Editor's note: Caroline Gibbons Barry is president of PortiCo Research, Cos Cob, Conn.

Ethnography - a branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of contemporary cultures - is finding a home, literally, in qualitative market research. Ethnography is in-home or on-site qualitative market research that reveals consumers' personal feelings, attitudes and cultural values towards a product while observing the product in use. Observational research, as it is also called, is becoming more popular as advertisers, manufacturers and researchers discover its benefits.

Traditionally, an ethnographer is an observer - one who balances sensitivity and objectivity and who lives with a family or in a community to explore their daily life, values and social relationships. A written, photographic or motion picture presentation is utilized to present a description of his/her observations.
A typical ethnographic research project involves the following:

  • observing the "process" of usage of a product in its natural environment,
  • interpreting the cultural influences affecting consumers' feelings, behaviors and attitudes,
  • looking at how the family dynamic affects the perceptions and usage of the product,
  • videotaping the interviews and producing a video report to offer the client the opportunity to observe consumer behavior.

Tom McGee, a senior research associate at Doyle Research Associates in Chicago explains: "Observational research is often exploratory - you get a sense of how a product is being used - the process is the focus. People can't always tell what they do because their behaviors are so routine - they may not be able to relay details about the process. Therefore it becomes quite valuable to observe their routine. The little bits of information that are unexpected are often what we are looking for - we call them the 'ahas'."

A marketing research executive for a detergent manufacturer told me of an "aha" he experienced while doing ethnographic research on laundry detergent in the mid-1980s. He went into consumers' homes and asked women how they could tell if their laundry was clean. They said it was because the clothes looked clean and bright. "Yet their eyes were closed and they were smelling their laundry as they pulled it out of the dryer," he says. "This is information that the respondent isn't aware of and couldn't tell you about."

Al Klein, director of marketing insights for Pepsi-Cola, has used ethnographic approach to test marketing positionings and aid concept development. He says that ethnography helps bring the consumers to management. "I want the moments of truth on video, in a format that is entertaining, like MTV - something that you want to watch and that shows you real people and how they behave."

Problems and pitfalls

Ethnography is an exciting methodology, but it's not without its problems and pitfalls. For example, I'm often asked how can you go into someone's home and not change what they do? Doesn't the camera make them act unnaturally?

It can, but the ethnographer can take steps to minimize that risk. While setting up the equipment, we go through an introduction that is designed to put the respondents at ease. If the interviewer uses a matter-of-fact approach and establishes a warm, supportive tone, respondents usually open up quickly and become engrossed in the interview.

Some clients ask to come along and observe the interviews but we try to avoid this because when you're visiting someone's home, more is not merrier. The success of the project depends on establishing a personal rapport.

There are occasions, such as research done in public - in bars, or at sporting events - when clients are welcome to observe and participate in the research.

Since it isn't usually practical to have clients observe the interviews, I meet with them beforehand to confirm the direction the interviews should take. If needed, we can space the interviews out so that the client can make any comments/changes midway through the research.

Enhance learning

There are times when ethnography is inappropriate. When you want a lot of input from the back room, for example. If the research more technical in nature, such as concept development and evaluation, or if it's not dependent on the environment, such as doctors' reactions to a new antibiotic, take advantage of the conveniences and services that qualitative facilities have to offer.

But when the research objectives are suited to ethnography, we've found that ethnography can enhance learning and it can be used effectively in combination with research done in facilities.

An advertising agency asked how I could get the richest information possible on how cold sufferers feel about being sick. I suggested that we go to the homes of cold sufferers and interview them, their spouses and their children to find out how the sickness affects the family.

Where did I get such an impractical idea? In my prior life as a family counselor, I knew that I could learn more about a family in one home visit than I could in months of individual sessions. I also knew that if I wanted to really understand something (a decision, feeling, attitude, value) - I often had to ask the whole family, including grandparents and young children, as they often held the key information.

The client liked the idea but thought that they should also conduct 100 one-on-ones in case we didn't come up with anything of interest. And so we went, videotaping people home sick with colds, interviewing the family members individually to get their unique impressions of the characteristics of being sick - the feelings, observations and experiences of using cold remedies. We also looked around the house, in medicine cabinets, in back hall closets and on kitchen shelves, and uncovered personal histories of cold medicine usage. Ultimately we found out a lot more than we had anticipated.

For example, one woman had convinced me that other than being "a little crabby," her daily routine was unaffected by her cold. When I interviewed her husband and asked him about his wife's comment about being "a little crabby" I received a vivid account of how her cold had led to their fighting, that he had been sleeping on the couch and taking their son out for long days and nights to "get out of the way." Their son gave a tearful account of how his mother has been ignoring him and that he too has been sick.

After viewing the insights we uncovered, the people at the ad agency were ecstatic. The creatives feasted on the videos, the agency's client was impressed by the video report, and the information from the ethnography brought the one-on-ones to life.

While there's no guarantee that every ethnographic research project will be such an overwhelming success, the insights we uncovered are commonplace. With ethnographic research one thing is for sure: You may not be able to predict what you'll find, but you can predict that what you find will be valuable.