Editor’s note: Maren Elwood is president of On-Site Research Associates, Carmel, Calif. She can be reached at 831-238-5503 or at melwood@onsiteresearch.com. This article appeared in the October 10, 2011, edition of Quirk’s e-newsletter. 

I started my career as an ethnographic researcher about 20 years ago without even realizing that embedding myself in consumer reality meant I was practicing a research method called visual anthropology. For the past two decades I’ve been refining my use of camera technology as a tool to conduct, analyze and present consumer research to my clients. My passion for visual research methods was driven by my own recognition that I think in pictures and video. My desire to use cameras to document consumer behavior was strengthened by the many clients who found my multimedia presentations were more effective than text-only documents in conveying research findings.

The natural progression of my camera skills forced me, over time, to learn to produce video so I could embed small movies in my PowerPoint presentations. And, over the years, I've found that the production of what I call consumer ethnographic film has become a task that I both love and at the same time have had to use carefully.

Production of consumer films differs significantly from just including a verbatim quote in a report or even the inclusion of consumer photos or video clips. Consumer ethnographic film has a different power and impact on people. And, unless we as researchers are careful to inform our consumer films with cultural context, the research findings and an understanding of the viewer experience, we run the risk of misrepresenting our insights and influencing client cultures in a way that is hard to undo.

As part of my desire to grow my skills as a researcher, in 2010 I decided to go back to college and get a Master’s degree in visual anthropology. I wanted the formal instruction in ethnographic methods but more importantly, I wanted to learn about the analysis, production and audience dynamics of ethnographic film. The program I enrolled in, at the University of Southern California, was heavy on the theoretical, practical and historical aspects of what I will refer to as academic ethnographic film. But, I was surprised that during my whole Master's program, there wasn't a single mention of consumer ethnographic film. I came to realize that many in the academic world don't consider the type of consumer ethnography conducted in the corporate world to be real visual anthropology. This article will explore why that attitude exists and outline steps corporate ethnographic researchers can take to approach our studies with more rigor, from fieldwork to film production and presentation.

Ethnographic fieldwork

The primary criticism leveled at corporate ethnographic research from the academic world is that our consumer studies tend to be too short and too narrow in focus. Historically, visual anthropologists like Margaret Mead, Jean Rouch and Tim Asch travelled to faraway places and embedded themselves into foreign cultures for long periods of time. The goals of these pioneers, who started to use cameras for fieldwork, were often to understand whole cultures and complex social behaviors. As such, long periods in the field were required.

Corporate ethnographic research does tend to be focused on a narrow topic, like how women color their hair or how people use devices in this digital culture. As such, our research methods aim to embed a researcher into consumer reality during the critical moment of product use or decision-making. Standard consumer ethnographic studies might include three-to-five cities, 30-to-50 consumers and embeds that last from hours to maybe days. Thus, the academic criticism that we don’t spend enough time in the field from which to gain a broader context on behavior is often warranted. But, is an extensive amount of time really needed to understand one specific behavior or attitude that tends to occur over a short time across many different people? I don’t think so. But, we do have to ask ourselves how we might - in these shorter periods of time - ensure that a broader cultural context is brought to bear on our analysis of a particular act that occurs within it.

My solution to this challenge has been to place myself in the broader context of American life by conducting an annual trend study where I live, in the same households year after year. Then, when I do focused work I can inform my research design, fieldwork and analysis with an anthropological context that provides the quilt from which I can pick one square to focus on. My solution certainly isn’t the only one. I suggest that it’s up to each of us ethnographic researchers to find ways to broaden our cultural experience and bring that understanding to our studies of everything from sewing machines to social networks.

Who conducts ethnographic research?

Another complaint by the academic world about those of us who practice consumer ethnography is that only academically-trained anthropologists can practice ethnography. There are certainly many people offering ethnographic research who do not have these credentials. So does that mean the research and movies generated by these studies are not truly ethnographic? The answer to this question really depends on the ethnographic research design, analysis and film production process that any given researcher employs. It's not necessary to have a degree but ethnographic researchers should be qualified by evaluating the rigor by which they perform the following three tasks.

Ethnographic research design. Here's where the pros can be separated from those just calling themselves ethnographers. Often, clients call with limited budgets and their own perspectives on how they want to observe consumer reality. I've had clients who want to call eight embedded interviews and a short list of questions asked in situ an ethnographic study. Conversely, some clients know that ethnographic work takes time and requires a researcher who can see beyond the obvious to uncover the culture in which a product or service resides. A true ethnographer will insist on designing consumer research that provides time to understand the context, product/service use and then conduct analysis so that the resulting report and films do justice to the complexity that is consumer reality.  

Ethnographic media analysis. Conducting 50 interviews that take two-to-three hours each and then analyzing the stills and video from every embed is certainly a daunting process. But, it’s one that we as ethnographic researchers must complete with discipline. Our analysis, and resulting consumer ethnographic films, must be informed by a thorough exploration of the visual media, not just a review of key interviews and compilation of a few video clips. We must tell the whole story and our films reflect the totality of the culture we observed and how our client's product/service fits within that reality. This means our film production is as important, and often more important, than the actual analysis.

Ethnographic film production. Once analysis is complete and the research narrative fleshed out, the job of any ethnographic film producer is to cobble together stills and video that will bring consumer reality to life in a consumer documentary. Too often today there are people and companies producing what they call consumer ethnographic films that are just a series of visual verbatims. These clip archives do little to bring the totality of the consumer experience to the client’s own culture and can actually be dangerous if they become the source of decisions that would have been made differently had a more comprehensive film been produced.

A well-produced ethnographic film provides a frame of reference for the viewer with B-roll footage (i.e., establishing shots of cities, homes and other places that provide additional contextual information) and situates consumers within that context with what I call three-point shots: exterior reality, interior experience and interiority reflections. The film then features the consumer experience of a product or service as a narrative feature of the whole. What does that all mean? It means that a well-produced consumer ethnographic documentary tells a story of a culture; of the people who live in that culture; and the products and services that play roles in the lives of those people. And the really successful consumer ethnographic filmmaker produces a visual document that people want to watch; they want to share; and that brings the consumer culture into the corporate culture in a way that no other medium can.

The problem of reflexivity

One last topic that faces the corporate ethnographic researcher is what academics call reflexivity. Reflexivity is the inevitable circular relationship between the researcher and the subjects. The question becomes, just how much do we recognize that any ethnographic research study is a co-creation between researcher and those researched? And to what level is that recognition brought to the report and the consumer ethnographic films?

Some purists believe that ethnographic research can be conducted by placing a camera as a fly on the wall and observing consumer behavior without researcher or client bias. Other approaches recognize the role of the researcher as participant observer. No matter which side of the reflexivity argument you’re on, the fact is that production of reports and films are done by someone - and that someone will be an influence on the final product.

Fly-on-the-wall or fly-in-the-soup

In the end, clients hire an ethnographic researcher (with or without a degree in visual anthropology) to conduct their study. Questions must be asked to ensure that the person or company you hire will be rigorous in every aspect of the ethnographic project. And when the time comes for production of consumer ethnographic films, additional questions must be asked. What role will the researcher play in the film? Will the film feature shots of the researcher or the voice of the researcher? Will clients who ride along be featured?

According to the most current academic thought on the topic of reflexivity, inclusion of the researcher in the film is an honest way to present the co-created nature of ethnographic research and documentary. Reflexive scenes and voiceover will help client audiences view consumer ethnographic film with the realization that the very act of embedded ethnographic research can be both a fly-on-the-wall and fly-in-the-soup undertaking.