Laddering: how (not) to do things with words

Purpose – This paper seeks to provide a discourse-based critique of the laddering interviewing technique, and to make academics as well as practitioners aware of some of the limitations in applying this particular consumer interviewing technique. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first describes the laddering interviewing technique, which traditionally has been conceptualised within a cognitively-oriented perspective, i.e. the laddering interview is seen as a cognitive task. Then a critical discussion of some of the problems inherent in this view follows. After this, an alternative conceptualisation of the laddering interview is proposed, namely, that it is a discursive event. On the basis of insights from Wittgenstein and Austin it is suggested that the laddering interview is a room for social actions where both interviewer and interviewee are “doing things with words”. An example of applying the discursive approach to a sample sequence from a laddering interview is also provided. Finally, it seeks to evaluate the laddering interviewing technique in terms of its capacity to tap into “the voices in the marketplace”. Findings – Finds that the laddering interviewing technique has its raison d’être as a quick and structured way of tapping into the voices and institutionalised rationales of the consumers in the marketplace. However, it is also found that the laddering interviewing technique “locks” the interviewee into one particular consumer identity; it prompts only answers that are valid with perfect strangers; it prevents the interviewee from unfolding his arguments fully; and it has a constant focus on personal preferences excluding the possible dissociations from other consumers – all of this making the data less rich and varied. Originality/value – The unique value of this paper is that it sums up and provides a theoretically-based critique of the laddering interviewing technique. It is believed that this critique will lead to a more appropriate appreciation of what is going on in a laddering interview and of the utterances that the consumers make in such an interview.