Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 in Vienna – 21 November 1991 in Peekskill, New York) was an American psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research".
Dichter pioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and techniques to business — in particular to the study of consumer behavior in the marketplace.
As America entered the 1950s, the decade of heightened commodity fetishism, Dichter offered consumers moral permission to embrace sex and consumption, and forged a philosophy of corporate hedonism, which he thought would make people immune to dangerous totalitarian ideas.
However, by working part-time as a tutor, retail-store window decorator and other odd jobs, he was able to educate himself and attended the Sorbonne in Paris where he studied literature.
[6][7] In 1939, soon after arriving in the US, Dichter sent out a cover letter describing himself as: "a young psychologist from Vienna ... with some interesting new ideas which can help you be more successful, effective, sell more and communicate better.
"[8] One of his first clients was the Compton Agency who invited him to work on a campaign for Ivory Soap, a Procter & Gamble product.
Dichter likened the convertible to a mistress, while the sedate, comfortable sedan which most people purchased was associated with a wife.
[10] Dichter's work on the Chrysler campaign caught the attention of the US trade press who picked up on the story of the wife or mistress.
The slogan, "Put a tiger in your tank" was built around the insight that consumers associate motor vehicles with power.
Between the late 1930s and the 1960s, Dichter worked on hundreds of advertising campaigns, packaging ideas and product designs - from cake mixes to typewriters.
[15] Rather than use these methods to treat neuroses, he used them to understand unconsciously held beliefs and attitudes that help to explain why people behave in certain ways.
To do this, he gathered together small groups whose members were typical of the target audience and interviewed them to uncover their desires and predispositions to a product or brand.
[20] According to a 1998 article in The New York Times, he "was the first to coin the term focus group and to stress the importance of product image and persuasion in advertising".
In Vance Packard's book on Dichter and his practices, Packard recalls meeting Dichter in his castle and finding children watching televisions while resident psychologists, crouching behind special screens secretly filmed and studied their every action so that they could inform advertisers how to manipulate their unconscious minds.