Data collection process

The inability to satisfy all the research objectives after the completion of the literature review meant, data must be collected namely to investigate and evaluate the tactics currently being used by industry, and to explore people’s attitudes and behaviours towards anthropomorphic mascots. The data was collected in five stages beginning in May 2010. These are summarised below.

May – Dec 2010

The incubation period started with a thorough exploration of the literature in the fields of marketing and branding. A few months of absorption and reflection were needed to make sense of the vast literature examined Incubation

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during that period. With an increased knowledge base, deciding on the theme of my PhD was exceedingly difficult. I am loathed to admit it but I changed the theme at least five times. After delving deeper into literature, I identified numerous gaps in our understanding. And so the direction of my PhD was decided – the use of anthropomorphism in branding. After long deliberations, I settled on ‘the appeal of advertising characters, spokescreatures and animal mascots’ as my thesis theme. I applied for ethical approval, which was granted shortly after (See Section 5.5.5).

Jan – Aug 2011

With the thesis theme in mind, I started exploring industry’s rich array of advertising characters, mascots and spokes people. I was generating ideas, making linkages to theory and readings, reflecting on the insights gleaned and initially theorising.

During this time period, I attended a symposium which introduced me to Grounded Theory, a method I was unaware of previously. Valuably, its forefather Barney Glaser was in attendance. Attending this symposium was highly constructive as it allowed me to introduce and discuss my topic with colleagues. I was awarded best paper for my entry “The Effects of Anthropomorphism on Consumer Perceptions of Brands and their Products”. Additionally, I participated in the Academy of Marketing’s Doctoral Colloquium (in which I was awarded the runner up prize for best paper) and attended their three day conference, Marketing Fields Forever. Exploratory

Research

Sep – Dec 2011

Following the decision made during the incubation period, with regards to advertising characters, spokes-creatures and animal mascots, and in parallel with the development of a brand anthropomorphism typology during my initial theorising, the next logical step was to investigate three exemplars. In order to ensure consistency, the same methods were employed for the same types of data. Nevertheless, the weightings of these methods were not exactly the same because the sources of data available Case Study

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for each case study were different by nature (See Table 5.3). To illustrate, Aleksandr Orlov’s autobiography provides great literary insights into his character and family history, the kind of insights not available for M&M’s or Mr Peanut, or at least, not with the ease of purchasing a single book off the shelf. Insights into their character came from countless hours of detailed investigation and desk research into their past. After all, Mr Peanut is 97 years old, and the M&M’s have been around since the 1960s.

Jan – June 2012

The first part of the data collection phase started with Netnography (See Section 5.5.2), whereby long periods of time were spent observing the recent online activities of the case study characters and their followers on Facebook. Despite the availability of data for Aleksandr Orlov on Twitter and LinkedIn, these platforms were not used because primarily, they were not available for the M&M’s and Mr Peanut. Secondly, Aleksandr’s status updates were identical on all three platforms. Thirdly, Facebook provided records from 2009, which meant I had more than enough longitudinal data for all three case studies. Carrying out a netnography on other websites would have made this project unmanageable. After long periods of observation, I began analysing consumer attitudes and behaviours towards the anthropomorphised mascots, and theorising accordingly. A grounded hermeneutic approach was utilised (See Section 5.6.1).

During this time period, I also made numerous trips to the M&M’s World store in London, whereby observation and photographic recordings took place and short conversations with customers and staffs was initiated.

Furthermore, preliminary analysis of Aleksandr Orlov’s auto-biography, A Simples Life, commenced.

Data Collection

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Table ‎5.3 Sources of data available and methodology used for each case study

Case Study

Sources of Data Available Research Methods

Aleksandr Orlov

Literature: Autobiography, 6 Story Books, 3 interviews with Aleksandr

Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin Adverts: 63 Videos

Images: 95 official pictures, over 5000 consumer generated pictures

Website: 3 websites

Industry: Access to Richard Connell and Clement Woodward

Secondary Data: Numerous articles

Netnography, observation and participation

Online interviews with Facebook followers

In-depth interview with industry personnel

Narrative analysis Visual analysis

The M&Ms

Social Networks: Facebook (3 accounts: M&M’s U.S.A., M&M’s U.K., M&M’s Australia) Adverts: 638 Videos

Images: 412 official pictures, over 10,000 consumer generated pictures, 120 Photographs Website: 2 websites

Industry: Access to FTRC representative

(Sponsored by M&M’s), M&M’s World London

Netnography, observation and participation

Photographic recording

Online interviews with Facebook followers

In-depth interviews with M&M’s World customers and staff Short interview with FTRC representative

