Making the Unknown Known: Using I-poems in Qualitative Marketing Research: An Abstract

Abstract

A question that has pre-occupied many qualitative researchers is how we can come to know others who are a part of this social world (Doucet and Mauthner 2008) and thereby make the unknown known. I-poems are a feminist, qualitative method which enables researchers to hear how respondents uniquely make meaning of their social world (Woodcock 2005). A collection of personal pronouns and the verbs/actions that go with them are presented in a format similar to that of a contemporary poem. I-poems have been recognised as an emergent method in social research (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2006) but only a small number of marketers have adopted this method. We introduce this innovative method in a study conducted on the relationship young girls have with money. We reflect on the contribution that the use of I-poems can make in marketing by comparing and contrasting the findings from a thematic analysis with that using I-poems. Six semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with girls aged from 12 to 16 years old. All the interviews were transcribed and analysed independently by the two researchers. This was done firstly using thematic analysis, and secondly using I-poems. Two conclusions clearly emerged from the data. Firstly, the use of I-poems provided more depth and greater nuance to the overall analysis. Secondly, a theme was identified which only came from the analysis using I-poems. We therefore argue for the wider adoption of I-poems by fellow marketing academics because I-poems not only allowed more subtlety to our existing themes, but also uncovered a new theme which did not emerge from the thematic analysis.