The effective nature of projective techniques in political brand image research

This study explores the effectiveness of qualitative projective techniques to explore the corporate political brand image of Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf party [PTI] from a multiple-stakeholder perspective. This study addresses core gaps in projective techniques research of eliciting responses from a large cross-section of multiple stakeholders in varied non-western contexts. A qualitative interpretivist approach was adopted. More specifically, expressive projective techniques were embedded within focus group discussions. Nine focus group discussions (comprising 37 participants) were carried out in Karachi and Lahore (Pakistan) from June to November 2020. Each focus group lasted 60 to 90 minutes. A six-phased contextualist thematic analytical approach was employed to interpret the findings generated from the projective techniques and subsequent discussions. Projective techniques were established as an efficient and effective tool for exploring corporate political brand image research in Pakistan. The leadership element of the corporate political brand trinity was revealed to be larger than policies and party and it had both positive associations as well as being perceived as opportunistic. Policies were associated with dissatisfaction and incompetence whereas, the party element of the brand was viewed as ineffective and a subordinate brand. This study addresses explicit calls for further insights and research on the use of projective techniques in dynamic contexts and settings. In addition, this research adds to the limited understanding of the choice of stimuli and appraisal of projective techniques. Finally, this study provides a systematic ten-step guide entitled the projective techniques toolkit which outlines how to successfully conduct research using projective techniques. This research and developed toolkit will benefit practitioners and academics alike.