(*0a) Cover 2004 (1&2) - Semantic Scholar · number of lessons concerning marketing research and practice, observation, and counter-observation. New Agendas for Research in Marketing

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IRISH MARKETING REVIEWEnhancing Marketing Thought and Practice

Editor Aidan O’Driscoll

Dublin Institute of Technology

Faculty of Business

Associate Darach Turley (Dublin City University)Editor

Advisory Professor M.J. Baker, University of StrathclydeBoard Professor A.C. Cunningham, University College Dublin

Professor G.S. Day, Wharton School, U. of PennsylvaniaProfessor L. Fahey, Boston UniversityProfessor G.R. Foxall, Cardiff Business School, U. of WalesProfessor R.P. Kinsella, University College DublinProfessor H.G. Meissner, University of DortmundProfessor J.A. Murray, Trinity College DublinProfessor J.A. O’Reilly, Dublin Institute of TechnologyP. O’Sullivan, Dublin Institute of Technology Professor C. Pinson, INSEAD, France

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CONTENTS

ARTICLES Power and Disciplining: Bringing Foucault to Marketing

Edward Kasabov

The Determinants and Consequences of Consumer Trust in E-Retailing: A Conceptual FrameworkCaroline Bramall, Klaus Schoefer & Sally McKechnie

Managing Customer Retention in the Health and Fitness Industry: A Case of NeglectTeresa Hurley

Managing Corporate RebrandingAidan Daly & Deirdre Moloney

A Snapshot of Public Opinion on Biotechnology and GM Foods at the Turn of the Twenty-First CenturyElaine O’Connor, Gwilym Williams, Cathal Cowan, John O’Connell & Maurice P. Boland

An Investigation into the Non-Usage of Qualitative Software in the Marketing Research IndustryElena Bezborodova and Billy Bennett

Review EssayBranding and Third World Development: Does Anholt’s Brand New Justice Make Sense?John Fanning

… this study of negative consumption and of consumers, dissatisfied in the context of a service provision,explores issues of control, power and normalisation on the part of organisations towards their consumers.

… presents a testable model describing the relationship between the determinants and consequences of consumer trust in e-retailing.

… findings indicate the need for a change in company culture and strategy, with greater emphasis by seniormanagement on member retention as opposed to new member acquisition.

… presents a case history of Vodafone’s external and internal communications strategy when rebrandingEircell to Vodafone, and proposes a corporate rebranding framework.

… analyses the results of surveys – as well as the survey methodologies – in order to assess the credibility ofthe data on consumer attitudes to biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) foods.

… long and steep learning curves, and the necessity to achieve a high level of qualitative data analysis (QDA)software familiarisation, are among the major barriers for researchers in the commercial sector.

… considers the realism of the central premise of Simon Anholt’s recent book that branding could hold the keyto the economic problems of less developed countries.

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IntroductionGreater reflexivity, richness, questioning, and diver-sity characterise marketing thinking currently. Thegrowing richness and relevance of theoretical andempirical studies are particularly pronounced in thedomain of buying behaviour and consumption. Areview of the important writings from the mid-sonwards reveals a departure from the understand-ing of ‘appropriate’ research in the s and earlys. Far from being the homogeneous researchterrain, with shared views of what constitutes goodanalysis, marketing is becoming more poly-vocal andfragmented, and intrigues academics from neigh-bouring disciplines.

Nonetheless, certain issues and processes pertinentto buying behaviour and consumption are rarelyinvestigated and reported. This problem of mar-ginalised matters is of importance here; it informsthis article and the research on which it is based.Among matters still viewed as ‘step-children’ by mar-keting theorists are power and disciplining – anabsence of research interest which is easily contrastedwith the attention to power in sociology, politicalscience, and philosophy.

Having identified power- and disciplining-relatedgaps in marketing research, we present a summary

of relevant aspects of a two-year research on powerand disciplining in two cultural settings. The set-tings, though different, reveal remarkably similarmechanisms of observation, control, visible and lessvisible application of influence on the part ofproviders of goods and services. Four types of power,uncovered in the narratives of dissatisfied consumers,are proposed. Excerpts from the narratives illustratethe discussion and provide the reader with a flavourof the power-laden buying and consumptionepisodes. These power types and incidents suggest anumber of lessons concerning marketing researchand practice, observation, and counter-observation.

New Agendas for Research inMarketingThe argument in this article is set usefully againstthe backdrop of a number of developments inresearch in marketing. First, research on buyingbehaviour and consumption has progressed in animaginative and diverse manner over the past decade.Previously under-researched issues and processes,such as consumer passion, longing, experiencing art,social influences in consumption, gift giving, andhistory of object ownership have found their placein journals and books (Belk et al., ; Joy andSherry, ; Lowrey et al., ; Ruth et al., ;Strahilevitz and Loewenstein, ).

POWER AND DISCIPLINING:BRINGING FOUCAULT TO MARKETING

© Mercury Publications

Research on buyer behaviour and consumption has largely ignored thenature of power and disciplining in marketing. Conventional marketing discourse seems rooted in customer ‘centricity’ and embraces an often naïveview of consumer–provider relationships. This study of negative consumption and of consumers, dissatisfied in the context of a service provision, explores issues of control, power and normalisation on the partof organisations towards their consumers. It probes the ‘dark side’ of marketing. The narratives of the consumers reveal four power types: directpower; gendered power; information inequities; and disciplining.

The final power type reflects the a ‘Foucauldian shift’ in the technology ofpower from earlier forms of exemplary punishment and observable controlto the refined instruments of observation, inspection, and controlling whichare becoming the norm of modern society. Help lines and direct marketingare two familiar and prominent examples of refined disciplining. The authordiscusses how such approaches seek to control, standardise and regulatethe consumer – and how the consumer, in turn, attempts to thwart such discipline and distance themselves from such stratagems.

Edward Kasabov

Second, and not surprisingly, this newly found inter-est in investigating matters such as these has beenaccompanied by challenges to conventional con-ceptualisations. Established theoretical positions arereplaced or supplemented; the research terrain ismore fragmented and poly-vocal, reflecting consid-erable challenge to orthodoxy (see Weick, ;Lyotard, ). This tolerance for, and acceptanceof, challenges to previously uncontested theoreticalunderstandings is found in articles on consumptiontheorising and the embracing of postmodern under-standings (Sherry and Schouten, ; Thompson,).

Third, methodological approaches and methodshave become more diverse. Established methodolo-gies are contested, and methods are subject to revis-iting, re-conceptualisation, and modification. Thepast supremacy of experimental-nomotheticmethodological positions of quantification is ques-tioned, and even modified versions of this nomo-thetic approach are no longer considered realistic(Fournier and Glen Mick, ). ‘Unconventional’methodologies are commonplace – narrative analy-sis and ethnographic methods are widely accepted(see Thompson and Tambyah, ; Belk andCosta, ).

A fourth and final area of change is cross-discipli-narity. Marketing research has come to draw on dis-ciplines which are contiguous or distant to it.Examples of this development, discussed byBettencourt and Houston (), are, among others,articles about ad dramas (Escalas and Stern, )and personality consumption research (Baumgartner,). This ‘external search’ for questions,approaches, and answers also facilitates the threeabovementioned developments. By being interestedin what is done outside marketing, researchers avoidcognitive homogeneity and encourage research inno-vation. These searches facilitate experimentation andcross-overs.

Progress and maturation in marketing research,though, is far from complete; shortcomings remain.Particularly relevant to this paper is the marginali-sation of matters of relevance to marketing that havebeen subject to heated debates elsewhere in the socialsciences. In particular, we argue that issues of power,influence, and disciplining are neglected in market-ing research. A study of discourses of fashion(Murray, ) is one of the few examples of analy-

sis of politics, power and commerce. This lack ofadequate attention to contestation, influence, andsubordination stands in stark contrast to continuedefforts to understand the problematic of power inphilosophical, sociological, anthropological, andpolitical accounts (see Arendt, ; Foucault, ,; Gamson, ; Moriss, ; Moscovici, ,; Russell, ; Wrong, ). An attempt toaddress this gap, by researching power and lookingfor answers beyond conventional marketing theo-rising, is the purpose of this paper.

Power and Disciplining: ConceptualFoundationsThere are multiple, at times conflicting, conceptu-alisations of power. To May (), it is about bothpotentiality and actuality – an inclusive under-standing not dissimilar to Russell’s () notion ofmanufacturing anticipated consequences. This focuson visible effects is echoed in Percy’s () conceptof inducing conformity and Moriss’s () pro-duction of command. Even when power is treatedas potential, as in Gamson (), ‘potentiality’ oftencomes second to the interest in induced alteration(Moscovici, ) and the employment of penaltiesand rewards (Tedeschi, ; Tedeschi et al., ).Other informative writings on power include piecesdocumenting the shift in focus away from the analy-sis of visible power and towards the search for lessvisible power. Lukes’s () interest in the preven-tion of negotiation and discussion, agenda manip-ulation, and the pre-selection of appropriate solu-tions is also a focus on implicit power and providesa good example of the way in which dominant ide-ologies and social understandings prevent discourseand dissent. This type of power can successfullylegitimise social practices which are arbitrary. Equallyapplicable are arguments regarding the internalisa-tion of practices and ‘hegemonic despotism’(Burawoy, ; Clegg, , a, b). As far asmore visible aspects of power are concerned, researchon resources, imbalances, and dependencies, foundin Pfeffer and Salancik () and Steil and Weltman(), has also proved useful.

Though traceable to all of the abovementioned writ-ings, this research is, in its final form, an intellectualoffspring of Foucault’s distinction between pre-modern punishment and the modern logic of sur-veillance and observation (Foucault, , ). Anin-depth discussion of Foucault’s thesis of the disci-plinary apparatus, docile body, normalisation,


penalty, conforming, surveillance and moulding ofbehaviours is not possible considering the brevity ofthis discussion, nor is it essential. Only some cen-tral concepts of Foucault’s thinking are summarisedhere and linked to findings in later sections. ToFoucault, the seeds of surveillance, normalisation,and modern forms of control can be found, chiefly,in the measures adopted to combat the plague inearly Europe and in Bentham’s Panopticon project.As far as the first is concerned, the extraordinaryperiod of combating the plague gave birth to exten-sive observation, surveillance, and constriction. Eventhe tiniest of details of daily existence were governedby rules. Society became extraordinarily disciplinedin this time of horror – death and fear could be van-quished through impeccable organisation and exact-ing obedience.

The social project of the Panopticon, unlike thesocial control in times of threat to civilised life, wasa peace-time project which facilitated observation(of inmates) and which relied on subjects having nocontact with one another, on their turning intoobjects of information rather than participants incommunication, and on their behaviours being per-fectly visible. Visibility – vertical but never hori-zontal – provided a perfect mechanism for control-ling transgression and ensuring order. The social waseliminated and replaced with individualised, con-fined spaces. This design was to effectively instil con-stant anxiety and awareness, on the part of theobserved, of their position. Power became non-ver-ifiable yet highly visible.

The simple principles of observation have been putto ever greater use, across social situations; theyensure the efficient application of pervasive, homo-geneous power. The application of exemplary powerand visible punishment is unnecessary, to keep thesocial organism in order. The physical manifesta-tions of power are partly replaced with subtle mea-sures of control based on amassed information andcorrection of digression. The utility of this generalmodel of ‘education’ is explained in terms of itseffectiveness in perfecting control. It allows for invis-ible intervention, silent control over the mind, andinfluence which is not external to the social organ-ism but permeates it.

Empirical Research The empirical research, discussed here, investigatedthe negative experiences of twelve dissatisfied con-

sumers. The research took place in two cultural set-tings, one Irish and one Bulgarian. Two rounds ofinterviews were organised during which narratorswere asked to describe, and reflect on, incidents ofbuying and consumption negativity as well as thelarger socio-cultural and historical context of theirstories. The narratives were contextualised in spe-cific socio-historical moments and the personal lifetrajectories of the narrators – a ‘union’ of larger andpersonalised themes and an illustration of the ‘his-toricised’ self, following Thompson (, ).Narratives, it is argued, do not exist in a social andhistorical vacuum; the self is not a collection of per-sonal characteristics but the product of individ-ual–environment negotiations (see Schutz, ;Wagner, ). This negotiated self is fundamentalwhen approaching consumers’ interpretations andthe labels they use to describe consumption experi-ences. The dual historicity suggests that complexlinks exist among consumption experiences, life tra-jectories, and larger, social developments. A narra-tive is not only about the verbal clash between aprovider and a client but also about personal andsocial experiences and understandings as well as theawareness of past and present.

The narrative analysis reveals four major types ofpower which, while closely linked to Foucault’s dis-tinction between pre-modern control and themodern apparatus of observation, normalisation,and correction, expand his dichotomy. The fourpower types are clearly distinguished, since power,the narratives suggest, operates on various levels andaffects narrators in diverse ways. Power is not amonolithic entity which has universal, final, andpermanent traits and which operates according to aset of pre-specified rules; it is variable, changing, andinvites an awareness of and attention to difference.The power types, though linked, are separate. Withrespect to each type, a definition, illustrative narra-tive excerpts, and a brief discussion are provided.

Direct PowerOf the four types, direct power is the visible, exem-plary, and highly explicit form of control. It is basedon conventional means of exacting obedience – a‘crude’ power type operationalised through visiblepressure and influence. Stories of explicit power exe-cution and the application of visible mechanismsaffecting behaviours were, early in the researchprocess, separated from other power types. Thisearly identification was possible due to the recog-

Power and Disciplining: Bringing Foucault to Marketing

nisable traits of continued subjugation (May, ),overt limitations (Inglis, ), and unconcealedcompelling. Words like ‘angry’, ‘fight’, ‘yell’, ‘bel-ligerent’, and ‘roar’ create an imagery of battleswaged between parties with irreconcilably oppos-ing positions.

A narrative about threats illustrates the mechanismsof direct power. The narrator exclaims, ‘Heavens, Iwas … she … she got really mad at one point. She[an optician] showed me about ten pairs [of glasses],perhaps. I wasn’t happy with any. And then [I] com-mented that there wasn’t enough of a choice. And Ihad contradicted [her] before that too. And she gotmad and said that I could just as well leave her shopand then threatened to shut the door behind myback.’ An ‘avalanche of accusations’, on the part ofthe service provider, follows.

The application of direct power, on the part ofproviders of goods and services, is explicitly identi-fied, by some narrators, as an example of institutionalarrogance fuelled by the stark imbalances of institu-tional and individual resources. Resource imbalancesand institutional superiority prompt institutions toexact unmasked deference and conformity. Narratorsdescribe institutions as being unashamedly demand-ing and as ‘getting away with it’ due to their privi-leged position. Narrators’ fears of institutions, andservice providers as representatives of institutions, canbe linked to a past when institutions were unac-countable, alien and threatening. As suggested by anarrator, even when confronting small establishments,there is the fear of the institution ‘potentially behindit. People hesitate to complain,’ adding that ‘you justdon’t know whom are you dealing with. It can be anex-cop or ex-security service clerk.’

Similar concerns surface in the following excerptwhere a narrator explains the indecisiveness of theindividual when openly confronted,

I think there’s just been such a culture here, of doingwhat you’re told. … there’s been a sense of … are we,sort of, being under-dogs. … People are passive… Youknow, there there’s not the same degree of answer-ability. And people don’t have faith in the laws andthe justice system. Don’t have faith in big institutions.

Gendered PowerGendered power, or power based on gender-relateddifferences between providers and consumers,

dominates some narratives. Stories are explainedwith respect to gender inequities in modernEuropean societies, a patriarchal socio-culturalpast, pressures towards inclusion of previouslymarginalised social groups, and opposition – attimes organised – to challenges to the status quo.The opposing logics of transformation and tradi-tionalism, openness and resistance to openness,emancipation and subjugation, find expression, inthe narratives, in issues of employment opportu-nity equality, expectations about the public role ofwomen, and solidarity.

A narrative excerpt reveals the logic of genderedpower, and some problems that women face whenconfronted by a male provider in particular.

And so, he came closer … drunk … and yelled,‘What do you want?’, ‘Get out of here!’, ‘You have ahuge mouth!’ … I was, you know, with my friendand the master, but they were … as if absent … atthis moment. I did all the arguing myself … I thinkthat I had forgotten that I could … have been phys-ically assaulted.

The incident illustrates the readiness of providers toresolve disagreements with female customers bytaking advantage of their alleged ‘superiority’. Thefact that the provider in question is dealing with awoman makes it easier for him to demonstrate hisperceived social standing. The abuse is coupled withthe injured dignity of the narrator. Similar issues ofcompromised pride appear in other stories – womenare weak and vulnerable, and they are expected toremain so. In times of profound social transforma-tion and uncertainty, it seems, centres of traditionalpower may feel threatened by the prospect ofchange. Their likely reaction is to fight back, declarethemselves and make yet another claim. This prob-lem of insecurity links the gendered power dis-courses with the endangered traditionalism and vio-lence, discussed by Arendt ().

Power distribution and inequities surface in storiesof isolated cases of ‘assertive women’. Such womenappear to be more masculine than ‘typical’. Theybehave ‘almost like a man’, and are able to ‘protect’their rights, to ‘fight’.

I remember there was the issue of promotions onceand she managed to defend her position… I admireher for that … She has a big mouth. She wouldn’t besilent and let things happen, you know [laughs].


Information InequitiesThe power type information inequities is often foundin contexts of professional service provision, themedico-professional in particular, where imbalancesin the relative positions of the lay person and theprovider of services, or the expert, are pronounced.The contexts are of a provider who possesses supe-rior, insider knowledge about practices and routineswithin institutions that are not transparent to out-sider-consumers. An example of the abuse of infor-mation, to the advantage of a provider, is a narra-tive about a GP who misuses his knowledge ofsurgery practices in hospitals. The specialist, whenproviding his expert opinion, cannot be contra-dicted and can easily take advantage of his statusand erudition.

Although a number of significant issues related toinformation inequities warrant mention, the pow-erlessness of the consumer in situations where theprovider possesses technical, specialised, and highlyvalued knowledge is of primary concern. As a nar-rator observes, the consumer (patient) is confrontedby an arrogant and disrespectful expert, yet has nooption but to leave things the way they are. ‘Whatwas I supposed to do?!’, a narrator expresses herpowerlessness fuelled by fear of retaliation on partof the service provider. ‘He [a mistreated client]wouldn’t have dared commenting in front of them[the hospital staff ] because … they could haveignored him forever.’ This fear is a rational reaction,considering the nature of professional service rela-tionships where the patient is caught in a year-longlink with a provider marked by high exit costs.

DiscipliningThe final power type reflects the partial, long shiftin the technology of power from earlier forms ofexemplary punishment and observable control tothe refined instruments of observation, inspection,and controlling with which modern society hasbecome accustomed. This is a ‘Foucauldian shift’from the magnificent public spectacle, from thestate exemplifying its power, from correction,moral improvement, and the display of strength –the carnivalesque, the theatrical event, the moralmoment imbued with shock and awe. The newpower logic is one of rationalisation, scientificisa-tion, and medicalisation of power. While olderexpressions of power are not totally replaced bymodern power expressions, and even thoughexplicit and disciplinary power are interpenetrated,

the transition from one modality of power toanother – continuous, refined, bureaucratised cal-culation and surveillance – is visible and marks theemergence of disciplining.

Disciplining, not intended to be observed, is aninstrument of control employed from within thesocial structure; it permeates through relations, themind, behaviours, and discourses of subjects. Themechanisms of modern restraints are hardly recog-nisable; with the focus on continuous observation,centres of power require detailed and perfectedknowledge of the subject. As suggested in narratives,a partial-to-extensive shift from personalisationtowards de-personalisation is notable, making iteasier to normalise the individual.

Help lines and the application of standard operat-ing procedures when dealing with customers are twofamiliar and prominent examples of refined disci-plining. A number of narratives of call centre oper-ators disciplining customers were identified duringthe interviews. One of them demonstrates bothimplicit control (‘cornering’ and ‘quarantining’ com-plaining consumers) and the awareness of the indi-vidual (resolved to ‘get through’ this ‘buffer zone’)of disciplining attempts.

