Compare methods

	ZMET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique)	Neuromarketing with EEG
Field	Marketing	Marketing
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1995	2015
Originator	Gerald Zaltman (with Robin Higie Coulter)	Hilke Plassmann, Vinod Venkatraman, Scott Huettel & Carolyn Yoon; Richard Davidson (frontal asymmetry)
Type	Image-based depth-interview pipeline for eliciting deep metaphors	Neurophysiological measurement pipeline for consumer response
Seminal source	Zaltman, G. (2003). How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN: 9781578518265	Plassmann, H., Venkatraman, V., Huettel, S., & Yoon, C. (2015). Consumer Neuroscience: Applications, Challenges, and Possible Solutions. Journal of Marketing Research, 52(4), 427-435.
Aliases	Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, Metaphor Elicitation, Deep Metaphor Research, Image-Based Consumer Interviewing	Consumer Neuroscience, EEG Neuromarketing, Neuro-Ad Testing, Brain-Based Advertising Measurement
Related	3	3
Summary	The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is a qualitative consumer-research method that uses images and metaphor to surface the deep, often non-conscious thoughts and feelings that drive how people relate to a brand, product, or experience. Developed by Gerald Zaltman and applied with Robin Higie Coulter, it rests on the premises that most communication is non-verbal, that thought is image-based and metaphorical, and that much of what shapes behavior lies below conscious awareness. Participants gather their own pictures representing their feelings about a topic before a lengthy depth interview, in which a trained interviewer probes the stories behind the images to move from surface metaphors to a small set of universal deep metaphors such as balance, transformation, connection, and journey. Across participants, the elicited constructs and their connections are combined into a consensus map of the shared mental model. Zaltman's 2003 book How Customers Think and the 1995 Journal of Advertising Research article with Coulter set out the technique and its rationale. ZMET aims to hear the voice of the customer in the visual, metaphorical terms in which people actually think.	Neuromarketing, or consumer neuroscience, applies brain-imaging and biometric measurement to study how consumers respond to advertising, products, brands, and prices. Electroencephalography (EEG) is its most widely used tool because it records electrical activity from scalp electrodes with millisecond resolution, capturing the rapid dynamics of attention and emotion as a stimulus unfolds. From the cleaned signal, researchers derive indices such as frontal alpha asymmetry, which Richard Davidson's work links to approach versus withdrawal motivation, along with engagement ratios from beta, alpha, and theta power and event-related potentials time-locked to stimulus events. These neural measures are often combined with autonomic biometrics such as galvanic skin response and heart rate, and with fMRI in lab settings, to triangulate emotional arousal and valence. Plassmann, Venkatraman, Huettel, and Yoon's 2015 Journal of Marketing Research article set out the legitimate applications and the methodological challenges of this field. The promise is to capture moment-to-moment, non-conscious responses that consumers cannot or will not verbalize, while the discipline insists those signals be interpreted cautiously and validated against behavior.