Ernest Dichter and Motivation Research: New Perspectives on the Making of Post-war Consumer Culture

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Table......Page 9
Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 10
Notes on Contributors......Page 11
Part I: Introduction......Page 14
1 Ernest Dichter, Motivation Research and the ‘Century of the Consumer’......Page 16
Part II: Dimensions of Ernest Dichter’s Work and Personality......Page 52
2 From Vienna to the United States and Back: Ernest Dichter and American Consumer Culture......Page 54
3 Ernest Dichter: The Motivational Researcher......Page 71
4 Ernest Dichter, Religion and the Spirit of Capitalism: An Exegete of Pure Cult Religion Serves Consumer......Page 88
5 Ernest Dichter and Consumer Behaviour: Intellectual Primacy and Interpretive Consumer Research......Page 104
Part III: The Branding of Consumer Life – Case Studies on Ernest Dichter’s Work......Page 120
6 Ernest Dichter’s Studies on Automobile Marketing......Page 122
7 Ernest Dichter and the Peacock Revolution: Motivation Research, the Menswear Market and the DuPont Company......Page 139
8 The ‘Sex of Food’: Ernest Dichter, Libido and American Food Advertising......Page 153
9 Patriarch or Promoter of the Women’s Movement? Ernest Dichter and his Interpretation of the Female Image......Page 168
Part IV: The European Theatre......Page 184
10 Ernest Dichter as Midwife and Educator: Post-war European Consumer Societies and the Sociology of the Consumer......Page 186
11 A Backward Republic or ‘Brave New Austria’? Market and Motivation Research in Dichter’s Home Country after the Second World War......Page 201
12 The Reception of Ernest Dichter and the Resistance to Motivation Research in Francophone Europe......Page 218
13 Ernest Dichter Motivates the British: Motivation Research and Contested Professional Legitimacies in Britain......Page 233
14 The ‘Depth Boy’ – Ernest Dichter and the Post-war German Advertising Elite......Page 249
15 ‘Victim of a Technical Hitch . . .’: Ernest Dichter as Proprietor of a Guesthouse with Bugging Installation......Page 269
Part V: Conclusion......Page 280
16 Motivation Research – Episode or Paradigm Shift? From Ernest Dichter to Consumer Ethnography, Neuromarketing and Bio-power......Page 282
Index......Page 304