They were asking a lot of … ah ‘Well, have you donethis, have you checked that?’ … stuff I would havechecked myself. And I was trying to explain to them,‘Sorry, I know what I’m doing. Can you just put methrough to a technician?’ … They had a set routineof questions they have to go all through and I, everytime I rang up, they had to go through these ten–fif-teen questions … ‘Why do we have to go through allthis again?’ ‘No, sorry, we have to ask you all thesequestions.’ [laughs] … And they were very reluctantto put me through to anybody in a higher position… It was … very much like they were a buffer zone.

Disciplining, the excerpt suggests, can be disguisedas a concern with equity and justice. It is camou-flaged in carefully formulated sentences, questions,and suggestions that seek to put the dissatisfied cus-tomer ‘on the right track’.

Discussion: Power, Disciplining andMarketing At a number of levels, it behoves marketers – schol-ars and practitioners – to study the nature of powerand disciplining. The modernist project in mar-keting, in its attempt to hide away from the


‘uncomfortable’ connotations of power, and from‘negativity’ more generally, has produced a cleansedand disinfected marketing. Power, though, is abuilding block of social encounters. In humaninteractions, numerous opportunities for differ-ence, disparity, and imbalance exist. No matter howunsettling, power is important to sustaining social-ity and the recreation of the social fabric. Thoughnot often recognised by marketers, its incorpora-tion can facilitate future growth of a marketing the-orising marked by reflexivity rather than cognitivehomogeneity.

Such cognitive homogeneity has restrained devel-opment in the field and has made marketing pre-dictable, prosaic, almost irrelevant in the eyes ofmany academics and practitioners outside the dis-cipline. Marketing theorising, this research suggests,needs to become more contingent, less positive,more interested in searching for the less visible – thatwhich has been relegated to a secondary positionand thrown out of past discourses. It suffices to setthe illustrations of power and their discussion in thispaper in the context of Brown’s () contentionabout ‘customer centricity’, where ‘everyone in busi-ness today seems to take it as a God-given truth thatcompanies were put on this earth for one purposealone: to pander to customers’ (p. ). This, asBrown points out, could not be further from thetruth. In contrast to the exhortation of much mar-keting literature to delight and romance consumers,and to mantras of customer-as-king, is the reality offirms and organisations striving for control over theconsumer – of exercising power over and disciplin-ing the customer.

A second, equally significant implication builds on spe-cific findings concerning observation and counter-observation in service encounters. Observation and theexamination of the human proved to be matters dis-turbing the interviewed consumers. Continuous sur-veillance – facilitated and accelerated by advances intechnology and the sciences of human behaviour –operates these days with meticulousness unparalleledin human history, narratives suggest. Power has cometo rest on knowledge of the human and the socialorganism; they are inspected, categorised, and madeobedient. Power is not dispensed so much in a top-bottom manner, but rests within the network of cen-tres of observation (CO) and subjects of observation(SO) (see Figure ) illustrating Foucault’s convictionthat power is exercised from ‘innumerable points’.

Power can be implemented thanks to detailedknowledge of the subject – the explosion of helplines and database marketing provide two examples.Database marketing offers the perfect tool for iso-lation, specification, and transformation of the sub-ject – their disciplining; so do help lines. The spacescreated by both are not marked by social interactionbut are purely functional. The observation nour-ished by them is invisible yet pervasive. Neithermakes use of formal segregation, open exclusion, or‘exposed’ marginalisation; rather they employ metic-ulous tests and methodologies.

The discussion so far, though, reveals only one partof this picture of observation, as told by narrators.The narrators’ awareness of, and opposition to, sur-veillance and normalisation need to be placedwithin this framework of observation and disci-


Figure 1 A Model of Observation

CO

CO

CO

CO

CO

CO

CO

CO

SO

SO

SO

SO

SO

SOSO

SO

SOSO

SO

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SO SO

SO

plining. Dissatisfied consumers are conscious ofveiled measures of control, and at times react tothese efforts. This counter-observation is, moreoften than not, discontinuous, singular, and super-ficial in the sense that, due to their limited knowl-edge of institutions, individuals can have a limitedimpact on institutional dynamics. When consumersattempt to penetrate the institutional ‘skin’ – thehelp line technicians, for instance – they are con-fronted with rigid, well-rehearsed defensive rou-tines. Nonetheless, counter-observation is possible.Its presence suggests that the uni-directional obser-vation (provider à consumer) suggested in Figure should be replaced with a complex series of obser-vations and counter-observations where the observ-ing bodies are, at times, themselves subjected to sur-veillance on the part of the observed. In fact, thismodel of observation and counter-observation isvery complex, this paper being itself an observationexercise. In an attempt to explain aspects of con-sumption that have remained under-researched, theresearcher has ended up in the position of a second-order observer of incidents, seen through the eyesof narrators. This second-order observation offerssome insights as to the ways in which power oper-ates. This refined model of observation, visualisedin Figure , illustrates first-order (observation) andsecond-order (observation of ) observation.

The discussion of observation, counter-observation,and layers of observation suggests that, even in the

presence of perfected power methodologies, totalobservation is not possible – no matter how encom-passing and flawless the technology of surveillance.Every layer of surveillance is subjected to higher-order control. This ‘imperfection’ of observationoffers the individual, living in an age of intrusivetechnological developments, the opportunity tochallenge, albeit locally, manipulation (an oppor-tunity not to be confused with (total) emancipa-tion, the rhetoric about which is at times dubiousand needs to be approached with care). A closeexamination of Figure reveals three spaces withdiffused boundaries. Space is inhabited by first-order observation, while in space one findssecond-order observation where the researcher,aided by the comments of the narrators, presenteda local picture of consumer dissatisfaction. Thisspace, however, is not the final observation spacebut is part of a higher-order space in which thenumber and complexity of layers of observations is,potentially, endless.

Counter-observation, part of any of the observationlayers, warrants a mention. As suggested in the nar-ratives, the passivity accorded to the subjects ofpower is not necessarily accepted by them. It maybe tempting to explain consumer–provider or indi-vidual–institution relationships as ones of embed-dedness of the former in the latter. Embeddednessof this kind, though, disregards the experience ofhumans (the subjects of power) with ‘disparate social


Figure 2 A Model of Nested Observations

Unobserved space

Space of 1st and 2nd order observation

Space of 2nd order observation

Source: Modified from Spencer Brown (1969)

influences’ (Whittington, , p. ) in a modernsociety composed of competing systems and rules.Systems interact with one another and jointlyimpact on subjects. At the point of intersection ofcompeting systems, rules also intersect. This tensionprovides humans with the opportunity to differen-tiate, reflect on, and choose among rules. Trans-planted to this research, Whittington’s argumentsuggests that consumers are never only consumersbut are also mothers, retail workers, psychologists,educators, and so on. Their membership in, andinteraction with, multiple systems provides roomfor defying a structural logic, in the process of choos-ing among overlapping logics. The majority of theinterviewed consumers in this research were clearlyable, using Mouzelis’s () arguments regardingagency and structure, to ‘distance themselves fromrules and resources, in order to question them, or inorder to … devise strategies for either their mainte-nance or their transformation’ (p. , emphasisadded). Distancing is shown to be possible; it occurson various levels.

This notion of distancing brings the paper to a close.Marketers, as part of big, modern institutions, makeextensive use of disciplining – even if not explicitly.Observation can be relatively ‘crude’ and visible; orit can present a significant ‘threat’ to personal andsocial freedom if it is subtle and refined. The aware-ness of social commentators and individuals aboutthe institutional use of observation prompts discus-sions and debates. Such social visibility of, and reac-tion to, observation induces institutions to deviseever more ingenious ways of carrying out this ‘big

project’ of data accumulation, monitoring, and nor-malisation. Regarding the visibility of observation(and counter-observation, indeed), then, the asso-ciation between those who desire to discipline (mar-keters) and those who are the subjected to disci-plining (consumers) is one of a race that has itsanalogues in prey–predator co-evolutionary modelsin the natural sciences. The more refined the obser-vation, the greater the curiosity and interest inunwrapping it; this interest and the engenderedcounter-observation prompts, in turn, anotherround of observation perfection.

Conclusion We argue that research on buying behaviour and con-sumption would benefit from comprehending thenature and role of power and disciplining in mar-keting. Such consideration about power has provedimportant elsewhere in the social sciences. This arti-cle attempts to redress this neglect in the domain ofmarketing. Its empirical findings take the reader intothe dark underworld of the ‘negative’ – a world pop-ulated by dim and shadowy creatures, forces, andmotives that seem to have little in common with thebrightness and optimism marking the ‘mythodeol-ogy’ of marketing discourse. The shadows, interest-ingly, inhabit precisely the same spaces populated bytheir mirror opposites so beloved by marketers.However, in order to ‘discern’ and ‘expose’ shadows,researchers need to take a closer, more critical look atthe numerous reflections and voices they see and hear.We, as researchers, need to open our perceptions tothese voices and allow them to reveal themselves intheir variety and magnificence.


AuthorEdward Kasabov is an Advanced Institute ofManagement (AIM) Research Fellow at CardiffBusiness School, Cardiff University. He previouslytaught at Trinity College Dublin. His researchcovers four areas: economic policy (Central andEastern European structural adjustment), privatisation (informal institutions), marketing(relationship marketing; power and disciplining),and strategy (networks; clusters; biotechnology).His current project work involves UK life scienceand biotechnology clusters.

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IntroductionThe impact of information and communication tech-nology (ICT) on the sophistication and range of mar-keting channels for consumer markets has been thesubject of much discussion within contemporarymarketing literature (Peterson et al., ; Alba et al.,; Hoffman and Novak, ; Klein, ).Through a wide range of media customers can accesscompanies hours a day for information, purchaseand customer service, and new electronic channelsare increasingly seen as complementary to rather thancompetitive with traditional channels (Anton, ).

The Internet is just one of a range of e-commercetechnologies to facilitate information exchange. Thebenefits of setting up an Internet presence are costreduction, new capability, competitive advantage,communications improvement, improved controland customer service improvement (Bocij et al.,). However, these benefits have yet to be fullyrealised as firms continue to search for the beststrategies and business models on which to base theire-commerce activities. The success of e-retailing ishighly important: if the Internet were to fail as a dig-ital medium, not only would access to the WorldWide Web be lost, but the development and evolu-tion of computer-mediated environments in generalcould also come under threat (Hoffmann et al.,a; Chen and Dhillon, ). Some researchershave argued that the most significant long-term

barrier to the success of the Internet as a commer-cial medium in mass markets is a lack of consumertrust in the Internet (Jarvenpaa et al., ;Hoffmann et al., b). Consequently, it has beenargued that the determinants and consequences oftrust in e-retailing warrant further analysis (Grabner-Kraeuter, ; Kimery and McCord, ).

This paper develops a testable model of the deter-minants and consequences of consumer trust in e-retailing. The aim is to gain a better understandingof consumer behaviour in online environments, inorder to provide some insights into the factors affect-ing the decision to purchase from an e-retailer. Thepaper proceeds by reviewing the relationship mar-keting literature on trust, followed by the justifica-tion for examining this construct in an online pur-chasing context using the Internet. Next, aconceptual model is developed, describing the rela-tionship between the determinants and conse-quences of consumer trust in e-retailing.

Literature ReviewAlthough the construct of trust has received con-siderable attention in business and social science lit-erature, there is no universally accepted scholarlydefinition of the term. For example, psychologistshave attempted to relate the concept of trust to indi-vidual personality characteristics (Rotter ;Worchel, ). Alternatively, sociologists have

THE DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF CONSUMERTRUST IN E-RETAILING: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK


Purchasing via the Internet has overtaken purchasing through traditionalretail outlets in terms of sales growth rates. Nevertheless, there is strongevidence to suggest that while many consumers use the Internet to searchfor product information on electronic retailers’ websites, only a minority ofthem make purchases online. Concerns over the security of personal andcredit card information as well as the credibility of e-retailers are commonlygiven as resons for the low level of online purchasing.

As a result online consumer trust in e-retailing has recently been acknowledged as having a role to play in determining the likelihood ofusing the Internet for purchasing. Without building and maintaining trustbetween consumers and e-retailers, the development of the Internet as an e-commerce medium in mass consumer markets is unlikely to reach its fullpotential. This paper presents a testable model describing the relationshipbetween the determinants and consequences of consumer trust in e-retailing.

Caroline Bramall, Klaus Schoefer & Sally McKechnie

considered trust with respect to the socially embed-ded properties of relationships among people. Econ-omists, on the other hand, have tended to view trustas either calculative or institutional (Rousseau et al.,), whereas in the relationship marketing and ser-vices marketing literature trust plays a piviotal rolein holding a relationship between buyers and sellerstogether (Morgan and Hunt, ; Dwyer et al.,; Moorman et al., ; Berry, ). Accordingto Morgan and Hunt’s () commitment–trusttheory of relationship marketing, commitment andtrust are necessary antecedents to successful rela-tional exchanges, with trust being defined in termsof one party having confidence in the reliability andintegrity of an exchange partner. By comparison,Gwinner et al. () and Anderson and Narus() view trust in terms of perceived benefits ofdealing with another company.

Overall, two common themes emerge from the lit-erature about trust: first of all it represents a will-ingness to accept vulnerability, a belief about thebehavioural intentions of others and positive expec-tations about the outcomes of another party’s behav-iour; and secondly, trust is generally agreed to be adynamic process, which can be slow to build yet canquickly be destroyed (Yoon, ). While trust iseffective in developing a better understanding ofexchange behaviour, the dual nature of this constructmakes it problematic, for trust comprises both aglobal (attitudinal/affective) component and a situ-ational one (Butler, cited in O’Malley, ).For the purposes of the present study, a definition oftrust which specifically relates to e-retailing is sought.

Within the retailing literature, it is commonly agreedthat there are two key conditions necessary for trustto develop: risk and interdependence of the consumerand the retailer (Chen and Dhillon, ; Rousseauet al., ). This notion of vulnerability, uncertaintyand dependence is elaborated on by Jarvenpaa et al.(), who link it to a consumer’s lack of controlover the purchasing situation, and suggest trust to bea governance mechanism in the retailer–consumerexchange relationship. As far as e-retailing is con-cerned, several researchers have posited that trust isan important element of intentions to adopt busi-ness-to-consumer e-commerce (Grabner-Kraeuter,; Pavlou, ; Vinton, ).

Use of the Internet as a shopping medium is still ina very early stage of commercial development.

However, the stimulation of commercial sales is crit-ical to its survival. A telephone survey carried out bythe Princeton Survey Research Associates showed thatonly per cent of respondents said that they trustwebsites that sell products or services ‘all or most ofthe time’ (Wingfield, ). As a lack of trust is oneof the main barriers to adoption of Internet shop-ping, trust has been characterised as the most pre-cious asset that any business can possess (Kimery andMcCord, ). So, in many respects online trust isvery similar to offline trust in purchasing situations.For example, trust both offline and online acts as afacilitator for formulating a positive purchase inten-tion and a repeat purchase decision. However, theInternet medium brings new and uncertain situa-tions, throwing new levels of importance onto theissue of trust. Significantly, this includes the absenceof contiguity in time and space of the exchange part-ners and the associated problems of privacy and secu-rity of personal and credit card information (Grabner-Kraeuter, ; Yoon, ).

Despite their differences, the definitions of trust inInternet-based retail situations are very similar tothose based on more traditional situations. Forexample, according to Kimery and McCord ()‘trust in an e-retailer is specifically defined as a con-sumer’s willingness to accept vulnerability in anonline transaction based on their positive expecta-tions regarding an e-retailer’s future behaviours’.They go on to suggest that if a consumer is providedwith better access to information about an e-retailer,they will be able to predict better and more confi-dently the retailer’s future behaviour, hence devel-oping a higher level of trust. By placing trust in thee-retailer the consumer retains some control over thetransaction, as the actions of the retailer havebecome more predictable (Pavlou, ).

One question plaguing potential online consumersis ‘How do you know whom to trust? In a virtualworld, the issue of trust gets magnified’ (Economist,, cited in Jarvenpaa et al., ). The impor-tance and influence of trust have long been estab-lished as a key factor influencing consumer behav-iour and as such are critical for the growth ofe-commerce, due largely to the open and globalnature of the Internet. It is known that consumersare buying more than ever online and that they aredoing this in spite of nagging concerns about thetrustworthiness and reliability of web merchants(Wingfield, ). Part of this lack of trustworthi-

Irish Marketing Review Volume Number

ness can be linked to consumers’ lack of familiaritywith the new medium. In online shopping many ofthe clues used by consumers in traditional retail sit-uations are missing, causing a feeling of uneasinessand lack of trust, resulting in an unwillingness topurchase. It is suggested that by building relation-ships with customers the level of familiarity can beraised, but again, doing this online presents newchallenges. In the case of e-retailing, Jarvenpaa et al.() propose that when a salesperson is absentfrom the buying process, the retailing organisationitself becomes the primary focus of the customer’strust. They developed a model hypothesising thatconsumer trust in an online retailer is affected byconsumer willingness to patronise this virtual store.This model was corroborated for bookstore andtravel-based online retailers and was proposed as areasonable starting point for developing a theory ofconsumer trust in the Internet. However, they calledfor further research to explore the underlying processby which trust is formed or developed or how itevolves as the consumer interacts with the Internetand Internet-based stores.

Model DevelopmentBased on the above literature review and in responseto the aforementioned call for further researchwithin the area of online trust, the present studydevelops a model which examines the determinantsand consequences of consumer trust in e-retailing.For the purposes of this model, the determinants ofconsumer trust are classified into three groups: thosepertaining to the store itself, those based on theInternet site, and those linked to the consumer.These groups are referred to as ‘store-related deter-minants’, ‘website-related determinants’ and ‘con-sumer-related determinants’ respectively.

Store-related determinants of consumer trust exam-ine whether the traditional advantages of a non-Internet-based store (i.e. a ‘bricks and mortar’ retailoutlet) can be applied to the online environment.This is an area speculated to be undergoing aperiod of great change as the use of the Internet asa retail medium becomes more widespread. Web-site-related determinants concern the developmentof trust in an e-retailer based on items present onthe website itself. Consumer-related determinantsrelate to the beliefs held by consumers concerningthe Internet as a retail medium, the associated risksof shopping online and their previous direct shop-ping experience.

Store-Related Determinants of Trust in E-RetailingAs with traditional stores, reputation is frequentlyused by online consumers as an indication of a firm’strustworthiness, where ‘reputation’ is defined as theextent to which buyers believe a selling organisationis honest and concerned about its customers (Doneyand Cannon, ). Referring to the economist’sview of trust as a calculative concept, it is generallybelieved that the costs of acting in an untrustwor-thy manner are higher for retailers with an estab-lished positive reputation. This is because the devel-opment of such a reputation involves a significantinvestment and as such represents a valuable assetto the firm (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, ;Jarvenpaa et al., ). It would not be in theretailer’s best interest to jeopardise their reputationby engaging in opportunistic behaviour, as anyshort-term gains would not offset the loss of rewardsgained through holding a good reputation (Doneyand Cannon, ; Chiles and McMackin, ). Apositive reputation can hence be seen as providingassurances of ability, integrity and goodwill, therebyincreasing trust, particularly in first-time transac-tions (McKnight et al., ). Based on this line ofreasoning, it is hypothesised that:

Ha: A consumer’s trust in an e-retailer is positivelyrelated to the retailer’s perceived reputation.

Firm size, according to Doney and Cannon (),refers to the firm’s overall size and its market shareposition. A sizeable market share is often seen as anindication that the firm has a large number of cus-tomers. The link is commonly made that if theretailer were not competent, trustworthy and did notregularly follow through with commitments made tocustomers, it would not have been able to grow tothat size, or maintain its position in the industry. Alarge size also acts as a signal that the retailer will havethe necessary expertise and resources to maintain sup-port systems such as customer and technical services.A further perceived advantage of larger retailers is thatthey should be able to exert some control over theirsuppliers due to the quantity of their orders, therebyresulting in a more reliable and credible service. Theexistence of such factors is thought to encourage con-sumer trust in the firm as they reduce the level of per-ceived risk. For example, Jarvenpaa et al. () arguethat for trust to exist, the consumer must believe thatthe seller has both the ability and the motivation toreliably deliver goods and services of the quality

The Determinants and Consequences of Consumer Trust in E-Retailing: A Conceptual Framework

expected by the consumer. Furthermore, customerswould rationally determine that there is merit intrusting larger firms, since larger firms would incurmore significant costs through untrustworthy behav-iour than smaller firms (Chen and Dhillon, ).Hence, it is expected that:

Hb: A consumer’s trust in an e-retailer is positivelyrelated to the retailer’s perceived size.

