Making entrepreneurial marketing visible: visual storytelling at the London Borough of Hackney street markets

The London Borough of Hackney (LBH) houses six markets and various street trading sites. Its street trading office (STO) manages the former, including the popular Broadway Market, and exerts statutory controls over the latter. The markets supply local communities and tourists with goods ranging from antiques, fruit and vegetables to street food. Traders engage in multisensory entrepreneurial marketing practices to attract and retain customers. However, these practices remain largely unexplored in marketing and retailing research.

To fill this gap, this project will visualise the traders’ marketing practices to showcase and appreciate their lived experiences in street trading. It aims to create a knowledge base of entrepreneurial marketing practices to boost collective efforts to improve street trading and implement the LBH’s ambitious strategic market plan. In particular, first, the project will draw on researcher-generated photos to highlight the traders’ marketing practices and make them explicit.

Access to traders will be facilitated by the LBH STO which may adopt a gatekeeper position between the student, their supervisor, and the local community of traders. The researcher (i.e., the student) will approach traders and take photos of their operations over several days. Second, they will conduct interviews (max. three questions, at the participating traders’ stalls) with selected traders to elicit stories about the practices shown in a limited set of photos. The outcomes of both approaches will then be combined and re-contextualised. For that purpose, a local exhibition showcasing the researcher-generated photos in combination with quotes from the interviews with the traders will be organised in the LBH. A digital photo exhibition will also be presented on selected LBH social media channels. These exhibitions aim to stimulate an ongoing conversation about the future of Hackney’s markets among those affecting and being affected by local street trading.

To make the local street traders’ entrepreneurial marketing practices visible, the student will engage in visual storytelling – a qualitative research method combining photo generation and photo elicitation. In this project, both steps will be researcher- (i.e., student-) led. In so doing, the student will contribute to the following goals:

• Showcasing and appreciating local traders’ lived experiences in the LBH’s street markets
• Creating a knowledge base of entrepreneurial marketing practices that the LBH street trading office can use to train new traders

The student will also be involved in the planning and organisation of a local exhibition of the photos and selected interview quotes. Moreover, they will support a digital photo exhibition on the LBH’s social media channels. Both initiatives require close collaboration with the supervisor (and their co-researchers) and the LBH’s STO. The student’s work will contribute to the following goals:

• Strengthening the University’s embeddedness in London’s economic, social and cultural life and making academic research meaningful to local communities
• Increasing awareness of the social and economic impact of street markets in the LBH’s local communities and among wider audiences
• Contributing to the national discourse about the future of retailing in the UK and the role of street markets in urban economic, social and cultural life

Finally, the student will support the supervisor (and their co-researchers) to produce a report that will be shared with the LBH’s STO and contribute to the development of a marketing toolkit for street traders.

The student would report to Dr Anna Dubiel (King’s Business School). They would also liaise with the managers of the LBH’s STO. Additional support would be available from Dr Dubiel’s external co-researcher Dr Carolin Decker-Lange (Brunel University of London, Brunel Business School).

First, the student will have the unique opportunity to be involved in the supervisor’s ongoing research on local street markets in London, including collaboration with other researchers at King’s College London and other London-based universities and non-academic partner organisations, most notably, the LBH.

Second, guided by their supervisor and supported by the LBH’s STO, the student will learn how to apply visual storytelling, a rarely used qualitative methodology in marketing research. Most notably, they will be involved in data collection (photos and interviews), visual and textual data analysis (thematic content analysis), writing up the findings, and knowledge dissemination (physical and digital exhibition). These activities will foster essential employability skills, such as critical thinking, working collaboratively, and oral and written communication.

Third, the student will engage in research with impact. Their activities may contribute to an impact case study submitted by the supervisor for the REF2029. Impact entails but is not limited to the establishment of new relationships between King’s College London with local community groups and leaders, the development of a new toolkit for visual marketing research (including the participation of rarely studied groups), and helping the LBH’s STO to implement its ambitious strategic market plan. The findings may also contribute to the development of an external funding bid in the future.

The student should have basic expertise in research methodology and have some experience with qualitative methods for data collection (most notably, interviews and observation) and data analysis (e.g., thematic content analysis). The student should have an interest in photography.

The student will have a major role in the planned local and digital exhibitions, where their work will be highlighted in the artefacts. They will also contribute to the final report. If they wish, they can use social media (e.g., Instagram, LinkedIn) to document their work and create awareness for urban street trading.

The proposed internship would be a component of the supervisor’s ongoing research on urban street markets, most notably, the authenticity of street markets and innovative marketing practices. The research is relevant to marketing practice, especially in the non-store brick-and-mortar retailing industry, small business management, and entrepreneurship. The supervisor’s academic and non-academic partners would be happy to support the student with any questions they might have.

1. Please send your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your interest and suitability to the project supervisor(s). Please contact the project supervisor(s) in advance of submitting the application with any questions.

2. If selected by the project supervisor, the student must then complete the Placement /Internship Application form. This ensures that there is approval of PhD supervisor, and the necessary information is obtained to extend funding (for DTP1 students) or confirm placement requirement fulfilled (for DTP2 students), and to fulfil ESRC reporting obligations.  

Please note:

• Research Assistant Internships must not be undertaken with the student’s current supervisor and/or home department.
• DTP1 students (those whose funding commenced before Oct24): a maximum of 4 Research Assistant internships will be funded. These will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the 4 DTP1 places are filled, we will inform PIs that only DTP2 students are eligible for the Research Assistant internships. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL DTP1 PLACES HAVE NOW BEEN FILLED.
• DTP2 students (those whose funding commenced from Oct24): are required to complete a 3-month placement, which is funded through their studentship. No limits to number that can be funded.
• Reports: at the conclusion of the internship, the student will be required to complete an internship report, which will include a question for the internship host to feedback on the internship.

Contact liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk with any questions.