respondent. Still, different interpretations add up to a more varied interpretation
of the text.
Other methods
Other methods are used to collect knowledge of the production and circulation of
cultural meaning. Cultural brand research displays a vide variety of data
collection. Ethnographic, phenomenological interviews and case methods are the
most important ones.
- Ethnographic studies are suitable for understanding the consumer in a cultural
setting. In general, the ethnographic research tradition is aimed at under-
standing man in his cultural setting and is, as such, important if one is
collecting data on the cultural aspects of consumption. Conducting an ethno-
graphic field study requires a high degree of immersion and no delimitations
when it comes to data sources. Here, the researcher is supposed to participate
in consumption practices and not delimit himself from any kind of data
source. Please refer to the methods section of chapter 9 for a more full
description of the ethnographic research tradition. - Phenomenological interviews are also viable methods in the cultural
approach. The approach is very much concerned with understanding the
collective identity projects of consumers. Phenomenological interviews are
excellent for the inquiry into individual identity projects, and through a
macro-level analysis and interpretation the data from the individual inter-
views can be applied to a cultural setting, shedding light on the collective
identity projects of consumers. Please refer to the methods section of
chapter 8 for guidelines on how to master the technique of the long,
unstructured interview. - The ‘extended case method’ is a discovery-oriented method of anthropo-
logical descent where a relatively small sample of informants is studied
closely through loosely structured, long interviews and observations in their
homes and environments. The cultural approach is focused on understanding
the most important cultural contradictions of the time. Investigating relevant
consumer groups by means of this method might provide great insight into
these contradictions. This is the research method behind the citizen-artist
brand prospect.
The interpretation of the collected data is very important, because the focus of
analysis is unique to the cultural approach. A ‘bottom-up’ interpretation of data is
applied; the informants are not expected to express idiosyncratic meanings, but
rather to be acting as mouthpieces of the surrounding culture: ‘To study how
consumer culture operates, I examine the phenomena that it structures, people’s
everyday consumption practices. In methodological terms, I will use microlevel
data – people’s stories about their consumption – to investigate macrolevel
constructs’ (Holt 2002, p. 73).
226 Seven brand approaches