Insights into Ethnography
by Scott Hauman, Director of Planning

A rapidly spreading buzzword is leading the charge for this new breed of research tools in branding circles: ethnography, the study of behavior in its naturally occurring context. Other research methods, such as focus groups and consumer panels, ask questions. Ethnography is long-term observation and analysis – precisely what brand owners lack and what makes it different from any other form of social-science research.

Commercial ethnography is a pared down version of its academic cousin.  The commercial world does not usually have the budget or time that academic studies enjoy. It is not practice true ethnography. In the marketing and communications field, ethnographers (aka, strategic planners) usually spend three or four days living with or closely studying people. They observe, interact, and ask questions.

To get the most from those few days, however, the research process must be just as thorough as in any university department. Once the research brief has been agreed upon with a client, planning professionals spend time writing detailed portraits of the people or families they would like to observe and then recruit subjects to fit the portraits.

Strategic planners are trained to decode language and are more aware of contextual clues than traditionally trained marketing professionals. Ethnographic techniques allow them to detect unarticulated attitudes that you wouldn't get if you sat around in a focus group.

But companies want more than mere observations from their ethnographic studies. They want concrete results, something actionable. In other words, observations must be translated into business recommendations.

To accomplish this, strategic planning and design teams hold internal sessions to compare notes, retell anecdotes, and share discoveries. From this exchange, they identify submotivations, triggers, and barriers from which clients can develop brands and products.

It is all about looking for insights into how consumers might interact with brands, experiences, and events. Ultimately, what's interesting about ethnography is that it gets under the surface. That’s why it’s good for innovation and business development. It is one of only a few tools that can open up new territory for brand expansion.

Focus groups talk about what they know. Ethnography is more about opening up; other methods just test what's there. In most cases, it completely changes client perceptions of how their customers interact with their brand.

At Q, we use ethnographic techniques to uncover clues on people's emotional needs and moods at particular points in their customer journeys. These nuggets of information are the really interesting insights, clues about what might positively trigger audiences next time around, and how to avoid negative reactions.

However, it is important not to get caught up in the hype. Ethnography is not traditional research that concludes that everyone has the same perceptions as a small sample of consumers. All it does is uncover latent insights into behavior. It's a smart and inspiring tool, but not the answer. It's just a step, an early step, in the planning process.

It is very easy to get caught up in buzz words and the latest techniques, but at the end of the day the research approach you select has to be the most appropriate technique for gathering the information you need to improve business performance.