Nature and Scope

Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 is a database of primary sources drawn primarily from the Ernest Dichter collection at Hagley Museum and Library. This resource has been designed to provide a unique insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century through the market research reports and supporting documents of Ernest Dichter, the era’s foremost consumer analyst and market research pioneer, and his consulting firm The Institute for Motivational Research, Inc. The collection provides an insight into the American consumer boom of the mid-20th century, containing thousands of reports commissioned by advertising agencies and global businesses in the era of ‘Madison Avenue’ advertising and global brands on consumer goods ranging from tobacco and broadcasting to cars and hotels.

Immensely influential, Dichter’s Freud-inspired studies put the consumer “on the couch” and emphasised the unconscious motives behind consumer behaviour. The Institute of Motivational Research employed trained social scientists and used established methodologies to conduct psychological research. Dichter’s career reached its peak after Vance Packard’s bestselling exposé The Hidden Persuaders (1957) presented Dichter as a mastermind manipulator who could exploit the emotions of consumers for the benefit of any advertising agency or big brand.

The work of Dichter and his Institute for Motivational Research provided the building blocks for many of the great campaigns of advertising’s golden age – including Exxon’s famous “put a tiger in your tank” campaign and the slogan “bet you can’t just eat one” for Frito-Lays – as well as facilitating the successful introduction of Mattel’s Barbie Doll. The Advertising Gallery, featuring advertisements from The Advertising Archives and the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, displays the campaigns of some of the most iconic companies and brands that worked with the Institute.

This collection will provide researchers of consumer culture, business, advertising, marketing and psychology with a wealth of documentation. The wide variety of industries featured will allow for diverse – and multilateral – approaches from a range of academic disciplines.

To find out more about discovering documents relevant to your research, please read the Searching Guide.

In 1938 Ernest Dichter (1907-1991) moved to the United States from Vienna to begin his career in market research. After working on short-term consulting projects and as part of large advertising agencies and organisations, Dichter finally established his own consulting firm in 1946, located in New York. Unlike his contemporaries, Dichter’s techniques were largely qualitative, focusing on depth interviews and projective tests rather than simple surveys. These methods enabled The Institute for Motivational Research, Inc. to discover consumers’ innermost secrets and taboos, and the deeper meaning behind a product or service. In pioneering this approach Dichter became infamous as one of the most astute marketing moguls of the twentieth century. 

The 1950s marked the heyday of motivational research in America, and Dichter’s work soon expanded to offices in Paris (1958), Rome (1959), Zurich (1968), and Frankfurt (1970). From these branches The Institute produced reports for a wide range of businesses and brands, which is reflected in the collection’s Industries list. 

Ernest Dichter’s papers, including his reports, business correspondence, and notes, were donated to the Hagley Museum and Library by the Dichter family in 2007. Another collection of Dichter material, much of which came from his European offices, is also housed at the University of Vienna. The Hagley reports make up the bulk of Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 and an Advertising Gallery of twentieth-century advertising prints has been created to showcase some of the most iconic companies, brands and campaigns that can be found within them. The Hagley Library's finding aid can be found here, where you can search the original collection. 

Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 contains vital collections from the following archives and libraries: 

• Hagley Museum and Library 
• The Advertising Archives
• John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History (Duke University) 

Due to the nature of these sources, graphic images and written accounts featuring racism and misogyny can be found in this resource.  

Please also note that, due to the period in which the primary sources in this resource were produced, some do contain language and terminology that is outdated, derogatory and offensive by modern standards. Learn more about our approach to terminology in this resource in the Language Statement.

The primary sources in this database consist of the following document types:  

• Proposals 

• Pilot Studies 

• Reports 

• Memorandums 

• Letters 

• Supporting Material 

The work that The Institute for Motivational Research was commissioned to carry out can be traced through each of these six document types. 

Proposals were often drafted by the team and sent out to companies in an attempt to secure accounts and the large number of individual proposals that feature in the collection therefore suggest incomplete or unsuccessful pitches. If an arrangement was agreed upon, however, companies may then have chosen to have a pilot study produced before the research progressed to its full stage. These featured a smaller number of respondents or tests and allowed for the company to focus on a specific aspect of the research going forward. 

Reports make up the bulk of the collection and there could often be several of these produced over a number of months for each company or brand. Letters, memorandums and supporting material would also feature alongside these studies to refer to the progress or outcomes of the research. The various documents within the collection that contributed to the same account have been linked to one another so that the different stages of the research process can be easily explored. 

Industries have been attributed to documents in Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 as metadata tags to enhance browsing functionality. Use the filters in View Documents to focus on documents relevant to your research, and visit Industries for more contextual information. 

Ernest Dichter and The Institute for Motivational Research employed a number of techniques within their reports, and the particular methods used can be found in the metadata for each document. Methods included both secondary research, such as analysis of the literature, and primary research, including the techniques listed below. 

• Interview 

• Focus Group 

• Case Study 

• Test 

• Questionnaire 

• Diary Study 

• Consultation 

• Mattel Toys 

• AT&T 

• American Airlines 

• American Tobacco Company 

• Esso 

• Disney 

• Ford 

• Nestlé 

• Kraft Foods 

• CBS 

• Heinz 

• Playtex 

The metadata accompanying the documents in Market Research and American Business, 1935-1965 has been drawn from library and archive catalogues, with additional data supplemented by the AM team to facilitate browsing and searching.

The metadata fields added by AM include:  

• Document Type 

• Company 

• Brand 

• Industry 

• Method 

• Keywords 

• Additional Information 

In some cases, edits or additions have been made to metadata taken from the library and archive catalogues to improve searchability and to ensure that the language and terminology is aligned with our current editorial guidelines. This is true for the following metadata fields:  

• Title 

• Commissioned By 

• Conducted By 

For more information on language and terminology within this resource, please see our Language Statement.  

A variety of research tools provide further contextual information or guidance for teaching and research. From essays and business biographies, to case studies and teaching resources, explore the options under Research Tools or view the full list in Teaching Tools.