Ethnography and the Quest for Consumer Meaning
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Wed, Aug 04, 2010
Few of my customers have conducted ethnographies, though almost all of them would have benefited from turning to this research methodology for some projects. Because it is new to most of my readers, I asked Chris Bailey to discuss the value of ethnography. Chris himself is a loyal reader of and commenter on this blog, as well as being the executive director of Bailey WorkPlay, a customer-experience design consultancy.
As an anthropologist with a background in marketing and customer experience, I'm fascinated by what consumers think and do. How do they choose to interact with products or brands? How do they make their buying decisions? What do their purchases say about their identity in the world? These are often complex questions that quantitative methods can't always uncover. A survey or interview may offer some insight into intended actions but the results may not always reveal the deeper layers of meaning that motivate behavior and attitudes. In order to get at these layers, we can employ a qualitative research method like ethnography.
From my experience, there's still a great deal of confusion surrounding the usage of ethnography, particularly in market and customer experience research. What's the difference between ethnography and other qualitative methods? Is there still a need for quantitative methodology when conducting ethnography? How long will it take and what outcomes can we expect from an ethnographic research project? All are valid questions that I'll try to answer in this post.
What is Ethnography?
Some business executives I've spoken with are still under the misconception that ethnography is synonymous with qualitative methods. It's not. Ethnography is just one form of qualitative research methodology along with more recognized methods such as focus groups and interviews. One reason it likely gets confused is because the actual methodology of ethnography - on the surface - resembles other qualitative forms. It can involve interviews with singular participants or groups. It can be participatory like mystery shopping. It can be purely observational using video and audio recording. But what truly differentiates ethnography are the objectives: the need to experience a social group and their behaviors and attitudes from the inside. It's this desire to inhabit the world of our consumer - to truly understand their everyday lives - that makes ethnography such a powerful and insightful tool for business decision-makers today.
Why is Ethnography Important?
Let's say - for instance - you're working on a market research project to understand your customers' level of satisfaction with a particular service or gain insight into their perceptions of your brand. You can create quantitative measurement tools such as surveys. You can conduct focus groups to interview targeted segments about their buying preferences. But in the end, we humans have this interesting knack for not revealing the whole truth of our experiences. Sometimes we do this deliberately and sometimes it's an unconscious act. In a meta-analysis of survey results, Ovans concluded, "People are generally not reliable predictors of their own long-term purchasing behavior for any type of good" (Elliott and Jankel-Elliott: 1998). In other words, ethnography allows a researcher to get below words and surface-level thinking to understand not what an individual says he does, but what he actually does in everyday life.
An example of this principle at work is the story of a General Mills focus group involving moms and their selection of breakfast cereals. Within the focus group setting, one mom reported her family only ate healthy foods for breakfast. However, when an ethnographer sat at the breakfast table and observed the family in action, the actual behavior was quite different. Turns out the family refused the whole-grain cereals and served themselves the unhealthy cereal instead.
Is Ethnography Better than Surveys?
Some might argue that ethnography is better than other qualitative and quantitative methods. That distinction only ignores the validity of research that incorporates a wide array of investigative tools to fully understand the relationship between consumer and company. I argue the best research methodology is recursive, where qualitative and quantitative tools are combined to gather data that has both breadth and depth.
Some of the key reasons why business execs often don't choose to conduct ethnographic market research projects is because of concerns about investment of time and resources for small samples sizes. In actuality, that concern reflects some of the strengths of ethnography as a market research tool. As consumers, our behaviors are complex, sometimes contradictory. Our purchases are tangled in a web of symbolism and abstract meaning that doesn't translate well to surveys and interviews. It's only through the ethnographic experience where a researcher observes, interacts, and participates with the consumer/participant that we gain deep appreciation for how they connect their world to a company's brand.