Catterall (1998) notes that the way market research is taught is
functionalist, technical and narrow-minded, as if market research does not
exist within the wider world of historical and societal events. It is perhaps
not surprising, then, given this vocational training background, that
market researchers ignore their roots, says Catterall, and are largely
ignorant of the history behind and intellectual underpinnings of research
practices and techniques. This gap in historical and intellectual knowledge
may explain the lack of explanation in market research of the analysis,
reliability and validity of projective and enabling techniques. This paper
hopes to start to fill that gap and to suggest some areas for further research.