Data Collection

As stated in the previous section, we used the BCM method (John et al, 2006) to gather our data. The BCM method consist of three stages of which we mainly focus on two: the elicitation stage and the mapping stage. In this section, we explain in detail how we performed each stage.

4.3.1 Elicitation

The first stage consisted of the elicitation of brand associations. Twenty respondents were chosen through convenience sampling, and were interviewed to elicit associations of one beer brand and one smartphone brand. Ten were interviewed about the beer brand first and ten about the phone brand first in order to mitigate potential disparate effects of respondent fatigue.

41

There exist several techniques developed for the elicitation of brand associations. The main challenge lies in choosing the right combination of them to balance their strengths and weaknesses. In this study we attempted to follow the guidelines provided by Supphellen (2000) in order to avoid the problems of access, verbalization, and censoring.

We began our interviews by explaining the purpose of our research and specifying the estimated time the interview would take. Respondents were assured that all answers would be anonymous and would remain strictly confidential. Furthermore, they were encouraged to take the amount of time they need in order to answer to the best of their ability. They were told that pauses and moments of silence were perfectly natural in that type of interview.

We chose a total of three elicitation techniques: free associations, snowballing, and a list emotions and semantic judgements. They are listed in the order in which they were carried out.

Though Supphellen (2000) recommends to use at least one visual and one object-projective technique, we decided not to do so to avoid respondent fatigue. These techniques are meant to reduce the problem of accessibility and verbalization, but we believe that our emphasis on snowballing and the additional lists of emotions and judgements were enough to elicit the most important associations. Overall, we believe the techniques we have chosen provided a good balance that enabled us to elicit an encompassing brand image.

To see the interview guide for the elicitation stage, please view Appendix 1.1.

4.3.1.1 Free Associations Techniques and Snowballing

With the Free Associations technique, we used the brand name as a cue in order to elicit the respondent’s primary associations. This is a standard technique known to reveal the most conscious and verbal associations to the brand in the consumer’s memory. Respondents were asked questions such as “What things come to your mind when you think of brand?” All associations that first came to their mind were listed.

A snowballing technique was used to compliment this free association technique. After all primary associations were listed, respondents were asked about what associations they connected to those primary associations in a similar fashion. The results were considered to be

42

secondary associations for the brand. After respondents were done with this second part, respondents were reminded of primary associations they had mentioned and then asked if they had any other associations to add. If they did, the process was repeated to elicit the secondary associations.

4.3.1.2 Scale of Emotions

To better capture the emotions that consumers attached to the brand directly and systematically, we used two established scales of emotions and judgements. We enhanced these scales created by Burke and Edell (1987) by adding some extra possible emotions and judgements based on the main personality traits as described by Aaker (1997). Respondents were asked to read through a pre-defined lists of emotions (Burke and Edell, 1987) and to pick the relevant words that best described their emotional reactions to the brand. We did not use a scale, thus reducing the amount of work for the respondents and simplifying our analysis, as we do not need to measure the strength of these associations. A scale would have been more suitable for research wanting to explore graded differentiation of associations.

The use of this technique spared the respondents from the demanding workload of finding the proper words for less verbal emotions and associations. It also helped elicit more unconscious and hidden associations. To see the two lists

used please view Appendix 1.1.1 and Appendix 1.1.2.

4.3.2 Mapping

After the elicitation stage came the mapping stage. On this second stage a new set of respondents was asked to form an individual brand map for one of their preferred brands and one of their acceptable brands. Respondents connected core brand associations to the brand and to one another to reveal the nature of their network.

Before respondents participated in the mapping process, we performed a frequency count of all mentioned association during the elicitation stage. Thirty or thirty-one of the most relevant brand associations were chosen for each brand, according to their frequency and

43

meaningfulness, from the associations elicited at the previous stage. Each chosen association was written on a small card. All the cards chosen for each brand were shown to the respondents for mapping.

Respondents were instructed to construct their own brand maps in four steps. First, they were asked to pick the core brand associations by thinking about what first came to their minds when reminded of the brand. They were required to pick the core associations from the cards shown to them on the board, and they were also encouraged to add additional associations by writing them down on blank cards.

Second, the nature of associative networks was explained to them. An example of Volkswagen Beetle (adapted from John et al., 2006) was used to facilitate respondents’ understanding of how to build brand concept maps. The brand map of Volkswagen Beetle was (see Figure 6) to illustrate how different levels of associations on the map were distinguished and why different types of lines were used to connect associations.

FIGURE 6: Example of BCM