As the Internet is a relatively new medium for con-sumption, e-retailers are frequently compared with‘bricks and mortar’ stores. The assumption is oftenmade that e-retailers backed by a traditional, phys-ical presence will be more reliable than those basedwholly online (Abdelmessih et al., ). Quelchand Klein (), for example, argue that websitesrepresenting a retailer with whom the consumer isfamiliar from traditional channels will be favoured.This assumption is based on the belief that that theestablished reputation and level of trust built by a‘bricks and mortar’ store will be transferred to itsInternet operations. That is not to say that anentirely Internet-based store cannot convey a senseof trust to its customers, as the huge success achievedby Amazon.com bears testimony to this fact.However, e-retailers face several obstacles that havealready been conquered by their competitors, whichleads to the following hypothesis:

Hc: Consumers will place more trust in e-retail-ers which are perceived to have an offlinepresence.

Website-Related Determinants of Trust in E-RetailingIn a bid to increase consumer trust many e-retailershave associated themselves with a third-party assur-ance seal such as TRUSTe, BBBOnline, andVeriSign. These seals serve as tangible cues used bya company to enable its consumers to infer a senseof certainty and positive outcome of their participa-tion in an exchange with the e-retailer (Nöteberg etal., ; Chen and Dhillon, ). They aredesigned to communicate to the consumer that thee-retailer complies with a third-party’s (i.e. assurer’s)specific standards or requirements and, as a result,can be trusted by the consumer. The display of athird-party seal on an e-retailer’s website signals alinkage between the e-retailer and the assuring third-party organisation. Consumers will extend their attri-bution of trustworthiness from the assuring organi-

sation to the seal-displaying e-retailer to the extentthat they perceive the assuring organisation as a cred-ible and trustworthy entity and recognise the seal asrepresenting a meaningful association between theassurer and the e-retailer (Kimery and McCord,). Based on this potential role of third-partyassurances to build trust, it is hypothesised that:

Ha: Third-party assurance seals will have a positiveeffect on a consumer’s trust in the e-retailer.

In e-commerce, consumers rarely deal with sales-people, therefore trust must be placed directly in thee-retailer, depending on an electronic interface toact on their behalf. This impersonal nature of theInternet has been suggested as one reason for con-sumers’ lack of trust in this medium. In traditionalretail channels consumers are able to make judge-ments about retailers through physical clues such asthe size of the store, its cleanliness, staff uniforms,etc. Furthermore, judgements can be based on thesalespersons, their knowledge of products, ability tosell and even their personal characteristics such ashonesty, familiarity with the customer, likeabilityand prior selling experience. On the Internet thesephysical clues and human contacts are lacking(Gefen, ). For e-retailers their website may bethe only means of communicating with customers,therefore its appearance and structure are of greatimportance. Accordingly, Wingfield () views aprofessional-looking website as a signalling mecha-nism indicating that the merchant probably is nota ‘fly-by-night’ operation. A professional-lookingwebsite gives consumers a sense of normality, andbecause everything appears to be normal and inproper order, the perceived chance of success isincreased and the customer feels more comfortableand trusting towards making a purchase (Chen andDhillon, ). Therefore, it is hypothesised that:

Hb: A consumer’s trust in an e-retailer is positivelyrelated to the perceived professionalism ofthat website’s design.

Consumer-Related Determinants of Trust in E-RetailingMost consumers today are regularly exposed to someform of technology such as ATMs or personal com-puters. As such they will have formed some attitudetowards technological items in general and comput-ers in particular. Consequences, both good and bad,of dealing with computers might generate or rein-


force a consumer’s beliefs and attitudes towards e-commerce and influence their level of perceived trustin online environments and willingness to buy onlinein the future. Prior studies on electronic shoppingsystems have found the predisposition towards com-puters in general to be a significant determinant ofadoption and use of new forms of shopping(Korgaonkar and Moschis, ; Korgaonkar andSmith, ; Shim and Drake, ; Shim andMahoney, ; Eastlick, ). Other related researchhas found that if consumers have a favourable atti-tude to new technologies, then it is likely that theywill also view Internet shopping in a positive light(Latour et al., ; Bobbitt and Dabholkar, ).Positive experiences reinforce a consumer’s ‘compe-tence trust’ and contribute towards building a posi-tive attitude, which is a prerequisite for repeat trans-actions (Sirdeshmukh et al., ). Following thisline of argument, the following hypothesis is framed:

Ha: Consumers with a positive attitude towardscomputers will have a higher level of trust inthe Internet as a retail medium.

Consumer attitudes towards computers and Internetshopping are frequently linked to their past experi-ences of direct shopping forums such as cataloguesand television shopping channels. For example,Eastlick and Liu () speculate that attitudes towardstelevision shopping provide a foundation for under-standing attitudes towards other interactive shoppingenvironments. Other studies have also shown thatconsumers who have shopped from their home in thepast are more likely to shop online in the future (seeShim and Mahoney, ; Shim and Drake, ). Asit is generally agreed that trust is built over a periodof time, it would be feasible to assume that, provid-ing past direct shopping experience was regarded pos-itively, people with more experience will have a higherlevel of trust in using the Internet for consumption.Hence, it is hypothesised that:

Hb: Consumers with past direct shopping expe-rience will have a have a higher level of trustin the Internet as a retail medium.

Attitude towards computers is also linked to the con-sumer’s level of perceived risk in online purchase sit-uations. Perceived risk is an area that has receivedmuch attention in the existing literature. Jarvenpaaand Tractinsky’s () results very tentatively suggestthat greater experience with the web is associated with

lower trust and higher risk. It is also suggested that asconsumers’ web skills improve, they are more likelyto have a positive emotional response to Internet sites.This seems to imply a lower level of perceived risk andan increased likelihood of consumer trust (Koufaris,). Cheskin Research () found that those withthe highest confidence in their online skills and higherlevels of online experience were most willing toexchange personal information online. The misuse ofpersonal information is a key source of distrust, there-fore this group of respondents may be displaying arenewed increase in trust. Furthermore, CheskinResearch () found that security symbols inspiredmore trust in heavy users (i.e. those with high currentdirect shopping experience) than light users, suggest-ing that they would be more willing to buy. Extendingthis line of argument, it is expected that:

Hc: The lower the level of perceived risk associ-ated with online shopping, the higher the levelof trust in the Internet as a retail medium.

Relationship between Different Trust Categoriesin E-RetailingTrust does not exist in a vacuum, and it is oftenargued that diverse, complex, and self-evolving sys-tems like the Internet actually create an ‘atmosphere’of trust (or lack thereof ) (e.g. Salam et al., andFriedman et al., ). Therefore, these complex sys-tems should be viewed as valid participants in trustrelationships. As the argument continues, an end usermust first trust in that atmosphere – the technologyand the human community combined – and onlythen is he or she positioned to trust in any particu-lar online interaction with other people (Friedmanet al., ). We agree with Friedman et al. (),and accept that the online environment in whichpeople interact (i.e. the Internet) has a decisive effecton a person’s desire and ability to participate in a trustrelationship with an individual e-retailer. More specif-ically, we argue that a consumer’s trust in the Internetas a retail medium influences the formation of trust-ing beliefs concerning individual e-retailers. Based onthis, it is hypothesised that:

H: The higher the level of general trust in theInternet as a retail medium, the higher thelevel of specific trust in an individual e-retailer.

Consequences of Trust in E-RetailingFollowing Coleman (), perceived risk can bethought of as representing an individual’s assessment


of the relative probability of positive and negativeoutcomes of a given transaction or situation. Anytransaction has risk factors specific to the transac-tion itself, including total potential financial loss orgain, as well as information uncertainty, complex-ity, and asymmetry (Kimery and McCord, ).Other more indirectly linked factors to the specificexchange, including familiarity with the problemdomain, interpersonal relationships, social influ-ences, and institutional controls, have been identi-fied as influencing the level of perceived transactionrisk (Sitkin and Barclay, ). Consistent withKimery and McCord (), the present researchmodels trust as one of the factors that influence howrisk is evaluated and perceived. The level of per-ceived risk inherent in a given exchange is offset bythe level of trust held by one party for the other. Asa result, perceived risk associated with an exchangeis partially a function of the trust between parties.In keeping with this conceptualisation, studies byFukuyama () and Morgan and Hunt () haveshown that trust reduces perceptions of transactionrisk. Trust is also linked with reduction in the needfor investments in institutional and contractualdeterrents to opportunistic behaviour (Fukuyama,) and increased risk-taking behaviour betweenindividuals and firms (Mayer et al., ). On thebasis of this, it is hypothesised that:

Ha: Increased trust in an individual retailer willreduce a consumer’s perceived transaction riskassociated with making a purchase from thate-retailer.

Hb: Increased general trust in the Internet as aretail medium will reduce a consumer’s per-ceived transaction risk associated with makinga purchase from an e-retailer.

Previous research has observed that brand name isone of the most important extrinsic cues, which areproduct-related attributes not involved with theproduct’s physical or functional aspects that con-sumers use to evaluate products (Richardson andDick, ). Research shows that brand name canhelp consumers to reduce search cost and cognitiveeffort when making product evaluations (Landesand Posner, ), and can reduce their perceptionof risk (Moon and Millison, ; Erdem and Swait,, ). Arguably, then, brand name can effec-tively reduce a consumer’s uncertainty about prod-uct quality and his/her perception of transaction risk

concerning purchase decisions in online environ-ments (Huang et al., ). On the basis of this, itis hypothesised that:

Ha: The perceived transaction risk associated withmaking a purchase from a particular e-retailerwill be lower when a brand name is presentfor the considered product/service than whenit is absent.

Several previous studies have proposed and found apositive relationship between price and perceivedfinancial risk (Kaplan et al., ; White and Truly,). In particular, it has been argued that the priceof the product is an inherent component of financialrisk (via initial outlay) (Grewal et al., ).Therefore, online transactions involving more expen-sive products should result in higher perceptions oftransaction risk (Ba and Pavlou, ; Bhatnagar etal., )). For example, an online transaction involv-ing an expensive product such as a €, digitalcamera can be considered riskier than that involvinga € music CD. The more expensive a product is,the higher the potential loss a buyer faces. Given thegreater risk inherent in the exchange of expensiveproducts, it is hypothesised that:

Hb: The price of the considered product/serviceis positively related to the consumer’s per-ceived transaction risk associated with makinga purchase from a particular e-retailer.

Product complexity is defined as the extent to whichthe consumer perceives a product to be difficult tounderstand or use (Rogers, ). A product thatoffers a large number of options or that involves alarge number of steps in its use will typically be seenas more complex. Consumers are likely to perceivehigher risks when products are more complexbecause the difficulty in understanding the productleads to uncertainty, increasing the perception thatan unknown negative outcome may occur (Holakand Lehmann, ; Burnham et al., ).Similarly, the larger number of attributes associatedwith complex products makes both information col-lection and direct comparisons of attributes morecostly (Shugan, ). A more complex product isalso likely to involve a larger number of learned skillsor scripts that must be relearned in order to switchproviders (Wernerfelt, ). Finally, complex prod-ucts are not ‘easy to try’ (Holak and Lehmann,). Based on this, it is hypothesised that:


Hc: The complexity of the considered product/service is positively related to the consumer’sperceived transaction risk associated withmaking a purchase from a particular e-retailer.

Online trust can also be theorised to have a directeffect on a consumer’s intention to purchase online.Intuitively speaking, it is presumed that high trust inthe e-retailer will yield high online purchase inten-tion, while low trust in the e-retailer will reduce a con-sumer’s willingness to purchase online. This relation-ship between trust and online transaction intentioncan be justified by the theories of reasoned action(Ajzen and Fishbein, ) and planned behaviour(Ajzen, ), which assert that an individual’s voli-tional behaviour is primarily the result of the indi-vidual’s intention to behave. Furthermore, trust isposited by Pavlou () as a salient behavioural beliefthat influences consumer attitude about an e-retailerand subsequent behavioural intentions for onlinetransactions. Hence, consumers would be hesitantabout transacting with an e-retailer that fails to conveya sense of trustworthiness (behavioural belief) becauseof fears of seller opportunism and concerns about theutilisation of the associated Internet infrastructure.On the other hand, trust also creates positive attitudestowards e-retailers, which are likely to reduce fears ofopportunism, attenuate infrastructure concerns, andfavourably influence transaction intentions with e-retailers. In fact, Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky () andHoffman et al. (b) argue that lack of trust pre-

vents consumers from engaging in online transactions,and therefore it is hypothesised that:

Ha: Increased trust in an individual e-retailer willincrease a consumer’s willingness to purchasefrom that e-retailer.

Hb: Increased general trust in the Internet as aretail medium will increase a consumer’s will-ingness to purchase from a particular e-retailer.

While actual purchase behaviour is of vital impor-tance to retailers and researchers, it is frequently notpossible or practical to study actual consumer pur-chasing (Kimery and McCord, ). Such is thecase for this study, and as a result ‘willingness to buyonline’ is adopted as an approximation for actualonline purchase behaviour. This is consistent withthe theories of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein,) and planned behaviour (Ajzen, ), whichassert that an individual’s volitional behaviour is pri-marily the result of the individual’s intention tobehave. Building upon the theory of planned behav-iour, Jarvenpaa et al. () also suggest that a con-sumer may be willing to buy from an e-retailerwhich is perceived as low risk, even if the consumer’sattitudes towards that merchant are not highly pos-itive. Conversely, a consumer may not be willing tobuy from a merchant perceived as being high risk,even in the presence of positive attitudes towardsthat merchant. According to Jarvenpaa et al. (),


Figure 1 A Conceptual Framework for Examining the Determinants and Consequences of Consumer Trust in E-Retailing

Company-related factors H1a,b,c

H2a,b

H5b

H5a

H7a

H7b

H8H4

Website-relatedfactors

(General) trust inthe Internet as aretail medium

(Specific) trust in anindividual e-retailer

Perceivedtransaction risk Willingness to buy

Consumer-related factors

Product-related factors

H3a,b,c

H6a,b,c

this direct influence of perceived transaction risk onintention is related to the notion of perceived behav-ioural control which reflects the degree to which anindividual feels that successfully engaging in a behav-iour is completely up to them. In an online context,the perceived risk associated with shopping from ane-retailer may reduce the consumers’ perception ofcontrol, and the extent to which this occurs mightnegatively influence willingness to buy online. Basedon this, we hypothesise that:

H: Reduced perceived transaction risk associatedwith buying from a particular e-retailer willincrease a consumer’s willingness to purchasefrom that e-retailer.

The entire set of hypotheses is visually presented,above, in Figure .

ConclusionsThe paper makes a contribution to the existing bodyof knowledge within the Internet marketing and e-commerce literatures. The justification for the pre-sent paper arose from recognition that theoreticaland empirical research into the construct of trust inonline environments has been very limited, and thatthere remains significant scope for furthering ourunderstanding of the determinants and conse-quences of consumer trust in e-retailing. While someprogress has been made in developing conceptualframeworks for classifying trust in e-commerce envi-ronments, little testable theory has been developed(Romano Jr. and Fjermestad, ). Addressing thisgap within the literature, this paper has presented atestable model describing the relationship betweenthe determinants and consequences of consumertrust in e-retailing.


AuthorsCaroline Bramall is a postgraduate student at theNottingham University Business School and is con-ducting her MSc in International Business. Hercurrent research interest and MSc dissertation arecentred on the determinants and consequences ofconsumer trust in online purchasing. She is hopingto investigate this matter further in a PhD thesis.

Klaus Schoefer is a lecturer in tourism managementand marketing in the Nottingham UniversityBusiness School. Before that, he worked as a management consultant for Accenture. His currentresearch interests revolve around the areas of servicefailure/recovery, word-of-mouth communicationand consumer behaviour in online environments.He has presented his work at a number of scholarlyconferences including those held by the EuropeanMarketing Academy and the InternationalAssociation for Research in Economic Psychology.

Sally McKechnie is a lecturer in marketing. Prior tojoining the Nottingham University Business Schoolshe held marketing positions in exhibitions anddirect marketing industries, and a teaching com-pany associateship at the University of Strathclyde.Her research interests are in the areas of customerbehaviour and marketing communications. She haspublished in journals such as the Journal ofMarketing Management, International Journal ofAdvertising, Journal of Marketing Communications,

Journal of Customer Behaviour, International Journalof Bank Marketing, and International Small BusinessJournal.

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IntroductionThe aim of relationship marketing is to identify spe-cific client segments and establish, maintain, andenhance over time the client–firm relationship.Relationship marketing, therefore, places a majoremphasis on customer retention, reflected in com-monly used terms such as ‘retention marketing’ and‘zero defections’ (Reichheld and Sasser, ;Reidenbach et al., ). International research, par-ticularly in the service industries, highlights the pos-itive elements of applying a customer retention strat-egy. Gronroos (), Reichheld () and Borna(), for example, emphasise the need for estab-lishing and sustaining relationships with existingcustomers in order to increase retention levels andprovide potential for future purchases.

Other findings indicate that gaining new customersis generally calculated as being at least five timesgreater than the cost of keeping existing customers;an organisation’s existing customer base becomes akey strategic asset (Schmittlein, ). Indeed, someresearchers believe that the retention of customersis likely to be the single biggest predictor of futureprofitability (Petrison, ; Reinartz and Kumar,; Kamakura et al., ). Eben () similarlyargues that companies can get a much better returnby investing in existing customers than by acquir-ing new customers. Seroka () highlights howcompanies that retain their customers while acquir-ing new ones experience faster growth than thosethat simply replace lost customers, and notes that

the cost of servicing a customer decreases the longerthe customer is retained.

The health and fitness industry is a growing serviceindustry that relies on continued patronage by cus-tomers for its ongoing success. Mintel () Irelandnotes that the health and fitness market in theRepublic of Ireland increased by per cent in valuefrom to an estimated € million in .With a further growth of . per cent to €.million by predicted, the ability of health andfitness operators not only to attract new customersin the future but also to retain them could deter-mine the success or failure of many health and fit-ness operators.

Extensive resources are invested in recruiting newmembers to sports clubs and health centres, and itis critically important that those new membersbecome long-term patrons. Thus, as a long-termrepeat purchase business with a high degree of cus-tomer involvement, it seems clear that relationshipmarketing is a very appropriate theoretical frame-work to apply to the health and fitness sector. Thisparadigm offers the potential to inform thinking onissues of new customer acquisition, customer reten-tion and even brand/company loyalty. Furthermore,since most research on relationship marketing hasbeen completed in financial services industries, thehealth and fitness industry offers a useful possibil-ity for validating the findings of earlier studies in anew market arena. Research by the International

MANAGING CUSTOMER RETENTION IN THE HEALTH AND FITNESS INDUSTRY: A CASE OF NEGLECT


International research confirms that customer retention is an increasinglyimportant phenomenon in the successful operation of any business. Thisarticle examines customer retention in the health and fitness industry. Thefindings highlighted are extracted from a broader study examining thepractice of relationship marketing in the industry. This study involved a mailsurvey of health and fitness operators in Ireland.

The findings indicate the need for a change in company culture, with greateremphasis by senior management on member retention as opposed to newmember acquisition. Customer service is rated poorly and elements of this,including the provision for increasing member/staff interaction, early detection of lapsed members, calculation of the financial value of lifetimemembers, and the completion of exit analysis, need to be examined.

Teresa Hurley

Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association(IHRSA) in the United States (), the FitnessIndustry Association (FIA) in the UK (, ,) and Hillsdon () demonstrates clearly theimportance of applying customer retention strate-gies in the health and fitness industry.

A Conceptual Framework forCustomer RetentionBerry and Parasuraman () developed a frame-work for understanding types of retention strategiesthat has been widely accepted as the standard modelfor considering issues of customer retention. Theysuggest that retention marketing can occur at threedifferent levels. Each successive level of retentionresults in increasingly greater customisation or indi-vidual service in addition to the potential for sus-tained competitive advantage and ties that bind thecustomer closer to the firm. The framework appearsto offer considerable potential for understandingretention issues pertinent to the health and fitnessindustry. An extensive literature search failed toreveal any evidence of previous attempts to investi-gate this potential. This study endeavours to fill thisgap by recasting the three level model in a way thatmay be applied to the particular conditions of the

health and fitness industry as shown in Table . Thistable outlines a range of possible incentives that areoften used by health and fitness clubs to attract andkeep members classified according to the Berry andParasuraman model.

