Consumer research has traditionally focused on issues of epistemology in the collection and analysis of data. As a consequence, the crisis in representation which has radically reshaped understanding in the social sciences, has, so far, had very little impact on consumer research. This book redresses the balance with an investigation of representation and constructions of 'truth' in consumer research. Subjects covered include:
* construction of the researcher and consumer voice
* quantitative tools and representation
* advertising narratives
* poetic representation of consumer experience
* the crisis in the crisis concept
* consumer-oriented ethnographic research.
The essays are written by experts from Britain and the United States and draw on a broad range of theoretical approaches.

Series Information:
Routledge Interpretive Marketing Research

In recent years the study of consumption has become one of the most important areas of knowledge in the social sciences. In business studies and marketing, the nature of consumer research has undergone a profound change. Postmodern perspectives which challenge and undermine previously held notions of consumer identity, belief and decision-making have radically altered our understanding of consumer practice and marketing theory. This volume is a collection of essays by exponents of postmodern consumer research from Europe and America. Topics covered include: chronicle, composition and fabulation in consumer research; postmodern approaches to pluralism in consumer research; marketing in cyberspace; poststructuralism in marketing; and semiotics in marketing and consumer research.

How Your Business Can Use the Science That Helped Win the White House The average conversion rate the rate at which visitors convert into customers across the web is only 2%. That means it's likely that 98% of visitors to your website won't end up converting into customers. What's the solution? A/B testing. A/B testing is the simple idea of showing several different versions of a web page to live traffic, and then measuring the effect each version has on visitors. Using A/B testing, companies can improve the effectiveness of their marketing and user experience and, in doing so, can sometimes double or triple their conversion rates. Testing has been fundamental in driving the success of Google, Amazon, Netflix, and other top tech companies. Even Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had dedicated teams A/B testing their campaign websites during the 2012 Presidential race. In the past, marketing teams were unable to unleash the power of A/B testing because it required costly engineering and IT resources. Today, a new generation of technology that enables marketers to run A/B tests without depending on engineers is emerging and quickly becoming one of the most powerful tools for making data-driven decisions. Authors Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen are cofounders of Optimizely, the leading A/B testing platform used by more than 5,000 organizations across the world. A/B Testing: The Most Powerful Way to Turn Clicks Into Customers offers best practices and lessons learned from more than 300,000 experiments run by Optimizely customers. You'll learn: * What to test * How to choose the testing solution that's right for your organization * How to assemble an A/B testing dream team * How to create personalized experiences for every visitor * And much more Marketers and web professionals will become obsolete if they don't embrace a data-driven approach to decision making. This book shows you how, no matter your technical expertise.

Multinational enterprises have become a main engine of the global economy, technical advancement, and product innovation, playing a pivotal role in the world economy and the global technological revolution. However, MNEs are also often embroiled in financial fraud and corporate scandal which show that MNEs should improve their corporate governance. Meanwhile, as COVID- 19 runs rampant across the world, populism and deglobalisation have resurged, and protectionism and unilateralism are exerting negative impacts on the world economy. Achieving sustainable development in this context is a test of a company's management and governance abilities. How should they be governed? This book will be a useful tool for university research-led teaching and fundamental research in corporate governance theories of MNEs in general, as well as using Chinese case studies as evidence to support our theoretical arguments.

In recent years the study of consumption has become one of the most important areas of knowledge in the social sciences. In business studies and marketing, the nature of consumer research has undergone a profound change. Postmodern perspectives which challenge and undermine previously held notions of consumer identity, belief and decision-making have radically altered our understanding of consumer practice and marketing theory.
Consumer Research: Postcards from the Edge is a collection of cutting-edge essays by leading exponents of postmodern consumer research from Europe and America. Topics covered include:
* chronicle, composition and fabulation in consumer research
* postmodern approaches to pluralism in consumer research
* marketing in cyberspace
* poststructuralism in marketing
* semiotics in marketing and consumer research.
Original and ground-breaking, Consumer Research: Postcards from the Edge is an invaluable resource for all those interested in new directions in business and marketing.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Multinational corporations (MNCs) have long played a crucial role in the Chinese economy. This role is one that is set to continue in the post-pandemic era as China works to transit to a high-quality growth model that is more sustainable and innovation-driven. With global experience and front-line involvement in some of the most pressing economic, technological, and environmental issues of our day, leading figures in MNCs and chambers of commerce are well placed to share insights that could potentially contribute to policymaking and development strategies so that everyone can "make the most" of China's future. This collection of essay aims to share these invaluable insights with a wider audience, offering balanced and diverse perspectives from companies and advocacy groups working on a range of issues related to China's domestic development, international economic cooperation, and China-US competition. These insights are useful not only for the wider business community, but also for academics, policymakers, students, and anyone trying to deepen their understanding of this exciting period of "transition and opportunity," and make the most of China's bright future.

