Ethnographic Method

Keywords:
Consumer motivation, focus group, immersion, respondents, transcripts, segments, theory.

 

Question:

What is the Key Concept behind SolutionSync’s ethnographic method?

Answer:

Our Consumer Ethnography is a qualitative research technique that uses a variety of methods to study behavior, attitudes and culture to better understand what customers want and how they make their purchase decisions.

Ethnography, a branch of anthropology, is an alternative or supplement to traditional focus groups. Instead of asking consumers to discuss products or services while sitting in a room, our social anthropologists observe people and interview them where they live, work, travel, play and shop.

A detailed analysis of observation reveals consumer motivations and interactions with products, services, brands, and spaces and enables our clients to discover new segments and design more satisfying offerings and more effective marketing campaigns.

Our research method starts with selection of a consumer group, review of media pertaining to the group, and identification of variables of interest - typically variables perceived as significant by members of the consumer group. Our researcher then goes about gaining entrance, which in turn sets the stage for consumer immersion. Depending on the project goal it is not unusual for our anthropologists to live with the consumers for days or even weeks.

The ethnographic method involves gaining respondents, using them to gain yet more respondents in a chaining process, and gathering of data in the form of observational transcripts, interview recordings, photography or video. Data analysis and theory development come at the end, through theories may emerge from consumer immersion and theory-articulation by members of the consumer group (or product user community). However, our researcher strives to avoid theoretical preconceptions and instead to induce theory from the perspectives of the members of the consumer group and from observation. The researcher may seek validation of induced theories by going back to the consumers or members of the subculture for their reactions.

 

 

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