At level one, the customer is tied to the firm pri-marily through financial incentives such as lowerprices for greater volume purchases and reducedprices for customers who have been with the firmfor a long period of time. For example, ‘frequentflyer’ programmes provide financial incentives andrewards for travellers who bring more of their busi-ness to a particular airline. Similarly, discountedjoining fees, special seasonal offers and the ability tofreeze membership in health clubs provide examplesof financial incentives specific to the health and fit-ness industry. However, since financial incentivestend to be easily copied by competitors, they do notgenerally provide long-term advantages to a firmunless combined with another relationship strategy.

Level two combines these financial incentives withsocial bonds to promote long-term relationships.Services are customised to meet individual needsand there is continuing contact between the firm


Table 1 Retention Strategies in the Health and Fitness Industry: A Conceptual Framework

LEVEL PRIMARY BOND LEVERS

Level 1 Financial • No joining fee• Discounting• Special offers• Freezing of membership

Level 2 Financial and social • Discount loyalty cards• Social activities• Buddy weekends• Referral incentives• Training partners• Guest invitations• Group activities

Level 3 Financial, social and structural • Cultural/organisational change• Marketing approach • Customer service• Customer development methods• Points of contact• Staff training/rewards• Education• Awareness of lifetime/financial value • Identification of lapsed members• Membership tracking• Reactivation programmes

and the customer. For example, the Ritz CarltonHotel has a personalised consumer informationsystem that allows the hotel to anticipate guestneeds and to customise each visit even before theguest arrives through the use of an advanced com-puterised system. The computerised information isupdated when something new is learned about aparticular guest, and the information is available toall hotels in the chain. Social bonds may developamong hotel customers and over time these bondsthat they develop with other customers may helpprevent them from switching to a competitor. Thisis evident in health clubs also where there is anopportunity for social interaction among members.Indeed, members of health clubs often meet forsocial reasons as much as for exercise purposes.Annesi () indicates that as many as per centof people prefer to exercise in groups rather than bythemselves. He also maintains that members at riskof discontinuing their exercise programme can besaved from dropout if provisions are made for themto feel part of an integrated group and less out ofplace in a gym environment when they commenceexercising initially. The first sixty days of member-ship are crucial in building customer relationships,developing regular exercise/usage patterns, and fos-tering social bonds. The levers used to foster thesefinancial and social bonds in a health club envi-ronment are demonstrated in Table and includeorganised member social activities, buddy weekendswhere members are invited to bring a friend to theclub, guest invitations, referral incentives, loyaltycards, training partners and group activities.

Level three bonds are more difficult to imitate andinvolve structural as well as financial and social bonds.According to Czepiel (), a relational exchangeis a social process that develops over time with theaccumulation of service encounters. How manypoints of service contact exist between the memberand the club on a regular visit to the centre? Couldincreasing the points of contact help strengthen therelationship? Czepiel maintains that the processinvolves the building of ‘psychological loyalty’ as aresult of a combined economic and social bonding.This bonding involves the development of relationalnorms such as commitment, trust, mutual support,open communication, adaptability, shared respon-sibility for conflict resolution, cooperation and sol-idarity among participants (Macneil, ; Czepiel,; Wilson, ; Nevin, ). Examination ofcompany culture and methods used to obtain and

keep new members, development of customer ser-vice programmes, staff training and education, iden-tification of members who are at risk of discontin-uing their new exercise regime, membershiptracking, initiation of reactivation programmes forlapsed members, awareness of the financial value ofmembers and completion of exit analysis could fur-ther the development of financial, social and struc-tural relationships and ultimately customer reten-tion in the health club environment.

Research MethodologyA mail survey was used to establish the current prac-tice of relationship marketing in the health and fit-ness industry in Ireland. The Institute of Leisureand Amenity Management (ILAM) Ireland, thenational governing body of leisure managers inIreland, provided a mailing list of suitable partici-pants based on the specific target markets includ-ing a range of small, medium and large health andfitness centres. This included contact names,addresses and telephone numbers of participants atsenior management level. Because of the detailedand confidential nature of the survey, mail wasaddressed only to senior management.

A pilot survey was undertaken prior to distributionto ascertain any difficulties respondents may havewith the completion of the survey. Ten health andfitness centres were asked to complete and returnthe survey in the enclosed stamped addressed enve-lope and valuable feedback was received. The surveywas amended accordingly, typeset, photocopied anddistributed to companies throughout the coun-try. A per cent response was achieved.

The survey data for this study (n = ) were thuscollected from senior managers from a variety ofhealth/fitness centres. Fifty-nine per cent of respon-dents were from private gyms, per cent were leisurecentres, per cent were community/corporation cen-tres, while hotel leisure centres and sports centreseach accounted for per cent. Twelve per cent wereclassified as other, which included leisure-relatedactivities in community halls.

Findings and Discussion While the data in this study provided much insightinto the general nature and dynamics of relationshipmarketing in the health and fitness industry, thefocus of attention in this paper is largely on cus-tomer retention practices and strategies. (Note that

Managing Customer Retention in the Health and Fitness Industry: A Case of Neglect

in the discussion percentages add to more than in a number of instances where respondents indi-cated a multiple choice.)

Recruiting New MembersForty-one per cent of respondents rely on standardmethods of recruiting new members such as adver-tising. Twelve per cent and per cent use leafletsand newsletters respectively, while per cent usedirect mail. Supermarket promotions were used leastoften (. per cent). However, only per cent seekreferrals from members with a mere per centusing guest invitations for this purpose. The major-ity of operators listed word of mouth as their biggestsource of member recruitment. The data suggestthat senior management have an opportunity toleverage their current membership base as a meansof enhancing new member acquisition through theintroduction of guest invitations and referral incen-tive programmes.

Patterns of UseDeveloping customer relationships is an integral partof any customer retention strategy. The findingsrevealed that per cent of members were regularattenders while per cent were non-active. Sincenon-attending members are less likely to renewmembership, the tracking of attendance ratesbecomes an integral part of any customer retentionpolicy. Thomas () emphasises the link betweencustomer acquisition and customer duration. Only per cent of members in this study were found tostay with the club for at least – months, while thisfigure increased to per cent for the – year mem-bership period. This indicates that the longer amember is retained, the greater the chance of retain-ing the member in the long term.

Distinguishing FactorsNinety-eight per cent of senior managers identifiedequipment as the most important factor in distin-guishing their business from that of their competi-tors, while per cent listed classes as distinguish-ing elements. This is surprising given that mosthealth and fitness centres now offer broadly similarequipment and classes and therefore these homo-geneous factors are unlikely to represent a signifi-cant means of differentiation. Eighty-one per centattributed atmosphere and per cent noted staff,while service and facilities were identified by percent and per cent respectively as key distinguish-ing factors. The low weighting attributed to service

is significant given the substantial contribution itcould make to maintaining a sustainable competi-tive advantage for operators in the future.

This is consistent with the findings of Kelly andDavis (), who indicated in their research thathealth club customers receiving higher levels of ser-vice quality are more committed to the health clubthan those whose service experience was average. Ithas also frequently been noted that in competitivemarkets, customers will not return, despite attractivebenefits, if the organisation’s core service is of poorquality and results in low satisfaction scores (Danaherand Mattson, ; Palmer and Mayer, ). Seniormanagement should therefore note the importantrole that customer service plays in the developmentof any customer retention strategy.

Marketing ApproachOnly a half (. per cent) of senior managementsurveyed were more concerned with keeping exist-ing customers than gaining new ones. At a strategiclevel this would indicate the need for senior man-agement to examine their company policy in rela-tion to the development of a focused customerretention strategy. In some organisations, culturalchanges may be required at management level if thisstrategy is to be successful. This would furtherstrengthen the retention strategies employed at level of the model outlined in Table . One third ofrespondents (. per cent) maintain that the healthand fitness industry is now becoming so competi-tive that they have constantly to search for newmembers. It could be argued, however, that this con-stant search for new members may be driven asmuch by failure to retain existing customers as it isby intense competition. International research find-ings suggest that a concentration on customer reten-tion as opposed to new customer acquisition mayreap positive rewards. However, despite these find-ings, the Irish health and fitness industry still appearsto place a greater emphasis on new customer acqui-sition as opposed to customer retention as part ofits overall marketing approach.

Developing Customer RelationshipsStewart and Kamins () emphasise the positiveeffect personal relationship building may have oncustomer retention. However, the majority of thosesurveyed in this study tend to rely on non-personalmethods to enhance customer relationships. Sixty-two per cent of respondents use notice boards while


per cent use customer surveys. Only per centof respondents use social events and per cent makeservice calls to customers. Eighty-one per cent hadnever used birthday cards as a means of enhancingcustomer relationships.

Respondents were also asked to indicate the numberof points of contact normally encountered by mem-bers. Ninety-four per cent greeted their customersand per cent always concluded the visit with afarewell. Sixty-six per cent used programme super-vision while per cent provided classes as a meansof contact between staff and customers. Social activ-ities were adopted by only per cent of those sur-veyed. Evidence from international research wouldsuggest that increasing social aspects within a healthclub could have a positive effect on customer reten-tion, an aspect which appears to be currently under-rated by Irish health and fitness operators. Conrad(, p. ) reported that ‘someone who works outwith a friend is per cent more likely to stick withtheir exercise programme than someone who exer-cises on their own’. The introduction of trainingpartners, group induction programmes and socialactivities in health clubs could therefore help pro-mote customer relationships.

Financial Value of MemberSenior management response to this area demon-strated a low awareness of the financial value ofmembers in the industry. Only per cent had evercalculated the financial value of a lifetime memberto the club. Venkatesan and Kumar () andLemon et al. () emphasise the lifetime value ofcustomers. A greater appreciation of this by seniormanagement could help highlight the importanceof member retention and refocus attention in thehealth and fitness industry away from new memberacquisition towards member retention.

Exit AnalysisAccording to Reichheld () companies need tostudy failure to reveal the deep-rooted causes of cus-tomer defection. Despite these recommendations,only per cent of senior management sought to dis-cover why customers leave their club. Most relied onstandard methods including letters ( per cent) andsurveys ( per cent). Seventy-two per cent reportedusing interviews. However, based on experiential evi-dence and having probed this response in greaterdetail, it would appear that these interviews are morerepresentative of an informal talk with ex-members

as opposed to the structured interview approach.Only per cent reported using telemarketingdespite its cost effectiveness and time efficiency.

A report in by the IHRSA in the United Statesdemonstrated the importance of these formermember markets. The study revealed that percent of former members intend to join another clubwithin a year of discontinuing membership of theirprevious club. The report also indicates that thereare currently million former health club mem-bers in the US, so the IHRSA study suggests that. million of them – per cent are ready to joina club in the coming year, and a full per cent saidthat indeed was their intention. In a further studyby the FIA in the UK (), one third of all lapsedmembers stated that they would rejoin their formerclub if they received a letter inviting them back, andone quarter of all members interviewed stated thatthey would definitely rejoin if joining fees werewaived. Senior management would be wise to notethese findings in the context of the Irish health andfitness industry and discover why members discon-tinue membership of their club and develop reacti-vation programmes that would effectively target andreactivate these lapsed member markets.

Summary and ConclusionThe objective of this article has been to examine cus-tomer retention in the health and fitness industry.A conclusion from the findings suggests that theIrish health and fitness industry is not advanced inits knowledge, practice and application of relation-ship marketing principles, despite internationalresearch evidence supporting a strategic approach tocustomer retention in this market arena. A case ofneglect is evident. The industry structure in Ireland,although not as advanced in a number of aspects, islargely similar to its overseas counterparts; there isno evidence to suggest that the international cus-tomer retention strategies highlighted in this articlewould not succeed locally.

However, in order for these strategies to be success-fully applied, research from this study suggests thata cultural shift may be required if customer reten-tion levels are to be enhanced. Greater emphasismust be placed on retaining current members asopposed to constantly seeking new members. Thisrequires senior management support and staff train-ing if this new philosophy is to be endorsed as partof an overall customer retention strategy.


The findings from this study also suggest that cus-tomer service is still not receiving the recognitionit deserves but could be used as a key sustainablecompetitive advantage for health and fitness oper-ators in the future. By increasing the number ofpoints of contact with customers, employing per-sonal methods to develop customer relationships,providing more social activities, increasing aware-ness of the financial value of lifetime members,tracking non-attending members and initiatingreactivation programmes, senior management andemployees can contribute greatly to improving cus-tomer service elements. As a result of a properly exe-cuted customer service policy, greater distributionof guest invitations and referral incentives, customerreferrals may follow, thereby increasing the lifetime

and financial value of retained and loyal members.Again, this will require continuous staff trainingand senior management support to improve aspectsof customer service and develop effective customerretention strategies.

The introduction of retention strategies at strate-gic, operational and tactical levels could providethe means to achieve the recommendation set outabove. Such a strategy would provide a competi-tive advantage for health and fitness organisations,and ensure that managing customer retention inthe Irish health and fitness industry is no longer acase of neglect but rather a proactive means tosuperior performance in a competitive and dynamicmarket arena.


AuthorTeresa Hurley lectures on sports management atthe Centre for Sports Studies, University CollegeDublin. Her research and publishing interests liein the area of relationship marketing and customer service. She also works as a consultant inthe heath and fitness sector.

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In a recent edition of Irish Marketing Review,Muzellec et al. () set out to provide a prelimi-nary investigation of the corporate rebranding phe-nomenon. They defined it, analysed its main dri-vers, and examined the process involved in selectingand establishing a new corporate brand. Their workset down a useful marker in an area that remainsunder-researched in the academy despite much real-world activity in corporate rebranding. This articlecontinues exploration of the phenomenon.

In doing so it concentrates on the following. First,it views rebranding as a continuum, from revitalis-ing a current brand to a full name change involvingalterations in brand values and promises. Second, itoutlines four approaches to renaming a corporatebrand. It then presents a case history: Vodafone’sexternal and internal communications strategywhen rebranding Eircell to Vodafone. Finally, a cor-porate rebranding framework is proposed to helpcompanies manage the rebranding process. Theframework draws on Vodafone’s strategy and onother exploratory research conducted by the authorswith management, employees and customers ofcompanies involved in such rebranding.

Rebranding ContinuumA brand is much more than a name and the physi-cal embodiment of that name on stationery, clothes,plant, equipment, flags, and so on. A brand has ameaning to all stakeholders, and arguably mostimportantly to external and internal customers. Forthem it represents a set of values and promises andeven a personality. Thus, it is key to a positioningstrategy, as it conveys an image not only through its

name and aesthetics but, importantly, through abranded customer service (Rust et al., ; Barlowand Stewart, ). It is opportune at this point tonote Kotler’s () categoric but perhaps not sur-prising statement about branding: ‘Perhaps the mostdistinctive skill of professional marketers is theirability to create, maintain, protect and enhancebrands. Branding is the art and cornerstone of mar-keting’ (p. ).

Interestingly, respondents in focus group researchconducted by the authors made the followingtelling comments about specific corporate namechanges:

It looks better but will it be any better?

Will it be the same old company?

Yeah, it’s an improvement … looks more modern …but what difference will that make?

Therefore, since a brand consists of what may betermed tangible (the physical expression of thebrand) and intangible (values, image, feelings) ele-ments, rebranding may consist of changing some orall of those elements. As such, corporate rebrandingmay be envisaged as a continuum (see Figure ).

Changing the Brand Name: FourApproachesThis article proposes a framework to manage corpo-rate rebranding (from here on referred to as rebrand-ing). The framework deals with the most comprehen-sive and riskiest form of rebranding – a renamingstrategy. While renaming is an element of the frame-

MANAGING CORPORATEREBRANDING

A brand is a valuable asset, communicating a clear set of values to itsstakeholders. Rebranding, by definition changing that identity, must be seenas a serious strategic decision, requiring careful planning. Indeed, corporaterebranding – where sometimes a long-held brand name is discarded –would seem to challenge fundamental axioms of marketing.

This paper views rebranding as a continuum, from revitalising a currentbrand, to a full name change involving alterations in brand values andpromises. It outlines four approaches to renaming a corporate brand. It thenpresents a case history of Vodafone’s external and internal communicationsstrategy when rebranding Eircell to Vodafone. Finally, a corporate rebranding framework is proposed to help companies manage the rebranding process.

Aidan Daly & Deirdre Moloney


work, it is so central to rebranding that it justifies deal-ing separately with a number of approaches to intro-ducing the new brand name element of rebranding.

Not much attention given to this renaming issue inthe literature. Kapferer’s () four renaming pos-sibilities remain the most frequently cited work inthis regard. He suggests an interim, fade in/fade out,prefix, and substitution approach. However,Kapferer’s interim and fade in/fade out strategiesappear very similar and are discussed in our frame-work under the interim/dual heading.

Interim/Dual This means there is some form of interim arrangementbefore the new name replaces the old name or legacybrand. If Brand A is taken over by Brand B, an interimarrangement may be that AB comes to identify theinterim brand. Eventually A is dropped completelyand B remains as the new brand name. As will behighlighted later in an Irish context, Vodafone utilisedan interim strategy in the acquisition of Eircell in. For a six month period the interim brand wasEircell-Vodafone until Eircell was completely removed.

Currently, following acquisition, the UK debit cardbrands Switch and Maestro are using an interim strat-egy and the dual brand Switch-Maestro now appearson over ten million debit cards across the UnitedKingdom. The brand name migration to Maestro willbe completed by , some two years following theintroduction of the interim brand name. This strat-egy clearly acknowledges the value of the brand equityin the legacy brand and facilitates the absorption ofthat equity into the emergent brand.

PrefixThis method is appropriate when two or morebrands merge but none of the existing brands willbe used as the new brand. The new brand is added

as a prefix to the legacy brands. After a period, thelegacy names are removed and the prefix nameremains as the new brand. Again it is intended thatthe attributes and values of the legacy brandsbecome part of the new brand, as stakeholders aregiven time to adjust to the new prefix brand beforethe old ones are removed.

SubstitutionAs the name suggests, this approaches involves sub-stituting or switching from the old to the new name,or indeed to a completely different name. Whereasit may be described as a sharp, swift and clean strat-egy, it should not be carried out without consider-able research. Hasty removal of a name that has pos-itive meanings for stakeholders could result inadverse consequences for the company. Customersand employees of rebranded companies, in focusgroup research with the authors, have remarked:

I was very sorry to see it go.

It’s been part of my life for eighteen years.

I liked it.

These remarks show a strong emotional attachmentto legacy brands and so well planned communica-tion and reassurance to stakeholders are recom-mended to minimise confusion and resentment.

Brand AmalgamationThe authors would add another possibility for namechanging, that is, brand amalgamation. It is typi-cally suited where two strong brands merge.Amalgamating the names brings the strength andvalues of the two brands together and the resultingequity may be greater than the sum of the parts.Recent examples include Jurys-Doyle Hotels,PermanentTSB, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Managing Corporate Rebranding

Figure 1 Rebranding Continuum

Change category Change format Comment

Minor changes Aesthetics Varies from a simple face lift, to restyling, to revitalising thebrand appearance or aesthetics which may have datedand be in need of change.

Intermediate changes Reposition Use of marketing tactics especially communication and customer service techniques to favourably reposition anexisting brand name, thus giving it a new image.

Complete change Rebranding By definition the name is new to stakeholders, so they don’tknow what the brand stands for. Therefore the values andimage of the new brand must be communicated to allstakeholders through an integrated marketing communications campaign.

However, the amalgamation still needs careful man-agement so that the attitudes of stakeholders of theindividual brands are assured and reinforced.Regardless of the renaming strategy, the actual amal-gamated brand name needs to be incorporated intothe entire rebranding strategy and is central to therebranding framework discussed later.