Social Marketing: marketing in the service of societal problems. Does this approach represent dangerous social engineering, or is it the best hope we have to treat what are often regarded as intransigent problems? For both academics and practitioners involved with social marketing, the domain remains in its infancy. Programs and approaches are being developed and implemented by practitioners; academics are defining "what it is," "where it comes from," and "where it is going."
This book incorporates many of the presentations made at the "Role of Advertising in Social Marketing" Conference sponsored by the Society for Consumer Psychology. Professionals from academia, government, and non-government organizations address a highly diverse and interesting set of societal concerns ranging from organ donation to violence in sports, from efforts to promote safe sex and family planning to better understand cigarette smokers and their perceptions. Are marketing's "four Ps"--product, price, place, and promotion--enough to help solve these problems, or does social marketing at the end of the 1990s need to call on other Ps, such as political persuasion? This volume thoughtfully addresses theoretical and empirical issues challenging academics and practitioners alike to find out how to borrow the best of marketing for application in social marketing.

"Studying Audiences; The Shock of the Real" provides a critical overview of two decades of research into the television audience. With the development of ethnographic research methods, hailed by Stuart Hall as "a new and exciting phase" in audience research, researchers turned their critical attention to groups of "ordinary people" watching television, combining interviews and participant observations with textual analysis of television programs.
In a comprehensive analysis of the origins and achievements of the "cultural studies audience experiment," Virginia Nightingale evaluates five projects which helped to shape the field of television audience research, including Charlotte Brunsdon and David Morely's work on "Nationwide," Ien Ang's "Watching Dallas" and David Buckingham's study of "Eastenders" and its audience. Nightingale traces how central tenets within audience studies were challenged by discourses of post-colonialism, fan activism and new theories of writing, arguing that audience research is necessarily a complex activity.

Studying the Audience: The Shock of the Real provides a critical overview of two decades of research into the television audience. With the development of ethnographic research methods, hailed by Stuart Hall as `a new and exciting phase' in audience research, researchers turned their critical attention to groups of `ordinary people' watching television, combining interviews and participant observations with textual analysis of television programmes.
In a comprehensive analysis of the orgins and achievements of the `cultural studies audience experiment', Virginia Nightingale evaluates five projects which helped to shape the field of television audience research, including Charlotte Brunsdon and David Morley's work on Nationwide, Ien Ang's Watching Dallas and David Buckingham's study of Eastenders and its audience.
Nightingale traces how central tenets within audience studies were challenged by discourses of post-colonialism, fan activism and new theories of writing, arguing that audience research is necessarily a complex activity.

Market Research in Action is an examination of various marketing research techniques using a running case study based on a real product. The use of this device shows how research impacts on product development and the product launch, with particular reference to fast moving consumer goods. To demonstrate other marketing research techniques the author has added additional cases introducing a selection of techniques to show how these techniques are developed or used in different arenas, for instance while dealing with service products or marketing in a retail, international and B2B marketing environment.

