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The age‐old question of “what's in a name?” is analysed from a marketing standpoint. The author studies the manifold effects of different names upon us, in a general context, and isolates two opposing principle's for evaluating brand nomenclature: the Juliet principle, in which a name is justified by its traditional associations; and the Joyce principle, where names depend on their phonetic symbolism to communicate an idea. Certain groups of letters have been shown, by experiment, to possess qualities of “darkness” or “lightness”, “largeness” or “smallness”, etc., to a concensus of people. A word can also have a symbolic function arising from the associations it produces in the minds of consumers. The author proceeds from these suggestions to evolve guidelines for those engaged in the creation of new brand names. He discusses the evaluation of not only “traditional” names, but also apparently meaningless names like “Omo” or “Kleenex”, and shows how certain names work, or might be expected to work, in the market situation. The name is the one unchangeable part of the marketing mix. This psycholinguistic approach helps to put the question of the “naming of brands” into perspective, giving criteria for a “good” name, and elucidating the stages of arriving at it. Finally, the author points out that wholeness of approach is necessary —the felicity of the name chosen will be conditioned by the depth of involvement of relevant personnel concerned with the new product.

Offers the results of an attempt to trace and characterise the origins of what is sometimes termed motivational research. Proclaims that motivational research, complementing formal market research, arises in economic conditions of competitive mass‐production associated with relative affluence and herein is an historical guide to the part played by psychology in modern marketing. Maintains that research effort prior to the introduction of motivational research was concerned with defining markets and developing survey techniques, especially in relation to sampling, questionnaire design, structured interviewing, etc. Concludes that the treatment of many matters of interest here, have had to be relatively condensed but a future article proposes to adjust this.

Considers psychological, linguistic and marketing aspects of brand name characteristics. Presents the inherent brand name characteristics which lead to memorable names that support the desired product image. Concludes that brand names should be simple, distinctive, meaningful, emotional, make use of morphemes, phonemes, alliteration, consonance, and should make a sound associate of product class, as well as being legally protectable; a well‐planned brand name will require less marketing money to achieve recall and image targets.

It is contended that the theory and practice of qualitative research is an integral part of a comprehensive marketing course. Both postgraduate and undergraduate students of marketing may be expected to be familiar with, and have experience of, qualitative techniques. Focus groups are arguably the most frequently employed qualitative technique, and as such are used as a starting point for the study of qualitative research. Their accepted advantages of speed, flexibility and economy, together with the rich data generated, make qualitative methods eminently suitable for student research, with its attendant limitations on time and money. A detailed practical guide to the procedures for planning, conducting and analysing focus groups is presented.

Two common methods in community settings of assessing program fidelity, a critical implementation component for program effectiveness, are video and audio recordings of sessions. This paper aims to examine how these two methods compared when used for a home-based behavioral parenting-training model (SafeCare®).

Twenty-five SafeCare video-recorded sessions between home visitors and parents were scored by trained raters either using the video or audio-only portions of recordings. Sessions were coded using fidelity checklists, with items (n = 33) classified as one of two fidelity aspects, content [delivery of program components (n = 15)], or process [communication and rapport building (n = 11)]. Seven items were considered to overlap between constructs. Items were coded as having been done or not done appropriately. Coders rated items as “technological limitation” when scoring methods hindered coding. Analyses compared percent agreement and disagreement between audio and video coders.

Overall agreement between coders was 72.12%. Levels of agreement were higher for content items (M = 80.89%, SD = 19.68) than process items (58.54%, SD = 34.41). Disagreements due to technology limitations among audio coders were noted among 15 items; particularly, higher levels of disagreement were seen among process items (42.42%) than content items (9.64%).

Compared to video, fidelity monitoring via audio recordings was associated with some loss of process-related fidelity. However, audio recordings could be sufficient with supplements such as participant surveys, to better capture process items. Research should also examine how content and process fidelity relate to changes in family behavior to further inform optimal fidelity monitoring methods for program use.

