According to this research, nothing! Apparently metaphors for metaphor’s sake don’t change consumers preexisting beliefs. The premise for the research rests on investigating whether metaphors have an impact on consumer belief and if they do, is it simply because of the cross-domain comparison or because of artful deviations in presentation of the topic.
The study, done in the context of ‘exercise’ as a consumer product, identified 6 metaphors from content analysis of advertisements and internet forums of popular fitness magazines in the US: Exercise is heat, Exercise is a journey, Exercise is work for pay, Exercise is construction, Exercise is sculpting and Exercise is combat. After a Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) exercise from data collected among a student population, three metaphors were identified for the study such that they were the most dissimilar on the semantic space: Exercise is a journey (Exercise provides roadmap for my life, Exercise is a step in the right direction), Exercise is work for pay (exercise provides job training for my life, Exercise is a matter of putting in the time) and Exercise is heat (exercise provides the flame for my life, Exercise is a way to turn up the heat).
Without getting into the specifics of the research design and data analysis – it would suffice to say here that study was done using experimental designs and the data was analysis was a simple Generalized Least Squares (GLM) – Repeated Measures ANOVA.
The study has shown that Metaphors by themselves do not have an impact on the beliefs of consumers, but those metaphors that are considered more deviant than others (in this case “Exercise: Flame for life”) helped to change the belief more than the other ad statements in the form of metaphors. Further, it was seen that some consumers with a high ‘metaphorical processing ability’ are more persuaded than others who score low on the trait.
What does a study such as this mean for copywriters? Do they consider the impact of their words and metaphors when constructing their clever copy? Do they consider the eventuality that the metaphors suited to the rural audience in India may sound quite insipid and inane to the urban consumer and vice versa? Do they even wonder about the impact of metaphor vs. a pun vs. a rhyme or are they just looking to sound clever and witty? How often have hackneyed metaphors been used to connect with the consumer?
Maybe a look-see into some of the so-called impractical academic research might help practitioners make more learned decisions?
good post
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