Tag Archives: strategy

Strategy and Culture Change Inside the Agency

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In a world with consolidation of client budgets, agencies must begin to target the projects and clients that will allow them to flex not only their creative muscles, but also demonstrate their strategic prowess.  This business and economic climate results in organizations increasing their focus on cost reduction at all levels. This most definitely includes marketing and advertising budgets not necessarily shrinking, but an increased focus on value. Clients are hiring entry-level designers to handle “grunt work,” and replacing tasks previously handled by the agency with projects requiring higher-level thinking.  Obviously, the risk here is that the agency must have the capability and desire to take on this new role.  They must want to be more of a strategic partner than a supplier of clever content.  And that is a significant challenge.

Changing the worldview of people in any cultural context is difficult.  It isn’t as simple as providing new tools or a new slogan. It requires thinking about how long-term modification will influence the cultural and psychological systems people hold dear to their hearts.  Culture change is the term used in public policy making that emphasizes the influence of cultural capital on individual and community behavior. It places stress on the social and cultural capital determinants of decision making and the manner in which these interact with other factors like the availability of information or the financial incentives facing individuals to drive behavior.  Shifting social zeitgeist  (whereby social norms and values that predominate within the cultural capital in society evolve in over time) and requires understanding the motivations and cultural underpinnings of an industry defined by solo acts.  The “big idea” is more than a way of expressing the push to find that singular message in advertising, it represents the way people within agencies work.  It is the lone wolf with the brilliant idea jockeying for power both internally and with the client.  Breaking through that cultural construct is difficult, but a necessity in the changing face of advertising and marketing.  Collaboration and strategic thinking, so readily taken on in the industrial design and product development worlds, are becoming absolute necessities in the world of advertising and marketing.

The opportunity for marketing and advertising firms, especially smaller firms, now lies with the chance to transform their relationships with clients from being the production shop to a strategic partner that can be a valuable solution to a variety of problems.

When Ethnography is a Good Fit (and when it’s not)

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Ethnography is not the panacea, there are certain research questions/goals that make for a nice fit and others that do not. Ethnography is a good fit when:

  • A product/service or market is not well understood
  • Thinking or use of a product/service has stagnated
  • The goal is new insights or understandings
  • A consumer segment is not well understood
  • Prior to and after a segmentation or other quantitative study
  • To help “put meat to” or add dimension to quantitative understanding

Ethnography is not a good fit when:

  • Understanding is already complete
  • Hypotheses are fully bought into
  •  To generate measures of statistical significance and generalization
  • To identify statistically reliable consumer segments

10 Things to Look For When Hiring an Ethnographer

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Following are a number of questions every ethnographer should be able to answer.

1.  Is my project a good fit for ethnography?

Your ethnographic provider should be able to determine whether ethnography is a good fit based on your business objectives, timeline and budget. Ethnography is good for teasing out tactical insights, but best for strategic work because it focuses on systems of behavior and cultural meaning.

2.  What methods are utilized during ethnographic fieldwork?

Ethnographers utilize a combination of multiple methodologies, but should always mention participant observation and inductive interviews.  The interview, however, is only part of the process and an ethnographer should be able to discuss how he or she will uncover what people do as well as what they say.

3.  How long do ethnographic projects take to complete?

It depends on the scope of your project, but a really fast ethnography will take a couple months.  If a provider tells you otherwise, they aren’t doing ethnography.  That isn’t to say they aren’t doing ethnographically-informed work, they just aren’t doing a full-blown ethnography.

4.  Do ethnographers have a discussion guide like focus groups moderators?

Yes, however each ethnographer has a different style of inquiry, and will not repeat verbatim what is in the field guide.  The guide is meant to articulate possible avenues of inquiry, but the participant typically directs the conversation.

5.  What is the ethnographic analysis process?

Ethnographers should be able to explain their analytical process and this description should include a reference to social and cultural theory.  It should involve cultural modeling, uncovering variables and a process for systematically connecting elements of information.