The Principles of Islamic Marketing fills a gap in international business literature covering the aspects and values of Islamic business thought. It provides a framework and practical perspectives for understanding and implementing the Islamic marketing code of conduct. It is not a religious book. The Islamic Economic System is a business model adopted by nearly one fifth of the world's population. Baker Alserhan identifies the features of the Islamic structure of International Marketing practices and ethics. Adherence to such ethical practices elevates the standards of behaviour of traders and consumers alike and creates a value-loaded framework for firms, establishing harmony and meaningful cooperation between international marketers and their Muslim target markets. His book provides a complete guide to the requirements an organization needs to follow when managing its entire marketing function within the Muslim market or when adapting part of its offering to that market. It addresses the challenges facing marketers involved in business activities with and within Islamic communities, the knowledge needs of academic institutions, and the interest of multinationals keen on tapping the huge Islamic markets. Along the way, Baker Alserhan provides insights into the various aspects of promoting to the Islamic markets such as franchising, distribution channels, and retailing practices, branding, positioning, and pricing issues; all within the Muslim legal and cultural norms. Above all, The Principles of Islamic Marketing will lay the foundation of, and advance, Islamic Marketing as a new social science.

Context and Cognition in Consumer Psychology is concerned with the psychological explanation of consumer choice. It pays particular attention to the roles of perception and emotion in accounting for consumers' actions and their interaction with the desires and beliefs in terms of which consumer choice is frequently analyzed. In this engaging book, Gordon Foxall extends and elaborates his theory of consumer action, based on the philosophical strategy of Intentional Behaviorism. In doing so, he introduces the concept of contingency-representation to explore the ways in which consumers mentally represent the consequences of past decisions and the likely outcomes of present consumption. The emphasis is on action rather than behavior and the manner in which the intentional consumer-situation, as the immediate precursor of consumer choice, can be reconstructed in order to explain consumer actions in the absence of the environmental stimuli required by behaviorist psychology. The result is a novel reaffirmation of the role of cognition in the determination of consumer choice. Besides the concept of contingency-representation which the author introduces, the analysis draws upon psychoanalytic concepts, theories of cognitive structure and processing, and the philosophy of perception to generate a stimulating synthesis for consumer research. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in consumer behavior and economic psychology and to all who seek a deeper interdisciplinary understanding of the contextual and cognitive interactions that guide choice in the market place.

This book focuses on the relationship between business strategy and competition among Italian SMEs in the aftermath of the economic crisis. First examining business strategy and competitive advantage in a broader sense, Business Strategies and Competitiveness in Times of Crisis goes on to analyse the strategic behaviour of SMEs and the key factors that allow them to overcome the challenges they face. The book covers wide-ranging topics such as marketing and communication strategies, internationalization process and entry modes, access to credit, networking, innovation process and human resources enhancement. Referring to insightful case studies and surveys conducted between 2011 and 2014, it reflects on managerial implications for Italian SMEs and identifies their three main competitive challenges.

This book demonstrates that marketing scholarship has much to contribute to our understanding of consumer vulnerability and potential solutions. It brings to the fore ways in which so-called vulnerable consumers navigate various marketplace and service interactions and develop specific consumer skills in order to empower themselves in such exchanges. It does so by exploring how consumer vulnerability is experienced across a range of different contexts such as poverty and disability, and the potential impact of vulnerability from childhood to old age. Other chapters extend focus from the consumer to the organisational perspective or consider more macro issues such as socio-spatial disadvantages. The fundamental aim of many of the contributors is to produce work that can benefit individual and societal well-being. They draw on various methodological approaches that generate both marketing management and policy-focused implications. A series of commentaries are also included to stimulate critical reflection and new insights into consumer vulnerability. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

In some parts of the world, especially in developing markets, category management today remains a stretch goal - a new idea full of untapped potential. In other areas, the original eight-step process that emerged in the late 1980's forms the foundation of many companies' approach to category management. In still others, particularly in developed countries like the U.S., the U.K., and others, refinements are being made - most of them designed to place consumer understanding front and center.

New ideas are emerging - from "trip management" to "aisle management" to "customer management." Whether a new descriptor emerges to replace "category management" is yet to be seen. Even if that does happen, what won't change is the overall objective - to help retailers and their manufacturer partners succeed by offering the right selection of products that are marketed and merchandised based on a complete understanding of the consumers they are committed to serving.

This book, which explores both the state of and the state-of-the-art in category management, is for everyone with a vested interest in category management. It can serve such a broad audience because category management is about bringing a structured process to how executives "think" and "make decisions" about their businesses, no matter what information and information technology they have access to.

