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The purpose of this paper is to assess the brand image of Cape Town as a tourist destination using a progressive method of unstructured and structured techniques such as word association and free association.

A mixed method study was designed incorporating two phases. Phase one involved in‐depth interviews with a convenience sample of 85 international visitors to Cape Town. Phase two consisted of a survey, which resulted in 585 useable questionnaires that incorporated both open and closed‐ended questions.

The results indicate the strengths and weaknesses of each technique used. For example, word association is effective at eliciting positive images and holistic impressions but weak at identifying affective images. The free‐choice technique offers a more balanced perception of positive, negative, cognitive and affective images of a brand.

It is possible through the use of unstructured and structured techniques together to identify commonality in image perceptions but also differences in such perceptions on the basis of visitors' demographic and travelling characteristics.

The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of techniques such as word association and free association. The results indicate that some image attributes may not always adequately differentiate the brand from its competitors.

The paper contributes to understand the relationship between three components of brand knowledge namely, image, differentiating attributes and choice factors in the context of an African city brand.

The objective of this research is to understand and compare the perceived brand positioning of two football megabrands (Adidas and Nike) for a specific social group, the registered amateur football players in France, using the social representation theory (SRT) as the theoretical framework and the free word associations as the main method.

A survey was conducted through face-to-face questionnaire among a convenience sample of registered amateur football players in France (n = 362) and for which 52 percent chose Adidas and 48 percent Nike.

Findings demonstrated that Adidas and Nike have a different perceived brand positioning for the registered amateur football players in France. Adidas is perceived as more typical and positioned “inside the football ground” through main characteristics of its football goods for training and competition. Nike is more positioned “outside the football ground” through their sportswear goods for daily life and fashion.

The interest of this research is to be primarily inductive and focus on a specific group (membership of registered amateur football players) to understand the perceived brand positioning in the football market. The method allows activating the belonging with this group (higher level of practice with these brands) by using the SRT method of free word associations. Thanks to this original approach, results could help managers of Nike and Adidas reinforce their brand positioning and gain market share, as well as build their specific brand community like both megabrands did for the runners in France.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between consumer motives regarding purchase of traditional food in two European countries (Croatia and Austria) with a different history and development in regards to traditional and/or regional food.

A word association test and soft laddering interviews were used to elicit consumers’ perception and purchasing motives for traditional food. Additionally, the questionnaire contained socio-demographics and questions about shopping habits concerning traditional food. Semi-structured, individual, face-to-face interviews were performed with 31 Croatian and 28 Austrian respondents.

The most frequent associations/definition in both countries refers to heritage (food of generations) and elaboration (traditional receipt). The meaning of traditional food is for both samples positive. Hierarchical value maps for both countries contain ladders standing for health or support of local farmers. Additionally, the Austrians connect traditional food with environmental friendly production while for the Croatians sentimental hedonism ladder starts with perception of traditional food as a mean to connect with the childhood.

The findings can be used by traditional food producers in order to better understand consumers’ motives and accordingly adapt their marketing strategies.

This is the first work which uses free association test and laddering interviews to reveal consumers perception and motives for purchase of traditional food both in Croatia as well as in Austria.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese consumers’ perceptions in relation to both Chinese traditional and European food.

A web-based free word association test was administered to 302 consumers in China. They were asked to give the first three words that came into their minds when they were presented with each of two stimulus words, “traditional food” and “European food”. Three researchers grouped the elicited words into classes and then into dimensions. χ² association tests were used to assess and identify statistically significant differences in the frequencies of classes and dimensions for the two food concepts between socio-demographic groups.

The findings show that Chinese consumers define Chinese traditional food and European food through ten similar dimensions: Sensory appeal, Health, Origin, Marketing, Safety, Variety, Heritage, Symbolic meaning, Simplicity and Mood. Additionally, they associate Chinese traditional food with the dimensions Elaboration, Celebration and Habit, as well as link European food to the dimensions Convenience and New. Although ten dimensions are the same, obvious differences can be identified by comparing the classes for the two food concepts. Further, there are significant differences in the class associations for European food between age groups and in the dimension associations for Chinese traditional food between gender groups.

By using an online qualitative research method, this study is one of the first to address how Chinese consumers define both European food and their own traditional food in China, the largest East Asian country. The findings are particularly useful for the future development of traditional food products and for the future export of European food products onto China and even other countries in East Asia.

Properly conceived, conducted and interpreted, motivation research can be an extremely powerful management tool, designed to help the manufacturer or advertiser to sell more goods. Its aim is to expose the market situation, explain it and suggest courses of action which will lead to desired changes. It is a way of looking at a problem rather than a collection of specialist techniques and is strictly practical. Hence it can be used alongside other market research tools for the solution of marketing problems and can be applied to a wide range of business activities. Much of its development has been in the advertising field but it can also help in the formulation of production policy, solving packaging problems and marketing operations. It is examined here in all these contexts. The idea of motivation research, the reasons for its use and the techniques by which to apply it are discussed, as well as the pitfalls that are likely to occur. New and imaginary case studies are used throughout to illustrate points. A review of the subject literature is included.