6.  What is the difference between videography and ethnography?

Videography is story-telling through video. Videography may capture the moment, but lack the rigor of structured research. Videography is typically a portion of ethnography.

8.  What qualifications should ethnographic fieldworkers have?

They should have significant training in a social science disciplines, such as anthropology or sociology.  They should also have a wide range of field experiences.

9.  How do ethnographers learn ethnography?

They learn the basics of ethnography in graduate school and through hands-on experience in the field. To become a practitioner requires understanding of social science theory, research methods and research design.

10.  How can I be sure I can use the results from ethnographic research?

A good ethnographer will work with you to plan a research project that is designed around your business objective.  Therefore sampling, data collection and data analysis will all be guided by the end goal.  A good ethnographer understands the difference between interesting and actionable findings.

 

By Gavin

Recruiting IS Research: 3 Key Tips When Beginning a Project

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For the most part, most people who do design and market research do not see recruiting  as part of the research process, but as something that happens outside  of and apart from the field-research. Once in a long while, we have a  client with such a short time-frame or such a specific participant 
need that recruiters are necessary. But we try to convince clients to 
give us the time to use our own staff recruit on the ground or at the very least, through conversations over the phone.  Even when using an outside recruiter, simply taking what you get is sloppy work. Research begins during recruitment, not after you are in the field.

We have found that most 
recruiting agencies draw from a pool of people who have signed up to participate in focus groups and who have already  been “trained” to be participants in that way. Increasingly, this is becoming the case for ethnographic participants, as well. While a good interviewer/participant observer can no doubt get around some of the problems of telling them what they want to hear, not having access to the  data generated during the process of finding people to talk to (or  letting them find you) is a severe limitation. It is important to remember that recruiters do not see data collection as their role. For a skilled ethnographer, for whom everything is data, this means that they lose potentially important information.

To be fair, using a recruiter is not always a bad idea. Indeed, there are some very good recruiters out there who we trust implicitly.  They can add to the insights that come from recruiting, but they are few and far between. These recruiters see themselves as partners with the ethnographer rather than simply playing a transactional role.

Experience tells us that when we’ve used recruiters and our own on-the-ground recruits, the people we pick out are usually the more helpful respondents. Methodologically, the process tells us that we are able to establish trust and rapport during recruitment rather than relying on an awkward first encounter that was scheduled months in advance.

So, from the standpoint of doing what is best for the client, it begs a simple question: shouldn’t recruiting be a part of the process of the project and understanding the local context? The process of meeting and talking to people provides insight into cultural norms. Finding out whether or when they might talk with a researcher, let alone allowing the researcher into their lives on a more expansive basis, is an incredibly important sources of information.  This isn’t always an easy task, so it is important to remember the following tips:

  • Define the contexts: Where does an activity or practice take place? Defining the contexts we want to examine helps articulate the range of possibilities for observation.
  • Define the sample: Who are the people we want to talk with? What are the social and cultural circles that will shape the event.  It isn’t enough to define a demographic sample, you need to think in terms of cultural, social, professional and environmental systems.
  • Get dirty: Be willing and able to recognize potential participants while you are actually doing the work.  Take advantage of the setting and use it to recruit.

Recruiting teaches us about daily life, worldview, and what matters most to our participants. It can tell us volumes about how people conceptualize private and public spaces in which 
strangers are welcome to visit.  Recruiting helps establish a sense of shared experience that leads to a richer understanding, which in turn leads to greater innovation.  Ethnography is grounded in the idea of becoming more than a stranger. Without being engaged first hand in the recruitment process, the researcher is losing an profoundly important opportunity.

 

By Gavin

5 Tips for the Part-Time Ethnographer

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Learning To Relax

Advertisers, marketers and designers have long held the role of creating materials that reflect the lives of customers. Traditionally, this has relied on market research that is gathered in something of a vacuum, or reflects the beliefs and practices of the researcher more than the consumer.  People’s preferences all too often are neatly, if unimaginatively, packaged and handed off to a team tasked with creating new design applications, be the application a new product or a new brand platform.

