We employ a range of complementary qualitative research techniques including:
Ethnographic and Observational Research
Increasingly, leading businesses are recognizing the value of ethnographic research and are incorporating this approach into more traditional marketing research methodologies. Ethnography is a holistic technique that goes beyond the limitations of focus groups by taking marketing research outside the laboratory setting. Ethnographers observe, interview, and videotape people in the context of their everyday lives: where they work, live, shop, and play. Ethnography overcomes the artificial nature of surveys and their standard question-and-answer format, which depend on self-reporting and the researcher's frame of reference. And, ultimately, ethnographic research reveals the unspoken cultural and social patterns that shape consumer behavior.
Read more about Ethnography 
Focus Groups
We offer traditional focus groups and onsite group interviews (affinity groups). We're experienced moderators who excel at working with a diversity of populations and market segments.
In-depth Interviewing
Interviewing is most effectively used for understanding the underlying attitudes, beliefs, and cultural influences that motivate consumer behavior. We conduct in-depth interviews in many formats (on-site, at focus group facilities, via the phone) and with respondents of all types: consumers, business customers, executives, and experts.
User Experience Assessment
We'll examine how consumers actually use and experience your products and services to determine their patterns of usage, current level of satisfaction, unmet wants and needs, and suggestions for improvement.
Product Development Studies
Unlike user studies and prototype tests carried out in a laboratory setting, an ethnographer conducts product development studies in their natural setting, with real people in real situations at any stage of the product development cycle. These studies aid product design, concept testing, usability, and product refinement. These studies are a great means of spurring innovation. In another sense, it is similar to buying insurance: product development studies help avoid the pitfalls that lead to a failed product launch.
Web Site Usability Testing
This research is carried out in a home, office, or research facility setting. It is an extremely effective way of testing the real usability and user experience of a web site. Very clear patterns emerge from the observation of the user experience in combination with guided probes from the researcher.
Cross-Cultural and Organizational Analysis
In our increasingly globalized economic environment many companies are now doing business outside their zone of familiarity—across borders of nation, culture, and experience. Many companies have merged with foreign partners or extended their brand into new markets only to realize that there were many cultural obstacles they hadn't planned for. Cross-cultural and organizational analysis helps companies map these new terrains and to build working bridges with their customers and partners across the divide.
Training in Ethnographic Methods
We offer training for market researchers in ethnographic techniques. Our training will assist you in understanding and utilizing ethnography in the future.
Go to: Deliverables
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