Ethnographic Market Research

Most marketing executives regularly visit customers and they will often observe them using products. However, casual observation and informal discussions with customers are unlikely to lead to breakthrough products. Also, such visits cannot be compared with the thoroughness of ethnographic market research, which has two main elements: systematic observation and contextual interviewing. There is nothing casual about the way ethnographers study tribal cultures and so, in this chapter, we will stress the need to plan and conduct observation in a similarly meticulous way. “Systematic observation is a research method in which events are selected, recorded, coded into meaningful events, and interpreted by non-participants.”2 This definition contains several elements that differentiate systematic observation. First, what is observed is selected, which means that the times at which we observe customers interacting with products need be chosen carefully. Second, coding implies that data are categorized in a painstaking way to reveal underlying meanings and issues. Finally, the definition’s reference to nonparticipants implies that the interpretation is made objectively.