Quantitative methods such as surveys demographics data provide wonderful snapshots of a large population but give little insight into what matters most to people and why it matters.  Usability tests and affinity diagrams provide information about the acceptability of new design concept and prototype, allowing designers to adapt and alter the message of a brand, campaign or product according to people’s stated preferences (which may or may not reflect their true beliefs).

From the qualitative side, focus groups and group interviews provide more qualitative feedback on product concepts,  messages and, to a lesser extent, explore unmet needs. The problem is that focus groups often reflect exaggerated responses and how important it is for humans to feel clever in front of perfect strangers. Additionally, these methods rely on people’s awareness and descriptive ability away from the context in which they would normally be thinking about a topic. In other words, they make things up, usually subconsciously but sometimes intentionally, in order to give an answer to a question. The result for design is mediocrity at its best and radically failed messaging at its worst.

Direct observation combined with interviewing (ethnography and ethnography-lite) is perhaps a more compelling method of coming to understand what people say, think and do.  It has certainly become a fixture in many organizations in recent years. And from a design standpoint it gives both researchers and designers a richer understanding of the issues, practices, and peculiarities of shoppers and the consumer, providing a more complete picture to work from when developing a brand or campaign. The problem is that while the depth of information uncovered is rich and insightful, it often stops short of any real observational depth that can be crafted into something truly meaningful. Surface-level findings are just that – surface level. If fieldwork is to be genuinely inspiring it needs to dig deep.  And researchers need to begin recognizing that their work is a creative, interpretive process.  That means that we needn’t fixate on getting the “right” answer, but that we get an interpretation of data that provides a “creative” answer.  Doing that means rethinking how we conduct research.  Here are 5 tips to making observational research relevant.

Start a conversation. When entering into fieldwork researchers tend to immediately jump into asking questions. The problem is that the abruptness and intrusiveness of these questions often changes behavior, resulting in semi-meaningful answers. To prevent this, begin with conversation and observation. Yes, that means allowing yourself time to get to know your participants as people. Let questions emerge as activities unfold. The simple fact is that we frequently don’t know what we should really be looking for until we’ve had time to immerse ourselves in the surroundings.  Simply put, relax and take your time rather than buffeting people with questions.

Look for patterns. Behavior does not happen in a vacuum.  People are individual organisms, yes, but they work within a social and cultural framework.  That means that activities and statements are always part of a larger pattern of meaning and practice.  Don’t take statements at face value.  Always look for patterns and connections between what people say, believe, and do.

Record information in their terms. Record what the participant says in their own terms rather than paraphrasing. Word choices, inflection, cadence, and non-verbal cues carry meaning that is lost when we try to simplify. Facial expressions and body language convey a great deal of information. Simplicity will come out of the analysis – don’t do it when you are gathering information.

EVERYTHING is data. Seemingly unimportant details are often the pieces that are the most important.  Environment and context have a huge influence on what people say and do.  Therefore, it is crucial when gathering information to include as much as possible in the interpretive process.  It may seem overwhelming, but everything is potential data for the analytical and creative mill.

Relax and embrace a range of perspectives. Research should not be a list of facts and observations if the goal is to generate insights and innovation.  Research is a creative and interpretive act, no matter how much we may try obscure that fact.  As such, research is most effective when a wide array of disciplines are engaged in fieldwork.  Turn off your “scientist” sign and include a range of perspectives both in data collection and in analysis.

Customer research is only as powerful as its outcome.  Generating volumes of consumer insights and observations means very little if those insights and observations can’t be readily translated into something tangible, be it a brand platform, an ad campaign, or a new product offering.   While fieldwork can and does yield powerful insights, it means little if we forget that we are in a creative field that works best when a wide range of skills and perspectives come together.  Both in the field and out.

 

By Gavin