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It is important to remain creative when conducting segmentation research, as many different ways to segment a market can exist. Five main bases are discussed: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behaviouristic and image. This is followed by an overview of the main techniques used to establish and verify segments, including automatic interaction detector, conjoint analysis, multidimensional scaling and canonical analysis.

Given the resources being spent on corporate identity development, it is disappointing that the mainstream marketing texts and journals afford it little space. Development of an understanding of corporate identity and image is sought. Corporate identity is projected by organisations and services to shape the image held of the organisation by its publics. In the absence of tangibility, as is the case in service marketing, corporate image has a powerful role. For these reasons, financial services marketers need to treat corporate identity as a strategic marketing issue. How this may be done is theorised and a case study of Allied Irish Bank plc is used as an illustration of corporate identity development in practice. Given the company‐specific and industrywide changes that have occurred in financial services, the corporate identity issues raised will apply to many businesses within that industry.

In the light of the developing nature of the personal investment and financing domain any guide to the literature is inevitably going to be subjective: one individual might prefer a rational, analytical emphasis (reflecting, perhaps, an economic orientation), whilst another might favour an empirical orientation (reflecting real‐world patterns of human behaviour that may have significance for commercial exploitation). This guide contains elements of both these approaches, plus others, and draws on the available literature in a selective but multi‐disciplinary manner.

Banking in Britain has suffered a crisis of identity in recent years. The British public’s favourable attitude towards the British clearing banks has declined along with a perception that standards of service have fallen and that building societies offer better standards of service. Argues that marketing and image research studies should be given the same attention as the monthly financial figures, should be treated with the same respect and should feed into strategic decision making. Suggests that financial institutions need to focus on five areas of activity, namely: strategic direction; legal threats to survival; capital management; succession; and protection and promotion of the corporate reputation. Outlines the benefits accruing from image and gives guidelines as to why and how a bank’s corporate image should be managed.

This paper seeks to bridge a perceived gap in the literature on the methodology of qualitative research. The audience in mind is business and management students who are required to carry out field research as a part of their masters or doctoral degrees. After submitting a research proposal or candidacy, which sets out the research strategy in broad terms, students are characteristically faced with field work involving the collection of data from participants or respondents. Whatever thought and planning has been given to interviewing and questionnaires in theory, it is a necessity in qualitative research to adapt to the situation on the ground which is unique for every research.

Upward appraisal involves staff having a formal input into their manager’s or supervisor’s performance appraisal. Reviews the rationale for the adoption of upward appraisal systems for manager’s, and identifies a number of key factors likely to contribute towards the more widespread use of upward appraisal. Describes upward appraisal systems in practice, reviewing what they are used for, who is appraised, what is appraised, and how the appraisals are conducted. Then discusses the effectiveness of upward appraisal, paying particular attention to its acceptability to managers, subordinates and trade unions. Finally, considers whether the transplant of what is largely an American practice can be more widely achieved in the UK and proposes some areas for future research.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Marketing Intelligence & Planning is split into nine sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Business Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Customer Service; Sales Management; Promotion; Marketing Research/Customer Behaviour; Product Management; Logistics and Distribution; Sundry.

To explore the moral position of Baumol’s theory of productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship; Ross’s (1907) concept of the ‘criminaloid’ and Sutherland’s (1949a, 1949b) theories of white-collar crime, as applied to ‘popular illegalities’ (Lea, 2003) and the activities of entrepreneurs who operate primarily as small/medium enterprise (SME); artisans; and tradespeople as they interact with an emerging affluent working class.

Provides a framework of key texts that explore the concepts of morality, legality and ethics when applied to the theoretically unexplored concept of criminal entrepreneurism, as a function of working class survival and capital accumulation. Research for this chapter included the analysis of government reports into the illicit activities of ‘professional’ and ‘non-professional’ bodies; personal observation of street corner shops.

Provides a critical analysis of theories that advocate rule avoidance and evasion as an acceptable process of developing successful entrepreneurs and the controversial theories of white-collar crime that focus on ‘high status’ actors operating at the corporate level. It identifies a necessary relationship and complicity between clients (victims) and practitioners as key elements in the commission of deviant acts, as victims expand their social, economic and cultural capital.

By combining philosophies of entrepreneurism, theories of white, blue and collarless crime and a reconsideration of moral business principles, this chapter introduces a new construct of deviancy as a ‘positive’ outcome that reject the need for criminal justice agencies intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarity of the reputation of political leaders with those of their parties and to assess the claim of causal links.

A multidimensional measure of brand personality is used to measure the reputation among voters of the three main parties and their leaders in two surveys each prior to British General Elections in 2001 and 2005.

The reputations of leader and party are highly correlated, but statistically distinct in both studies. The leader's reputation appears to influence that of the party more than vice versa. However, the decline in Tony Blair's reputation between 2001 and 2005 appears to have influenced more those loyal to other parties.

Further work would be useful to compare the relative value of cognitive and affective measures of reputation, particularly in predicting voting behaviour.

The findings emphasise the role of the leader's reputation in managing that of a political party. A change of leader will, inevitably, produce a change in party reputation. The two reputations interact and monitoring such effects will require similar ways of measuring both.

Links between the reputations of organisations and their leaders have been claimed but never demonstrated empirically.