A Case of Corporate Rebranding –Eircell to VodafoneEircell was acquired by Vodafone in the first quar-ter of . At that time there were three players inthe Irish mobile phone industry, Eircell, Digifoneand Meteor. As a global company, Vodafone imple-mented rebranding campaigns in all acquired com-panies, for example undertaking rebranding cam-paigns simultaneously across all its Europeansubsidiaries including Spain, the Netherlands,Germany and Italy. It was logical that it wouldfollow the same strategy in Ireland. A well thoughtout rebranding marketing plan was developed forthis purpose. The communications aspect of theplan is outlined below and is incorporated into therebranding framework suggested later.

Vodafone’s rebranding communications campaignwas executed in multiple stages – each stage incre-mental to success and each building up to a launchday in March . This allowed the brand toemerge in an evolutionary way, and without alien-ating customers. The rebranding communicationwas directed at both internal and external customers.Table summarises the stages and timing involved.

Pre-campaign Situation AnalysisVodafone carried out a situation analysis to find outwhat the market felt about Eircell. Many positiveattributes emerged. For example, Eircell was seen asbeing Irish, friendly, progressive and innovative. Inthe public’s mind, Eircell was strongly associatedwith the colour purple which, as will be mentionedlater, was included in Vodafone’s launch communi-cations. Equally, Eircell’s Ready To Go sub-brandhad a powerful market image and Vodafoneretained that name for one of its products in thepre-pay market segment. This fits nicely with Stuartand Muzellec’s () argument that rebrandingworks best when the legacy brand has a good image.These positive associations can be incorporated intothe interim/dual branding campaigns and indeedthe subsequent rebranding campaigns. Vodafone’sin-depth analysis identified many positive attributes

of the legacy brand that were incorporated into therebranding campaign and the campaign was alsoplanned to remove any unfavourable attributes. Thesuccess of the subsequent rebranding illustrates theimportance of this analysis.

Stage One – Partnership CampaignApart from the takeover announcement in the Irishbusiness press, the purpose of the partnership cam-paign was to gently announce the acquisition to thepublic. The primary objective of this first publicsignal was to raise awareness of the pending rebrand-ing and to create interest and curiosity. The cam-paign included a TV vignette featuring two footballplayers, one in red (the Vodafone colour) and theother in purple (the Eircell colour). Initially, theyappear to be on opposite sides, but at the end of theadvertisement, they put their arms around each otherand it becomes apparent that they are joiningtogether. This signified the union of the two com-panies. Although Vodafone was not explicitly men-tioned, it was vital that the first joint communica-tion would highlight cooperation and partnership.These two colours, red and purple, were to becomean integral part of the rebranding campaign. Successat this stage was imperative to ensure smooth brandmigration from Eircell to Vodafone, planned for thefirst quarter of . The partnership campaignlasted for one week and was a soft approach to thenotion of the acquisition as a partnership.

Stage Two – ‘Vision and Values’Vodafone not only was concerned with communi-cating effectively with external customers but wasequally concerned about doing so with its internalcustomers, the former Eircell employees. A brand isa promise, particularly in a service business; it isvital that employees live, demonstrate and expressthe brand promise and values (Daly, ; VanLooy et al., ). A key priority was to win thehearts and minds of staff to the values and ideals ofVodafone and reassure them about the change fromEircell. Beginning in the summer of , Vodafoneused its global internal communications campaign‘Vision and Values’ to enthuse and reassure employ-ees, so that they would be comfortable with thebrand values, live them and provide branded cus-tomer service. A central message of the internalcampaign was ‘red is my colour and I’m vital’.

This campaign was carried out during the summerbefore the external launch of the interim and,


subsequently, Vodafone brands. This timingensured that employees would be well prepared todeal with all their encounters with customers fol-lowing the public launch of the interim and laterVodafone brands. The internal marketing campaignused a vast array of training and communicationmethods such as workshops, training seminars, pre-sentations, intranet, flyers, letters, newsletters, com-petitions and many others. Vodafone’s global inter-nal marketing campaign ‘Vision and Values’ waswell planned, had already been successful in othermarkets and was equally successful in Ireland. Itsrole in winning the support and commitment of theformer Eircell employee was a key success factor inthe rebranding strategy.

Stage Three – Interim/Dual BrandingThe interim brand, Eircell Vodafone, was officiallyannounced on October and was used untilthe launch of Vodafone on February . Priorto launching the interim brand, it was tested forclarity and acceptance. This five-month campaignwas the means of introducing the Vodafone brandto customers, prior to full migration. The interimbrand name was introduced to allow the company’spublics become familiar with the Vodafone identity.Although the Eircell brand was still visible, moresubtle elements of the Vodafone brand were nowincluded in all communications. For instance, theVodafone photography style was being used in allcommunications. This imagery represented ‘realpeople in real lives’. The SIM card shape is a keyidentity cue for the Vodafone brand and was a con-stant element in the migration from Eircell toVodafone (see Figure ).

Stage Four – Pre-launchThe pre-launch stage of the brand migration wasimplemented at the end of January . It was athrough-the-line marketing communications cam-paign that lasted until two weeks before launch inFebruary . The message at this stage was ‘red isthe new purple, Vodafone is the new name for Eircell’.This campaign explicitly communicated that theEircell brand would disappear in the near future.Although there was substantive change within Eircell,the communication downplayed the rebranding, byimplying that only the name was changing and thename was just a small part of the brand and company.As Irishness was a strong Eircell brand value, the com-munication emphasised that the company was stillfocused on Irish people, but with a name change.Without the pre-campaign brand analysis, Vodafonewould not have known the strength of this attributeand the importance of retaining this value.

Stage Five – Launch DayThe final stage in the rebranding campaign was thelaunch day which finally and officially launched theVodafone brand in Ireland. It was a completely inte-grated campaign involving above-the-line advertis-ing, and below-the-line promotion including con-cept stores, building wraps and an exciting andpublicity oriented launch parade. The launch dayincluded the opening of three concept stores andthe rebranding of the nationwide Eircell stores,building wraps of prominent Dublin buildings, andwraps on taxis operating in Dublin, Cork, Galwayand Limerick. The highlight of the day was thelaunch parade in Dublin city, which started fromDublin airport and finished in the centre of the city.


Table 1 Vodafone’s Communications Campaign

Stage Start date Strategy

Pre-campaign Following acquisition Situation analysis

1 MAY, 2001 TAKEOVER ANNOUNCEDStage Start date Strategy

Stage one May 2001 Partnership campaign. One company joining a larger company in partnership.

Stage two Summer 2001 Internal marketing: ‘Vision and Values’. Red is my colour andI’m vital.

Stage three October 2001 Renaming strategy: Eircell–Vodafone interim/dual brand.Stage four January 2002 Pre-launch campaign: Red is the new purple, Vodafone is the

new name for Eircell.Stage five February 2002 and Launch day: Vodafone is here, let’s celebrate!

completed March 2002

Source: Vodafone Ireland.

Included were Vodafone freebies, street carnivalsand appearances by celebrities. All traces of theEircell brand had been removed. There had beenmeticulous planning to ensure that all elements ofEircell – voicemail messages, corporate identitymaterial, point of sale material; anything with theEircell name or colours internally and externally –were removed prior to launch day.

Corporate Rebranding FrameworkVodafone’s corporate rebranding strategy was suc-cessful and achieved the objectives set for both itsexternal and internal campaigns. The approachesused have been integrated into the corporaterebranding framework shown in Figure . Theframework draws on three marketing domains: (i)market analysis, including market auditing; (ii) mar-keting planning; and (iii) integrated marketingcommunications planning. The framework isdivided into three sequential but overlapping sec-tions, analysis, planning and evaluation.

AnalysisAll aspects of marketing planning should beanchored in, and be developed from, a situation ormarket analysis. In general that should examinequantitative and qualitative issues such as: marketsize and potential; market attitudes and preferences;and competitor strengths and weaknesses. Specificallybrand audits should provide the market’s perspectiveon the brands involved in rebranding, showing theirstrengths and weaknesses and those of competingbrands. Earlier it was recounted how Vodafone foundvery positive attitudes to the Eircell brand which sig-nificantly influenced Vodafone’s marketing and com-munications planning.

Collecting such market information requires theapplication of standard marketing research andauditing methods comprehensively dealt with instandard literature on these topics (see for exampleParasuraman et al., ; Domegan and Fleming,). However, internal marketing should alsocommence by researching management’s andemployees’ attitudes in the legacy brand company.The same marketing research techniques used forexternal research can be used to learn about man-agement’s and employees’ perceptions, attitudes,

fears and aspirations. Berry recommended using amarketing research approach and what he termed‘deep sensing’ to discover employees’ attitudes andoutlooks (Berry, ).

Planning: Communicating to Internal CustomersHaving discovered the attitudes of internal customers,a company must now develop both communicationsand training programmes to (a) gain the support andcommitment of employees and (b) train employeesin the acquiring company’s policies and procedures.Planning the internal communications programmeshould follow the general guidelines suggested forplanning integrated external communications (e.g.Shimp, ; Pickton and Broderick, ).

As was stated earlier, Vodafone used a variety ofinternal communications methods, including itsglobal internal communications campaign ‘Visionand Values’ to win employees’ commitment to theVodafone brand. It would be interesting to researchwhether Barnes’s () imaginative ideas on devel-oping an internal marketing mix, and currentresearch on service theatre (Daly et al., ) wouldbe useful planning approaches to achieve internalcommunications and training objectives.

Planning: Renaming StrategyOne of the four approaches to renaming, interim/dual, prefix, substitution or brand amalgamation, isrecommended. The brand audit should help man-agement decide which of the four to use. However,the authors’ research indicates that renaming can bean emotional issue for customer, management andemployee. Indeed, on occasion boardroom senti-mentality has ensured that legacy brands have beenretained as part of the new brand, as on some occa-sions to do otherwise would have been a dealbreaker for the acquisition.

Planning: The Rebranding Marketing PlanTo terminate a well-established and well regardedbrand, and so a valuable asset, is a serious decision.The authors’ research illustrates that companies thatsuccessfully rebrand plan the process very carefully.The authors label this important stage ‘the rebrand-ing marketing plan’. It follows well laid out princi-ples of marketing planning, from situation analysis,


Figure 2 Migration from Eircell Logo to Vodafone Logo on the SIM Card

Eircell Eircell–Vodafone Vodafone

self-analysis, assumptions and scenarios, throughplanning and implementation, to resources andbudgets.

It is axiomatic that each element of the mix beplanned for the rebranding project. For example,decisions must be made about product benefits,product range, pricing, integrated communications,and all other elements of the mix. There is clearly aclose link between participants and the internaltraining programme. Many authors suggest thatparticularly in people processing services, employ-ees play a pivotal role in customer satisfaction andin the achievement of corporate objectives (Groveet al., ; Lovelock and Jip, ). It is vital thatparticipant roles are clearly defined and that they aretrained to achieve both technical and functionalquality (Gronroos, ).

EvaluationEvaluation is the last and ongoing element of the

framework. Many opportunities to refine the cam-paign will have been missed if evaluation is not car-ried out throughout the planning process. Suchstaged evaluation allows any aspect of a plan to bealtered as the need for such change becomes evi-dent. In addition, a review or overall evaluationshould be held at the end to take a more holisticview of the planning process.

ConclusionBrands are much more than simply a name or alogo. They represent values and promises, attitudesand feelings about brands and products. They arerecognised as major assets which may have takenyears of investment to establish. Rebranding, that ischanging such an asset, should not be undertakenwithout careful planning. Kotler () probablymeans rebranding when he includes enhancingbrands as a distinctive skill of professional marketersand goes as far as saying that ‘branding is the artand cornerstone of marketing’.


Figure 3 Corporate Rebranding Framework

AN

ALYSIS

PLAN

NIN

GEV

ALU

ATIO

N

Retain and support

– Identify brand elements to be main-tained permanently

– Identify brand elements to be retainedtemporarily

Neutralise

– Identify brand elements to beremoved

– Market analysisSituation analysis – Brand audit

– Opportunity identification

Target audience (internal and external)– Identify target audiences for the rebranding campaign

Evaluation– Evaluation of all campaigns

– Evaluate in stages and upon completion

New brand decision

The rebranding marketing plan

Internal customerExternal customer

Communication strategy

– Plan training and communication campaign to gain supportand commitment of employees

– Training in company policies and procedures

Renaming strategy

– Interim/dual, prefix, substitution, brand amalgamation

Rebranding may be presented on a simple continuumfrom minor changes, such as restyling, to completerenaming. It is the latter change that is the focus ofthis paper. Changing corporate brand names, with alltheir associated values and promises, is a critical ele-ment of rebranding. Four approaches to renaming –interim/dual, prefix, substitution and brand amalga-mation – were discussed. The Eircell to Vodafonename change used the interim/dual approach sup-ported by a carefully developed rebranding strategy.The integrated communications element of that strat-egy, importantly aimed at both its external and inter-nal customers, has been outlined. It was a key success

factor in Vodafone’s rebranding strategy.

The Vodafone experience, backed up by research withmanagement, employees and customers of a numberof companies involved in corporate rebranding, hasenabled the authors to develop a corporate rebrand-ing framework. Key elements of the framework, suchas situation analysis, renaming strategy, communica-tions and training strategies, and the rebranding mar-keting plan are based on established marketing theo-ries and principles. It is a logical sequential frameworkthat will assist better management of the increasingphenomenon of corporate rebranding.


AuthorsAidan Daly is head of the department of marketing at the National University of Ireland,Galway. Prior to that he held senior marketingmanagement positions in the FMCG sector. Hisresearch interests include services marketing, theapplicability of dramaturgy to customer servicedelivery, and the marketing of services internationally. He has presented papers at leadingacademic conferences including the AmericanMarketing Association (AMA) frontiers in servicesconferences.

Deirdre Moloney recently graduated with a masters in business studies in marketing from theNational University of Ireland, Galway. Herresearch dissertation investigated rebranding andshe now works in account management withYoung and Rubicam Brands Agency, HarrisonTroughton Wunderman.

ReferencesBarlow, J. and Stewart P. (), Branded Customer Service,Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.

Barnes, J.G. (), ‘The role of internal marketing: if thestaff won’t buy it, why should the customer?’ Irish MarketingReview, vol. , no. .

Berry, L. (), ‘Revitalising brands’, Journal of ConsumerMarketing, vol. , no. , pp. –.

Daly, A. (), ‘Let’s improvise!’ in Service Excellence InManagement Conference: Interdisciplinary Contributions,QUIS, pp. –, Karlstad University Press, Sweden.

Daly, A., R. Fisk, S. Grove and M. Dorsch (), ‘The role

of improvisation in service delivery: theory & practice’, AMAFrontiers in Services Marketing Conference, Miami.

Domegan, C. and Fleming, D. (), Market Research inIreland: Theory & Practice, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, ndedn.

Gronroos, C. (), Service Management & Marketing,Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.

Grove, S.J., R.P. Fisk and J. Joby (), ‘The future of ser-vices marketing: forecasts from ten services experts’, Journalof Services Marketing, vol. , no. , pp. –.

Kapferer, J.N. (), Strategic Brand Management, KoganPage, London.

Kotler, P. (), Marketing Management, th edn., PearsonEducation Int., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Lovelock, C.H. and Jip, G.S. (), ‘Developing globalstrategies for service businesses’, California ManagementReview, vol. , no. , pp. –.

Muzellec, L., M. Doogan and M. Lambkin (),‘Corporate rebranding – an exploratory review’, IrishMarketing Review, vol. , no. , pp. –.

Parasuraman, A., D. Grewal and R. Krishnan (),Marketing Research, Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Pickton, D. and Broderick, A. (), Integrated MarketingCommunications, Financial Times Management, New York.

Rust, R.T., K.N. Lemon and D. Narayandas (),Customer Equity Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, UpperSaddle River, NJ.

Shimp, T.A. (), Advertising, Promotion and SupplementalAspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, ThomsonLearning, Belmont, CA.

Stuart, H. and L. Muzellec (), ‘Corporate makeovers:can a hyena be rebranded?’, Brand Management, vol. , no., pp. –.

Van Looy, B., P. Gemmel and R. Van Dierdonck (),Services Management – An Integrated Approach, nd edn.,Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

IntroductionAmplified and engrained within the public con-sciousness by copious media coverage, the resultsof European-wide public opinion research onbiotechnology have shown a remarkable consistencyto date. This new ‘orthodoxy’ is now well estab-lished: applications concerning human health aregenerally accepted, while those focusing on suchareas as novel plants–foods or genetic modification(GM) of animals are eschewed to varying degrees.This is highly problematic for a branch of sciencethat depends heavily on basic academic freedom,and requires a high level of financial support (andconfidence) from investors, both private and public.The situation for GM foods has an added layer ofcomplexity, one in which the opinions of con-sumers and voters can literally stall a technology inits tracks, and this provides a cautionary precedentfor innovations yet to be developed. Allied with thisphenomenon, the steady rise of ‘all things natural’(from organic produce to herbal remedies) contin-ues to represent a strong opportunity for marketers,

seemingly the antithesis of modern technologicalapproaches.

Quite coincidentally, the arrival of ‘new biotech-nology’ in the s (and critically the ability tomodify genes) was accompanied by giant strides ininformation technology and the media. For exam-ple, earlier ground-breaking biotechnology break-throughs, such as the development of a polio vac-cine, did not receive the same level of mediacoverage (or scrutiny) as they would today. Infor-mation is more accessible, news travels faster and isreplicated via multiple channels almost simultane-ously; critically, information (accurate and other-wise) has a longer residence time via Internet sites.Between the message and the messenger lies a newsocietal awareness that is influenced by a complexset of precepts, and which researchers are endeavor-ing to understand via public opinion research.

The future of biotechnology and the public reactionto its multitude of innovations are now inextricably

A SNAPSHOT OF PUBLIC OPINIONON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GMFOODS AT THE TURN OF THETWENTY-FIRST CENTURY


Studying public attitudes to biotechnology, especially genetically modified(GM) foods, has represented a fertile area of research since the early 1990s.Despite this, arguably limited progress has been made in elucidating thecomplex decision-making processes of consumers – or their perception ofrelative risk – regarding these products. On a more fundamental level, therehas been a natural tendency to focus on the results of surveys rather thanthe methodologies used (and their inherent limitations), aspects which mustbe considered in order to assess the credibility of the data.

With a view to initiating an introspective viewpoint into this area of study,this review article analyses surveys on biotechnology conducted withinIreland over the time period 1991 to 2002. Such studies consistently show alow level of understanding about biotechnology among Irish consumers,and a suspicion towards GM foods, which has prompted many commentators to call for more public education in this area.

However, there is also a need to analyse the language and syntax of questions used within surveys to date, and to interpret media reportage ofthe results of such studies in the light of these factors. Overall, there is aneed to identify a common language to lower the understanding hurdlewhich modern biotechnology represents to the lay person, supplemented byvisualisation techniques that allow the citizen to relate to biotechnology as apotential consumer.

Elaine O’Connor, Gwilym Williams, Cathal Cowan, John O’Connell & Maurice P. Boland

linked, heightening the need to understand morefully the drivers of public perception and to iden-tify the evolving attitudes to this field. However,investigating public attitudes to even simple prod-ucts can be fraught with pitfalls. Many ‘simple’ con-sumer products do not succeed because opinionresearch fails to uncover small but crucial facets ofthe consumer psyche that dictate whether such aproduct will find true acceptance. Spectacular exam-ples have been ‘new’ Coca-Cola® and GuinnessLight®. Conversely, certain current trends, such aspaying an outrageous premium for bottled ‘designer’water, are innately difficult to rationalise.

However, there are also signs of new market trendsafoot. Technological terms which are absolutelymeaningless to the public, such as ‘stanol esters’ and‘complex carbohydrates’, are being used successfullyto market products such as cholesterol-reducingdairy spreads and breakfast cereals, respectively.Building on this observation, a recent study by the

authors has examined Irish public receptivity tosecond generation GM products that feature tangi-ble, health-promoting consumer benefits (O’Connoret al., in press); the results indicate that while theGM tag is still a concern to many, a discernibleniche market already exists for such innovation.

A long established precedent for the use of scientifictechnological terms in marketing was set by women’scosmetics, where marketers have long been laudingthe benefits of such terms as ‘ceramide’ and ‘glycans’as putative appearance-enhancing aids; in the face ofthe modern pressure for natural products, perhapsthe clearest case of the ‘end justifying the means’!

