75 research outputs found
Exploring brand associations: an innovative methodological approach
Purpose
The objective of this exploratory study is to propose a new methodological approach to investigate brand associations. More specifically, the study aims to show how brand associations can be identified and analysed in an online community of international consumers of fashion in order to determine the degree of matching with company-defined brand associations.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is two-pronged, integrating qualitative market research techniques with quantitative text mining. It was applied to determine types and perceptions of brand associations among fashion bloggers with reference to three leading Italian fashion houses. These were then compared to brand associations found in company-generated texts to measure the degree of matching.
Findings
The results showed consistent brand associations across the three brands, as well as substantial matching with company-defined brand associations. In addition, the analysis revealed the presence of distinctive brand association themes that shed further light on how brand attributes were perceived by blog participants.
Practical implications
The methods described can be used by managers to identify and reinforce favourable brand associations among consumers. This knowledge can then be applied towards developing and implementing effective brand strategies.
Originality/Value
The authors propose an interdisciplinary approach to investigate brand associations in online communities. It incorporates text mining and computer-assisted textual analysis as techniques borrowed from the field of linguistics which have thus far seen little application in marketing studies, but can nonetheless provide important insights for strategic brand management
An interdisciplinary approach to brand association research
Purpose. This paper discusses the current role of qualitative research in the analysis of the relations between brands and consumers in new market spaces, with particular reference to how it can be enhanced with quantitative techniques to study interactions in online communities.
Design/methodology/approach. The paper reviews key scientific contributions in the area of qualitative marketing research. Drawing from this theoretical background, the authors then propose the integration of digital ethnography (a qualitative approach) with quantitative text mining as an innovative approach to gain insights into perceptions of brand associations among online consumers.
Findings. The paper contributes to a greater awareness of both limitations and new perspectives in relation to qualitative market research, while suggesting innovative paths for future research.
Practical implications. The new methodological approach described can be used to better understand brand knowledge based on consumer brand associations. These insights can then be applied towards developing and implementing effective branding strategies.
Originality/Value. The authors propose an interdisciplinary methodology to study consumer behaviour in online communities which incorporates digital ethnography and computer-assisted textual analysis. Particularly the latter technique (borrowed from the field of linguistics) has not yet been exploited extensively in marketing research, but is capable of offering new types of knowledge with important implications for strategic brand management
Brand personality alignment and consumer engagement to define competitive positioning in online fashion communities: An interdisciplinary methodology
New communication challenges for companies that use social media are: 1) the knowledge and control of the degree of alignment between communicated and perceived brand personality in order to measure the effectiveness of competitive positioning, and 2) the measurement of engagement among consumers who share comments about brands in online communities. Our research proposes research tools that can help fashion companies meet these challenges. In particular, we present an innovative methodological approach that combines netnography and text-mining to extract and analyze data from online communities of fashion brands
Time dependence of evanescent quantum waves
The time dependence of quantum evanescent waves generated by a point source
with an infinite or a limited frequency band is analyzed. The evanescent wave
is characterized by a forerunner (transient) related to the precise way the
source is switched on. It is followed by an asymptotic, monochromatic wave
which at long times reveals the oscillation frequency of the source. For a
source with a sharp onset the forerunner is exponentially larger than the
monochromatic solution and a transition from the transient regime to the
asymtotic regime occurs only at asymptotically large times. In this case, the
traversal time for tunneling plays already a role only in the transient regime.
To enhance the monochromatic solution compared to the forerunner we investigate
(a) frequency band limited sources and (b) the short time Fourier analysis (the
spectrogram) corresponding to a detector which is frequency band limited.
