Ethnography

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 U.K. and the U.S. 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.

What is it 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 behaviors. Through embedding ourselves in their lives and recording their behaviors, 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 does it work? Our ethnographic work is conducted by the Ipsos ECE 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 behavioral economics lenses to understand the drivers of behavior and then develop potential interventions to encourage desired behaviors.

In addition to full ethnography, we offer a range of solutions that leverage ethnographic principles in order to address a variety of business questions.