Open AccessSession 3 ‐ New Niches for Old: Adding Value in an Economic Downturn Paul Durrenberger (Penn State Univ, USA), Curator: Challenges and Opportunities for Ethnographic Market Research in Uncertain Times
Author(s) -
Zelt Ean
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-8918.2009.tb00134.x
Subject(s) - session (web analytics) , context (archaeology) , ethnography , value (mathematics) , compromise , sociology , recession , state (computer science) , marketing , public relations , computer science , political science , economics , business , social science , advertising , geography , archaeology , algorithm , machine learning , anthropology , keynesian economics
While we believe in‐depth, observational approaches are still the most powerful way of developing an understanding of users, we must adapt our approach to fit within current economic constraints. One way is to employ economical phases of research that support and strengthen data gathered from in‐person, in‐context engagements. Specifically, these are preliminary landscape and trends analysis, which provides focused paths of inquiry, and online engagement, which allows us to interact with people over a longer period of time and identify stronger participants for in‐person research. The second is to demonstrate to clients how our approaches are broadly applicable and scalable–in terms of activities, participant numbers, and length of engagement–to meet today's immediate goals. Instead of seeing merely compromise, we see opportunity. The adaptations brought on by our new reality are helping us to develop new ways to bring value to clients and challenging us to be creative in ways that will continue to be relevant even after the economy rebounds.