Demographic and socioeconomic changes, and health issues, promote interest in emerging countries for healthy foods, taking traditional foods under the perspective of functional foods. Amaranth has moved from local to a wider consumption as a functional food. The purpose of this paper is to identify consumers’ perception about amaranth and its relation to consumption motives.

A questionnaire was applied to 610 respondents, and free word association determined their perception about amaranth through categories. Cluster analysis identified groups of consumers according to their motives for consumption. Global χ² and correspondence analysis related consumers’ perceptions in the groups were identified.

A total of 16 word categories reflected consumers’ perception about amaranth. Most mentioned were: Traditional product, Hedonism and Health and well-being. Three groups showed significant differences regarding motives of consumption. It is concluded that perceptions about amaranth are closely linked to the motives of consumption. Perceptions of health benefits are related to motives for health issues and taste. There is a group that still consumes amaranth perceived as a traditional food.

As a functional food, these results could be useful to promote amaranth from its perception as healthy. Producers might develop products based on amaranth that meet perceptions considering gender and age in Mexico and other emergent countries.

This work contributes knowledge to international research that analyses traditional foods as functional foods and consumer perceptions on these. It is a first approach to identify perceptions of Mexican consumers towards amaranth as a traditional and a functional food.

This paper aims to extend current understanding concerning the cross-modal correspondences between sounds and tastes by introducing new research tools and experimental data to study associations and their reflections between music and taste.

The experiment design addresses the multidisciplinary approach by using cultural, chemical and statistical analysis methods.

The paper provides further evidence that exposure to the “sweet” or “sour” musical pieces influences people’s food-related thinking processes and behaviors. It also demonstrates that sweet or sour elements in the music may reflect to actual sweetness (as measured by sugar content) and sourness (as measured by organic acid content) of foods developed in association with music carrying similar taste characteristics.

The findings should be replicated and expanded using larger consumer samples and wider repertoires of “taste music” and dependent variables. Also, the level of experimental control should be improved; e.g., the “sweet” and “sour” music were produced using different instruments, which may have an influence to the results.

Ambient “taste music” that is congruent with the basic flavors of the dishes can be played in restaurants to highlight guests’ sensory experience.

By carefully considering the symbolic meanings of the music used in different social situations, it is possible to create multimodal experiences and even subconscious expectations in people’ minds.

Cross-modal associations are made between the tastes and music. This can influence on perception of food and provide new ways to build multimodal gastronomic experiences.

Edible insects are increasingly recognized as great food resources of the future. Entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, has a predicted market by 2030 of nearly $8 billion. But this market could grow even more with the acceptance of insects as food by Western consumers, as an alternative to conventional protein sources. In this context, the authors aim to collect and analyze information about consumers' perception of insects as food in Brazil, through the word association task.

In total, 751 participants agreed to complete the word association task in relation to entomophagy through an online questionnaire. They had to write down the first five words or terms that came to their minds when they thought of eating insects.

Individual mentions were categorized according to their similarities and/or proximity. Based on this grouping the authors identified six dimensions, with emphasis on “hedonic attitudes and feelings”, “cultural aspects” and “exotic”. The study concludes that Brazilians see insect consumption as belonging to another culture, not Western.

Few studies have explored the association of words in relation to entomophagy, especially in Brazil. This article aims to fill this gap, using this methodology applied to the Brazilian public.

Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental commitment of stepfathers in those families. However, the characteristics of families receiving child protective services (CPS) are likely to influence the way that the stepfathers’ commitment is expressed.

Taking into account the viewpoint of mothers (n = 10), stepfathers (n = 10), and adolescents (n = 10), this study attempted to document, using the free association method and semistructured interviews, the following: (1) the representations that the members of these stepfamilies had of the stepfathers’ parental commitment; and (2) the way in which engagement was expressed in daily life.

While the participants agreed that the stepfather had a parental role to play, that is to take care of the children, they did not necessarily agree about which dimensions were the most important. Whereas the adults emphasized the child-rearing dimension of this role and the necessary cooperation with the biological parents, the adolescents insisted on the relational aspect. The results likewise indicated that these men were very committed to their partners’ adolescents and showed that even in families challenged by problems that lead to involvement with CPS, stepfathers can play a positive, supportive role.

This study represents an important addition to the existing literature on the role of stepfathers in that it uses multiple measures and direct reports from father figures allowing us to explore the main dimensions of stepfather commitment.

In the literature, there is a lack of tools able to catch the symbolic dimension of the brand image, which go beyond rational and emotional dimensions. This paper aims to find and test a new instrument, named “Multi‐Sensory Sort” (MuSeS).

MuSeS, a direct methodology of exploring the consumer's symbolic universe and the unconscious expectations, is composed of a set of projective techniques based on multi‐sensory stimuli.

The results showed how MuSeS allows one to collect in‐depth data, otherwise difficult to obtain through other kinds of surveys.

MuSeS is able to measure both the consumers' perceptions about the brand image concept (its potentials) and the characteristics that the customer wishes to find in the brand image (brand image future development).

Most of the tools created to investigate the brand image are based on questionnaires with attitude scales; this assumes that the brand image is a conscious and fully verbalized construct. The paper started from another assumption, trying to measure the non‐verbal and the unconscious brand image aspects, using instruments derived both from psychology and marketing.