Using the Repertory Grid Test

Abstract

The repertory grid test, originally devised by Kelly [1, 2, 3, 9], has found widespread use in marketing research in Great Britain [4, 5, 6, 12, 13], although there is no published evidence of its use by American marketing researchers. It has been used to obtain objectively attitude scale items, or constructs (Kelly's terminology) in the language of the consumer; it has sometimes replaced intensive individual interviews and group discussions. Very little appears to have been written, however, on respondent performance and the nature of items generated. In the test, stimuli in the form of cards depicting products or brands or actual packs, drawings, and the like are presented to respondents. The number of stimuli varies from a minimum of 8 to 10 to a maximum of about 30; 16 to 20 are optimum. An initial screening removes any stimuli unfamiliar to respondents. Stimuli are presented in groups of three, one triad at a time, according to a predetermined random order which ensures that identical triads are never repeated. The respondent is asked to state in which way two stimuli are alike and different from the third, and descriptions for likeness and difference are recorded on a specially designed grid sheet [9, 13]. For the second and subsequent triads the respondent is asked to mention another similarity/difference than the one already mentioned. The process is repeated until the respondent cannot provide any more new items. For example, in the triad Dacron, Orlon, and cotton, a response might be: Dacron and Orlon are man-made fibres, cotton is produced by nature. Slight variations from this standard approach are detailed in [13].