Part 3 - Inspiration: What primary, qualitative research provides, that no other means can

Another reason that I love primary qualitative research is the output. Ethnography in its best form is multi-media and multi-dimensional. It’s a combination of text, video, voice, and photographs. Most importantly, a key tenet of ethnography is storytelling.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the number of research deliverables or presentations I’ve seen that clearly have no shelf life beyond that single moment in time. They are boring, wordy, and full of numbers. Ad Age recently wrote about how this is hurting the industry here. So tell me, why spend thousands of dollars on research that is a one-hit wonder?

We all know the power of good storytelling. Ethnography and other in-context methods can produce some really amazing stories told through narrative and video. When compiled properly they are not only insightful, but they are inspirational and they live well beyond the research deliverable and final presentation.

It’s amazing how we or our clients can tell a story about one of our customers, but when you hear it from the horses mouth in a video or audio clip, it has exponential power. Time and again I’ve seen stories like these retold again and again, up through the ranks even to the C-Suite of Fortune 500 companies. This is a power that I have yet to see from quantitative research - but I'm sure some people get inspired by numbers :)

Part 1 - Inherent Understanding: What primary, qualitative research provides, that no other means can

When we talk about ethnography, we often talk about what it is going to do for design or marketing communication. What is often unrecognized, (always reality once you’ve done it) is that it is a powerful means of discovery and business immersion for us, the agency, on behalf of our clients - of course in addition to the plethora of design and communication insights that will be garnered.

Yes, as anthropologists, consultants and marketers, it is our job to immerse ourselves in our client’s business. However, there is only so much that can be gained from stakeholder interviews and existing research immersion. I’d suggest that this can get us 80% there. But, it’s that other 20% that can really make business-changing differences.

By actually meeting with current and future customers/users, we get an understanding that gets us closer to an etic (insider) understanding, which can only lend to us being more successful on behalf of our clients. The process of designing, conducting, analyzing, and synthesizing custom research provides a level of insights and empathy that cannot be gained through other means.

Furthermore, there is a clear difference in the caliber of insights, innovation, and design that is produced from people who truly understand the business, the marketplace AND consumers, when compared to those who don’t.

While a 12-week, global ethnographic study need not be necessary, some form of primary, immersive customer research is always worth fighting the good fight for.

New Series: What primary, qualitative research provides, that nothing else can

In my next attempt at a blog series, I'd like to discuss and solicit conversation about the unique benefits of primary, qualitative (hopefully ethnographic!) research.

It is something that as anthropologists and researchers in business we are constantly struggling to argue and articulate. This becomes particularly interesting for marketers "In the Age of Analytics." If we have data, why do we need more?

I've created an initial list of topics that I hope to cover. This is clearly just a start, and I hope that as a community, we can come up with a comprehensive list and seal-tight articulation. As such, please feel free to agree, disagree, edit and add.

For Starters:

• Business Immersion
• Context
• "Why?!"

Anthropology, The Oscars and the Creation of Personas

Like much of the country, I watched the Oscars this weekend. As I witnessed various Hollywood talent receive their awards, I started to reflect on what makes a good actor or actress. How do they transform from character to character, and how does this differ from who they are in real life?

As I got to thinking about this, I realized that the key to good acting is ethnography at it’s finest. It’s studying and understanding a character so deeply that you can embody them (the inside-out perspective, if you will). While anthropology doesn’t go as far as to try to play the people we study, in my particular line of anthropology I’d argue that we actually have a harder job in the creation of tools like personas.

Let’s start by looking at the Wikipedia definition for personas. It states, “A personality, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor.” If we took out the phrase, “played by an actor,” would that be very different from the definition of personas in marketing?

The marketing specific definition states, “Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.” What I’m interpreting is that the only difference is in the execution – actors “play” the character, while marketers deliver them on paper.

Ultimately when developing the marketing version of personas, both of those definitions apply. In developing personas, they should be real, believable, and hopefully Oscar worthy. They need to include such attention to detail that they can be used as a strategy and design tool. In some ways, I’d argue that those developing personas have to go one step beyond acting because their “characters” must transfer to the other players in the production seamlessly so that anyone member of the troupe can play that role.

Good personas are the result of a three step process: research to gain an ethnographic understanding of target audiences, the embodiment of those archetypes through analysis and synthesis of that research, and the creation of a performance of those characters that can stand up to the toughest critics.

So is anthropology that different from acting? Maybe there’s a career change in my future…Or maybe Los Angeles is getting to my head.

Data Visualization and Anthropology

Data Visualization (DV) is all the buzz in marketing. While everyone is rushing around trying to figure out how they can apply it to their business, I wanted to take a moment to discuss how the discipline of anthropology might benefit from DV.

