How does ethnographic market research work?
I am not an expert in this area, but basically you create scenarios for customers, enter their world to note their behavior and reactions. These scenarios help you to anticipate what the market would look like, how the customer needs might evolve. Can’t you get the same information from consumer surveys? Not really. There’s a disconnect between what people say and what they do. In my market research course, I use the phrase “buyers are liars.” Ask people what channel they watch on TV, and they will tell you PBS. But, in reality, 60% of the time they are watching World Wide Wrestling. With traditional consumer surveys, people tell you what they think you want to hear. Ethnographic research, combined with consumer surveys, will be more useful. Do you think that designers should be involved in ethnographic observation? Absolutely! The ethnographic observation process should be a team approach, with a designer, a psychologist and a marketing person watching the videotapes to see what is ha
