Ernest Dichter was an American psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research".
21 Facts About Ernest Dichter
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Ernest Dichter promised the "mobilisation and manipulation of human needs as they exist in the consumer".
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Ernest Dichter was born to Jewish family on 14 August 1907 in Vienna.
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Ernest Dichter was the eldest of three sons of Wilhelm Dichter, a small businessman, and Mathilde Kurtz.
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Ernest Dichter received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1934.
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In 1937, while working at the institute, Ernest Dichter was arrested and interrogated for four weeks.
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Ernest Dichter realised that as a Jew with a record as a subversive, it would be virtually impossible to find work in Vienna.
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Ernest Dichter and his wife fled to Paris, but soon realised that France was a dangerous place for a Jewish family.
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In that project, Ernest Dichter relied on depth interviews where people talked about their experience of bathing.
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Ernest Dichter was hired by Chrysler Corporation to help sell Plymouth cars.
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Ernest Dichter likened the convertible to a mistress, while the sedate, comfortable sedan which most people purchased was associated with a wife.
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Between the late 1930s and the 1960s, Ernest Dichter worked on hundreds of advertising campaigns, packaging ideas and product designs - from cake mixes to typewriters.
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Ernest Dichter borrowed techniques used in psychology; depth interviews, projective techniques and observational research methods and applied them in new ways.
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In contrast to standard market research methods of the time which sought to quantify what consumers were doing, Ernest Dichter was interested in why consumers made given purchase decisions.
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An oft-cited example of Ernest Dichter's studies is an understanding of why people use cigarette lighters.
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Ernest Dichter's work was central to the development of the idea of brand image.
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Ernest Dichter died on 21 November 1991 in Peekskill, New York.
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Scholars have questioned whether Ernest Dichter was truly responsible for the development of motivational research or whether he was its greatest proponent.
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Ernest Dichter certainly positioned himself as a revolutionary in the consumer research movement of the post-war period.
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Ernest Dichter was named Man of the Year by Market Research Council in 1983.
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Ernest Dichter authored 17 books, numerous articles and contributed many chapters to books on advertising and market research:.