The purpose of this blog post is to share my supporting academic research on my chosen media niche. In addition to this, I will be outlining the ethical boundaries that surround my autoethnographic research.
Background research
This source successfully explains several ways in which Tommy Hilfiger uses marketing to target customers. Tommy Hilfiger company practises a very aggressive marketing strategy which uses various platforms to meet the target consumers which brand awareness is extremely high. It uses advertisements for advertising in newspapers, billboards, magazine ads, etc., and has celebrities as brand ambassadors such as Gigi Hadid (Bhasin, 2019).
This article Successfully explains several explanations why Tommy Hilfiger has gained attention in recent years. Tommy Hilfiger’s apparels have gained intense success over time in the retail industry according to consumer needs. The designs are extremely fashionable, and the brand continues to be popular worldwide. Tommy Hilfiger is the founder of America’s classical style. Tommy Hilfiger is recognised as the most powerful lifestyle brand which offers its worldwide customer youthful designs (HIstory & Marketing Strategies of Tommy Hilfiger Brand, n.d.).
Ethics
However, in my research I intend to conduct visual research, with the interest in and use of visual methods within qualitative research is partly the product of concerns about power relations between researcher and participant; and the methods themselves have also generated unique ethical problems. With technological advancements, it has made it much cheaper and easier than ever before to produce, view, and disseminate visual images (for example, the built-in cameras on mobile phones) (Packard, 2008; Tarr, 2015).
Furthermore, while qualitative researchers pursue the same ethical evaluation regulatory protocols as all researchers, they are situated in a territory where human relationships and critical self-reflection are prominently emerging. This positioning results in the emergence of ethical dilemmas in the conduct of research with consequences for the use of research which go beyond legal requirements or other professional standards for ethically responsible research.
For a long time, qualitative researchers have been aware of the difficulties involved in portraying multiple socially constructed versions of truth and concerns whose voices are present in the results and who have the power to interpret the data (Mertens, Donna 2014). Recommended strategies to overcome these challenges include the use of participant controls and triangulation to ensure data consistency and to recognise convergence and divergence in perspectives. Moreover, Confidentiality problems can occur while the data is being used. Suppose the explanation of the researcher is so vivid and detailed that people who know the individual understand who is being spoken/written about (Mertens, Donna, 2014).
The participant is actively involved in the development process and the analysis of the visual image as data in this study. Visual analysis techniques, it is argued, introduce a new layer of complexity to ethical concerns in qualitative analysis and pose ethical problems previously unexamined, since visual images vary from other types of data: ‘Ethics is more of a problem in social research since of the power of the picture, the power of the photos and the ambiguities, ambivalence and resulting questions of responsibility’ (Papademas, 2004: 123).
Ethical ethnographic research is so much more than making “sign a document” participants. It’s not just a stodgy tradition of academia. Ethical behaviour is a way of operating yourself. (Ladner,2014) states it as a belief system, also a community developed over a century of practice.
As highlighted there are numerous ethical guidelines that I will have to adhere to with my ethnographic research. Therefore below are some in which I will have to follow.
- I will not name or show any usernames on the brand’s Social media page. This includes any customers that purchase from the store. This will ensure that everyone’s privacy is considered.
- If an interview takes place, the participant must consent to be recorded and must be notified of the direction and nature of the research.
- All sources will be correctly referenced.
- I will remain honest and truthful in my research.
- I will be sensitive to any potentially triggering topics.
References
- Harley, Anne and Langdon, Jonathan (2018) Ethics and Power in Visual Research Methods. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Ethics, edited by Ron Iphofen and Martin Tolich, Sage: London. 188 – 202.File
- Hurworth, R. (2003). ‘Photo-interviewing for research’, Social Research Update, 40: 1–7.
- Ladner Sam (2014) Ethical Ethnography. Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector, Left Coast Press: CA.
- Mertens, Donna (2014) Ethical Use of Qualitative Data and Findings, The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis (Edited by Use Flick), Sage: Los Angeles, 510 – 523.File
- Packard, J. (2008). ‘“I’m gonna show you what it’s really like out here”: The power and limitation of participatory visu
- Papademas, D. and The International Visual Sociol-ogy Association (IVSA). (2009). ‘IVSA Code of Research Ethics and Guidelines’, Visual Studies, 24(3): 250–257.
- Tarr, J. (2015). Ethics and visual research. Retrieved 11 February, 2016 from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/thinking- methods/2015/07/01/ethics-and-visual-research
- Creative Blog on Indian brands, Marketing and Advertising. n.d. History & Marketing Strategies Of Tommy Hilfiger Brand. [online] Available at: <https://brandyuva.in/2019/07/marketing-strategies-of-tommy-hilfiger.html> [Accessed 30 August 2020].
- Bhasin, H., 2019. Marketing Strategy Of Tommy Hilfiger – Tommy Hilfiger Marketing Strategy. [online] Marketing91. Available at: <https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-tommy-hilfiger/> [Accessed 30 August 2020].
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