Harry Potter is one of the most amazing consumer crazes of recent years (Blake 2002). So much so, that there can't be a single person anywhere who hasn't heard of 'the boy who lived' and the best-selling books that bear his name (Rowling 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003). To date, five books in the...

These days, every self-respecting travel writer feels obligated to serve a tour of duty in Ireland (Belfrage 1988; McCrum 1999; O ’R ourke 1989; Theroux 1985). This Irish literary pilgrimage has become so jaded that recently one inspired scribbler sought to rejuvenate the genre by hitchhiking Around...

Few cities in the UK lack an ‘authentic’ Irish bar, be it O’Neill’s, Scruffy Murphy’s or Shifty O’Shea’s. Theme pubs, like theme parks, theme hotels and theme restaurants, are very big business. Yet the marketing academy seems somewhat reluctant to investigate such establishments,...

By employing a research approach, known as subjective personal introspection - the critical "I" four co-researchers wrote extensive autobiographical essays on their responses to an advertisement for Caffrey's Irish Ale. By delving in the shamelessly subjective this paper draws out the main...

Much has been written about Service-Dominant Logic, Vargo and Lusch’s vaunted contention that service isn’t an add-on to goods but goods are tangible reminders of service. Most of these writings are conceptual rather than empirical, however. This paper adds an empirical dimension to SDL by...

Humankind is a storytelling animal. Everyone loves good stories, well told. Telling tales is central to communicating successfully with customers, yet marketing academics seem to have forgotten this fact. The stories we tell, in our papers, books and learned journals, are often less than...