Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative research technique, characterised by spending extended periods of time with people. We immerse ourselves in their world so we can observe and understand what they say, what they do and how they do it.
What for?
Our Ethnography work helps you understand cultural practices and discover hidden consumer needs. We get to the heart of what matters most to your consumers, by establishing who they are, how they live and what drives their behaviours. Through embedding ourselves in their lives and recording their behaviours, we create deeper, richer and more compelling findings than traditional research methods and we can help to differentiate the “real self” from the “projected self”.
How it works?
Our ethnographic work is conducted by the Ipsos Ethnography Centre of Excellence that communicates deep human truth through production-quality video. Activities and interactions are captured in situ – at home, store, office, street, transport… with a strong focus on the environment surrounding the consumers (in-context observation). The teams use cultural and behavioural economics lenses to understand the drivers of behaviour and then develop potential interventions to encourage desired behaviours.
Ipsos UU Immersions apply the principles of ethnographic research to in-home immersion research. The offer is supported by an Ipsos Immersion App designed for researchers (not participants!) which encourages them to capture ethnographic data in the field. Capturing data in this way means that teams can use visual data to create analysis boards that go beyond articulated behaviour, to take a more cultural view of observed behaviours.
Why our solution is unique?
The Ipsos ECE (Ethnography Centre Of Excellence) is a group of ethnographers, anthropologists, market researchers and filmmakers. We work in 24 markets with public and private sector clients and have hubs in UK and USA. In the past five years we have been awarded ‘Best Session’, ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Overall Contribution’ by MRS. In addition, in 2014 we won Best Healthcare and Best Impact paper at the Market Research Effectiveness awards.
Our in-home Immersions are conducted by trained qualitative researchers who are using the principles of anthropology to help clients understand and critique consumer behaviour.