Peter Mouncey
No abstract available

Chris Arning
The article discusses semiotics and argues that it is widely misunderstood by researchers, because it lacks a convincing means of assuring quality and guarantees of consistent performance. Industry standards need to be created for semiotics. In the short term this could be done by creating a benchmarking system: a ‘semiotic value index, or SVI for short: ‘Semiotic’ because it a ...

Humphrey Taylor
The market research industry is full of `fads’, ideas that have disappeared because they did not work very well. Somebody should write a history of such fads over the past 30 years. ...

Clive Boddy
This article responds to Humphrey Taylor’s suggestion (89298) that a history of market research fads should be written. The author has reviewed journal titles over the past 24 years and found that there were fewer fads than expected. Main themes have been: improving data collection methods, improving market research in practice, international research. `Faddish’ themes have bee ...

Michael Breazeale
Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication has received a great deal of attention from marketing academics and practitioners alike. Widespread use of the internet for shopping, information gathering and entertainment purposes has changed not only the ways that WOM can be studied and manipulated but also the very nature of the phenomenon. Published research into electronic WOM (eWOM) fir ...

Michael F. Cramphorn and Denny Meyer
One of the goals when add+impact® (a+i)®was founded in 1991 was to develop a database that could be used to add to the general understanding of how people respond to advertising. Recent applications were the Integrative model and a comparison of response tendencies to advertising between men and women. However, a crucial aspect of the advertising process – how to account for th ...

Mike Cooke and Phyllis Macfarlane
GfK NOP is seeking to develop excellence through the use of Web 2.0 tools on its graduate training programme. Our approach has been to build excellence by adopting a new organisational form known as the ‘community of practice’ approach. This approach is emerging in companies that seek excellence as it promises to galvanise knowledge sharing, learning and change. It has led them ...

Elisabeth Brüggen and Pieter Willems
The boom in online marketing research represents one of the fastest-growing segments of the research industry. Although the design and quality of online surveys has received widespread attention, little empirical research compares the effectiveness of online and offline qualitative research techniques. Therefore, this research compares offline focus groups, online focus groups ...

Michael K. Mills
This paper uses the metaphor of jazz music-making to contribute to the growing literature concerning the need for a more holistic approach to research, and to suggest directions for research implementation. It suggests researchers can work towards an ‘effortless mastery’ of their craft, and posits potential new forms of evaluation criteria useful in evaluating research (and res ...

Pingjun Jiang
Using a non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, this paper compares the price of each car model in a segment of the personal car market with the best possible price in view of the technology available given its particular combination of characteristics. In this approach, a car model is defined as price efficient if it offers customers the highest value per doll ...

Ben Goldacre
A book review of Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, (2008), Fourth Estate. ...

Tim Rapley
A book review about Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis by Tim Rapley, (2007), Sage Publications. ...