Editor's note: Cara Woodland is director, discovery and innovation, Innovation Focus Inc., a Lancaster, Pa., consulting firm.
The competition is fierce for a job opening. The human resource director has a choice between two candidates. Candidate 1 has had successful job experience in this kind of position and Candidate 2 is well-versed in books written by top performers in the field. Which one do you think was chosen?
A similar situation occurs with ethnographic market research, the study of consumers in their natural or home environment. If the sponsoring company is not directly involved in the site visits and analysis of the data, it is easier for it to disregard and not apply the research. How many times has research been conducted, a report written, and then the report sits on a shelf? For the most effective ethnographic research, it is imperative that the sponsoring company be involved in the research.
The death of good research is not in implementing the results. If involved, the sponsoring company will live and breathe the life of their consumer and hear the stories and words directly from the mouth of their consumer. Not only does this produce buy-in for the consumer's perspective in the organization, but those conducting the research feel more obligated to represent their consumers accurately. The consumers' stories become the company stories, and there is a greater likelihood that the research will be implemented and bring change to the organizational culture.
If the sponsoring company is not involved in the research, it is easier for it to be influenced by its biases when reading a research report. Even if verbatims are included, the sponsoring company was not there to understand the environmental context of the quote. Personal and company biases can influence the reading of the report and make discounting the research, research company, or consumer that much easier. Firsthand experience always makes a stronger case.
Involved in a number of ways
A sponsoring company should have more than an advisory role in ethnographic research and could be included in a number of ways. First-level participation includes representatives of the sponsoring company as observers during site visits. Their responsibility is to observe the research, take notes and possibly ask a question or two of the consumer.
With increased involvement, company participants share equal responsibility with an outside research vendor in conducting site visits. In this case, the outside party acts as a coach to work with the sponsoring company in conducting interviews, recording observations and debriefing.
The method with highest company involvement is to have the sponsoring company conduct the research independently. In this case an outside party may not be involved at all or may only be involved in helping to manage the logistics of the research. If this method is used, it is important that the sponsoring company is adequately prepared to enter its customer's world. Training those who will be involved in conducting the research is imperative and should cover topics such as personal and company biases; phrasing open-ended, non-leading questions using consumer vocabulary; and observation and memory skills essential to ethnographic research.
It is also as important to get the right mix of people from the sponsoring company involved in the research. A cross-functional team allows multiple perspectives to interpret the information gathered. Diversity in skills will balance the team and more depth in the research will be gained if at least two pairs of eyes and ears are watching and listening. It is also important that those responsible for implementation of the research results be involved. This allows them to have input from the very beginning and creates buy-in to the outcomes.
In a recent study with Western Union, the executive committee was not involved in conducting the research, so the internal team brought the research to them. The Western Union team thought it would be much more powerful if the Western Union consumers from the research study presented the recommendations to the executive committee, and it worked. The committee gave an overwhelmingly supportive response; implementation of the research results and product concepts are in progress.
Always preferred
A research report is only good if it is read and believed, and a company directly involved in the consumer experience is more likely to have buy-in and implementation of the results. Firsthand experience is always preferred over secondhand information.