ORGANIC ETHNOGRAPHY: CAPTURING TRUE CONSUMER INSIGHTS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE, Daila Bufford of Psyma International

While Daila Bufford, Senior Consultant with Psyma International, does not believe that any single research technique is a panacea, she extols the value of ethnography (in-home observation and discussion) as the best way to assess lifestyles and understand the ways in which consumers use and store particular products.

At this afternoon's breakout session at the Shopper Insights Conference, Bufford detailed three rescent, and very different, ethnographic studies that she has been involved in. The first involved interacting with automotive services sales associates; the second, consumer interaction with products in public restrooms; and the third, understanding how females choose, use, store and transport cosmetics.

As ethnographic studies, all these projects employed the same basic components: observing and assessing the environment; interviewing the consumers; sending the consumers out on mystery shopping exercises, during which hidden cameras videotaped the experience; reviewing the tapes; debriefing the consumers; and then observing how the consumers used and stored the products involved.

And the key take-away? Ethnography is a valuable research tool because of its ability to turn the participant into the researcher.


Contact information for Daila Boufford:

Daila Boufford | Senior Consultant
Psyma International Inc. | a PSYMA GROUP company
661 Moore Road, suite 120 | King of Prussia, PA 19406 | USA
Phone: 610-992-0900 ext.114 | Fax: 610-992-0905
daila.boufford@psyma-usa.com | www.psyma-usa.com