Neither of these two methods leads to a precise determination of the traversal
time. However, if they are limited to determine the traversal time only with a
precision of the traversal time itself both methods are successful: In this
case the transient behavior of the evanescent waves is at a time of the order
of the traversal time followed by a monochromatic wave which reveals the
frequency of the source.Comment: 16 text pages and 9 postscript figure
Time scale of forerunners in quantum tunneling
The forerunners preceding the main tunneling signal of the wave created by a
source with a sharp onset or by a quantum shutter, have been generally
associated with over-the-barrier (non-tunneling) components. We demonstrate
that, while this association is true for distances which are larger than the
penetration lenght, for smaller distances the forerunner is dominated by
under-the-barrier components. We find that its characteristic arrival time is
inversely proportional to the difference between the barrier energy and the
incidence energy, a tunneling time scale different from both the phase time and
the B\"uttiker-Landauer (BL) time.Comment: Revtex4, 14 eps figure
Sub-femtosecond determination of transmission delay times for a dielectric mirror (photonic bandgap) as a function of angle of incidence
Using a two-photon interference technique, we measure the delay for
single-photon wavepackets to be transmitted through a multilayer dielectric
mirror, which functions as a ``photonic bandgap'' medium. By varying the angle
of incidence, we are able to confirm the behavior predicted by the group delay
(stationary phase approximation), including a variation of the delay time from
superluminal to subluminal as the band edge is tuned towards to the wavelength
of our photons. The agreement with theory is better than 0.5 femtoseconds (less
than one quarter of an optical period) except at large angles of incidence. The
source of the remaining discrepancy is not yet fully understood.Comment: 5 pages and 5 figure
Tunneling dynamics in relativistic and nonrelativistic wave equations
We obtain the solution of a relativistic wave equation and compare it with
the solution of the Schroedinger equation for a source with a sharp onset and
excitation frequencies below cut-off. A scaling of position and time reduces to
a single case all the (below cut-off) nonrelativistic solutions, but no such
simplification holds for the relativistic equation, so that qualitatively
different ``shallow'' and ``deep'' tunneling regimes may be identified
relativistically. The nonrelativistic forerunner at a position beyond the
penetration length of the asymptotic stationary wave does not tunnel;
nevertheless, it arrives at the traversal (semiclassical or
B\"uttiker-Landauer) time "tau". The corresponding relativistic forerunner is
more complex: it oscillates due to the interference between two saddle point
contributions, and may be characterized by two times for the arrival of the
maxima of lower and upper envelops. There is in addition an earlier
relativistic forerunner, right after the causal front, which does tunnel.
Within the penetration length, tunneling is more robust for the precursors of
the relativistic equation
Unified time analysis of photon and (nonrelativistic) particle Tunnelling, and the Superluminal group-velocity problem
A unified approach to the time analysis of tunnelling of nonrelativistic
particles is presented, in which Time is regarded as a quantum-mechanical
observable, canonically conjugated to Energy. The validity of the Hartman
effect (independence of the Tunnelling Time of the opaque barrier width, with
Superluminal group velocities as a consequence) is verified for ALL the known
expressions of the mean tunnelling time. Moreover, the analogy between particle
and photon tunnelling is suitably exploited. On the basis of such an analogy,
an explanation of some recent microwave and optics experimental results on
tunnelling times is proposed. Attention is devoted to some aspects of the
causality problem for particle and photon tunnelling.Comment: plain (old) LaTeX; 42 pages; plus figures 1, 2, 3, 4a, 4b, and
Multibarrier tunneling
We study the tunneling through an arbitrary number of finite rectangular
opaque barriers and generalize earlier results by showing that the total
tunneling phase time depends neither on the barrier thickness nor on the
inter-barrier separation. We also predict two novel peculiar features of the
system considered, namely the independence of the transit time (for non
resonant tunneling) and the resonant frequency on the number of barriers
crossed, which can be directly tested in photonic experiments. A thorough
analysis of the role played by inter-barrier multiple reflections and a
physical interpretation of the results obtained is reported, showing that
multibarrier tunneling is a highly non-local phenomenon.Comment: RevTex, 7 pages, 1 eps figur
Quantum Tunneling in the Wigner Representation
Time dependence for barrier penetration is considered in the phase space. An
asymptotic phase-space propagator for nonrelativistic scattering on a one -
dimensional barrier is constructed. The propagator has a form universal for
various initial state preparations and local potential barriers. It is
manifestly causal and includes time-lag effects and quantum spreading. Specific
features of quantum dynamics which disappear in the standard semi-classical
approximation are revealed. The propagator may be applied to calculation of the
final momentum and coordinate distributions, for particles transmitted through
or reflected from the potential barrier, as well as for elucidating the
tunneling time problem.Comment: 18 pages, LATEX, no figure
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