Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse web site brand communication by small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the restaurant franchise industry, using Aaker's brand personality dimensions. It shows how an SME can test its intended positioning against competitors....

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to expand existing qualitative parameters in current marketing research discourse by integrating Barthesian theory into the study of subcultural marketplaces. Design/methodology/approach – While essentially conceptual in nature, this paper adopts a...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods and identity construction. The argument is that through the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods consumers obtain real and symbolic benefits that allow them to express a...

Purpose – As an aid to understanding brand image and brand attitude, this paper aims to present an innovative method of capturing qualitative brand associations from very large virtual groups. Design/methodology/approach – From the target market, two familiar brands were selected: one more...

Purpose – In the literature, there is a lack of tools able to catch the symbolic dimension of the brand image, which go beyond rational and emotional dimensions. This paper aims to find and test a new instrument, named “Multi‐Sensory Sort” (MuSeS). Design/methodology/approach – MuSeS,...

Research has shown that consumers very often do not use explicit, concrete, rational factors to evaluate products, and thus their motivation to purchase is not always easy to articulate. Traditionally, marketers have used projective techniques in qualitative research groups to overcome this...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to differentiate local versus global brand associations in an emerging market (Turkey)’s coffee shop market. Design/methodology/approach Two leading coffee shop brands – one local and one global – were analyzed with an emerging exploratory research...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to conceptualise the influences of extreme negative emotional response towards luxury brands as expressed in brand hate. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses examples obtained from a critical incidents approach to interviews with a small sample of...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that examines the underlying mechanisms of the link between the uses of corporate reputation and brand image strategy, from the corporate communication perspective. The paper incorporates three kinds of uses of corporate...

Purpose – This paper aimed to focus on political marketing and utilised a number of projective techniques to explore the UK Conservative Party’s “brand image” amongst young adults aged 18-24 years. There is little guidance in the extant literature regarding projective technique analysis....