Pranjal & Sarkar – Volume 10, Issue 1 (2019)

e-Journal of Social & Behavioural Research in Business

Vol. 10, Iss. 1, June 2019, pp: 78-81.
”http://www.ejsbrb.org”

Book Review

Qualitative Consumer & Marketing Research

Book Review by
Piyush Pranjal
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India

Soumya Sarkar
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India

Book Specifics
Title: Qualitative Consumer & Marketing Research (South Asia Edition)
Authors: Russell Belk, Eileen Fischer and Robert V. Kozinets
Publisher: SAGE: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC
Year of Publication: 2013
ISBN (Hardcopy): 978-0-85702-766-5
ISBN (e-Book):
ISBN (Paperback): 978-0-85702-767-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012939638

Description: This book offers readers a practical guide to planning, conducting, analysing and
presenting qualitative consumer and marketing research using both time-tested and new
methods, skills and technologies. With hands-on exercises that researchers can practice and
apply, the book leads readers step-by-step through developing qualitative researching skills, using
illustrations drawn from the best of recent and classic research.
Intended Audience: The book has been written for students, scholars and marketing research
practitioners. It takes them through the basics to an advanced understanding of the latest
developments in qualitative consumer and marketing research.

Keywords: Qualitative research; consumer behaviour; marketing; depth interviews; ethnography;

data collection and analysis.

JEL Classifications: M31

PsycINFO Classifications: 3410
FoR Codes: 1505
ERA Journal ID #: 40840

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 Pranjal & Sarkar – Volume 10, Issue 1 (2019)

Introduction
The approach to this review draws on the concepts raised by Lee, Green, Johnson and
Nyquist (2010). The review follows the strategy recommended by these authors for crafting book
reviews. The authors are experts in qualitative research strategies and methods and their
applications in marketing, consumer behaviour, consumer culture, entrepreneurship and retailing.
Their individual contributions are summarised in the following brief bibliography.

Russell Belk is Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, Schulich School of Business, York
University. He is past president of the International Association of Marketing and
Development, and is a fellow, past president, and Film Festival co-founder in the
Association for Consumer Research. He also co-initiated the Consumer Behaviour Odyssey
and the Consumer Culture Theory Conference, two key events in qualitative consumer
research. He received the Paul D. Converse Award and the Sheth Foundation/Journal of
Consumer Research Award for Long Term Contribution to Consumer Research.

Eileen Fischer is Professor Marketing and the Max and Anne Tanenbaum Chair in
Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at the Schulich School of Business. She is past chair
of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. Her research interests
span entrepreneurship and consumer behaviour topics, and she is currently an Associate
Editor for both the Journal of Consumer and Journal of Business Venturing.

Robert V. Kozinets is a globally recognized expert on social media, marketing, branding

and innovation. Besides inventing netnography, he has authored and co-authored over 100
pieces of research on the intersection of technology, media, brands, and consumers.
Robert V. Kozinets has developed social media research methods that are widely used in
universities and companies around the world. In 1995, in study of activism and media fan
community, he invented netnography. Since that time, he has been refining the approach
and applying it to gain a deeper understanding of our current social and communication
landscape.

Table of Contents

About the authors

1. Introduction
2. Getting started: how to Begin a Qualitative Research Project
3. Depth interviews
4. Ethnography and observational methods
5. Online observation and netnography
6. Data collection aids
7. Approaches to data analysis, interpretation and theory building for scholarly research
8. Analysis, theory and presentation for managers
9. Presenting, disseminating, and sharing
10. Final thoughts

References
Index

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Summary/Comment
Qualitative consumer and marketing research is finally made accessible and
comprehensible to students, scholars as well as marketing research practitioners by three leading
experts in the field. The book reviewed aims to answer the following questions:
• How is qualitative consumer and marketing research conducted today?
• What is rigorous research in this field?
• What are the new, cutting-edge techniques?

The simplest goal of this book is to help students, scholars and marketing research
practitioners develop skills in doing qualitative research. The exercises included in almost every
chapter of the book provide opportunities to the readers to assess their understanding of the
subject matter and develop the necessary skill sets. The book details qualitative research
traditions, data collection and analyses methods, theory building approaches, and research
presentation and dissemination suggestions and guidelines.

