Editorial

Citation

Tiu Wright, L. (2011), "Editorial", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr.2011.21614baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Volume 14, Issue 2

As a journal of international standing, this issue of QMRIJ contains contributions focusing on different perspectives and methodologies of qualitative research in Italy, Israel and the USA. The authors have contributed strong conceptual and methodological underpinnings for qualitative research from a variety of disciplines. The scope of multidisciplinary perspectives in qualitative thinking are implicit in the collection of papers, where different insights are gained from subject-specific literature and studies of consumers and firms.

The first paper is innovative in the arena of projective techniques. It shows how theory and practice can push boundaries in qualitative research. In using their projective technique to investigate and improve brand image, Luca Cian and Sara Cervai tested a new instrument named Multi-Sensory Sort for capturing symbolic meaning and appeal of the brand image, thereby extending the scope of a brand’s rational and emotional dimensions. The authors argue the case for their technique in assessing non-verbal brand image aspects using instruments from psychology and marketing rather than the application of normal standardised questionnaires with attitude scales to measure brand image. Projective techniques are already an established toolkit in qualitative research as presented in international marketing research textbooks and in published papers, such as those at marketing and market research conferences. The study in this paper sets out a technique with potential for consumer and market research.

A fascinating insight into consumer activities illustrative of their fanaticism levels is presented in the second paper by Scott Thorne. Fans were put into certain categories in order to describe their fanaticism levels supported with literature contributions. The author found that when accessibility to primary materials was finished, the dilettante fan’s interest also waned. However, those who were dedicated and devoted fans maintained their fan levels by using what secondary and tertiary materials they could find. Fandom is a growing, recurring and social phenomenon as evident by online and offline group behaviour in the manifestation of ephemeral interest to extreme cases of cult following. Though there are limitations to this small study, as acknowledged by the author, the paper nonetheless provides both a useful account of and an interesting model in identifying fanaticism levels.

Lewis Hershey and John Branch in “Lexicon Rhetoricae: the narrative theory of Kenneth Burke and its application to marketing”, the third paper identify developmental influences on consumption. The authors discuss Burke’s narrative theory of applications in marketing. While the discussion about Burke can help in clarifying ideas at one level concerning the interacting influences on consumers from what they observe and what they internalise, the contribution of this paper is in providing an interesting theoretical platform for explaining the rich influences placed on consumption from “peripheral contexts” to “formation” of attitudes using a specific type of literature. As the paper indicates with regard to symbolic appeal, its concept focuses on a priori meanings which consumers bring to consumption and how these meanings might be conceptualized. In qualitative market research, what influences consumption and which motivations are created by symbolic appeals to consumers are important questions for consumer research.

The fourth paper by Ram Herstein and Moti Zvilling on “Brand management perspectives in the twenty-first century” focuses on two studies of brand managers in firms. In order to identify what product managers and professional brand managers do, their studies uncovered within the two groups differences and gaps in their short- and long-term tasks. The studies also uncovered decisive factors in their connections with their distributors, significant with the pressures of ongoing relationships. While the authors acknowledge that further research could be validated by carrying out the studies in different countries, this paper makes an effective contribution in regard to the qualitative techniques used for this research and sheds light on an important area of brand management.

A different study about brands is presented in the fifth paper by Monica D. Hernandez and Michael S. Minor. The authors make illuminating contributions to qualitative research on three levels: examining the effect of arousal on brand memory; studying consumers in the growing area of gaming for advergames; and comparing qualitative and quantitative approaches. As the authors make explicit, emotional responses (arousal) online addressed one type of emotional data with a reliance upon self-reporting. So their study of advergaming examined the arousal effect on short-term brand memory by comparisons of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The comparision of qualitatively observed behaviours with physiological data undertaken in the qualitative study and the self-reporting context in the quantitative study is not an easy undertaking, but one which the authors have effectively carried out.

The contribution from Ada Leung in the sixth paper is in showing financial management practices that appear to be compartmentalized for different purposes and thereby having an effect on what she perceives as intergenerational social reproduction. Male gender domination in financial practices has influenced the bigger selection of male individuals in previous studies so the author makes a point of looking beyond the male gender to select her sample of respondents from a wider age range and across social classes. Her findings give an informative flavour about social mobility in financial practices and how this is reflected across social categories, taking into account the literature sources, such as those of Bourdieu. Existing financial management practices, such as attainment of occupational status via education that are least accessible for the working classes and in easy reach for upwardly mobile people, have emerged from her fieldwork.

From theory to practice, applications of disciplines and insights from studies, discussions of literature to social commentaries, this issue has been made possible by the contributions of all the authors and reviewers, as well as the Emerald team involved in its production. I finish this issue by thanking all of you for making it a success.

Len Tiu Wright