Visual analysis

Mr Peanut Literature: 3 Colouring Books, 4 Story Books, 5 Guide Books

Social Networks: Facebook Adverts: 12 Videos

Images: 198 official pictures, over 700 consumer generated pictures

Secondary Data: Numerous articles

Netnography, observation and participation

Online interviews with Facebook followers

Visual analysis

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2012 After the initial stage of data collection, it was clear that interviews of industry personnel, as well as online followers, needed to be carried out in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. Contacting industry personnel proved to be extremely difficult for all three case studies. Attempts to initiate contact via telephone and e- mail were fruitless producing responses such as the following:

Hi Yusra,

Many thanks for your enquiry and your interest. As I am sure you can appreciate we receive a great number of requests for information and we are unfortunately unable to assist with them all.

We wish you the best of luck with your search. Kind regards

With no success, I was beginning to lose confidence in the possibility of obtaining industry’s perspective on the development of mascots. With my dwindled hope, I attended the three day Academy of Marketing conference in Southampton, Marketing: catching the technology wave, where I was astonished to discover Nicola Mendelsohn was a Keynote speaker. “Chance has always played a significant role in science” (Muller & Becker, 2012) Nicola is an Executive Chairman and Partner at Karmarama. Having done my homework, I was aware of the fact the creatives behind Aleksandr Orlov had recently moved from VCCP to work for Karmarama. A case of serendipity, Nicola was my gatekeeper. In what is often referred to as snow-balling (Denscombe, 2007), she connected me with Richard Connell and Clement Woodward who helped me achieve my aim of obtaining industry’s perspective on the development of marketing mascots. Additionally, as a frequent cinema goer, I was aware of the sponsorship deal between M&M’s and From The Red Carpet (FTRC), a 60-second movie show screened in cinemas across the UK which brings the latest from behind-the-scenes. I contacted them with the aspiration of being able to reach M&M’s. Although that was unsuccessful, FTRC were very helpful Data

Collection 2

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and were willing to provide me with a short interview; An opportunity I snatched with both hands. Sadly, I was unable to obtain any industry perspective for Mr Peanut.

On the other hand, conducting online interviews with consumers was fairly straightforward. Unerringly, 150 members were randomly selected to take part – 50 individuals for each case study. The only selection criterion I employed was that these members had to be active. I.e. had recently left comments on their mascot’s wall. The lucky individuals chosen received the following message in their Facebook inbox:

Hello _________ (Name of individual),

I am currently doing research with the University of Liverpool, and wondering if you would be willing to answer a few questions about __________ (Aleksandr Orlov/ the M&M’s/ Mr. Peanut).

Thank you very much for your time. Best Regards,

Yusra

Out of the 150 members contacted, sixteen replied and were happy to take part in the research. The male to female ratio across the interviews was generally comparable with a nearly equal distribution across the three case studies. Due to the nature of the interviews, conversations have lasted approximately three months. Please refer to Section 5.4.3 for more detail on the interview process.

In October, I was thrilled to hear Aleksandr was releasing six new adventure stories in the form of a box-set. I knew what I wanted for my birthday, and was delighted when my family made my wish came true. And so, preliminary analysis of Meerkat Tales commenced.

The data collection process described above was influenced by a number of factors. Firstly, producing a ‘thick description’ (Arnould & Wallendorf, 1994) of the anthropomorphised characters alone was not enough. Thick descriptions are restricted to varying levels of depth

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and detail and often focus on surface details only, thus to achieve deep understanding, the use of multiple research methods across multiple time periods was required. This is frequently referred to as triangulation (Denzin, 1978). As demonstrated in Table 5.3, each case study had different types of data available for it – Aleksandr with his autobiography and a set of children’s books, and the M&M’s with their dedicated stores around the world, had meant the utilisation of slightly different methods was necessary. Therefore, numerous qualitative data collection methods were used to obtain the information required for each case study. In favour of personal convenience, it was best to collect this information, for all three case studies, at the same time. This was to ensure I was always up to date with the latest mascot antics and people’s attitudes towards them. Secondly, the difficulties I was faced with while trying to gain contact to individuals from industry has meant in-depth interviews were carried out at a much later stage than initially envisioned, and the information obtained was limited to two case studies only. My inability to obtain industry perspective on the creation of Mr Peanut has thus led me to rely heavily on secondary data. Thirdly, I am greatly fortunate to have access to longitudinal data from 2009 for all three case studies. It has allowed me, in the short time of data collection, to accurately and reliably investigate the phenomenon of anthropomorphised mascot in excruciating detail.