Ethnography for Marketers – A Book Review

Ethnography for Marketers is a hand-held guide for ethnographic research that dives into every branch of the qualitative method from a professional and applicable standpoint.

Ethnography for Marketers is a hand-held guide for ethnographic research that dives into every branch of the qualitative method from a professional and applicable standpoint. The author uses real client examples to help the reader visualize the process and outcome in a data-driven way. The book supplements my Qualitative Research course well because of the way you relearn the different methods of ethnographic research from a selling perspective. Listen to my podcast book review below!

 

8 Comments

  1. I thought it was interesting how you said that ethnography is extremely important for consumer strategy. I never really considered this but it makes sense because seeing the consumer in their natural habitat can help understand how we reach them. Gorilla ethnography is especially cool because I feel like as advertisers, we can just casually observe people as we go throughout our day and collect extremely valuable info.

  2. The point made about researchers needing to frequently be reintroduced to the audience is such a strong valid point that I feel as though many researchers often forget. It is easy to get stuck in ways that have worked in the past and assume they will work for the future but that is simply not the case. Our society is constantly evolving as well as all of the applications and software we use, everything is evolving thus our perceptions, likes/dislikes, even morals can shift. Being aware of this, the researcher can exceed new heights and stay on top of their target market to ensure that they are still keeping a place in the consumers’ mind.

  3. I liked your music in the beginning. I agree with you, timing and environment is crucial! Also, stepping back and just being a listener can be better than always jumping in and trying to find the answers. The answers will come to you naturally, and out of no where without even realizing.

  4. This book seems really interesting because of the a vast amount of real client examples included. I’d like to know more about guerrilla ethnography as guerrilla tactics are such a fun way to advertise. Research gathered helps continue the evolution of the development of new tactics. As society moves forward, the way we reach others must too.

  5. I enjoyed the guerrilla ethnography example because this type of ethnography seems to eliminate the host of questionable results that come when observing one person closely. Observing large groups of people seem to provide greater insight on consumer behavior than a singular ethnography. This might be useful for brands interested in how people engage with products.

  6. I too did not know what ethnography was until this course, and I can see how this book helped you! It seems like an interesting read. Timelines are certainly important in our industry and it is important that the timeline is as accurate as possible. Without structure, details can fall through the cracks and certainly feel like a campaign is rushed or not properly strategized.

  7. This was probably one of the best books to read while taking the Qualitative course! The most challenging thing for ethnographers is remembering to collect data in ways that are unbiased. I am curious to learn more about presenting ethnographic research to clients as most probably only care about the big data and numeric insights.

  8. Previous to taking Qualitative Research, I must admit I was always a little skeptical about ethnographies and focus groups because they’re time intensive and expensive. Now that we are in the final stretch, I find so much value in qualitative research because of the personal nature of the conversations – something big data will probably never truly measure. I wish I had chosen this book for my podcast and especially had read it prior to conducting the ethnographies for Ocean Spray, because of all the tips and tricks to form a better study. I might buy this book after class ends for my own personal reading. Great podcast!

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