Traditionally, anthropology is not a quantitative science. All Anthropologists are trained in some form of quantitative methods, and analysis – but our essence is in things observational or qualitative. However, that does not mean that we can’t use data visualization to help organize our data into quickly digestible elements for our client presentations, or in our own analysis to help us identify patterns in our field notes.

Here are a few of my thoughts on how we might use DV. I would love your input on additional applications.

Identifying Patterns in the Data: When using an ethnographic coding software such as Atlas.ti there’s a function where you can export a word count into an excel sheet and how many times they are mentioned in the notes. You can feed this list into one of many word cloud generators on Wordle (http://cli.gs/N31M5H) and it will show you which words “pop”. This can help you easily identify patterns in your field notes or transcripts.





Quantifying Findings: One of the biggest challenges for an anthropologist is the need to balance qualitative with quantitative. More often than not, clients want a quantitative element to their research projects, or at minimum want “proof” of our findings. Data visualization tools can help us put a “wow” factor in our presentations. IBM’s Many Eyes http://cli.gs/Gm8VZDis an open-source site where people make thousands of visualizations. The site allows you to enter your own data into the system and customize the various charts and graphs.






Find and Visualize Online Artifacts: Anthropologists (at least from what I’ve seen academically) are just starting to become attuned to plethora of data and artifacts that are publicly available online. Photo and video sites such as Flickr and YouTube are chock full of artifacts that we can draw upon to further contextualize our work. Tools such as Tag Galaxy (http://cli.gs/yYa5Tq) allow you to type in a keyword and see related tags and the photos that are associated with them.





There’s no doubt many more applications for data visualization to anthropology. The point here is that applied anthropologists have to make their findings accessible to their clients and the people they study. Data visualization is a great toolbox/practice that will support the discipline in presenting findings in a way that is mutually comprehendible and visually pleasing – especially in business. I see the field of data visualization as a way to continue to bridge the gap between the academy and the field, as anthropologists continue to work to find the right formula for conducting valid ethnography within the time and money constraints of the business world.

A New Cultural Paradigm

As we head into 2009, we are inundated with talk about the recession, the credit crunch, the housing crisis, the stimulus package, and on, and on, and on...There’s no doubt that the marketplace and many individuals find themselves in a frenzy.

If we step back however, and analyze the situation from a cultural and anthropological perspective it’s quite interesting to see what is going on. We are witnessing a number of micro-cultural shifts that together are forming a new cultural paradigm on a macro level.

We are experiencing a shift in our culture of consumption. Our social currency, rituals, and beliefs are changing right before our eyes. And while we can’t at this point name it, if I had to bet on it, I would say that the cultural and behavioral changes that are occurring in response to this economic crisis are going to permanently change the way that we as people consume for generations to come.

Gone are the days of mass conspicuous consumption and unquestioned trust in corporations. What people are experiencing today from the job market to the supermarket is going to have lasting cultural and psychological effects. We have already seen that consumers are being much more careful about their purchases. Furthermore they are fully skeptical of corporate executives. Brands and companies must more than ever prove their value through quality, transparency and generosity – because the culture of consumption has changed indefinitely.

As our clients continue to come to us for answers and advice on how they can make it through these times, remember that it’s not just about surviving today. Price cuts and discounts are a temporary tactic that will only undermine their brands once things get better. We have to remind ourselves and our clients that once the economy recovers from this mess, people are not going back to their old ways. Now is the time to solidify our spot as players in this new cultural paradigm.

The Ethics of Blog Monitoring

In the corporate world blog monitoring is becoming a more and more popular means of conducting primary research. Unlike focus groups or one-on-one interviews, the blogosphere is seen as an uninhibited universe where consumers discuss anything and everything without the influence of researchers or other respondents. And it makes total sense – consumers are literally living out part of their lives online. We certainly cannot ignore what they are doing there. Furthermore, it is proven that what people say about products, service and brands has significant impact on buyer behavior. How many times have you researched a product online before buying it?

Having done blog monitoring first hand, I know that the insights that emerge are rich and valuable. But as an anthropologist, ethics have been engrained into my brain. I can’t think of a single graduate course I took that didn’t spend a significant portion of the time discussing the ethics of conducting anthropological research. I committed to being candid about who I am and why I’m conducting research. Also, I promised to reciprocate for the things that I learned. And finally, I pledged to make my findings open to the public for the greater good of the communities I study. But there are some major conflicts here. How does this translate to the online space, where the identity of myself and those I study are often anonymous? This is further complicated by the fact that as the employee of a corporation, my findings are more often than not proprietary.

I’ll admit, that while I made these promises and I’ve certainly pondered the ethics of this type of research I don’t have all the answers. I’d like to think that the work I do studying the blogosphere in the end is for the greater good, rather than an attempt to sell people more things and services they don’t need. Often my findings identify need gaps and concerns that consumers have, allowing my clients to address them. But what would consumers say if they knew that their blog was being monitored. Would they change what they wrote?

I wonder who’s looking at my blog right now…?