A particular strength of this book is the use of inclusive and easily comprehensible
language. With the exception of the book written by Braun and Clarke (2013), other books on
qualitative research are not suitable for beginners. The book reviewed not only introduces the
concepts, tools and technologies but takes the readers from a basic to an advanced understanding
of qualitative consumer and marketing research, hence, a must addition to a marketing educators’
toolkit. The focus on managerial research is another important contribution of this book as
marketing research practitioners are often neglected as audience of books on research methods.
The chapter on presenting, disseminating and sharing qualitative research is inspiring, to say the
least. It highlights the importance of writing with flair and developing a distinctive voice. The book
is a testament to this effect.

Readability Index Evaluation

In any literature a book’s readability is an important indication to a potential reader. It
provides guidance on the written work’s inclusiveness/exclusiveness in terms of reading level
required to adequately understand the content. Analysis of readability is undertaken on the
introduction section/chapter of the written work. For the purpose of this analysis two methods are
specifically used – the Gunning fog index (Gunning, 1952) and the Coleman-Liau index (1975).

For the purpose of this analysis the following text from the introduction was used:
“One rather obvious but salient characteristic of qualitative research that is distinctive is
that it entails, primarily, the analysis of data that has not been quantified. This is not to say that
qualitative researchers never provide numbers to support some aspect of their analysis; it is
perfectly acceptable to include numbers in a supporting role. However, the core contribution of a
piece of qualitative research lies not in reducing concepts to scaled or to binary variables that can
be compared and contrasted statistically based on the assumption that they provide meaningful
measures of the behaviour they seek to understand. Instead, it builds upon detailed and nuanced
observation and interpretation of phenomena of interest. Doing so requires a commitment to
illustrating concepts richly, whether with words or images or both.”

Gunning fog index: 16.5 (text scale)

Gunning fog scored your text: moderately difficult to read

Coleman-Liau index: 15.4

Grade level: college

The level of readability obtained from Gunning fog and Coleman-Liau indicate that the
book is apt for the intended audience i.e., college students, scholars and marketing research
practitioners. The topic which it covers has gained prominence in the last two decades both, in
academia and practice. There has never been a better time to develop and refine skills in doing
qualitative research. The reviewed book fulfils this objective.

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References

Belk, R., Fischer, E. & Kozinets, R. V. (2012). Qualitative Consumer and Marketing Research. Sage.

Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners.
Sage.
Coleman, M. & Liau, T. L. (1975). A computer readability formula designed for machine scoring,
Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 283–284.
Fleischman, R., Funnell, W. & Walker, S. (2013). Critical Histories of Accounting: Sinister
Inscriptions in the Modern Era, Routledge: Australia.
Gunning, R. (1952). The Technique of Clear Writing. pp. 36–37. McGraw-Hill.
Lee, A., Green, B., Johnson, C. & Nyquist, J. (2010). How to Write a Scholarly Book Review for
Publication in a Peer-Reviewed Journal: A Review of the Literature, Journal of
Chiropractic Education, 24(1), 57-69.

Authors Biographical notes

Piyush Pranjal
Doctoral Scholar
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India
e-mail: piyush.pranjal15fpm@iimranchi.ac.in
Piyush Pranjal is a PhD student of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India
and has a B. Tech. in electronics and telecommunications engineering and MBA in International
Business with major in marketing. His research interests include corporate marketing, brand
management, B2B marketing, and business research methods. He has presented his work in
prestigious conferences such as the 2019 AMA Winter Academic Conference held at Austin, Texas,
USA and COSMAR 18 held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India among others. His
papers are under consideration (various stages) in the Journals Marketing Intelligence & Planning,
IJBEX and IJBEM. He is UGC-NET qualified and has a total industrial experience of approximately 4
years.

Soumya Sarkar
Assistant Professor – Marketing
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India
e-mail: soumya.s@iimranchi.ac.in
Soumya Sarkar is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Ranchi,
India and has a Bachelors degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Post Graduate Diploma in Business
Management, and FPM (equivalent to PhD). His research interests include strategic marketing,
brand management, B2B marketing, and sports and entertainment marketing. He has published his
work in Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Corporate Reputation
Review, etc. In addition to the journal publications, he has also published case studies and book
chapters. He is also the co-author of a book on B2B marketing. He has a total industrial experience
of 14 years and teaching experience of 5 years.

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