough assessment of the public’s current perceptions and attitudes toward the topic of the campaign. Such insights are most likely attained if a range of research methods are used. However, in the area of pro-environmental campaigns, there has been an over-reliance on quantitative surveys.

Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a variant of the Zaltman Metaphor
Elicitation Technique (ZMET), a hybrid protocol which combines photo elicitation with metaphor analysis of subsequent in-depth individual interviews. Unlike survey research, ZMET uncovers the emotional, interpretive and sensory mental structures which, along with factual knowledge, make up the public mindset about climate change.

Findings – The analysis revealed a multifaceted mental model of climate change, whereby factual, interpretive and emotional knowledge is organized around themes of loss, human greed, affective distress and iconic representations of tragic endings. The causal dynamics of climate change are construed along a continuum of psychological distance, with antecedents placed in proximity and effects assigned to distant temporal, geographical and psychological spaces.

Practical implications – Four message strategies for climate change mitigation campaigns are identified based on the findings.

Originality/value – The study makes a methodological argument for supplementing survey research with image-based qualitative investigations in the formative stages of pro-environmental campaigns. More specifically, the article demonstrates the applicability of ZMET to social marketing communication. Apart from the methodological implications, this appears to be the first in-depth qualitative investigation of public perceptions of climate change in East Asia, a populous and fast developing region which has become a major contributor to the world’s carbon emissions, and an important player in the global effort toward mitigation.

Keywords Climate change, Communication, South Korea, Qualitative, Social marketing, ZMET,
Public mindset