Ethnographic research on consumer products amounts to cultural anthropology that revolves around why and how people use products in their homes. Ken Harris, owner of product research and design consulting firm Fred Sparks, has spent hundreds of hours in homes asking questions to research a new product or product hypothesis and has emerged with information that has helped companies “get to the why as opposed to the what.”
“You can use things like Neilson data and sales data, and that gives you information on what consumers are doing,” he says. “If you want to get to why consumers are doing what they’re doing – the essence of it –and find ways to be disruptive within your (market), ethnographic research is that opportunity.”
For example, Harris, was asked to research a concept for ear buds that revolved around licensing with a celebrity athlete. His conversations and interactions with consumers in their homes led to a definitive finding that they were completely uninterested in that endorsement by that celebrity. He also designed a new product based on what consumers told him about how and why they use ear buds. The result: the new ear buds became the fastest-selling product in the company’s history.
Ethnographics also helped a sports equipment company turn around flagging sales of a chest protector for female softball catchers, who were customizing the equipment to better meet their needs, and prompted the company to redesign the product specifically with the torso of women in mind. The result: the product was revitalized and remains the premium product offered by that company. Half of the female catchers at the 2008 Olympics used that chest protector. Some of the company’s consultants were coaches of those players, but the subject had never been brought up and both players and coaches missed the connection to the near demise of the product.
Finally, Harris saved a huge beer company hundreds of millions of dollars by advising against marketing a product that no one he talked with said they wanted. Further, he was able to advise the company on a new beer flavor that would connect with consumers based on his ethnographic research.
“They thought they were going to completely shift a culture and it wasn’t going to happen based on their hypothesis, Harris said, “and we found many factors that had been missing that they could now capitalize on.”
