Expert interview

69 Recruiting the respondents:

The potential bias inherent in recruiting respondents from amongst the authors own social network was considered. The concern was that such respondents would tend to not make their true opinions known, as they might simply be trying to answer what they thought the interviewer would be looking for. To avoid such bias, it was initially attempted to recruit respondents through an online watch community (Urforum.dk). This however   proved   not   to   be   feasible.   As   the   author’s   social   network thus had to be used, respondents with limited knowledge of the purpose of the interview was chosen and clearly asked to voice their true opinion.

Furthermore the homogeneity of the respondents was considered. The fear was that respondents of similar age and at a similar life stage (just starting their professional career after university) would tend to have very similar opinions and thus not provide a truthful picture. However, as it was recognized most of the respondents it would be possible for the authors to recruit would also be of a similar age and at a similar life stage, this was not believed to cause a direct problem. It would however possibly cause a generalizability problem (for further see section 6.1).

Conducting the interview:

When conducting a focus group interview there is always the chance that one or two of the respondents may come to dominate the group causing others not to voice their true opinions. To avoid this and to encourage the respondents to contribute freely it was, in the start of the interview, made clear that everyone should feel free to voice their opinions and give room for others to voice theirs. Further it was attempted to control the speaking time of the more active respondents and to involve the quieter respondents by asking them direct questions, so as to involve all participants and avoid ‘Groupthink’⁴.

70 to gain insights into how corporations (1) view celebrity endorsement, (2) pick celebrity endorsers and (3) what they generally deem to be of importance for celebrity endorsement to be effect full.

The  corporate  representative  was  recruited  from  the  authors’  social  network;;  as  the  respondent  was   at that time working for the same corporation as one of the authors (Scandinavian Tobacco Group). The respondent had, through previous employment with Ferroro Roucher⁵ and Velora Trade⁶, had direct experience in selecting and working with celebrity endorsers. At Velora Trade he was thus in charge of attracting new attention to their old mint brand TicTac⁷, which they did by leveraging the endorsement from (now former) soccer player Jon Dahl Tomasson. At Ferrero Roucher  he  was  further  involved  in  introducing  ‘Mentos  stuffed’  chewing  gum  and  ‘Mentos  Sugar   Free’   chewing   gum   by  utilizing endorsements from Jon Dahl Tomasson and Danish handball player Josephine Touray. See appendix C1 for an example of an ad where Jon Dahl Tomasson endorse  ‘Mentos  Stuffed’,  which  was  utilized  at  Point  Of  Sales  (in-store).

Prior to the interview questions and topics that needed to be touched upon, was identified to act as a general framework of themes that should be explored in the interview. These were then grouped together in an order that seemed natural and an interview guide prepared (see appendix C2).

Findings from the focus group interview were utilized as a basis for formulating the topical questions. The interview was kept semi-structured as the purpose was to touch upon a few central topics, while giving the respondent freedom to explore the topics and bring forth some of his expert knowledge and experience of the topic. The questions were asked as open and non-leading as possible so as to avoid influencing the respondent. Following the opening questions, follow up questions were asked to dig deeper into the answers of the respondent. At the end of the interview the respondent was asked to rate how important he thought certain concepts, relating to celebrity endorsement, were for celebrity endorsement to be effect full. The interview was recorded by microphone and later transcribed. For the transcription see appendix C3.

5 An Italian Manufacturer of chocolate and other confectionary products. They have brands such as Ferrero Roucher chocolate, Kinder Surprise and TicTacs (Ferrero)

6 Valora Trade is a Swiss retail holding company that provides distribution and marketing solutions to the FMCG industry (Valora trade nordic).

7 TicTac is a brand of small, hard candy mints that comes in a variety of flavors (Tictacusa.com)

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3.1.2.1 Considerations

In developing the interview guide, recruiting the respondents and conducting the in-depth interview several noteworthy considerations were made and dealt with accordingly in order to heighten the credibility of the interview.

Developing the interview guide:

The interview guide deliberately only included questions relating to overall topics, as well as follow up questions. The point of this would be to allow the respondent the freedom to contribute with his unique experience of the subject. This as it was recognized the interviewer would have less (practical) experience with the subject, than the respondent, wherefore the interviewer may not know what exact questions would be of relevance. So to benefit from the experience of the expert mainly topical and follow up questions were asked. The risk of this was of course that the interview may go towards a direction that would not be in the interest of the interviewer. Therefore it was necessary for the interviewer to continually be aware of the direction the interview was taking  and  to  ask  follow  up  questions  that  would  “lead  them  back  on  track”.

Recruiting of respondents:

It was originally attempted to find a corporate representative that had experience with celebrity endorsement stemming from Rolex, or who had previously worked for Rolex. This however proved not to be possible. As the best alternative a respondent with experience from a transformational product category was recruited (confectionary). It should however be considered that  the  respondent’s  experience  stems  from  a  transformational  category  that  is  characterized  by  a   low degree of consumer involvement, whereas luxury watch consumers tend to be highly involved with the purchase (see section1.1.1 for further). It should thus be scrutinized to what extent it will be appropriate to relate the experiences and opinions of the respondent to the luxury watch category.

Conducting the interview:

To allow the respondent to contribute freely only topical questions were prepared, which were then followed up by relevant enquiring questions. This specifically as it was recognized that the

72 expert had much more (practical) experience with the topic, wherefore a somewhat unstructured approach would be necessary, to allow the respondent to contribute with his knowledge and experience. Thus the interview was not controlled rigidly by the interviewer, but instead the respondent was given great opportunity to talk and comment as he preferred. This of course constituted a challenge for the interviewer, as much control of the interview was given to the respondent. It was thus necessary that the interviewer only directed the interview by asking follow up questions and referred to the topics that had been predefined as the ones that needed to be touched upon, as well as asking relevant enquiring questions. The interviewer thus needed to direct the respondent without imitating him, which was made difficult by the fact that the interviewer did not have the same experience as the respondent. It should thus be expected that the interview could have gone very differently depending on the interviewer and what things of what the respondent said he chose to follow up on.