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The purpose of this paper is to focus on a relatively unexplored area of branding literature, which is a study of the social impact of branding upon “tweens,” pre‐adolescent children aged between seven and eleven. Brands promote a desire in consumers that allows a premium price to be commanded. What is the impact upon children from lower socio‐economic groups who may not be able to afford these premium brands?

An exploratory qualitative study involving focus groups with primary school teachers in the UK and Kenya and open‐ended projective questionnaires with primary school children in both countries formed the primary data collection. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis. The research objectives were as follows: to assess the importance of brands in the lives of primary school children and whether the exposure to brands has a positive or negative impact on children; to investigate the social impact of branding on children from low income families from the viewpoint of children and teachers; and to assess the cross‐cultural impact of brands by carrying out a comparative study on children/teachers from Kenya as well as the UK.

Brands can be the cause of social division amongst children resulting in the formation of “in” groups and “out” groups. Those who do not own the right brands may be discriminated against and experience social impacts which include being teased, bullied, having low self esteem and being socially excluded. Their parents also felt the effects through pester power, the guilt of not being able to buy their children the latest brands or by financially struggling to provide these brands for their children. However, positive impacts of branding also emerged from the study.

A brand‐oriented culture impacts upon school life in both developed and developing nations. This is an exploratory study and therefore small sample.

A contribution to address the paucity of research on the negative impact of branding to primary school children.

The purpose of this paper is to further develop the recent discourse surrounding the mainstreaming of fairtrade (FT) products, particularly the concepts of “radical mainstreaming”, “clean‐wash” and “the Alternative High Street”. The research investigates the pros and cons of mainstreaming FT in the concentrated UK retail sector via the exemplar of The Day Chocolate Company.

The paper draws on a longitudinal case study of one of the original “trail blazers” for FT in the mainstream, the 100 per cent FT social enterprise, The Day Chocolate Company (Day). The authors possess special insight to this pioneering FT model due to their unique experience of working at Day and the lead author's research, which includes findings from a series of in depth semi‐structured interviews with key informants.

With particular reference to the concepts Clean‐wash/ “Fair Trade Lite” the paper critically analyses the advantages and disadvantages of mainstreaming FT. The paper demonstrates how radical mainstreaming by 100 per cent FT companies can actually strengthen the transformative message of FT and not undermine the original ethical interest. Their ability to communicate a more complex deep message to a wider audience via unique FT brands allows radical mainstreaming companies to raise the bar and avoid the dangers of Clean‐wash. Finally the paper illustrates the significance of the Alternative High Street for radical mainstreaming companies.

The radical mainstreaming innovation in the paper demonstrates the value of intangibles such as relationships and networks. This means companies such as Day, could be better positioned than their private sector rivals to take advantage of the new dominant logic of marketing as it uses more operant resources to co‐create value between producers, retailers and consumers. Further research will investigate in more depth the nature of those operant resources.

This paper will be of interest to all key stakeholders within the FT movement including marketing professionals and other “values‐driven organisations” such as social enterprises. This research shows that sales in the UK mainstream retail market are not enough in maintaining the original ethical interests of FT; you need business models such as Day, that share power and value added between Southern and Northern partners. Further development of such radical mainstreaming business models is key to strengthening both sales and the original transformative message of FT.

Consumer knowledge has frequently been mentioned in the literature as a potential mediating factor in consumers’ use of country of origin as a product information cue. However, there is little agreement on the appropriate definition and measurement of consumer knowledge in this context, nor on the likely direction of its impact. Reports of empirical findings concerning the issue are even scarcer. Looks at various dimensions of consumer knowledge and how they impact on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue in evaluations of alcoholic beverages. Finds that neither brand familiarity nor objective or subjective product knowledge has a general main effect on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue but there are significant interaction effects. Shows that objective product class knowledge can, under certain circumstances, increase consumers’ reliance on country of origin when evaluating products with unfamiliar brand names but not with familiar brand names.

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues surrounding the enactment of a lesbian, gay or bisexual person's sexual identity and their role as an internal customer of mainstream service organisations.

This article is written from a critical marketing perspective, the prefix “critical” signifying adoption of what may be considered somewhat radical philosophies and theories, allowing questioning of not only generally accepted theories of marketing, but also the assumptions upon which they rest. The “radical” approaches, i.e. the lenses through which the critique is offered, are postmodernism and queer theory. The theoretical perspectives critiqued in this article are internal marketing and emotional labour, and the assumptions questioned are those surrounding the importance of the role of the internal customer's identity in consumption of the work role.

The findings suggest a link that needs to be made between an individual's status as an internal customer (particularly in a front‐line service job), their identity (as defined by the individual themselves), and its impact upon their consumption of work (which viewed through a postmodern lens can be seen to help create, maintain and communicate such identity).

For those charged with the management of people in organisations, this paper offers critical insights into the complex practical regulation of organisational diversity in service industries.

The paper has drawn together various perspectives in the literature that have not previously been linked. If an external customer consumes products and services in order to create or display an identity, and if we accept the argument that employees should be treated as internal customers then the logical conclusion of this perspective is that these internal customers also create their identity through the consumption of work, and not just through their consumption of goods and services. The complexities of this proposition have been considered, using sexual identity management as one example, but the principle could equally apply to other areas of diversity among internal customers within the workplace.

This paper takes advantage of the closeness of two secular, separated communities on the island of Cyprus to study how controversial products and forms of offensive advertising can be related to levels of religiousness, time usage and temporality. The resulting observations are then offered as insights into the notion of ethics in the two religious groups and how these might influence marketing to multicultural communities.

The findings are based on a small‐scale survey of 530 students (211 Christians, 302 Muslims and 18 undeclared) who responded to a questionnaire distributed at two privately owned, English speaking institutions, one in the north and one in the south part of Cyprus.

This study indicates a high degree of commonality between Muslim and Christian students living in the adjoining communities in Cyprus. In general, overall reactions were tolerant of most products and forms of advertising, but where there were differences occurred there were specific reactions to the forms of the advertising. Significant differences were found across the communities when devoutness was tested especially regarding products that were of a sexual nature.

The relatively small numbers studied in the special case of Cyprus and the focus on students could limit the generalisation of these results.

The results raise some issues for marketing segmentation and image use. For instance, positive and forward‐looking images would stimulate most of the group regardless of their level of faith.

This paper identifies commonalties and also ontological differences that could have implications for global marketing campaigns.