Hello there,
Yes! Ethnographic research! For this post I am going to discuss ethnographic research, it's importance in marketing, and, at the same time, give a glimpse of my experience with it.
Ethnographic research, in many ways, is the practice of going into a community or culture that is foreign to you and learning about it. Ways of learning about it could be through immersion or interviewing, but it cannot be done well from the computer. A huge part of ethnographic research is being in the field and learning from experience.
In marketing, ethnographic research is defined as: "A form of observational research that involves sending trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their 'natural environments'." Companies send researchers into stores to see what people buy and how they interact with their products in the store. They hope to get a better idea of how consumers react to their product. From there, they can make the packaging stand out, or whatever the case may be.
My experience conducting ethnographic research was a bit different. This past summer I receieved a grant from the Saint Michael's College Alumni Fund for Undergraduate Research. My proposal was to investigate the relationship between a person's religious affiliation and their approaches to decision making and conflict resolution. To do so I planned out an ethnographic model with my advisor. We chose two churches in Amherst, Massachusetts, one Catholic and one Baptist, and we chose a two-tiered interviewing process. The first interview would be a focus group so that I could learn about each church community separately. Then I would interview each participant one-on-one about a particular decision they had to make or a conflict they had to resolve. After that, I would be able to identify any similarities and differences. I will tell you what I found in one of the next few posts, just so you have something to look forward to. What I will say is that Catholics and Baptists, at least in Amherst, Massachusetts, approach their decisions differently and appeal to different values.
Ethnographic research is a very valuable research tool. It has helped me to change my perspective after just one study, and I hope to conduct many more studies in the future. In terms of tying this into personal branding, I think the most practical application is to use ethnography to determine where you fit in. Once you know your talents and what you want to do with them, you can start to look for an industry to persue. You can start by looking at job descriptions online, but you'll never know what your actual tasks will be until you start asking people what they do. An ethnographic approach can give you a new perspective whether you interview ten people in a focus group, or if you go and have a conversation with a professor or business leader. Either way, go and have a chat!
Best always,
Tim
The main point here is that people have so much knowledge that they want to share - don't you like talking about what you're good at? Start getting in touch with people who are in a field that you are thinking about going into. I went in to say hello to a professor last week because his door was open, and the next thing I knew an hour had gone by! There's a poll question up on the right again, too. Enjoy the week!
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