Ethnography

Ethnography is a style of qualitative research. It is a fascinating discipline which has its roots in anthropology. Primarily, it involves on-the-ground observation of cultural patterns, but it is often helpful to collate this data with other sources such as interview and survey data.

In the commercial market research context, elements of ethnography are widely used to develop a more complete picture of customer behaviour. Observation allows us to understand a customer's unconscious as well as conscious life, and the specific significance of their context for them. Indeed, one of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies – Pierre Bourdieu’s study of taste in 1960s France – has been highly influential on the development of market research.

Let’s take the example of examining people’s relationships to their cars for an automotive manufacturer. Talking to a person about her car in an interview is an entirely different proposition to going to her home and riding in the car with her as a passenger. With the ethnographic approach, we can suddenly see so much more: what accessories she's purchased for her vehicle, how she uses the entertainment system, how tidy she keeps the vehicle, the sort of terrain and conditions she drives through on a daily basis etc. In this instance, a focus group or interview might be more appropriate for exploring this person's perceptions of competitor car brands, but the ethnographic approach would yield much richer and more reliable data when it comes to studying her vehicle usage and locating any pain points. The main assumption here is that people do not always give the most accurate accounts of themselves.

At Ground Truth, we love conducting ethnographic research for our clients. The findings are always illuminating. Indeed, few methodologies have the power to surprise and inform us as much as a proper ethnographic program of research. 

Examples of ethnographic studies we conduct:

• In the home

• A day in the life

• Digital ethnography