HBS Working Knowledge: The Consumer
HBS Working Knowledge: The Consumer AnthropologistWhen a new product needs testing for consumer reaction, companies traditionally turn to that old market-research mainstay, the focus group. Today, however, alternative techniques offer deeper insights that can inform the product development cycle like never before. Ethnographic market research—somewhat new to marketers but as old as the science of anthropology—is increasingly being used to provide new information about consumers. Using the anthropologist's tool kit of methods and theories, ethnographers are giving corporations an inside look at the cultural trends, attitudes, and lifestyle factors that influence consumer decisions about everything from bathtubs and toothpaste to insurance and batteries.
Permalink | Wednesday, September 26, 2001
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