Anthony Patterson

Beyond Technology Acceptance: Understanding Consumer Practice

– To critically examine the current definitions of key constructs of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a consumer technology‐based service., – Two qualitative research studies were undertaken that encouraged consumers to reflect upon their text message (short message service – SMS) behaviour., – The research highlights the inadequacy of a concentration on simple acceptance of technology where technology is embedded in a consumer community of practice. The existence of counter‐intuitive behaviours, technology paradoxes and intense social and emotional elements in actual text message usage all point to the need for a review of the definition of the key TAM constructs., – There is a need to re‐examine the construct of use behaviour in the context of the practice of technology‐based services that owe much to consumer creativity. Theory development of the constructs of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment should not be constrained by adherence to the existing (well developed) quantitative models of technology acceptance. There is a methodological potential of employing consumers as practical authors., – Where there is evidence of counter‐intuitive consumer behaviour in the marketplace for technology‐based products or services, a study of practice, with a view to the subsequent derivation of adapted theory constitutes worthwhile research. This may be of special importance to cell phone operators promoting SMS to US consumers., – The approach offers a method of complementing the dominant quantitative modelling research on technology acceptance. The findings are relevant to an era where consumer co‐creation of value is of increasing interest.

Processes, Relationships, Settings, Products and Consumers: The Case for Qualitative Diary Research

Purpose – This paper makes the case for the use of real diaries as an alternative methodology in marketing research. It is argued that Qualitative Diary Research (QDR) in marketing and consumer research is an innovative way to capture rich insights into processes, relationships, settings, products and consumers.Design/methodology/approach – To illustrate the utility of QDR this paper explores the phenomenon of text messaging. One hundred and twenty two “texters” were recruited to maintain personal introspective diaries for 1 week; recording, not only each of their incoming and outgoing text messages, but also the personal thoughts that each communication initiated. The paper then offers a frame narrative that attempts to analyse, interpret and re-present the embedded diary narratives.Findings – This empirical analysis illustrates that QDR is particularly suited to exploring processes, relationships, settings, products, and consumers. It is shown how the arrival of a text message and its actual content can create: consumer excitement when text messages arrive, consumer pleasure when constructing and deconstructing sent and received text messages, and provides a facility to lie and attract the opposite sex. The downsides of texting were also explored, such as how consumers loath getting either too many or too few text messages.Originality/value – ODR is a useful way of capturing genuine “thick description”. The use of real diaries presents an exciting methodological alternative for research in marketing and consumer behaviour.

Deviant Employees and Dreadful Service Encounters: Customer Tales of Discord and Distrust

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore poor service encounters from the customer’s perspective.Design/methodology/approach – Multiple autoethnographic accounts of overwhelmingly dreadful customer experiences at a department store were gathered and analyzed. The writers of the accounts were asked only to chronicle their experiences, and not directed to comment specifically on retail employee behaviour. Thus a different approach to dysfunctional service employee behaviour is offered to complement research on service sabotage, internal marketing and service delivery gaps.Findings – Department store customers, especially the younger ones, have very low opinions of retail frontline employees. Common to all the autoethnographic accounts was a cynicism towards the actions of such employees that pervaded the customer perceptions of retail service encounters.Overcoming customer cynicism was identified as a key objective of employee training.Research implications/limitations – The approach, based on multiple autoethnographic accounts, provides insights that can be overlooked with traditional customer satisfaction surveys. It is particularly useful for eliciting constructive feelings of experiences. By its nature, it can be difficult for researchers to forecast the ground that may be covered by the scribes, and therefore to plan a research project around the method.Practical implications – The findings are relevant to those involved in training retail frontline employees. They strongly suggest that training, through functional scripts and handy customer service tips, is inappropriate for creating successful service encounters with cynical customers, and may even encourage service sabotage behaviours from severely bored employees.Originality/value – The methodology is novel in the context of retail customer experiences. The findings bring customer cynicism to the fore, and question the viability of continuing with retail formats that require monotonous and uninspiring roles to be played by retail employees.

How to Create an Influential Anthropomorphic Mascot: Literary Musings on Marketing, Make-Believe, and Meerkats

Abstract Not long ago, Compare the Market, a UK-based online aggregator of car insurance quotes, had little distinctive presence in the marketplace. Yet the companys fortunes have been radically transformed since the launch in early 2009 of its award-winning marketing campaign, ‘Compare the Meerkat’, fronted by the much-loved anthropomorphic mascot, Aleksandr Orlov. This paper utilises literary insights to explain the peculiar piquancy of this popular anthropomorphic marketing campaign. To establish its consumer appeal, we conduct a literary exploration of the rich, textured experience of Aleksandr Orlovs imaginary world. In doing so, we postulate that the triumph of the campaign lies in its, albeit inadvertent, amalgamation of three literary genres: Russian literature, comedy literature, and adventure literature.

