Using ethnography in strategic consumer research

Abstract

This paper describes how ethnographic and quasi‐ethnographic research methods can be used in order to address the problems of the “limitations of asking” and that “people don’t always do what they say”, and to develop a “thick description” of the lived experience of consumers. A range of approaches are discussed and examples of their use in consumer research are given. Two case studies of ethnographic methods being used in strategic commercial research projects are described in detail. The implications for utilising ethnography in order to obtain managerially actionable insights are discussed.