influences consumption is a prerequisite. Accessing the inner reality and thereby
understanding the wholelife of the consumer is primarily done by means of depth
interviews and life story methods.
Depth interviews and life stories
One of the most widely used methods of accessing the inner realities of respon-
dents is depth interviews. Often, depth interviews are combined with life story
methods, where the respondent’s own statements on life transitions and so on are
recorded and intertwined with other statements in order to deepen the holistic
understanding of the consumer’s life world.
The 1998 publication by Fournier which introduced the phenomenological
tradition to the discipline of brand management, constituting the relational
approach, used depth interviews in combination with life story method. The
phenomenological interview allows for ‘the understanding of the subjective
meanings of consumers’ lived experiences with brands ... establishing consumer
validity of the brand proposition as a whole’ (Fournier 1998, p. 347).
The life-story case study makes it possible to link the statements put forward in
the depth interviews with the stages and themes of the informant’s life story, hence
linking the consumer experiences with the central themes of consumer identity:
Identity is reflected in one’s life narrative, or life story, capturing various roles
including past, present, and anticipated future selves. My life narrative
describes the path of my identity development; it defines who I am, who I
have been, who I am becoming, and/or who I am no longer.
(Kleine et al. 1995, p. 328)The life-story method is not, as such, separable from the depth interview:
‘Phenomenological interviewing can be particularly powerful in chronicling
personal transformation and change’ (Hackley 2003, p. 122). But being aware of
the fact that people structure their understanding of themselves in a narrative
linked with the life story enables the researcher to draw more insightful and
powerful conclusions based on the analysis of the interview.
The depth interview method involves a turning back to experiencing. Going
back to individual and felt experiences supports a reflexive structured analysis that
portrays the essence of an experience. By interpreting the retrospective and
evident explanations of the respondent’s experience with the phenomenon, this
approach may reveal underlying structures and concepts.Uncovering these under-
lying structures opens up a deep understanding of what the experiences really have
meant for the respondent. By understanding the experience at the individual level,
it is possible to draw more general conclusions.
A depth interview takes several hours and can eventually be conducted in
sequence meaning that you return to the same respondent several times in order to
go still deeper into understanding his or her life world. Depth is definitely
preferred to breadth when collecting data in this tradition.
166 Seven brand approaches