No Tale, No Sale: A Novel Approach to Marketing Communication

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 compelling. This article contends that our principal constituents – practising managers and would-be managers – deserve better. It argues that marketing academia can improve its storytelling skills by studying bestselling novels. Two marketing-saturated bestsellers, Bridget Joness Diary and Fight Club, are examined in detail and their salient storytelling lessons are extracted

Inventing the pubs of Ireland: the importance of being postcolonial

Just as we hate it when our friends become successful, nations hate it when other nations become successful. Take the American nation with its perennial list of world-leading brands, its domination of the world’s markets and its monopoly of the world’s leading marketing journals. America is marketing in excelsis. It is nothing less than a well-oiled, capitalist machine churning along at full-pelt and in perfect rhythm with the needs of the marketplace — if Boo sinks, Google floats; if Superman dies, Spiderman lives; if Martha gets jail time, Oprah gets primetime; if Whitney wanes, Britney gains. America is the archetypal example for all aspiring democracies to follow; no country does marketing bigger or better, bolder or brasher, louder or prouder. Academically, its grip on the dissemination of marketing thought is of Microsoftian proportions. All must hail the God of American Marketing, quiver at its omnipotence (possessing all power), cower at its omniscience (having all knowledge), tremble in its omnipresence (existing everywhere). When it cracks the whip, we, the rest of the world, must skip…. Don’t you just hate it?

‘Don’t Forget the Fruit Gums, Chum’: Marketing Under Erasure and Renewal

The worlds best marketers are blessed with a peculiar inventiveness that stems from experiencing the world as a novelty, which is why the marketing discipline in general has a good memory for forgetting. In this paper then, we contend that amnesia in marketing academia is perfectly healthy, and indeed functions as a key component of our creative, ideas-laden discipline. We argue that the marketers natural inclination towards erasure and renewal, towards always wiping the slate clean, should be encouraged, not cured. In marshalling the evidence in favour of forgetting, we pull apart the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, demonstrate how forgetting is integral to the academic sensibility, and question how much of the marketing literature is worth remembering in the first place.

Storying Marketing Research: The Twisted Tale of a Consumer Profiled

Abstract By opening with a story, this article mildly subverts the typical conventions adopted by journal article writers. It is a direct response to calls from within management and marketing studies to embrace alternative modes of expression. Blurring fact (distilled from the findings of in-depth qualitative research) and fiction (distilled from our fevered imaginations), our case study–based story presents the twisted tale of a consumer profiled. By connecting dimensions of marketing, consumption, research, and practice, we seek to question whether digitally-equipped marketers can ever understand the true nature of todays inscrutable consumer.

The power of intuitive thinking: a devalued heuristic of strategic marketing

Historically, the value of intuition in strategic marketing has been devalued. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to investigate empirically and articulate the ways in which the heuristic of intuition can prove, and is proving, helpful to marketing managers involved in making strategic-level decisions. Drawing upon extensive interviews conducted with marketing managers, we explore the extent to which intuitive insights are privileged over systematic, rational, logical evaluations. Our data evidence how intuition-led decision making becomes a powerful tool in instances where there is a paucity of data, when options are manifold, when the future is uncertain and when the logic of strategic choice needs to be confirmed. Ultimately, the paper seeks to place a new and affirmative subjectivity within the realm of marketing strategy that respects and legitimises the power of intuitive insight.

Fabricating Celebrity Brands via Scandalous Narrative: Crafting, Capering and Commodifying the Comedian, Russell Brand

Abstract Most marketing researchers with an interest in the mythic machinations of celebrity culture assume that being implicated in a scandal is detrimental to long-term brand-building efforts. However, our premise is that this assumption is often misguided. We argue that celebrities who court scandal sometimes find that the media coverage it precipitates – especially when the spun narrative is compelling – can significantly increase their brand value. To support our assertion, we begin by reviewing the literature on celebrity scandal. Following this, we illustrate how the creation of a scandalous narrative can fuel a celebrity career. To do so, we investigate the colourful career of the comedian-cum-revolutionary, Russell Brand. We conclude that, when combined, the 3Cs of his scandalous narrative – crafting, capering and commodifying – present, in combination, a viable means of gaining entry into the upper echelons of celebritydom.