The team studying the design of the PT Cruiser read through hundreds of similar stories, looking for clues they could translate into action, said Dave Bostwick, DaimlerChrysler director of corporate market research. But rather than relying on focus groups, as they might have in the past, the team used the"Archetype" research developed by Clotaire Rapaille. Dr. Rapaille, had advised the company on brand issues in the past, but it was the first time they had decided to use his unusual system of brand psychoanalysis on a product.

The process began with a series of free-wheeling, 3-hour sessions in the US and Europe. Participants were asked, with lights dimmed and mood music playing, to drift back to their childhoods and jot down the memories invoked by the prototype PT Cruiser parked in the room.The environment is actually more relaxed than a "standard" focus group and the goal is not to get people to recommend changes but to get them to tap into less tangible feelings via their creative writing. "Sometimes people just don't know how to say what they really think about a vehicle". Creative writing often draws it out.

After the session, Dr. Rapaille and the team from Chrysler poured over the stories with orange and yellow highlighter pens, sleuthing for the emotion sparked by the vehicle. Dr. Rapaille calls it "the reptilian hot button". "Everyone was skeptical" recalls the principal designer of the vehicle's exterior. The results seemed so vague".Yet the research led to major design changes that made the car look more outlandish and the company more confident it would sell.