When hot and noisy is good

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend research on metaphors of consumption to a Chinese cultural setting, specifically examining consumer thoughts related the Chinese concept of renao (hot and noisy).Design/methodology/approach – The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was used – a photo elicitation approach and semi‐structured interviews that surfaced metaphors. Field observation and participative techniques were combined with the 14 interviews, in Taiwan, through a grounded theory approach that classified results in categories using the software XSight.Findings – Five main categories of related concepts consistently arose: food, inexpensive, crowd, marketing communication and servicescape. Respondents closely tied renao with consumption behavior. All five categories resulted in rich descriptions that these consumers, and possibly a wider group, associate with successful retail locations.Research limitations/implications – This in‐depth approach was limited to 14 respondents and two ...

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