Ethnography
...try. When is ethnography used? Ethnography is used in many formats and for many things. Often it is used comparatively between cultures because in describing one culture, one must almost necessarily compare it to another culture. As ethnography is simply a study, it is difficult to define or even list all the uses. I felt its use would be best described through examples. Here are some examples of ethnological studies which have been conducted or are in progress: New Worlds from Fragments: Film, Ethnography and the Representation of Northwest Coast Cultures; Computing Myths, Class Realities: An Ethnography of Technology and Working People in Sheffield, England; Interpretive Ethnography of Education: At Home and Abroad; and Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis; Examining the transgender habits of males who dress as females and females who dress as males in Native American cultures. As you can see ethnology can be used in researching every aspect of our global culture. How is Ethnography used by researchers and marketing managers? Researchers who choose an ethnographical approach are looking at consumer behavior versus a psychological approach. Since ethnography is closely linked to anthropology, we borrow observational research methods to conduct our market research. In fact, some anthropologists are actually doing consumer research. For example, according to a journal article in the Marketing Educator, ethnographical research for one tech company involved conducting observational research on internet usage and interviewing, watching and videotaping consumers in their natural habitats. Most websites of companies who specialize in ethnographical market research guarantee that the subjects observed fit the target market the company has chosen. When reading article after article on ethnography, I came to realize what a powerful marketing tool it truly can be. It became clear to me that while it may be more time consuming than some traditional market research methods, it seems to produce more accurate results because it is based on concrete observations and less on psychological theory. In fact, the article by William Wilkie estimated that, “It is reasonable to estimate 25-50% of consumer behavior is culturally determined.” Describe each of the major steps involved in its use. In the course of my research I didn’t come across three “textbook definition”, hard and fast steps of ethnography. However, I did discover what I thought were three commonalities in almost all of the ethnography studies. First, the most basic skill of ethnography or anthropological market research is observation of consumer behavior. As I think we will find when we do our class project on retail consumer behavior, you can’t make a study of a culture without pure observation. According to the American Marketing Association, “Observation is a fundamental methodology in anthropology and the primary method in anthropological marketing research.” One needs to immerse oneself in observing and recording the culture’s behavior before a study can be considered valid. Almost every research study included some type of quantitative survey, obviously, as I stated before, the prime goal here is to get a representative sample and avoid as much interviewer bias as possible. The second commonality was making sure to observe with the right study methods and observe the right people. Also, it seems to be difficult to make sure that the respondents, and/or those observed stay involved with the research. The more professional websites all described how they engaged the right people in the right way. A common difficulty in the areas of culture study was difficulty or considerable time spent accurately defining the culture or subculture, which would give you the closest approximation to your target market’s behavior. However, this was almost a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” quandary. It seemed many researchers couldn’t decide whether to look for those behaviors you want and then pick your target market or do you select your target market and design a product around their behaviors and preferences. Obviously today, we would prefer to design a product around our target market than vice versa. Case in point, the I-zone camera from Polaroid example from class. The last common thread I observed in all different studies and from different companies was the importance of correct analysis of the immense amount of data that is gathered. This ensures that the company that requested the information receives it in a format that is easily understandable and not only answers the questions that the company requested answers for, but also any additional behaviors observed by the researchers. Thoroughly explain three examples of its use. Most examples of ethnography research studies are in the fields of research and consumer goods. Conifer research, which relies exclusively on ethnography, has also done research projects in the areas of: product development, consumer insight, strategy renewal, architecture and space planning and marketing strategy. One interesting study that I found revolved around Design Ethnography, which is “a set of data collection and analysis perspecti...