The key to marketing is understanding and satisfying consumer needs, thus a knowledge of consumer behavior is essential to any organization dealing with customers, users, or clients. This book promises to be a contemporary classic. It brings together an international set of scholars, many of whom are "household names", to examine the diverse approaches to consumer behavior topics. The editors employ a micro to macro structure, dividing each topic into three parts: one reflecting foundational work, one focused on emerging trends, and one covering practical applications. Each part examines the relationship between consumer behaviour and motivation, including well-being, gender, social class, and more, and concludes with practitioner perspectives on the challenges and opportunities that come with understanding customers. Readers will gain insight into how drives that are constantly in flux relate to other aspects of human cognition and behavior, allowing them to reach customers successfully, and to meet their needs. With contributions from leading scholars, including Sidney Levy and Jagdish Sheth, this volume sets the standard as the most comprehensive, cutting-edge resource on the subject of consumer behavior. Students of consumer behaviour and marketing will find this a useful exploration of a fast-moving field, fundamental to the welfare of companies, government, non-profits, and consumers. It will also benefit new and established academic researchers as well as practitioners who want to stay on top of current knowledge.

The aim of this book is to analyze the relationships among entrepreneurship, regional development and culture in the current economy. Using an institutional approach, it examines the main theoretical issues and practices and their effect on different dimensions of society and the economy. Business creation is considered a key element of economic growth, innovation and employment. In recent years, entrepreneurial scholars have studied the factors that affect entrepreneurship and drive economic growth. In doing so, these scholars have aimed to understand what promotes entrepreneurial activity and also how to improve the development of regions or countries to increase wealth in society. The institutional approach can be applied to the entrepreneurship field to understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. This view considers the role of environment in the decision to create a company, which is critical to entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. Environment relates to legal aspects, public policy and support services (formal institutions) but is especially important in terms of sociocultural context (informal institutions). The creation of new ventures is greatly influenced by culture. Furthermore, it is important to highlight the influence of entrepreneurship on regional development, specifically through job creation, stimulation of economic growth and innovation. Thus, entrepreneurship, regional development and culture are fundamental for understanding economic growth and development as well as other phenomena such as technology transfer or women's entrepreneurship. Featuring contributions and cases studies from various countries and sectors, this volume provides an essential reference for scholars, academics, and researchers in entrepreneurship, business management, innovation and economics.

We know how eager you are to learn practical workplace skills at university so that you are "job ready" following graduation. In marketing, one of the most practical things you can learn how to do is create a sound marketing plan. This new book guides you concisely through the marketing planning process from start to finish, drawing on examples from large brands like Ikea and Krispy Kreme to digital start-ups like Starling Bank. Features a running case study about a small services business that breaks the marketing plan down into easy to digestible chunks. A dedicated chapter on marketing strategy concepts to help you understand how they link to market, firm or decision-related factors. Self-test questions and scenarios with tasks throughout make for an active learning experience. Practical in its step-by-step approach and inclusion of activities and scenarios and written simply whilst still underpinned by marketing strategy scholarship, this book will help you to develop your marketing decision-making throughout by learning key skills such as how to do a SWOT analysis and how to budget and forecast correctly. Supported by online resources for lecturers including PowerPoint slides, an instructor's manual and a suggested syllabus. Suitable reading for marketing planning and marketing strategy courses.

As innovation moves from the lab to the market, a new research phase begins for the entrepreneur: the market research phase. Inspired by a new technology that can change the world, critical questions need to be addressed. Is there a market for my innovation? Who are my clients? What do they need? Is my innovation filling that gap in the market? Who are my competitors? How are they approaching the market? If these questions are unaswered, entrepreneurs meet potential investors or partners with only a basic understanding of their market. The objective of this book is to fill this gap. It is a practical manual that gives entrepreneurs real-world advice and tools to build a solid market model. The book provides tips, models and tools entrepreneurs can use to collect, interpret and present their market and integrate it into their business plan. What the entrepreneur learns in this book will help him throughout his journey. After going over the market research process, he will learn how to design and use a number of market research tools, and how to adapt them in a life science context. From building a web survey to preparing interviews to doing your own secondary research, this handbook will help him gain a comprehensive understanding of how to perform his own market research activities and how to analyze his data. Finally, a number of frameworks (such as the TAM-SAM-SOM as well as the KANO Model) are described so that he can efficiently share what he has learned, using models that simply yet effectively shares findings.