For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968; Levine, 1977). According to Blassingame (1972, p. 127), Brer Rabbit stories are “a projection of the slave's personal experiences, dreams and hopes.” Dunn (1979, p.183) explained that the stories are “paradigms dictating how to act and how to live,” and Stuckey (1977, p.xuii) observed that they “revealed more about slave culture than… whole books on slavery by experts. Levine (1977) maintaned that Brer Rabbit stories survived the experiences of slavery and urban poverty because they were a vehicle by which African American cultural values could be shared by the masses of African American people, and Leslie (forthcoming) observed that urban Black mothers continue to share in these values by teaching their children that Brer Rabbit's tricks demonstrate the importance of “protecting the physically small and weak against the physically big and powerful.”

This study, based on our analysis of survey data from 1,242 partners and employees of a U.S. national public accounting firm, examines the impact on psychological well-being from the moderating effects of flexibility and role clarity on work-home conflict experienced by public accountants. Most prior research in public accounting deals with the antecedents and consequences of role stress and primarily focuses on job outcomes of turnover intentions and job satisfaction as dependent variables. Public accounting firms have responded to stressors with worker-friendly policies, largely by introducing flexibility and clarity in their organizational culture. Using a multi-disciplinary research model, we analyze the causal relationships of flexibility and clarity as moderators of the bi-directional nature of work-home conflict (work interference with home and home interference with work) on psychological well-being. Our study finds that perceptions of flexibility and role clarity drawn from a career position in public accounting can mitigate role conflict between work and home environments and contribute to enhanced psychological well-being. We also find that certain relationships described in the model are moderated by family status and age, but not by gender. Results of our study have implications to both individual public accountants and to their firms.

We examined the impact of a leadership support training intervention implemented prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on support behaviors specific to COVID-19 during the pandemic. Primary intervention targets (i.e. family-supportive supervisor behaviors and sleep leadership behaviors) were explored as mediators between the intervention and supportive COVID-19 leadership behaviors.

A cluster randomized controlled trial intervention was implemented with service members and their supervisors in the Army and Air National Guard throughout 2017–2019. Follow-up survey data were collected after the intervention, including during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Direct and indirect intervention effects were tested.

A pre-COVID intervention targeting leader support for family and sleep health had a direct effect on leader support specific to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, sleep leadership, but not family-supportive supervisor behaviors, mediated the intervention effects on supportive COVID-19 leadership. These findings suggest that certain leadership training interventions can transfer across knowledge domains and time.

Findings from this study demonstrate that training leaders on support behaviors improves their ability to support employees during the COVID-19 pandemic and may translate to crisis leadership in other contexts.

We examined the long-term effects of an intervention that was implemented approximately 1–2 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic on leadership support behaviors specific to the pandemic. Our findings contribute to the leadership, training, and organizational intervention literatures, and have implications for how leaders can support employees during crises.

Children’s cooking abilities are correlated with increased self-efficacy (SE) for selecting healthy foods and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Instruments that measure outcomes of nutrition education programs require psychometric assessment for face validity. Survey items related to cooking experience (CE), SE, and attitude used in a school-based cooking program were assessed for face validity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Cognitive interviews were conducted with children who had completed third to fifth grades in Northern Colorado, USA. Interviews were examined using content analysis to derive categories for children’s concepts of cooking and making food and to assess survey item comprehension.

In total, 24 children participated. Most were white, non-Hispanic/Latino and half had most recently completed fourth grade. Categories related to “making food” and “cooking” included foods prepared with and without a heat source, baked goods/desserts, and activities used in meal/food preparation. Most participants comprehended the survey items and provided responses that were congruent with operational definitions established from identified themes, demonstrating face validity with this sample.

Children’s concepts of “cooking,” although robust, show interpersonal variation requiring a prudent approach toward intervention evaluation and supporting use of these face valid survey items. Consider revisions of survey items that add frequency qualifiers and explicit cooking examples as appropriate.

This study addresses a gap in the literature on children’s understanding of cooking and offers face valid survey items to measure CEs, skill, and attitudes.