5. What is ethnography?
• Ethnography is a branch of anthropology which studies
cultures, and culture, through the experiences of individuals
in everyday life.
• At its heart is the idea of ‘deep hanging out’ – the idea that
to understand a culture you have to immerse yourself in
the experience; by being there and doing it.
• Its commercial value is now well established for gaining a
deep-rooted understanding of the role and value of a
brand, service or product experience in the everyday world
of the consumer.
6. Lots of people are doing it...
• William Grant & Sons
• Bacardi Martini
• Electrolux
• Unilever
• Egg
• ZOPA.com
• Lloyds TSB
• E-ON
• M&S Money
• HBOS
• Orange
• Vodafone
• Mflow.com
• National Rail Enquiries
• Boots plc
• Public Sector
– HMRC
– Participle (Social Enterprise)
– The Work Foundation
– Local Government Social
Services
– No.10 Downing Street
• Creative Agencies
– Quickheart Ltd
– Imagination
– Mother/Naked
– Tequila
– Michael Wolff
• Research Agencies
– Intrepid Consultants
– GfK
– Spinach
7. The ethnographer’s eye
• Shift from viewing consumption as the
satisfaction of needs to the search for meaning.
• “Product is neutral; usage is social”
(Mary Douglas – The World of Goods)
• Studying the ‘social life of things’ reveals the
implicit meanings and cultural ‘common sense’ of
the objects and transactions of everyday life.
8. Research Methodologies
• Participant observation – ‘deep hanging out’ in everyday
life, observing people using money and making decisions
about money.
• Long interviews – free flow conversations
• Creative consumer workshops – personal perspectives of
people whose job it is to have a point of view on the world.
• Focus groups – provocative stimulus to get beneath ‘public’
perceptions and tap into subjective insights.
9. The value of ‘things’
Functional
(What I need)
Emotional
(What I want to feel)
Cultural
(Why is it valuable to me?)
Focus of
ethnography
Conventional
Qualitative
Approaches
10. Why the difference between Needs
and Meaning is important:
¢ 8 per cup $4 per cup
Nestlé believed that they had
extracted maximum value from a
cup of coffee, focussing on the
consumer “need” of excellent
product delivery.
For Starbucks, the cup of coffee
itself is only one small part of the
deal. The value of the experience
is created by the cultural meaning
it creates in a consumer’s life.
13. From object to thing
Object=
-Technology
-Rational function
-cost
‘Thing’’=
-Social meaning
-Social practices
- Social capital
socialisation
domestication
ritualization
Meaning = neutral Meaning = Situational
Usage = Social
Shift from looking at what a product ‘does’
to what meaning it ‘creates’
21. A place to create your world of
money?
objective subjective
Growth/fluidity
Surplus/Stability
Traditional
Entrepreneurs Lifestyle Entrepreneurs
Personal EntrepreneursDomestic Entrepreneurs
Everyday Entrepreneurs
Tangible/Place
Human/Social
Control/Confidence
Real alternative
26. A ‘new world’ Whisky
• Ethnographic Insight
– ‘Whisky is lacks authentic social
currency in public drinking
occasions’
• Semiotic Insight
– Desire for “remix” of traditional
and modern styles rather than
wholesale ‘reinvention’.
• Outcome
– Successful launch with acceptance
by both the whisky and style
establishment (Both Kate Moss
and Noel Gallagher profess to
enjoying Monkey Shoulder!).
28. From needs to meaning
• Ethnographic Insight
– Fabric conditioner creates
and maintains social relations
and values of ‘home’ and
‘motherhood’
• Semiotic Insight
– Generous proportions
emphasise role of FC as ‘gift’
for the home.
29. A nudge in the right direction...
• Ethnographic insight avoids research being blinkered
by internal cultural ‘truths’ and preconceptions.
• It helps a business understand where it fits in the
everyday life of the consumer (and hence how it is
valued in reality).
• Ethnography expands the scope of analysis of
customers from rational investigation needs to more
subjective and fuzzy exploration of context and
motivation.
31. Recommended reading
• Grant McCraken
– Chief Culture Officer (latest book)
– Culture and Consumption (I & II)
– The Long Interview
• Zygmunt Bauman
– What chance for ethics in a world of consumers?
– The “Liquid Modernity” Series – Liquid Life, Liquid Love etc
• Viviana Zelizer
– The Social Meaning of Money
– The Purchase of Intimacy
• Keith Hart
– The Memory Bank
