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Ethnography In Marketing Research Ethnographic Term Paper

However, FGD is most vulnerable to external influences and participants have the tendency to be "swayed" by dominant participants. Thus, while it is more interactive and generates more information than in-depth interviews, FGD is susceptible to dominance of one or few participants, thereby resulting to information that is unreliable. Lastly, ethnography provides a more detailed, objective, and authentic information about a phenomenon that is worth noting for purposes of research in marketing. Under ethnography, the researcher acts as the observer, objectively noting, describing, and analyzing recorded data from his/her observations of a particular group of individuals (e.g., consumers who are patrons of or defectors from a particular product or service). Through this method, the researcher "attempts to understand things that are otherwise foreign" (Littlejohn, 1999:211). Thus, ethnography brings into lucidity consumer culture, for the researcher to understand the consumers' sentiments and why a particular attitude is cultivated by consumers toward a product or service.

Khermouch discussion of the benefits of ethnography to market research demonstrates its effectiveness in probing deeply into the opinion and attitudes of people as consumers. Ethnography allows researchers to identify problems that would not have been generated through quantitative techniques, or even...

This is because ethnographic research records the candid and mundane in people's everyday lives and the observer-researcher becomes a witness to it. The commonality of the researcher-observer in the field makes the setting and people's actions real and natural, thus information generated from ethnographic research is highly reliable.
Indeed, from the cases cited in the article, the insightful information that ethnographic research had provided for companies such as Best Western and Nissan, among others, serves as evidence on the usefulness of ethnography for the future of market research. Apart from being interesting, ethnographic research is also able determine the "subtle emotional dimensions that might give them (companies) and edge." In effect, ethnography identifies what is unique in a product or service through the participants (also social actors), and work on these unique features as a point to leverage in its marketing strategy against its competitors.

Bibliography

Churchill, G. (1995). Marketing. Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.

Khermouch, G. (2001). "Consumers in the mist." Business Week Online. Available at http://www.businessweek.com/@@NgphZIYQd5ZxGw0A/archives/2001/b3721102.arc.htm.

Littlejohn, S. (1999). Theories of Human Communication. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Churchill, G. (1995). Marketing. Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.

Khermouch, G. (2001). "Consumers in the mist." Business Week Online. Available at http://www.businessweek.com/@@NgphZIYQd5ZxGw0A/archives/2001/b3721102.arc.htm.

Littlejohn, S. (1999). Theories of Human Communication. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
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