The first published study where projective techniques were applied
to consumer research was the Haire’s shopping list study, in
which consumers were asked to describe people using two shopping
lists that differed in the type of coffee they included (Haire,
1950; Steinmann, 2009). This type of study has been replicated
many times decades ago, and although some limitations have been
stated, the findings indicate that this approach is useful to better
understand consumers’ behaviour (Anderson, 1978; Lane & Watson,
1975; Steinmann, 2009; Webster & von Pechmann, 1970).
However, despite the potentialities of projective techniques in
consumer research, few studies have been published comparing
results from different techniques in a specific food product. This
could be explained by the fact that much qualitative work is never
published since it is performed by marketing companies or within
big companies.