Ethnography provides a deeper understanding of customers by observing them in their natural environments over the entire lifecycle of a product or service. It overcomes limitations of traditional research methods like interviews and focus groups that rely on self-reported behaviors. Ethnography involves shadowing customers to uncover subtle details and patterns of use that customers may not consciously report. This qualitative research approach can identify unexpected problems or needs that quantitative data may miss. Understanding the customer more fully through ethnography better equips marketers to meet customer needs and drive product adoption.

1. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience

2. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Introduction
As marketers we are focused on our target audiences, always updating, researching
and learning more about how our users interact with our products. We do our
research, understand the demographics, create user personas, track user behaviors,
and use these datapoints to target each audience segment appropriately.
But does this give us the full picture?
Ethnography is another tool to understanding, one that is needed to overcome any
biases or assumptions. Ethnography is understanding how the end users interact
with the product or services being offered, throughout the ENTIRE lifecycle of the
product (from aisle to disposal) and using that data to understand how or what to
modify.

3. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Introduction
Demographics, surveys, psychographic data,
behavioral metrics, interviews, focus groups:
these all help us to understand our customers.
Ethnography is another tool to understanding

4. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Focus Groups, Customer Research, Interviews
These techniques are critical in understanding customers, but they each have their
limits. It is human nature to want to please, to give the appropriate, “correct”
answers. Respondents often forget details or omit information they don’t believe is
important.
Interpreting responses in these areas can lead to:
1. Misinterpretation
2. Improperly worded answers
3. Concluding that patients lied
4. Limited front end research
5. Incomplete or inaccurate up front assumptions that lead to targeted
questions

5. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Focus Groups, Customer Research, Interviews
Take a cue from investigators: they perform interviews,
research, surveys, but they also always go to the scene.
They see for themselves the details that reports and
interviews overlooked or didn’t see. They do re-enactments
to learn the seemingly minute details of a situation or event.
Shadowing or following customers, observing with our
products or services allows us to uncovered more details,
find more patterns and consistency in uses, issues, or
misuses to better help us meet the needs and interests of
our customers.
You have a great
product, it fits a
need, but will
customers use it?

6. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Results
It’s a simple equation: customers will use what works for them; they will seek out
solutions to their needs, that fit within their specific lifestyle, budget, and their
preferences. If you provide what they need, and they know about it, you can have
great success.
Most of our research is based on quantitative results of research. Qualitative results
will allow you to better predict and plan for product/service adoption. You have a
great product, it fits a need, but will customers use it?
Ethnographic research involves observing and asking questions to see how users
function with the product/state/service in their daily lives.
Without Ethnographic research you could miss a packaging error, a design flaw, or
an undisclosed need or unspoken situation.

7. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
When a pharmaceutical client interviewed users about how
their arthritis affected their lives the overwhelming response
was minimally. Upon following a cross-section of the
audience they found many ways in which they were
adversely affected, but had unknowingly adapted. One case
was finding pliers in their cars to help them turn the keys in
the ignitions.1
No marketer or focus group question interviewer, writer
would have ever dreamed of coming up with a question to
get this information. That’s where ethnography fills the gaps
and provides the answers. That’s the difference between
QUALITATIVE research and QUANTITATIVE research.
In the simplest
terms, ethnography
is understanding
your customer.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Results

8. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
Summary
In the simplest terms, ethnography is understanding your customer.
Ethnography is removing yourself and your preconceived notions, assumptions,
biases and interpretations to fully see and learn how end users interact with the
products, services, and/or processes.
It is understanding how they interact with products by observing and discussing
their interactions in THEIR environment; providing qualitative analysis, not just
quantitative; it’s deep diving into practice vs. theory.
Ethnography is another tool at the core of what marketing is all about.

9. Ethnography: Understand and Shape Your Brand Experience
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