Laddering

Laddering is a qualitative research technique in which the interviewer asks a series of questions with the aim of identifying higher order drivers of consumer decision making. This entry describes the theoretical foundations of laddering, elaborates its implementation, and discusses different applications.

The laddering method is derived from means-end theory. Central to means-end theory is the notion that individual behavior is driven by personal values or end states that individuals strive for in their lives. It draws on insights from motivation and cognitive psychology and is premised on the belief that product or service attributes serve as a means to satisfy individuals’ higher level consequences (functional and psychosocial) that derive their importance from satisfying personal values or goals. The following means-end chain from a car purchasing context shows a ladder as a sequence of elements at all four levels of abstraction:

• powerful engine (product attribute)
• ride comfort and sporty handling (functional consequences)
• confidence (emotional consequence)
• a comfortable life/hedonism (personal values).

The goal of the laddering interviewing procedure is to uncover how respondents translate attributes of products or services into the motivating elements that define why they are personally relevant. Moving respondents up the “ladder of abstraction” from attributes to functional and psychosocial consequences to personal values requires experienced interviewers to follow a general questioning protocol.

In a first step, personally meaningful service attributes are identified using elicitation-questioning techniques such as distinguishing between and among brands of products or services. In a second step, the facilitator uses a series of probes for each of the attributes elicited, typified by asking different versions of the question “Why is this important to you?” This continues until complete ladders with verbatim responses at all levels of abstraction are obtained.

Analyzing the laddering data across a sample of customers starts with a coding process in which each response is classified and assigned to the four levels. Subsequently, a summary table is constructed that indicates the number of linkages between the elements. Finally, the dominant associations within the summary table can be graphically represented in decision maps or hierarchical value maps. Overall, the qualitative data collection and analysis of the laddering technique enables the researcher to reveal the customers’ way of thinking and represent a discovery process. Therefore, hard-laddering advances that aim to standardize the process with self-administered questionnaires have generally been viewed critically. In contrast to the more widely used qualitative approach, hard laddering makes it impossible to detect the perceptual processing by the respondent.

[Page 944]Originally, laddering was developed within marketing to uncover drivers of consumer decision making. Within-marketing laddering has been most commonly used to design and develop new products, to improve marketing and advertising strategies, and to understand consumer satisfaction and choice. Additionally, laddering has been applied widely across a substantive number of research domains, ranging from American presidential politics to environmental behavior to health and safety issues.

The laddering technique has been criticized as a time-consuming and expensive technique as well as for its lack of standard statistical measures to assess data and solution quality. Online approaches based on new technologies might help to overcome some of these obstacles.

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