Ethnography

The foundation for understanding consumers and connecting with them should always begin in their own habitat – their home, their workplace and the fun places they go to. Also consider their way of life, and their community.

We have developed unique tools that are different to conventional immersions where clients experience only a glimpse of people’s lives when they visit a consumer in their home. Our methodology is far more holistic and includes various aspects of peoples’ lives – not only the home context.

Most importantly, since many in developing nations still live with their extended families (versus Western-style nuclear families), we include community-orientation in ethnography.

Some examples:

• We immersed ourselves with whisky-drinking consumers in Mexico and Brazil to understand who they are, where they are coming from and going to – and how whisky and our clients’ whisky brand fits into their lives.
• We cooked stews with Nigerian women to identify the hero ingredients. Our clients were interested in the step-by-step cooking process in order to formulate improved seasoning ingredients that are aligned with culturally relevant dish-preparation and preferences.
• We went on a journey of discovery in South Africa, Kenya and Ghana to get under consumers’ skin. We observed their cleansing and moisturising rituals, while testing the impact of the environment on their behaviour (air temperature, water quality etc.). All this to establish the potential for new product development, specifically designed for the African market.

Our ethnographic approach is a collaborative one – it includes the sharing of experiences across all team members and the client. This helps build a body of knowledge that enables our clients to intuitively predict what will and won’t work in the future.

If you want to know more about our unique ability to connect with real people, please reach out to us.