As an adjunct to the need to perform increasinglyinsightful analysis of public opinion on biotechnol-ogy, it is of interest to carry out an integrative eval-uation of the surveys performed to date within alimited time span and geographic region. The situ-ation in Ireland, measured from the early s to


Table 1 Consumer Surveys Conducted in Ireland

YEAR OF YEAR OF COMMISSIONED PERFORMED SAMPLE METHODOLOGYSURVEY PUBLICATION BY BY SIZE

1990 1991 BioResearch Ireland Lansdowne Market 1,003 Personal interviewsResearch

1991 1991 EU Commission DGXII Lansdowne Market 1,003 Face-to-face Research interviews


1995 1997 Food Marketing Institute, Unknown Telephone interviewsWashington DC


1999 1999 Genetic Concern Lansdowne Market 1,397 Face-to-face Research interviews

1999 1999 Amarach Consulting Market Research 524 Face-to-face Company (unidentified) interviews

1999 1999 Forfás Behaviour and 1,200 Face-to-face Attitudes interviews

1999 1999 National University National University 30 Face-to-face of Ireland, Galway of Ireland, Galway interviews

1999/2000 2002 National University National University 197 Face-to-faceof Ireland, Galway and of Ireland, Galway interviewsCalifornia Polytechnic State University, USA

1999 2000 EU Commission DGXII Lansdowne Market 1,002 Face-to-faceResearch interviews

2000 2001 University College Cork University College 200 Postal questionnairesCork

2001 2001 Forfás Market Research 1,000 Telephone interviews Bureau of Ireland


2002 2002 Food Safety Authority Millward Brown IMS 800 Telephone interviews

the beginning of the new century, provides such anopportunity. The nuances revealed by such a processmay provide new insights into the formation anddevelopment of public opinion towards new tech-nologies, and this will be vital to such areas as nano-technology in the future.

Surveys of Public Opinion on Biotechnology in IrelandEurobarometer, 1991–2002To the authors’ knowledge, in the period between and , surveys of consumer attitudes tobiotechnology were carried out in Ireland, withsample size ranging from to , persons (Table). This series included six Eurobarometer (EB) stud-ies, a series of surveys conducted within the EUmember states at the request of the EuropeanCommission Directorate General for Education andCulture. The standard EB format was established in, with each survey consisting of approximately, face-to-face interviews per member state(except Germany, ; Luxembourg, ; UK,,). Reports are published twice yearly (seehttp://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/index_en.htm). EB surveys have arguably thereforeprovided the most consistent record of Irish con-sumer attitudes to biotechnology, deploying a fairlyconstant methodology, and providing a convenientbaseline against which to compare other surveys.

EB . (conducted in ) acted as a template forall subsequent studies, featuring questions relatingto such broad areas as the reputation and knowl-edge/understanding of biotechnology, and thepublic’s attitudes and opinions regarding the diverseapplications of this science. Defining the informa-tion resources used by the European citizen to derivetheir knowledge about this field, and determiningthe most trusted, have also formed a major thrustof the EB instrument. The main consistent findingsof Irish EB studies conducted between and are outlined in Table .

Throughout the s, questions relating tobiotechnology and other technology areas contin-ued to mature within EB, eventually deriving arough indication of EU ‘public optimism’ towardssuch innovation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, generalEuropean attitudes to areas familiar to the publicfrom day to day life, such as telecommunicationsand computers, were relatively stable during thefirst half of this decade, while optimism in biotech-nology followed a slow decrease from per centin to per cent in . This trend hadreversed by ( per cent optimists and percent pessimists). A similar pattern was observed inIreland, with a public optimism dip in coin-ciding with arguably the peak of the debate on GMfoods: in this year alone, five studies examining con-sumer attitudes towards these foods were conductedin Ireland (Table ).

EBs have consistently shown that a clear discrimina-tion in the public mind exists between biotechnologywhen applied to medicine and that applied to the agri-food sector. Illustrative of this, in an economy basedheavily on agriculture, EB recorded a resistance inIreland to the genetic modification of animals, evenif such techniques might also benefit society.

Towards the end of the s, EB began to dividerespondents into separate classes based on theiranswers to questions about biotechnology. The‘engaged’ class are defined as members of the publicwho appear more aware, knowledgeable and behav-iourally involved in this subject. These are morelikely to be male, white-collar workers, who areyounger than years, and are urban dwellers ofteneducated to university level. They tend to cite ‘use-fulness’ as their most important criterion for judg-ing GM innovation. Contrasting with this, the lessengaged cohort tend to be female and have a lowerlevel of education; though not statistically signifi-cant, perceived ‘moral acceptability’ is slightly ele-vated among this class.

A Snapshot of Public Opinion on Biotechnology and GM Foods at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Table 2 Summary Findings of Eurobarometer Surveys Conducted in Ireland between 1991 and 2002

• Knowledge of science and technology in general is low, as is knowledge and awareness of biotechnology

• The term ‘biotechnology’ is perceived more favourably than ‘genetic engineering’, albeit only slightly

• Television is the primary source of information on new developments, including biotechnology

• Consumer and environmental organisations, and also the medical profession, are the most widely trusted sourcesof information about biotechnology

• Generally speaking, medical applications are more favourably received

• Biotechnology applied to food production is not particularly well received in Ireland

Countries with higher percentages of the engagedpublic include Denmark, Luxembourg and Finland,while those with lower percentages include Ireland,along with Spain, Portugal and Belgium. A featureof early EBs was the high percentage of ‘do notknow’ answers recorded in Ireland when asked forknowledge about biotechnology, and this may par-tially explain the lower levels of engagement(Midden et al., ). Among the less engaged class,perceived risk was the dominant factor ( per cent)in their appraisal of GM foods, while for per centthis was the key issue regarding the formation of atti-tudes to therapeutic cloning.

Later EBs also began to build on the fact that GMcrops were gaining wide coverage in the Europeanmedia. For example, a purchase decision questionregarding a hypothetical GM food was incorporatedinto EB ., and this also extended to consump-tion of food in the restaurant situation; putativebeneficial attributes tested included lower price, theuse of less pesticide residue in production, superiortaste and lower fat content. In general, the majorityof European respondents rejected GM foods in suchscenarios, with Greece and Ireland to the fore in thisregard; in the latter case, more than per cent ofthe poll rejected all of the six benefits proffered.Among acceptors (Finland, Austria and the UK),the most persuasive reasons for buying GM foodsappeared to be the perceived health benefit of lowerpesticide residues, closely followed by a morefriendly environmental foot-print; lower price wasfound to be the weakest incentive for purchase.

Interestingly, it was noted that among the cohortthat were more accepting of GM foods, those fromIreland, Portugal and the UK had the highest meannumber of acceptable reasons for making a purchase;Luxembourg, Austria, Greece, Italy and France hadthe lowest. Therefore, the opinion of the Europeanpublic is somewhat split on the subject of GM foodsand their relative benefits. It must be noted that anacknowledged limitation of this type of questioningis that respondents are more likely to express ‘citi-zen’ rather than ‘consumer’ preferences (Gaskell etal., ).

Questionnaire design is therefore a critical aspect ofpublic opinion research in this field, and it is appar-ent from successive EB studies that this is one of theareas which represents a major hurdle. An examplefrom Eurobarometer . () is illustrative of the

dilemma, where one of the key questions askedrespondents whether they agreed or disagreed withthe following statement: ‘current regulations are suf-ficient to protect people from any risks linked tomodern biotechnology’. This question assumes thatthe European public is aware of biotechnology reg-ulations (unlikely), while the use of the term, ‘anyrisks’ is equally inappropriate, as no law or regula-tion can protect a person from any or all risks. It istherefore unsurprising that per cent of Irishrespondents answered ‘do not know’ to this partic-ular question.

Question ambiguity has as also dogged the EB stud-ies. For example, EB . () asked respondentsif they agreed or disagreed with the following state-ment: ‘Even if it means doing without some of itsadvantages, GM food should be introduced in amore progressive manner’. The European Com-mission’s own report on the results of this studyacknowledged that there was ambiguity in the inter-pretation of the position of those who disagreed withthis statement; such a response could mean either,‘no, GM food should be introduced more rapidly’,or ‘no, GM food should not be introduced’.Limitations notwithstanding, EB provides an impor-tant benchmark for assessing European public opin-ion regarding biotechnology. We will now discussthe various smaller studies that have been performedin Ireland with a view to highlighting micro-trendsduring the period to .

Remaining Surveys of Public Opinion inIreland, 1995–2002The Food Marketing Institute (FMI, Washington,DC) conducted a major international survey of con-sumers across European countries in , bench-marking this against similar research carried out inthe US and Japan in the same year. Most Europeancountries (including per cent of Irish respon-dents) were found to demonstrate a willingness topurchase a new variety of GM produce (potato ortomato) which was modified to be resistant to insectdamage. Only German and Austrian consumersdemonstrated a clear opposition to plant biotech-nology. When asked to rate different potentialfood safety risks, there was considerable variation inopinion as to whether genetic engineering (GE) rep-resented a ‘serious health risk’. One-third to one-half (Ireland: per cent) of all respondents ratedthe risk as ‘serious’, with Germany, Austria, Swedenand Portugal being the most concerned. In the


majority of countries, GE was viewed as slightlymore risky than artificial colouring, nitrites, choles-terol, and fat content. However, this was a relativerisk for most European consumers, and they per-ceived other risks to be more serious.

A nationwide survey involving , face-to-faceinterviews with members of the public was com-missioned by the non-governmental Irish organisa-tion, Genetic Concern, in early (coincidentallyemploying the same agency which has carried out anumber of EB surveys). This study was specificallyaimed at determining Irish consumer opinion onfood safety issues, and also their knowledge of theGE of food. Thirty-one per cent of respondentsexpressed being ‘very concerned’ about the safety ofthe food they eat nowadays, with per cent regis-tering ‘fair concern’. This feeling was found to behighest among women and also those with children.When asked to state their food safety anxieties viaan open-ended question, BSE in beef and also thebacterial pathogen, Salmonella, emerged as the pri-mary fears. Genetic engineering was mentioned asan issue by only per cent of the poll, which gaveit a ranking of seventh out of the eight main foodsafety considerations identified. Similarly, present-ing respondents with a list of food safety issues andasking them to rank their degree of concern witheach, indicated that the general freshness of foodand the use of chemical sprays were the major topicsof attention. Genetic engineering came last in thelist of eight food safety concerns, with marriedwomen being most concerned ( per cent) andsingle men least concerned ( per cent). This resultechoed that recorded in Europe by the FMI in .

The low position of GE in the consciousness ofrespondents may have been due to unfamiliaritywith the subject matter; the majority claimed toknow either ‘nothing’ ( per cent) or ‘very little’ (per cent) about GE, and this ignorance was almostuniformly spread among all the age groups tested.The results also correlated with those of EB .(), which found that greater knowledge of GEdoes not necessarily lead to greater acceptance of theproducts of the technology.

Finally, respondents were asked if they felt that ‘gro-cery products which have ingredients that have beenmodified genetically should always be clearly labelledto identify them from other products which do not’.A clear majority ( per cent), comprising those who

‘strongly agreed’ ( per cent) and those who‘slightly agreed’ ( per cent), demanded clearlabelling of foods with GM ingredients; only percent disagreed with the need for labelling. Ninety-six per cent of those who registered concern aboutGE agreed with the need for labelling, but this wasalso high for those who expressed little concernabout the technology ( per cent).

Amarach Consulting carried out an omnibus surveybetween May and June which incorporatedsome questions on GM foods ( face-to-face inter-views). Forty-three per cent stated that they were‘somewhat concerned’ about the safety of these foods( per cent, ‘very concerned’; per cent, ‘uncon-cerned’); half of all homemakers, who are the maingrocery purchasers, stated that they were very con-cerned about the safety of GM foods. When askedhow often their concern for the safety of GM foodsinfluences the purchase of products, per cent indi-cated ‘most of the time – but sometimes it’s impos-sible to tell if something is GM’. Twenty-seven percent replied ‘always – I try to ensure that nothing Ibuy is genetically modified’, and an equal percent-age remarked ‘some of the time – if I have time Iwill read the label – but there are often times whenit’s too difficult’. Only per cent of respondentsindicated that concern about GM foods did notaffect their food choice, and this group primarilycomprised male respondents ( per cent).

A minor study in (Ryan, ; face-to-faceinterviews within a single city) attempted to allowrespondents greater freedom to express a free-formopinion. Using this methodology, participants wereunwilling to purchase GM foods, even with bene-fits such as low fat or nutritious content, and theyexpressed doubts regarding safety. Lack of informa-tion to allow an informed choice to be made was akey finding from this survey.

A major public survey into attitudes on science andtechnology (S&T) was commissioned by the Irishstate policy and planning body, Forfás, in September (, face-to-face interviews). The sample wasquota-controlled in terms of gender, age, social class,region and area of residence to match known demo-graphic variables of the population. Drawing on ear-lier work carried out in and , the studyattempted to compare attitudes across a range ofsocio-economic groups on a temporal basis. Anumber of the findings reinforce those obtained in


EB surveys from this period: knowledge of S&Tdevelopments was found to be low, with only aboutfour in ten adults holding the view that they were‘very’ ( per cent) or ‘fairly well’ ( per cent)informed about such developments. Echoing resultsfrom EB . (), medical doctors emerged asthe profession with the highest level of respect (per cent), followed by teachers ( per cent) anddentists–scientists ( per cent).

When presented with a list of S&T developmentsand asked to nominate and rank in order of impor-tance so as to ‘benefit all’, respondents chose cancerresearch ( per cent), transplant surgery ( percent), and biotechnology (food safety perspective; per cent); at per cent, GM foods ranked sev-enth on this list. In common with EB surveys fromthis period, Irish consumers differed in their accep-tance of biotechnology applications, despite pro-fessing to be uninformed on this area. However, thisstudy found that women were more likely to seebenefits in biotechnology relative to their male coun-terparts, and also indicated a potential receptivity toproducts offering a strong consumer benefit (forexample, improved food safety).

A study aimed at comparing consumer attitudes toGM foods between the public in the USA(California; n = , October and January) and Ireland (Galway; n = ; November and February ) used two subgroups (McGarryWolf and Domegan, ): those familiar/unfamil-iar with GM foods, and those likely/unlikely to pur-chase these products.

Forty-three per cent of participants in each countryindicated that they were ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ famil-iar with GM food; per cent of respondents wereeither ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ familiar. Results indi-cated that Irish consumers in the ‘familiar’ sub-grouphad gleaned their awareness of the GM food con-cept from more diverse information sources thantheir US counterparts. They also appeared moreinterested in GM food, and were more likely to haveengaged in discussions on this topic with family,friends and colleagues. The majority of respondentsfamiliar with the concept were able to identify toma-toes and maize as crops that are grown domesticallyor internationally using GM methods; indeed, Irishconsumers appeared to be more knowledgeable inthis regard. ‘Familiar’ respondents in each countrywere more likely to have read nutrition and ingre-

dient labels and also to have purchased organic foodin the past year; in Ireland, such a consumer waslikely to be aged between and , to hold employ-ment and be more highly educated. Their US con-temporaries were more likely to be college graduatesor those with a higher household income.

Most Irish ( per cent) and American ( per cent)consumers were in favour of government imposi-tion of mandatory labelling of GM food products,with the Irish result in line with other studies at thistime (EB ., ; Ryan, ; Genetic Concern,). There was a positive correlation betweenfamiliarity and a desire for mandatory labelling inboth countries. A majority ( per cent) of respon-dents in the USA willing to purchase GM food con-sidered mandatory labelling to be important.

A minority of consumers in each country werefound to be willing to purchase a GM food prod-uct, but Irish consumers demonstrated more reluc-tance than their US contemporaries (> per cent,compared with per cent US citizens). In Ireland,those willing to purchase such foods were on aver-age more highly educated, while their Americanequivalents were more likely to be male, eithersingle, separated or divorced, and from a singleincome household. Irish respondents who had madea purchase of organic food within the previous yearwere found to be more likely to purchase GM food,but this was not the case for American consumers.

A small scale study to determine Irish consumer atti-tudes and perceived risk to the use of gene technol-ogy in food production was performed in June ( postal questionnaires; Vilei and McCarthy,). All respondents professed some awareness ofthe concept of gene technology in food production,but levels varied considerably ( per cent heard ‘alot’ about gene technology; per cent, ‘a fairamount’; per cent, ‘very little’). Fifty-seven percent of the poll believed that GM food products werebeing sold in Irish stores (did not know, per cent;believed not sold, per cent); indeed, per centwere able to name a commodity that they believedwas on sale (soya, per cent; maize/wheat products, per cent; fruits and vegetables, per cent).

McGarry Wolf and Domegan () also recordeda similar observation. In general, acceptance of genetechnology among Irish consumers was found to below, in line with EB surveys from this period. Sixty-


six per cent of the respondents had a negative viewof GM food products (unsure, per cent; positiveview, per cent).

Using a seven-point scale ( = extremely unlikely, = extremely likely), the willingness of respondentsto purchase GM food products possessing a varietyof benefits was examined. The association of a healthbenefit with a GM food was the strongest motivatorfor a purchase decision, surpassing a benefit to theenvironment, longer shelf-life or less costly produce.Willingness to buy GM food products increasedwith the provision of specific, clearly stated bene-fits. Female respondents ( per cent) were moreunlikely to buy GM food products than males (per cent).

Chi-square tests using the – year-old and +cohorts indicated that a greater percentage of theformer ( per cent) were willing to buy GM foodproducts which had no stated benefits, comparedwith older respondents ( per cent). Extending thisanalysis to examine the effects of a variety of bene-fits found similar results: respondents aged andolder were generally less likely to buy GM foodproducts.

To put these results into context, respondents werepresented with three ‘true or false’ statements aboutGE to test their underlying knowledge of this topic(a ‘do not know’ option was also provided). Theresults suggested that consumers’ knowledge in gen-eral is quite limited. Only per cent of respondentscould answer all three questions correctly. Most (per cent) were aware that not ‘all processed foods aremade using GM products’. Only per cent knewthat they ‘ate DNA everyday’ (a third questionrelated to knowledge of gene technology regulationin food production). A chi-square test was con-ducted to establish if more knowledgeable con-sumers (i.e. those answering two or three questionscorrectly) expressed a more positive attitude towardsgene technology in food production, but no rela-tionship was found. Additionally, there was noapparent relationship between education level andwillingness to buy GM food products which offeredvarious benefits.

In August , the Irish Agri-Awareness Trust com-missioned a study ( face-to-face interviews) toexamine the perception of the general public inIreland regarding agriculture and the food industry

(spanning safety issues, disease scares and GM foods;Finnegan and Phelan, ). The majority ofrespondents ( per cent) expressed major concernabout a possible risk from GM foods ( per cent,minor concern; per cent, no concern); underlyingreasons for this were not explored. This contrastedwith the views regarding BSE (. per cent, majorconcern; per cent, minor concern; . per cent,no concern).

In September , a survey was commissioned byForfás, the national industrial development agency,with the aim of establishing the level of knowledgeabout biotechnology within Ireland, and also aspectsthat were of specific interest to the public (,telephone interviews; www.biotechinfo.ie). Aboutseven in ten respondents were found to have noknowledge of the term, ‘biotechnology’, whileamong those who had, roughly six in ten did notknow what it meant. Twelve per cent of the pollrelated it to genetically modified organisms (GMOs)or GM food, and a further per cent to cloning.Only one in five people perceived it as being a ‘good’thing (seven in twenty, ‘good and bad’; seven intwenty, ‘bad’; one in ten, unsure).