In recent years, luxury goods markets have faced significant changes that have influenced both the dynamics of the competition, as well as their strategies. The principal changes include the following: new geographical market development, such as in the Far East, India, and some parts of Africa (these countries are added to a list of already relevant countries that are involved in luxury goods consumption, such as the Emirates, Russia, and South America); diffusion of new media and new technologies in communication, which is characterized by a high degree of interaction; the evolution of distribution channels is underway - these channels are moving towards new forms of integration that utilize both physical digital channels. This has forced firms to revise their strategies and implement multichannel marketing strategies to continue to operate in increasingly international markets that are characterized by increasingly more demanding and informed consumers. This book will enable readers to gain a clear insight into how the luxury goods market operates and amongst other things, focuses on: recent internet and social media strategies adopted by luxury companies and their brands; how luxury companies manage their communication and distribution channels to compete in the market and the impact of digital marketing on their competition; the main models of direct and indirect distribution in the digital channels; how consumers react to multichannel strategies; trends, social commerce and CSR and how luxury companies react; identifying the different social media strategies for luxury companies.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the changes that have taken place in the systems and practices of Japanese management over the last quarter century, identifies the positive and useful attributes that ought to be maintained, and clarifies the behavioral principles that form the groundwork of their strengths. Observing the changes in the business environment brought about by the forces of intensifying globalization, the book presents a highly effective management model that builds on the superior aspects of Japanese-style management while overcoming its weaknesses. It is a multi-layered human-resources management model that combines the mutually complementary aspects of the Japanese and Anglo-Saxon systems, incorporating the strengths of both systems. This hybrid model is aimed at increasing workplace motivation, promoting the creation of new value, and enhancing performance and can be used successfully in many countries around the world. It will be of interest to business strategists and consultants, scholars, and entrepreneurs.

Investigating how international market actors create market morality on a global level, this book reflects on the unresolved questions and debates regarding the relationship between business and society. The author explores how market actors in international business communication are unified in their attempts to make markets moralised. Providing detailed case studies and empirical evidence based on interviews with practitioners, Moralising Global Markets is a useful read for anyone interested in international business, and for those researching morality, ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Clean Language Interviewing is a landmark publication that defines the field for this important practice; it is essential reading for all researchers who seek to obtain data that are faithful to the experience of the interviewee. Clean language interviewing aims to improve the ability of academic and applied researchers to minimise the introduction of the interviewer's own assumptions, to avoid 'leading' questions and instead to ask 'clean' questions. Heather Cairns-Lee, James Lawley and Paul Tosey present a state-of-the-art review of the principles and practice of clean language interviewing to make this rigorous and innovative method accessible. Using real application examples, a global group of contributors analyse the use of clean language interviewing in multiple settings including business, education, and healthcare.

Semiotics is a superpower for marketers. It generates profits for brands. It's a proven, powerful method of uncovering consumer insight and tailoring brand strategies that work. Companies such as Unilever and P&G attest to the success of Lawes semiotics in stimulating innovation and boosting sales. This book makes semiotics accessible. You can do semiotics. All agency-side and client-side marketers can pick up the skills to use and apply semiotics to brands. Using Semiotics in Marketing is an acclaimed how-to guide. It's the only book on semiotics ever published that sets out a complete blueprint for research projects. Clear instructions show how to write briefs and proposals, design projects, conduct analysis, write reports and present research findings. Newly updated, this second edition is packed with even more revelations about brands, consumers and their emerging needs. Three new chapters reveal the unseen social forces that drive the Be Kind movement, public appetite for sincerity and the emotions of younger generations. Start using semiotics today. Position and launch new brands. Rejuvenate established brands. Design products and packaging. Inspire timely and provocative ad campaigns. Innovate. See the future.