Ernest Dichter
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Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907, Vienna – 21 November 1991, Peekskill, New York) was an American-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational research."
He received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1934 and emigrated with his wife Hedy (née Langfelder) to the United States in 1937. In 1946 he founded the Institute for Motivational Research in Croton-on-Hudson, New York (later in his home in Peekskill) and in the succeeding years founded similar institutes in Switzerland and Germany.
Dichter pioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and techniques to business — in particular to the study of consumer behavior in the marketplace. Ideas he established were a significant influence on the practices of the advertising industry in the twentieth century. According to a New York Times article in 1998, he "was the first to coin the term focus group and to stress the importance of image and persuasion in advertising".
Dichter is credited with originating the Exxon slogan "Put a tiger in your tank" in collaboration with Chicago advertising copywriter Frederick D. ("Sandy") Sulcer.
Publications
Dichter was the author of 17 books, including:
- The Handbook of Consumer Motivations
- Motivating Human Behavior
- The Naked Manager
- Packaging, the Sixth Sense?: a guide to identifying consumer motivation
- Total Self-Knowledge
- Getting Motivated
- The Strategy of Desire
- How Hot a Manager Are You?
- Marketing Plus: finding the hidden gold in the market place
See also
- Thomas Dichter (Son)
- The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard (1956) contains many references to Dichter and his findings.
- Edward Bernays (Nephew of Sigmund Freud and the creator of the field of Public Relations, a marketing concept similar to motivational research in its inspiration by psychoanalytical theory)
