Ethnography: Going Undercover for Market Researchers

It’s a scene we’ve all watched in the movies. A cop has to go undercover to infiltrate the mafia or a biker gang. Or even a sorority of scantily-clad girls. We watch at the edge of our seats because we know what’s at stake. The cop has to understand every tiny little nuance of the criminals’ inner-circle behavior. One wrong move, one misunderstanding and he’s toast.

The bad guys are always wary of potential infiltrators and it’s one of the reasons why they have such complex behavioral signals. It’s to make sure that they can spot an imposter. They’ll have their own insider words and jokes, rituals, specialist knowledge, and mannerisms. And if you’re in the club, you’ll naturally know all of them. If not. Toast.

“Ah, Johnny”, the oversized mafia don says as he approached with open arms.

It’s a tense moment for the audience. Will Johnny know what to do in this situation?

For dramatic effect, I’ll leave it there and get back to the scene later.

ETHNOGRAPHY

Ethnography is a well-trusted market research method. In essence it’s real-world market research where the consumer is studied in their actual environment (as opposed to a controlled group setting with a white melamine table and a fake pot plant). The researcher will observe the consumer at home or in the office or while watching a football game on a Sunday. Much like an anthropologist, the researcher tries to understand another culture from the point of view of members of that culture. Getting this right and successfully noting behavioral patterns can mean invaluable data for companies wanting to engage with that specific demographic. The smallest behavioral quirk amongst a group of people can result in successful product development or a highly effective marketing strategy. Knowing your customer is, after all, the very core of marketing. Knowing your customer is King.

ETHNOGRAPHY… GOING UNDERCOVER IN MARKET RESEARCH

Hmmm…how on earth did we get from the start of this article to here? Well, the two disciplines are actually quite similar.

OK, the stakes aren’t quite as high. The ethnographer is not likely to end up at the bottom of a lake in cement shoes (at least if you’re a half-decent one), but conversely, the potential results are both big wins. The undercover cop can put away a whole group of bad guys, while the ethnographer can help a company create a winning life-changing product. Both of their effects are far-reaching. Both will result in an office party in your honor.

The undercover cop and the researcher will have to gain their knowledge from observation rather than by asking questions. Observing gives the most honest answers and insight. Often subjects don’t actually know the honest answer to questions about their behavior. You’d be surprised how many things we do during our day that we’re not aware of. Do you know how many times you check your social media each day? How many toilet breaks you take? How many different pens did you end up using? How many times you actually glance at that attractive colleague?

Both disciplines do their work in “the field”, it’s the same word and it’s a great win for my article, right?

Finally, something of great similarity is that both are not only a skill but an art. When we watch the undercover cop on the screen, we’re anxiously hoping he will take the information he’s observed and artfully use it in the real-world scenario. That means having an aptitude for knowing what information to apply correctly in the given circumstance. For an ethnography researcher, often the data they are looking for is in a proverbial haystack. The skill turns to an art when it comes to sifting through all the data, and spotting the golden ticket – that one small quirk that can open a window of opportunity.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Johnny pauses for a moment for dramatic effect and then swings both arms open for a confident embrace on the side of each arm and leans in for a kiss on each cheek. Whew, he knew to do the double kiss thing. And, whew, thank goodness he didn’t do that last week with the boss of the biker gang.

It’s all about the details.

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