The primary concerns to emerge were related to thepossibility of biotechnology interfering with nature( per cent), followed by human health worries (per cent) and general ethical concerns ( per cent).Seven per cent of respondents were concerned withissues relating to cloning, and a similar percentagementioned the use of embryos; one in four Irishpeople claimed to have no concerns. Females andthe middle-aged (– age group) expressed moreconcern about human health and ethics. Membersof the farming community, while worried abouthuman health, were more anxious about the effectsof biotechnology on nature and the environment.An earlier study (Hogg et al., ) revealed a sim-ilar concern among Irish farmers.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) com-missioned two wide-ranging surveys in (Aprilto May) to investigate consumer and industry atti-tudes to food safety ( quantitative telephoneinterviews and qualitative focus groups).Participants appeared to be primarily worried aboutdrug abuse ( per cent) and least concerned abouteducation ( per cent); food safety ranked fourthin the list, with per cent of respondents express-ing some degree of concern about the safety of the


food that they eat (females and those in the –and – age brackets were to the fore in thisregard). Out of a list of nine food-related issues,respondents cited pesticide and herbicide residuesas their primary concern ( per cent), followed byBSE/mad cow disease ( per cent) and food poi-soning ( per cent). Sixty-two per cent of partici-pants were anxious about GM foods (ranked jointfifth with food irradiation and additives). GM foodswere not mentioned as a food safety issue in thequalitative research phase, nor were they an issue interms of respondent opinion on the catering sector:hygiene/handling of food ( per cent), proper cook-ing ( per cent), origin ( per cent) and prepara-tion ( per cent) were more pressing anxieties.Possible adverse long-term health effects of food con-sumed nowadays rated highly with per cent ofparticipants; the latter issues included cancer ( percent concerned), unknown long-term effects ofGMOs and mass production ( per cent), heartdisease ( per cent) and obesity ( per cent). It isnot possible to discern from the results whether thepublic were concerned about the effects of GMfoods per se, or the notion of GM foods represent-ing intensive food production practices.

A key finding of this study was that per cent ofthose interviewed professed to pay attention to thelabels on the food they buy ( per cent, ‘a lot’ of atten-tion; per cent, ‘a little’). Females, those in the –year age bracket, parents and grocery purchasers paidthe most attention to labels. Thirty-six per cent ofrespondents spontaneously volunteered that they lookfor the ‘best before’ date on the food label, while per cent check for additives and per cent for fat con-tent. Respondents did not mention that they specifi-cally check a label for the presence of GM ingredientsand when prompted with a list of food label data, per cent confirmed that the ‘best before’ date was thekey parameter. Half of those surveyed were of theopinion that food labels contained the right amountof information ( per cent, too little information),and the same percentage that the data was clear.

The ‘Candidate Countries (CC) Eurobarometer’ wasconducted in November , among the candi-date countries of the European Union (Bulgaria,Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,Slovenia and Turkey). Comparisons were maderegarding attitudes in these countries and the exist-ing EU- member states (Eurobarometer .,

Europa, ). Attitudes regarding GM foods aresimilar in the two parts of Europe. For example,people want to retain the right to choose betweennatural produce and foodstuffs based on GMOs(CC-, per cent, EU-, per cent). Consumersin the candidate countries appear cautious of thetechnology. per cent of all teenagers and adults inthese countries await more information before con-suming GM food (EU-: per cent). A similarproportion feel that such food should only be intro-duced if it is scientifically proven not to be a healthhazard (CC-: per cent, EU-: per cent).Currently, around seven in ten Europeans ( percent in CC- and per cent in EU- countries)‘do not want this type of food’, or at least would notif they could identify it (Candidate CountriesEurobarometer, ).

Recent Surveys of Public Opinion onBiotechnology in Countries Outsidethe European UnionThe United StatesAlthough sometimes portrayed by certain commen-tators as a non-contentious market, the picture forGM foods in the US is not entirely clear. Opinionstudies in the mid-to-late s consistently demon-strated that between two-thirds and three-quarters ofUS consumers supported biotechnology and werewilling to accept GM-enhanced food (Hoban, ;Gaskell et al., ). However, more recent studieshave indicated a decline in acceptance (Priest, ;Moon and Balasubramanian, ; Bruhn, ;Hallman and Aquino, ). Indeed, Bruhn ()reports that the number of US consumers holding apositive view about biotechnology has decreased inthe past five years, but perhaps a more fundamentalissue remains the lack of knowledge among US con-sumers regarding the food they consume (Marks andKalaitzandonakes, ; The Pew Initiative on Foodand Biotechnology, ; Hallman and Aquino,). Surprisingly, only about half of Americans (per cent) were aware in that GM foods were forsale in supermarkets, up from per cent in (Hallman and Aquino, ).

AsiaGeneral positivity to GM innovation, tempered bya growing discrimination in risk-benefit appraisal,is also characteristic of Japan, with an overall sig-nificant decrease in the acceptance of such applica-tions across the board (Macer and Chen Ng, ).Support for pest-resistant crops dropped from per


cent in to per cent in , while that forGM food fell from per cent to per cent in thesame period. Certain studies (Hoban, , )suggest that Japanese consumers resemble those inthe US in terms of acceptance of GM foods. Thestudy by Bertolini et al. () further illustratesthis, as American and Japanese consumers both indi-cated a higher purchase probability for GM foodthan Italian consumers.

In general, Asia appears positive about food biotech-nology. Sixty-six per cent of respondents from a surveyconducted across China, Indonesia and the Philippines(n = ) anticipated benefits from biotechnologywithin the next five years (Asian Food InformationCentre, AFIC, ); the majority had no reservationsabout consuming GM foods ( per cent), indicatingthat they would either ‘definitely’ ( per cent) or‘probably’ ( per cent) try GM corn snacks.

Chinese consumers appear particularly receptive toGM foods (Zhong et al., ). Indeed, one studysuggested that Beijing consumers on average werewilling to pay a per cent premium for GM riceover the non-modified product, and a per centpremium for GM soybean oil (Li et al., ),which the study authors attributed to positive gov-ernment-controlled media coverage. China remainsthe world’s fourth largest producer of biotech crops.

Canada, Australia and New ZealandAs a model that contains elements of European andNorth American socio-economic policies, the situ-ation in Canada provides some insight into thisissue. In , an Environics International opinionpoll conducted in the US, Canada, Europe andChina (cited in Veeman, ) suggested thatCanadian consumers were somewhat more wary ofGM foods than their US contemporaries. Europeansappeared most concerned, with per cent ofGerman participants indicating that they were ‘veryconcerned’, followed by per cent of Canadians, per cent of Americans and per cent of Chineseparticipants. A series of EB-style surveys have alsobeen carried out in Canada and the US (in , and ), all confirming that Canadians tendto occupy the ‘middle ground’ between theirEuropean and US counterparts in terms of opti-mism about biotechnology applications.

Australian and New Zealand consumers also resem-ble their European and Irish counterparts in their

attitudes to GM technology. Roughly per cent ofAustralians view the risks of GM foods as out-weighing the benefits (Biotechnology Australia, June) while more New Zealanders disagree thatthere are definite benefits associated with the geneticengineering of food ( per cent) than agree ( percent; Scully, ).

Discussion and ConclusionsReflecting the general situation for Europe, surveysof public opinion about biotechnology in Irelandduring the s indicated a low level of under-standing about the technology. A measurable hier-archy of acceptability regarding different biotech-nology innovations has been discernible, with GMfoods being regarded with suspicion. Surveying thepublic about ‘self-worth’ indicators is notoriouslydifficult, with answers to questions relating to per-sonal income, ability or knowledge often skewed infavour of the (perceived) ideal, rather than the truepicture; this is especially true in face to face or tele-phone interviewing techniques, favoured by themajority of surveys reviewed within this paper. Onthis basis, the consistent observation that knowledgeand awareness of biotechnology are low among Irish(and European) survey respondents is significant.Taken at face value, it implies that the technologyis still quite alien to everyday life – there is little orno social pressure to understand biotechnology –and this situation discriminates it from areas suchas information technology or the Internet.

At the time of writing, the EU (and Ireland) con-tinues to be an unfavourable market environmentfor GM foods, despite the strenuous information-communication efforts of biotechnology companies,EU governments, and the EU Commission. Clearly,no single explanation can account for the greaterresistance to food biotechnology in Europe com-pared to the US. We may safely conjecture that it isnot a knowledge or understanding of biotechnologythat assures acceptance in the US, while merely edu-cating the European public on this area would beunlikely to reverse public opinion. Eurobarometer. () indicated that less than per cent ofEuropeans had confidence in their own governmentor industry (Gaskell et al., ). In contrast, the US EB-style poll reported that per cent and84 per cent respectively of American respondentswould trust statements from the US Department ofAgriculture (USDA) or Food and DrugAdministration (FDA; Gaskell et al., ). The


work of Baker and Mazzocco () further indi-cated that a government certification programmemight actually boost the already high confidence ofAmerican consumers towards GM products.

Surveys of opinion on GM foods continue to proveextremely newsworthy, with key results oftenabstracted as ‘sound-bites’ by the media, arguablywithout adequate contextualisation. In recent years,widespread reportage of studies on the voting pref-erences of the public, in advance of political elec-tions, have come to be recognised as a powerfulinfluence on poll outcomes. One may therefore rea-sonably expect that this is also a significant influ-ence in the area of GM foods.

Probably the most serious limitation of the major-ity of surveys performed to date is that they havenot tested the public’s knowledge of biotechnologyper se, but rather their awareness (and word associ-ations) of the term, ‘biotechnology’; the same is trueof ‘genetic engineering’, used in many early surveysuntil it came to be viewed as pejorative language,with a possible association of scientific arrogance.Perhaps the area of language represents the most fun-damental barrier to ascertaining the true publicopinion on biotechnology; the researcher is eitherforced to supply some explanatory backgroundinformation within the question or as briefing notes,thereby risking the introduction of bias, or alterna-tively, assume that the audience has some funda-mental grasp of the subject. Therefore, many sur-veys have been in the difficult position of recordinga low knowledge of biotechnology among the targetaudience, but yet asking questions (and receivinganswers) that demand some form of understanding.Additionally, the majority of surveys have simplyconfirmed that there is a high level of ignoranceamong consumers regarding GM innovation.Therefore, from a decade or so of intense study, we

have limited insight into the future projected reac-tion of the public to emerging areas, such as stemcell technology or nanotechnology.

Such problems have been compounded by the factthat relatively little attention has been given by themedia to possible limitations of survey researchdeployed in such work (Gaskell et al., ). Asurvey frames issues within a particular context andrespondents are restricted to answering the questionswithin the response alternatives provided. Theseresponses are further processed and interpreted bythe study sponsor according to their perceptions asto what is relatively important. Many Irish studieshave encouraged participants to reply in their roleas ‘citizens’, rather than potential consumers of thetechnologies, contrasting with a number of inter-national studies that have presented the survey audi-ence with specific examples of GM foods, and exam-ined their intention to purchase these products(Frewer et al., ; Moon and Balasubramanian,; Noussair et al., ; Grunert et al., ;Koivisto Hursti et al., ).

The above limitations notwithstanding, more thanever there is an intense need to understand thepublic perceptions of science and technology, withsuch work ideally supporting the development of athree-way dialogue between citizens, governmentand industry. Analysis of a decade of survey workin the area of GM foods within this review hashighlighted broad areas of public consensus, andalso aspects that represent current weaknesses insurvey methodology. Foremost amongst the latteris the need to identify a common language to lowerthe understanding hurdle that modern biotechnol-ogy represents to the layperson, supplemented byvisualisation techniques that allow the citizen torelate to biotechnology as a stakeholder or poten-tial consumer.


AuthorsElaine O’ Connor is a former Walsh Fellow infood marketing with Teagasc, the National FoodCentre, and recently obtained a masters in agricul-tural science from University College Dublin. Sheis currently working as a research executive withthe Irish Health Services Accreditation Board.

Gwilym Williams is a lecturer in biotechnologyand bioethics at the Dublin Institute ofTechnology. He has previously held positions inEnterprise Ireland, Trinity College Dublin andProteus Molecular Design plc, and has publishedinternationally in the areas of biotechnology andbiobusiness.

Cathal Cowan is head of the food marketingresearch group at the National Food Centre ofTeagasc in Dublin. He has extensive experience incarrying out food marketing research projects,including projects financed by the EuropeanUnion and National Research programmes. Hecollaborates with several universities and researchcentres in Ireland and other European countries,and recently co-ordinated a major national studyon food-related lifestyles which segmented consumers in both Ireland and Britain on thebasis of such lifestyles.

John O’Connell is a senior lecturer and researcherin agribusiness and food marketing in UniversityCollege Dublin. His research covers an extensivearea, notably the analysis of Ireland’s meat industries and exports and general food processingsector performance.

Maurice P. Boland is dean of the Faculty of Agri-Food and the Environment at UniversityCollege Dublin. He has wide experience ofresearch in animal reproduction, has presentedconference papers in many countries, and undertakes extensive international collaborations.

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–.


IntroductionTraditionally, usage of computer packages was asso-ciated with a quantitative approach, where well-structured and measured data are subjected to sta-tistical analysis. The theoretical foundation ofcomputerised qualitative data analysis is heavilyinfluenced by this approach; it is based on constantdata refinement through coding and retrieval pro-cedures, with the coding process serving as a fun-damental part of qualitative data analysis. Thenature of qualitative research, the complexity of datainput, the lack of a definite and well-developedstructure for the research process, and the highdegree of art in the analysis are the main reasons forongoing debates about the use of computers in qual-itative research. This study examined the problemsassociated with computerised data analysis whichled to limited software usage in qualitative researchand the main reasons for reluctance to use qualita-tive data analysis software.

The Marketing Research IndustryMarketing research provides scope for most socialscience qualitative research methods and increasinglyqualitative methods are employed in both commer-cial and academic research designs (Winn and Keller,; Hill and McGowan, ; Fielding, ).There are, however, some unique features of thecommercial marketing research industry, includingthe nature of projects, the research environment andobjectives (Ereaut, ). Commercial researchers,

although striving to be unbiased in their analysis, actas agents of the client and focus on maximising theusefulness of the outcomes for the client. Com-mercial projects are usually short-term and small-scale. They are conducted over a few weeks under afixed time-scale and well-formulated objectives.Methodological transparency requirements are quitelow in commercial projects due to their short-termnature and the lack of clients’ interest in recordingthe analysis process itself. The marketing researchindustry is viewed as an experience-based business,in which skills are acquired through apprenticeshipand long practice.

Qualitative Research SoftwareBefore the s the only computerised analysis deal-ing with textual data was quantitative content analy-sis of text (Conrad and Reinharz, ; Drass, ;Shelly and Sibert, ). The tools for qualitativeanalysis at that time included mainly scissors, glue andmulti-coloured pen. Although, at the early stages ofthe development of software packages, much of theliterature enthusiastically recommended computerusage for qualitative data analysis, researchers wererather reluctant to use computers, fearing that com-puters might be harmful to qualitative investigation.Later, software packages became the subject of a longdiscussion as to whether or not they could facilitatethe creative process of qualitative analysis and howqualitative software ‘can move studies beyond the“handcraft production” of qualitative research’ (Miles

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THENON-USAGE OF QUALITATIVESOFTWARE IN THE MARKETINGRESEARCH INDUSTRY


How can qualitative software methods move enquiry in marketing beyondthe ‘handcraft production’ of qualitative research? This study investigatesthe problems associated with using computer aided qualitative data analysis software in commercial marketing research. It finds a limited usageand a general reluctance to use qualitative data analysis (QDA) software.QDA software is mostly employed by research companies that embracemixed research designs, and is radically opposed by social researchersinvolved in traditional qualitative analysis.

QDA software is perceived as being linked with quantitative thinking,involving coding as the main element of data analysis. Long and steeplearning curves, and the necessity to achieve a high level of QDA softwarefamiliarisation in order to use it successfully, are among the major barriersfor researchers in the commercial sector – researchers who work under continuous time pressure and have highly focused and specific objectives.

Elena Bezborodova & Billy Bennett

and Huberman, , pp. –). The main influencein developing qualitative software came from thegrounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, ),with the coding process as a core element of the analy-sis. This ‘unnecessarily close equation of groundedtheory, coding, and software’ has been a subject of astrong criticism (Charmaz, , p. ). Moreover, thequalitative approach as naturalistic, interpretive andholistic in nature is often perceived to be beyond cod-ification and computerisation. The main argumentagainst Computer Aided Qualitative Data AnalysisSoftware (CAQDAS) use is that ‘no computer soft-ware has yet, or ever will, replace the brain of theskilled qualitative practitioner’ (Gordon andLangmaid, , p. ). It has been argued, however,that ‘fears about CAQDAS do originate from thosewho have not worked with it very much if at all’(Barry, , p. ).

Research Objectives andMethodologyThis research was designed as a three-phase study,representing both qualitative and quantitativeapproaches. The overall aim of the study was to eval-uate software usage in qualitative marketing research.Data used in the study were collected from a varietyof sources, including articles employing qualitativemethodologies published in leading marketingresearch journals, a survey of Irish marketing researchcompanies, and online and face-to-face interviewswith CAQDAS professionals. The variety of datahelped to ensure validity of findings (by means ofdata source triangulation) and to enrich the researchoutcomes (by implementing the multipoint viewapproach) so as to allow for comprehensive problemevaluation from different perspectives.

The first phase of the research aimed to assess method-ological principles applied in marketing research pro-jects, published in leading marketing journals overa ten year period. The overall research objective of thesecond phase was to evaluate usage of qualitative tech-niques and computer applications in the Irish mar-keting research industry, to provide for triangulationof the first phase results and to investigate companies’attitudes towards, and experiences in, software usage.The final phase of the study went on to explore someof the issues raised in the survey of Irish marketingresearch companies through a series of depth inter-views with CAQDAS professionals. This study reportson the latter two phases of the research, namely thesurvey and follow-up interviews relating to the mar-

keting research industry in Ireland. Among the researchvariables investigated were:

• A range of research techniques (analytical anddata collection) and project types ranked bythe frequency of their usage in the companies’practice.

• Subject areas.

• Level of qualitative research and software expe-rience.

• Degree of awareness of qualitative software.

• Length of software usage, name of softwareapplication (used or known).

• Degree of satisfaction.

• Advantages and limitations of software usageranked by their importance for the respondents.

• Perceived and actual purposes of qualitativeresearch software usage.

• Approaches towards methodological conver-gence.

A total of questionnaires were mailed to Irishmarketing research companies, and a response rateof per cent was attained.

Research FindingsFindings indicated that the main value of QDA soft-ware, as perceived by software-using companies, wasin process systematisation and data management facil-itation. The purpose of software use was primarily datacoding and retrieval. In employing QDA software mar-keting researchers were driven by the following: a desireto handle complex data and to systematise the process;a perception of doing more scientific and systematicanalysis; previous experience with quantitative soft-ware; specific objectives targeting software use; andgrowing popularity and recognition of multi-methodresearch designs and of QDA software. Data com-plexity seemed to encourage researchers in dealing withsoftware before they felt the necessity for data system-atisation. For experienced researchers, data complex-ity was mostly associated with varied rather than volu-minous data and normally emerged as a result of datatriangulation in project design.

It was noted that although QDA software affects theresearch process, it is ‘not a great disadvantage, nei-ther is it any significant advantage’. The real dangerperceived by software-experienced companies was


in conducting a computerised study using inexpe-rienced researchers, who may be tempted to skipover the process and perform ‘quick and dirty’research. Qualitative research and software experi-ence were found to be of high importance for suc-cessful usage of QDA software. This idea flowed outof the following findings:

• A negative attitude on the part of inexperiencedand poorly informed researchers towards soft-ware use.

• A high level of satisfaction with QDA software,expressed by experienced researchers.

• The greatest problem in software usage was theconcern arising from an inexperienced researcherperforming low-quality research, which from theclient’s perspective looked sophisticated.

• A long and steep learning curve and theexpressed importance of good training and sup-port for researchers in software choice.

• Generally qualitative research experience isobtained prior to software usage (the averageresearcher only started using QDA software afterten years’ research experience).

• Dissimilarities in software perceptions betweenexperienced and inexperienced program users.

• Conscious assessment of the advantages and lim-itations of software made by experienced soft-ware users.

It was noted that effective use of software could beachieved only when the user reached a high degreeof software familiarisation through experience andtraining, termed by Gilbert () a ‘meta-cognitiveshift’. At this stage the researcher might even doubtthe possibility of proper analysis without software.

Findings confirmed limited usage of QDA softwarein the commercial arena. Of the Irish marketingresearch firms that responded to the survey, only sevenhad ever used software for analysis of qualitative data.It was revealed that the unwillingness to perform qual-itative analysis by means of QDA software resultedfrom the following: poor awareness of software amongcommercial researchers; consideration of QDA soft-ware as a means of ‘quantification’; paradigm intoler-ance; the nature of qualitative research and relianceon the ‘best computer in the world’ (human brain) inthe analysis; lack of QDA software training; the natureof the commercial research environment; and a poorreflection in QDA software of the requirements ofcommercial researchers (for example, inadequate man-uals and lack of user-friendliness on the part of QDAsoftware).

