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The purpose of this paper is to identify the key elements that maximise sponsorship opportunities and that enable a successful relationship between a sponsor and a sponsored party.

The paper is based on a review of the literature and takes a case study approach. The paper first identifies the classic aspects of sponsor relationships and then explores new criteria to propose a brand model approach. Practical examples are taken out of the sailing team Alinghi who raced the America's Cup.

The paper suggests that the key success factor for a sponsored party is to act as a brand. This brand should have four strong pillars to build its brand essence: its own identity, a clear offer for a value creation process, an organisation to support this offer in line with strategic alliances of the sponsor and identified targets or consumers.

Sponsorship is part of the daily life of any business and can take many forms. Moreover, the large number of sponsorship opportunities does not help entities looking for financial support to stand out easily. However, few opportunities meet all criteria to build an effective sponsor relationship. The authors believe that a brand model approach is the best way to achieve such goal. Alinghi (America's Cup 2003 and 2007 winner) is a perfect example of this new approach.

This paper contends that the central question in understanding consumers' experiences is not what is said (lexical analysis) or why (ideological analysis), but how consumers relate these experiences. The purpose is to present a method called discourse analysis (DA) to examine consumers' narratives. This interdisciplinary perspective advantageously complements the lexical, content analytic or semiotic approaches traditionally used in marketing.

In order to show the potential of DA as a method to analyze qualitative data, the paper reports on a research concerning consumers' shopping experiences. Data used stemmed from in‐depth interviews that are analyzed through a critical DA informed by discursive psychology and foucauldian approaches.

DA allows marketers grasping the experiential value of shopping activities by depicting these experiences as ongoing constructions which meaning is constantly reinterpreted. DA also gives access to the various ways informants' manage their identity through narration. Hence, it challenges the simplistic dichotomy between consumers and producers and allows marketers to look at consumers as co‐producers of their lived experience. Given the scope of the study, the obtained results are situated and further researches should be conducted to critically analyze various types of discourses, produced by different actors. This paper shows the potential of DA in analyzing qualitative material. DA could be usefully employed to grasp the thoughts and feelings of the consumers. Rather than solely conducting lexical and/or semiotic analyses, marketers could use DA as a complementary investigation tool.

Through DA, this paper suggests new ways for seeking knowledge about the consumers and the market. To this end, it presents DA principles and shows that it is too often neglected by marketers trying to analyze consumers' narratives.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the contents of the special issue and to clarify and extend conceptual and managerial debates concerning interpretive consumer research (ICR).

A discursive approach is adopted. The arguments are supported by quotes from authoritative publications in the field.

Researching the consumer has progressed far beyond the research for managerial implications and has become a major focus for the social sciences. In the field of qualitative market research, interpretive approaches to studying consumer behaviour are playing an increasing role. However, the economic and psychological heritage of consumer behaviour impedes appreciation of their aims, analytic logics, and methodological contributions. Ten issues about ICR are detailed in order to provide an integrative overview of what ICR is or is not.

Provides an insider's view and serves as a useful overview of debates and developments in the field.