Week 3- Down to Business.....

                This week’s research methods lecture was a continuation of looking in a broad sense at different approaches and techniques.

                Deduction is focused around the positivist approach thus is more scientific in method, moves from theory to data and tends to generalise results by sufficient quantitative samples, explaining casual relationships between variables.   Induction on the other hand is linked to interpretivism and focuses on the meanings that people attach to certain contexts by the researcher placing themselves within the process of qualitative research and being flexible by adjusting their perceptions accordingly as their findings progress.

                I undertook literature reviews of two journals demonstrating each approach with these questions in mind:

Ø  What is their research question?

Ø  How have they achieved this?

Ø  What are their conclusions?

Ø  What are their weaknesses? (could be their method, theory, data etc)

Ø  What are their strengths?

Ø  How much is it relevant to my own research?

Ø  What is the source?

Deductive Example: How Green Should You Be: Can Environmental Associations Enhance Brand Performance (Journal Advertising Research: Francisco Javier Montoro-Rios)

Research Question?-  Due to environmental concern, much has been said about the advantages of including environmental information in marketing strategies. Article looks at whether ethical brands do actually increase business turnover based on statistical fact as opposed to generalisations of select public opinion.

How?- Lays out three factors to consider involving environmental associations which could prove an advantage & the means of communicating this to the customer.

·         Analysing customer evaluation process, on environmental benefits of a brand & whether these environmental associations improve customer attitudes towards brand. Tests showed that ‘the more eco friendly the product the closer the product is to the customer’s ideal brand.’

·          Environmental claims must have creditability for the customer otherwise this can have reverse effects. Key problem is that consumers interested in ecological products generally are sceptical of commercial advertisements & note lack of scientific knowledge in advert campaigns. One technique around this is to gain approval from individual environmental organisation (i.e. Greenpeace) and use labelling ‘approval’ systems.

·         How consumers process this information- consumers must have high motivation towards environmental issues which would then analyse information in an advertisement & ‘peripheral route’ (indirect) messages.

Researcher then comes to the overall hypothesis that the higher level of involvement with the decision to buy and higher the familiarity with the brand =  the greater the importance of beliefs about ecological performance of the brand in formation of overall attitudes towards the brand.

The article then proceeds in greater detail to prove this theory through experimental designs, using three variables with differing emphasis on environmental issues then analysing purchase results.

Conclusions?- shows an absence of effect of environmental information with or without independent certification on brand attitude. However environmental association significantly influence attitudes towards brands when customers process information through a ‘central’ route (i.e more direct form of advertising rather than interpretative) and it is product of high involvement and high purchase frequency for the consumer.

Weaknesses?- Only examines select products & select profile of people in Spain (women over the age of 18 as statistically these buy groceries & home products). Conclusions state that future studies should include durable goods and services.

Strengths?- Clear use of facts and data (even justifies use of profile group through statistics i.e.    78 % of women in Spain buy all home products for house). Clear hypothesis & context set out at start which is uses experiments in order to prove.

Maybe useful within ethical studies for data references as well as for example of method when examining consumer attitudes to brand presentation and advertisement.

Induction Example: The Supermalt Identity: How Brixton-Based Afro- Caribbean Consumers Construct a Danish Malt Beer Brand as One of Their Own (Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector: Tino- Bech-Larsen)

Research Question?- Examining brand identity of Supermalt brand of beer for niche target market of Afro- Caribbean consumers on a limited marketing budget utilizing ‘blue ocean strategy’ and understanding the reasons behind the success which even the brand itself could not make sense of.

How?- References two research perspectives within marketing of brand identity: the managerial construction of “brand identity” & consumer construction of brands as a part of their “self identity”. These ideas have merged in recent years into the idea of cross-cultural marketing, and the differing aspects that affect identity.

                The article discusses how brand identities can be expected to be more prominent within ethnic minorities due to the special characteristics of self identity of these individuals.

Their pursuit of this is perhaps more important than that of the Western world, as they are attempting to keep the identity of their origins within a foreign land. It’s stated that ‘man is what he eats- and nothing more’ emphasising the importance of food and beverage in the construction of identity as culinary preferences are a huge aspect of culture.

The researcher used interviews with 14 Brixton based Afro-Caribbeans, with questions sub divided into three distinct sections focused on:

·         Target consumers self-identity construction (how people construct own identity)

·         Role of food & beverage in construction of consumer identities.

·         Construction of brand identity.

Conclusions?- that an effort made to understand the culture of minority customers & through this creating new market space, proven to be a more effective business strategy than more traditional ‘in your face’ brand tactics, and also requires fewer resources. However, this said, having a strong association with minority culture has the advantages within that specific profile but makes it harder for the extension of the brand into mainstream markets.

Weaknesses? - Study does not properly assess whether the success of Supermalt was a ‘lucky strike’ or whether this case involves credible lessons that can be used to guide other brands. The conclusions therefore seem to state the obvious and talk in generalisations.

Strengths?- Useful research within the cultural industries and examination of external factors that must be taken into consideration with the formation of business strategy (PESTEL- particular emphasis on social in this specific case), but too smaller sample is used so the number of interviews conducted would have to be increased or this should be supported by further means of primary research.

Our lecture also covered the use of documentary analysis, most specifically applying semiotics when examining visual materials (most notably marketing/promotional tools), in order to answer these questions in order to determine its target audience, literal, interpretative and latent (underlying) meanings.

One example of advertisement analysis I did.....

Who?  Male drivers, 30-50 years old approx.

Literal?  Cars are well built, tough & resilient

Interpretation?  It’s a car for ‘real’ men, will help to re-establish image and masculinity. Use of blue colouring associated with male gender. Use of red lettering asserting a sense of danger, fire power, living on the edge.

Latent?  Car is reliable regardless of the terrain thus has almost ‘heroic’ like qualities, can open up new experiences and possibilities that other cars would unable to handle.

This got me onto to considering the most lucrative brand on the market, Coca Cola, which, according to rankings conducted at the end of 2010, is worth over $70.4 billion ahead of the technological marvels, Google ($43.5 billion) and Microsoft ($60.8 billion) as well as being a far cry from its direct product rival Pepsi ($14 billion). This poses the question, what is the secret of success behind this global phenomenon, which, let’s face it, specialises in churning out flavoured fizzy water, not to mention it’s repercussions of worldwide tooth decay. Clearly a product neither desirable nor groundbreaking when presented in this light.  So how have they managed it?  The answer to this lies purely within the smoke & mirrors of their communication strategy and it is this which I intend to investigate further within my research topic for this module; attempting unravel how they are able to continually connect with their consumer so successfully within a consistently saturated market.   After all, if fizzy water can manage it there’s hope for us all.