The study revealed that qualitative software pack-ages were employed only occasionally, and primar-ily for specific purposes (such as international com-parative studies, moving from the qualitative toquantitative phase of research, or capturing a focusgroup atmosphere). A comparison of all qualitativeprojects with projects undertaken by QDA softwarerevealed a shift towards a higher degree of method-ological convergence in the software-assisted pro-jects. The projects employing QDA software used awider spectrum of qualitative data analysis tech-niques. Although there is no direct connectionbetween the grounded theory approach and QDAsoftware, it was found that CAQDAS primarily facil-itates an editing research style, focusing on data cat-egorisation and the exploration of patterns, repre-senting ‘grounded theory’-like analysis. However, theholistic or interpretive style in qualitative research,providing for intuitive exploration, seemed to be amore popular analytical approach in marketing

An Investigation into the Non-Usage of Qualitative Software in the Marketing Research Industry

Table 1 Conflicts Between the Nature of Commercial Marketing Research and Characteristics of Qualitative Software

NATURE OF COMMERCIAL MARKETING RESEARCH

• Highly dynamic, time pressured environment.

• Short-term nature of projects.

• Specific requirements of projects and a low possibil-ity of using the same data set in other projects.

• Low emphasis on software education and training(historically).

• A perception of QDA software as being linked withquantitative thinking and its ‘avoidance on princi-ple’ by qualitative researchers; traditional reluctanceof qualitative researchers towards software use.

• Wider usage of the ‘immersion’ style in qualitativemarketing research.

CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE SOFTWARE

• Long and steep software learning curves.

• The necessity to achieve a complete understandingof QDA software in order to use it effectively.

• High cost of the software (combined with relativemarket immaturity).

• Complexity of QDA software and qualitative analy-sis; lack of user friendliness.

• Positioning QDA software as a tool for coding andretrieval.

• Software ability to facilitate primarily the editing(detailed) style in qualitative analysis

research. The nature of the marketing research indus-try and commercial projects and the characteristicsof the research software have become major sourcesof conflict, making commercial researchers reluctantto employ QDA software. The conflicts identifiedin Table were particularly noteworthy.

ConclusionThis study found a limited usage and general reluc-tance towards using qualitative data analysis software.At the core of this is the perceived link between QDAsoftware and quantitative thinking; qualitative dataanalysis undertaken with the aid of a computer wasperceived as being ‘quantitative like’. Furthermore,the long and steep learning curves implicit in QDAand the necessity to achieve a high level of QDA soft-ware familiarisation conflict with the time pressuresof the commercial marketing research environment.Overall, the findings suggested that the main reasonsfor the reluctance to use QDA software are its unsuit-

ability for commercial marketing research and poorreflection of the requirements of commercialresearchers in QDA software.

The evidence from this research is of low uptake ofQDA software; despite this, researchers claimed theyremained open-minded and ready to be convincedotherwise. The challenge, therefore, for softwaredevelopers is to create packages that reflect theunique needs of the marketing research industry. Inaddition, the findings reported here point to thenecessity for more user-friendly packages and man-uals. There is clearly some way to go to overcomethe perceived quantitativeness of QDA software andfor the marketing research industry to reap therewards promised by QDA software. Further researchis recommended in order to uncover methodologi-cal understanding of new approaches in researchdesign and software usage, specifically ways of usingcomputers for less structured qualitative exploration.


AuthorsElena Bezborodova began her career as a socialresearcher before taking up an academic post inthe school of business studies at a TechnologicalUniversity in Southern Russia. Since she hasbeen living in Ireland and completed a master ofbusiness studies (research) at Letterkenny Instituteof Technology in .

Billy Bennett is a lecturer in marketing at theschool of business studies in Letterkenny Instituteof Technology. He is a graduate of DublinInstitute of Technology and Trinity CollegeDublin. His main research interests lie in the areasof marketing research, entrepreneurial marketing,and small business training and development.

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The central premise of Simon Anholt’s recent book is that branding could hold the key to the eco-nomic problems of the less developed countries.This may raise eyebrows from world developmentagencies to Bono and Geldof, but Anholt makes areasonably convincing case in a book that is con-stantly thought-provoking but sometimes leaves thereader, or at least this reader, a little perplexed. Theproblem is that there are three central themes which,although interlinked, are not always sufficiently wellintegrated in the way the book is organised.

The three themes are: first, the possibility that ifpoorer countries of the world were able to think interms of developing brands instead of exporting theirproduce for the richer countries of the world tobrand them for them and therefore garner most ofthe resulting profits, they would be much better off;the second is about how this transformation couldcome about; and the third is about the importanceof national brand images for the future prosperityof nations.

The first and most substantive premise is about howbranding could offer a solution to the economic prob-lems of the less developed countries. The argumentis straightforward enough: at present underdevelopedcountries export too much raw primary produce,leaving the processing and marketing to be added inwealthier countries. If this process could be reversed,with the finished product being completed in theunderdeveloped country, there would be a numberof economic benefits including more employmentand significantly improved export earnings.

Anholt makes an eloquent plea for the poorer coun-tries of the world to be given a fairer deal and exposessome of the ruthless exploitation of these countriesby wealthy nations that while loudly preaching thevirtues of free trade on the one hand, load the tariffdice unfairly with the other. He quotes the exampleof the US, where the average tariff applied to the top Brazilian exports was over per cent comparedto the equivalent tariff in Brazil of per cent on the

top US exports. In passing he also notes that theincreasing power of the emerging global grocerychains, for example, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, meansthat they could in theory bankrupt an underdevel-oped country by switching suppliers of a commod-ity product. However, Anholt’s branding proposalsuffers a little because although branding could playa useful role, it is simplistic to assume that it couldwork on its own. To be fair, Anholt doesn’t specifi-cally state this, but by not discussing the proposal inthe context of the considerable volume of literaturethat already exists about Third World developmenthe runs the risk of his worthwhile ideas beingignored by the very people who are in a position todo something about them. In particular, John Kay’srecent book on the subject in which he discusseswhy some nations remain chronically poor is worthconsidering, in particular Kay’s key point that thereal reason why some countries are rich and some arepoor is deeply embedded social, legal and politicalstructures stretching back for many years in theformer and not in the latter.

The middle section of the book is taken up with along list of existing brands from underdevelopedcountries that are starting to make their mark inthe markets of the developed world. One of themost interesting examples is a brand of perfume,Urvashi, developed by an Indian entrepreneurwhich is the highest priced brand in upmarketretail outlets in Paris. It is easy to understand howvaluable this is for the Indian economy. The morecommon practice would be for the raw materialsrequired for the perfume to be sourced in India, orwherever, with the branding and marketing beingcarried out by some global business owned andbased in the West. A very interesting point madeon a number of occasions is the advantage accru-ing to national morale when a brand from anunderdeveloped country manages to succeed inbigger markets. He quotes a Jamaican newspapercolumnist writing after the island gained indepen-dence in : ‘the real date of independence


Review EssayBRANDING AND THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT: DOES ANHOLT’S BRAND NEW JUSTICE MAKE SENSE?John Fanning

. Anholt, Simon (), Brand New Justice: The Upside ofGlobal Branding, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.

. Kay, J. (), Culture and Prosperity: The Truth aboutMarkets – How Some Nations are Rich but Most Remain Poor,Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.

should have been when we established ourself-respect and self-confidence through the pro-duction of a beer (Red Stripe) far beyond thecapacity of mere colonial dependents’.

There is little doubt in my mind that Anholt’s cen-tral thesis is valid: ‘as it stands poorer countries areenmeshed in various patterns of behaviour whichkeep them poor and one of these is sellingunbranded goods to richer nations at low margins’.There is an echo here of the oft repeated complaintmade in Ireland in the s and ’s that we wereexporting our most valuable raw material ‘on thehoof ’ and thereby losing out on the wealth that wecould create by processing and branding at home. Inthe event our beef industry did develop in a way thatprovided greater wealth in terms of employment andexport revenue, but in spite of numerous efforts tocreate a more consumer branded presence, includ-ing the famous outdoor poster with the butcher’stable in the middle of a field over the legend ‘GreatGrass makes Irish Beef Great’, we still haven’t cre-ated a credible international Irish beef brand.

The second theme of the book is how poorer coun-tries can become more successful at producing morebranded goods. There are no easy answers to thisone but Anholt has two surprising suggestions. Fora start he argues for a degree of direct governmentintervention, which is unusual in this day and agegiven how unfashionable any level of interferenceis in the divine workings of the ‘free’ markets. Theauthor quotes examples from Japan, Taiwan andKorea, all very successful economies with success-ful world brands, and countries where there hasbeen a high level of government intervention: ‘Allthree countries produce world beating brand namesin valuable and profitable sectors – none of this hashappened by accident, economists often assumethat such miracles are primarily the results of freetrade whereas development capitalists put it downto industrial policy and systematic state interven-tion’. In Korea the government is going so far asbuilding a ‘Brand Academy’ to train specialistsevery year in brand management. Anholt’s secondsuggestion is more controversial: ‘part of the reasonwhy the central idea of Brand New Justice appealsto me is because it represents an opportunity formy own industry to do itself some credit and undosome of the harm that it has done during the lastcentury’. The explanation for this is that the authorhas become a little disillusioned with his profes-

sion, believing that it has been a major contributorto the increasing materialism and obsessive com-mercialism of today’s western society where we are,he claims in a neat phrase, ‘dying of consumption’.This is an interesting philosophical point which wemay well be hearing much more of, and it ties invery much with what our own ombudsman hasbeing saying recently about ‘tip-toeing back to thechurches’. However, Anholt’s practical proposal aris-ing from these musings is that the brand manage-ment profession in the West should develop its ownversion of Voluntary Service Overseas to offer helpto underdeveloped countries in creating and man-aging their own brands. I can see huge practical dif-ficulties in implementing this proposal, but if thesecould be overcome it could have considerableappeal both to potential volunteers and to poten-tial recipients. The author mentions that the obvi-ous way to start an initiative like this would be forsome of the global branded goods companies tooffer the service in developing countries. He alsomentions the growing fair-trade movement and thesuccess of Cafédirect in the UK. I would havethought that this represented the most practical andhopeful sign of progress in this area, but the authordoesn’t really integrate this development into hiswider argument. Cafédirect is now the UK’s thirdlargest roast and ground coffee brand, sales havegrown on average by per cent in the past sevenyears and a public share offering last year was over-subscribed. An even more radical developmentcloser to home is the new line in ethical couturebeing introduced by Ali Hewson, wife of the above-mentioned Bono. This new fashion label with itsown brand name, Edun, is based on making beau-tiful clothing in developing countries with theintention of providing sustainable employment andproviding trade potential. Factories have been setup in Peru and Tunisia with a further one plannedfor Lesotho.

The third and final theme of the book is the wholequestion of the branding of nations themselves. Tosome extent this is the most interesting area for Irishreaders because the image of Ireland is such animportant issue for us. It is also a subject that the


. Barr, S. () ‘Taking real responsibility: Cafédirect’,Admap, Jan.

. Mitchell, S. (), ‘Ethical couture’, Sunday Business Post, March.

author has written about in the past and on a pro-fessional level he is a consultant to a number of gov-ernments, working with them to develop their coun-tries’ brand image.

The brand image of countries has traditionally beendiscussed only in terms of the ‘made in’ factor, inother words, how country of origin affects brandchoice. There is a huge volume of literature on thissubject and the main conclusions are that countryof origin is often a significant factor in purchasingdecisions.

We have been interested in the subject in McConnellsfor some time, and in the s when we were work-ing with the IDA in creating the ‘Young Europeans’campaign we found it useful for planning purposesto consider Ireland as a brand. This was fairly revo-lutionary at the time, and even now, when manycountries are actively considering brand campaigns,the word ‘brand’ still causes offence when appliedto countries: ‘The concept of the nation as a brandseems to excite visceral animosity in some people –but it is not the concept itself they detest so muchas the word brand which appears for some peopleto have trifling and superficial implications unwor-thy of the national idea’.

But whatever nomenclature is used, the fact of thematter is that the brand image of a country is tooimportant to dismiss because it can have a signifi-cant effect on a country’s economic prospects: it willaffect capacity to attract overseas investment andtherefore jobs; it can affect the number of peoplewho are prepared to visit the country and thereforetourist revenue; and it can affect the number ofpeople who are prepared to buy goods from thecountry and therefore export revenue. So whetherwe like it or not, or whether we call it brand imageor reputation, it’s a big issue. Anholt writes well onthe subject and he believes that governments shouldtake the initiative and manage their brand image ina more systematic manner.

He discusses a number of countries in this respect,including America, Japan and Scotland. He quiterightly regards America as one of the strongest if notthe strongest brand of all, which has had a very clearidentity over the years and a core proposition builtaround the single-minded concept of freedom. Thishas been built over the years by a range of positiveattributes, a definitive youth lifestyle, sporting

prowess, technological supremacy and above all whatAnholt calls ‘the world’s best advertising agency:Hollywood’, which has been producing one and ahalf-hour commercials for over a century that peopleall over the world actually pay and queue up to view.He does go on to say that the image is probably notas powerful now: ‘we may have passed the peak ofBrand America’s international appeal, the world’s loveaffair with America isn’t exactly over but it is a loveaffair that is no longer blind and unquestioning’. Indealing with the obvious difficulty of managing andin particular attempting to change the image of acountry compared to a commercial brand, he refersto Japan, which did manage to undergo a radicaltransformation in its image in the s and ’sfrom a country primarily associated with cheap, low-quality imitation products to a high-tech innovativesuccessful brand image. Ireland rates only a singlecursory mention but he discusses Scotland in somedetail, and makes the intriguing suggestion that thenineteenth-century writer Sir Walter Scott was themain originator of the Scottish brand image: ‘Scottalmost single-handedly defined the image of modernScotland right down to the tartan, the brand’s cor-porate identity, the kilts, the bagpipes and thedialect’. A similar point has been made about Irelandwith reference to another writer, W.B. Yeats, whoseconscious attempt to re-define the image of Irelandin the late nineteenth and early twentieth century isstill relevant today.

Anholt goes on to discuss the difficult issue of man-aging the image of a country. As we have seen, evenraising the subject of the brand image of a countrycan be very controversial. If this little hurdle can beovercome, the task of defining the existing brandimage is fairly straightforward; after all, if you haveconvinced even the most recalcitrant civil servantthat the country’s brand image could be importantthey will be eager to know what the existing brandimage looks like. Although everything in this areashould be treated with caution, the author mentionsthe story of a well-known UK adman charged withfinding out what the public thought about NewZealand and having to report back that they didn’t!This will of course have changed a little now as NewZealand tries to cash in on its post-Tolkien image.‘Countries today are branded goods to be mer-

Branding and Third World Development: Does Anholt’s Brand New Justice Make Sense?

. Fanning, J. (), ‘W.B.Yeats: Nobel laureate, brand guru’,Irish Academy of Management Annual Conference papers.

chandised around the world – New Zealand has re-launched itself as Tolkien’s Middle Earth and thenational airline’s Boeing s are painted with war-locks.’ Once we know what the current brand imageis there will also be considerable interest in dis-cussing what it could be using the panoply of plan-ning tools now available for this type of work. It’sonly when how the brand image of a country isgoing to be managed comes up that the subjectbecomes really controversial. The valid point is madethat in the commercial world the most successfulbrand managers often have to adopt a fairly heavy-handed approach in order to achieve their brandobjectives. This is obviously not going to work in ademocratic society, so if you are able to persuade thepolitical establishment to take the issue seriouslysome form of official process needs to be put in placeto oversee the implementation of the managementprocess. Anholt suggests that the first rule of brand-ing a country is to be acutely conscious of the limitsof what can and can’t, and should be, achieved.Making changes to a country’s brand image is amuch more difficult task than carrying out a simi-lar exercise in the commercial world: the nation’sbrand is like a supertanker that takes five miles tochange course and eight miles to stop. ‘In manycases all the “manager” of the nation brand can real-istically hope to do is to identify and isolate the pos-itive existing perceptions of the country and calcu-late how to enhance whatever contributes to thesein the country’s external communications whiledownplaying anything that doesn’t.’ Anholt doesn’tshirk the most potentially lethal minefield of all inthis area: the degree of involvement of the widerpopulation. Technically a nation brand is a servicebrand, and it is now widely accepted that the staffof any service company are a critical component inthe delivery of service brand communications and,through their attitudes and behaviour, a critical ele-ment in the formation of an overall brand image.Ideally, therefore, the entire population should befully aware of the development of the nation’s brand

image and of their own role in forming that image:‘when the entire population is galvanised intobecoming the mouthpiece of a country’s values andqualities then you have an advertising mediumwhich is actually equal to the enormous task ofcommunicating something so complex to so many’.Depending on what the recommended or agreedimage is, this suggestion could have some horren-dous consequences, with the entire population ofIreland behaving like out-of-work actors in a nation-wide Bunratty-type theme park.

This book raises a range of issues that go waybeyond the immediate concerns of brand ownersand managers and their marketing communicationadvisers. The core hypothesis that greater emphasison branding could mean greater prosperity for themore underdeveloped countries of the world is valid,but if it is to go any further it will need to be put incontext with the more detailed analysis of ThirdWorld economic problems, and case histories likethe Irish beef industry.

The idea of transferring brand expertise from thedeveloped world to the underdeveloped world isequally valid but would ideally be best achieved bymultinational branded goods companies taking theinitiative in conjunction with local entrepreneurs ordevelopment agencies, or both. The branding ofnations is to some extent a separate issue, althoughthere is some overlap. It is a critical issue for thiscountry. We have benefited from an extraordinarilyfavourable image over many years, which was ini-tially constructed by a determined and talentedgroup of artists and intellectuals at the end of thenineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth cen-tury. Given the dramatic changes that have takenplace in Ireland in the past decade it may now betime to take a fresh look at our image and how itcan best be exploited and managed in the future.This book provides a useful starting point for sucha debate.


AuthorJohn Fanning is chairman of McConnellsAdvertising Service Ltd., Ireland’s largest indigenously-owned advertising agency. He hashad a distinguished career in advertising services

for over years, and has written many articles forjournals and conference forums. He is a pastchairman of The Marketing Institute and TheMarketing Society.

IRISH MARKETING REVIEWVolume 17 Number 1 & 2

CONTENTS

ARTICLES Power and Disciplining: Bringing Foucault to Marketing

Edward Kasabov

The Determinants and Consequences of Consumer Trust in E-Retailing: A Conceptual ModelCaroline Bramall, Klaus Schoefer & Sally McKechnie

Managing Customer Retention in the Health and Fitness Industry: A Case of NeglectTeresa Hurley

Managing Corporate RebrandingAidan Daly & Deirdre Moloney

A Snapshot of Public Opinion on Biotechnology and GM Foods at the Turn of the Twenty-First CenturyElaine O’Connor, Gwilym Williams, Cathal Cowan, John O’Connell & Maurice P. Boland

An Investigation into the Non-Usage of Qualitative Software in the Marketing Research IndustryElena Bezborodova and Billy Bennett

Review EssayBranding and Third World Development: Does Anholt’s Brand New Justice Make Sense?John Fanning

… this study of negative consumption and of consumers, dissatisfied in the context of a service provision,explores issues of control, power and normalisation on the part of organisations towards their consumers.

… presents a testable model describing the relationship between the determinants and consequences of consumer trust in e-retailing.

… findings indicate the need for a change in company culture and strategy, with greater emphasis by seniormanagement on member retention as opposed to new member acquisition.

… presents a case history of Vodafone’s external and internal communications strategy when rebrandingEircell to Vodafone, and proposes a corporate rebranding framework.

… analyses the results of surveys – as well as the survey methodologies – in order to assess the credibility ofthe data on consumer attitudes to biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) foods.

… long and steep learning curves, and the necessity to achieve a high level of qualitative data analysis (QDA)software familiarisation, are among the major barriers for researchers in the commercial sector.

… considers the realism of the central premise of Simon Anholt’s recent book that branding could hold the keyto the economic problems of less developed countries.

Documents

(*0a) Cover 2004 (1&2) - Semantic Scholar · number of lessons concerning marketing research and practice, observation, and counter-observation. New Agendas for Research in Marketing