Comments on: Ethnography is not an in-home interview

By: All This ChittahChattah | ChittahChattah Quickies

All This ChittahChattah | ChittahChattah Quickies — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:56:53 +0000

[...] Ethnography is not an in-home interview – Grant McCracken considers the emerging finger-pointing as Tesco doesn't do as well in the US as they had hoped. Was research (or rather, poor research) to blame? I share his concern about people going through the motions and claiming they've done the research. A prospective client asked us the other day why they would hire us as opposed to simply borrowing a video camera from his brother and dropping into some of their target offices. It's an important question because it reveals a common mindset. My short answer was that they should definitely do that, but that the expertise we are bringing includes (but is not limited to) the ability to plan and execute those interviews so you really do get to something new, and the process for analyzing and synthesizing that data so that we can identify what it means to them and what the opportunities are. Perhaps, as McCracken suggests, Tesco failed to do just that. [...]

By: Mary Walker

Mary Walker — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:45:10 +0000

Hi Grant — heh @jranck on twitter (www.nomadologies) tweeted about this blog post yesterday.

>>>putting the anthropology back in the ethnography. But if I too am obliged to take the larger view, it’s also a matter of putting the IDEO, the Lafley, and the McKinsey back in ethnography.<<<

This is the key point for me.

The effective use of research (enthno or other type) depends on two things:

1) the reseach itself being well done and producing accurate findings
2) the organization having the skill sets required to effectively take in the findings and put them to good use.

If, as you say, the organization doesn’t have capabilities to think strategically, or to make good decisions, or to implement effectively — the best research in the world can’t help them.

By: Bruce Davis

Bruce Davis — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:43:19 +0000

Nothing like shooting the messenger! – Tesco is not the first UK brand to go to America to ‘teach’ branding/retailing full of the self belief of being the ‘No.1′ on our small island culture. Having clients directly involved in doing their own ethnographic encounters is always an interesting exercise in how much they are trying to affirm their own beliefs. Fresh and Easy was always an answer to the question ‘how do you want to shop’ which Tesco’s culture could feel comfortable with.

Ever since I watched consumers in Utah using Campbell’s soup to cook their chicken en masse in the oven tray, I have taken the view that UK brands often fall into the trap of thinking the social life of familiar objects is the same in our two very different cultures.

By: Katarina Graffman

Katarina Graffman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:23:19 +0000

Such a simple and focused description. I had to put it on inculture.com!

By: Mehran

Mehran — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:57:35 +0000

Thanks Grant, This one was very useful and interesting. Please post more on this subject.

By: Mehran

Mehran — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:56:57 +0000

Thanks Grant, This one was very useful and interesting. Please post more on this subject.

By: user researcher

user researcher — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:19:07 +0000

If their website is a reflection of their research, no wonder they’re in such trouble. I read this article and decided to see where there is an F&E near me (got to check it out in person, you know…). Under the “where we are” tab, everything came up as “future store” and the search feature returned no results. For gawd’s sakes, why couldn’t they just put a list of their current stores on the darn site?!

By: Michael Powell

Michael Powell — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:03:15 +0000

I would also like to point out another major flaw at Fresh & Easy, which is that while we likely don’t know the full results or comprehensiveness of their ethnographic research and process, we do know the end result: the store environment. I think the F&E environment should be the subject of greater scrutiny: the problem might be the ethnographers, but we could get a lot of value from looking at the designers, in this case Schorleaf Design. As much as designers out there pay lip service to incorporating research into their design process, there are many, many reasons why this incorporation often fails us. Some of it has to do with translation (on both ends, researcher & designer). And some of it has to do more so with business and innovation strategy (i.e. the executives who get in the way of the translation process). As we know, ethnography can be interpreted in multiple ways. At the same time, design/innovation is about understanding people, as well as anticipating new ways that people might behave. Fresh & Easy is attempting to push some boundaries and shake up a stagnant grocery store industry. Even still, the biggest problem I see, as an anthropologist, in their environment is that they have created a store that revolves more around “cool design” than appropriate design. We could get into details, but I’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks.

By: Susan Abbott

Susan Abbott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:36:29 +0000

Very interesting. So often, we confuse the method with the interpretation. Or think any method can be used by any practitioner. It’s like suggesting that because you can swing a hammer, you are a carpenter.
At the same time, there are a lot of people out there hammering. So we need to teach better hammering. And help clients distinguish hammering from carpentry.

I find the same challenge with the constant trashing of focus groups. It’s a room with a table and some chairs. You can do a lot with that. Or you can do very little with that. The skill of the practitioner is hugely important. And the same is true for every other research method, including quantitative methods. Having good looking and easy tools like Zoomerang doesn’t mean you aren’t just bashing things with a hammer.

You haven’t even mentioned the latest assault, which is giving people a video camera and having an anthropologist phone them up after looking at them applying their makeup, say. And this is also now being called ethnography. It is certainly cheaper. And it might be useful for a lot of things. But it hardly seems immersive in the world of the customer/consumer.

I started reading your book The Long Interview. You suggest there that all of this can be taught. That seems like a good starting point to me.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:47:52 +0000

Wonderful piece, Grant. This one I’m going to spread around.