AbstractPrior research has laid the groundwork for a discussion of the role of metaphor in marketing, but has fallen short of offering a clear‐cut method for guiding and evaluating its use. This article outlines such a method, and illustrates its use through extended discussions of the heuristic status of corporate identity and relationship marketing as metaphors for the generation of knowledge about the subjects that both supposedly illuminate. Implications of this methodology of metaphor for marketing research are outlined. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.