Ethnographic Research

Research is on.

This week started on a Saturday, like most Student weeks do. Me and flatmate, coursemate and friend Alice set out in Wood Green, equipped with camera, boards, questions – and warm clothes. It was a windy London day, and we were all ready for approaching unaware and innocent- looking people on the streets for quick interviews.

We divided between our projects, and decided it was best to go for one project per interviewee, as the girls we interviewed initially seemed relatively overwhelmed by the amount of questions. For my project I got the girls, a man who ate a snack bar – andErnie, a body builder promoting his nutritional scheme! Oh lucky day. They were all wonderful, and it was very interesting to hear a quick opinion on what they think was ‘healthy food’.

Later this week I had an intertview with a fellow student, Ryan, one of hopefully many interviewees this week to reveal insights and to dismiss/reinforce stereotypes and statistics in my research. Another interview was made of one of my friends, Katharina, where I got the insight from the girlfriend-perspective – how she percieves the way this group interacts with a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. First interview of Ryan is filmed, second of Katharina is taped and noted.

HOOK – TARGET GROUP – BRAND

So, for updates on how the research fits into the plan of mapping my project in terms of a key target user, here’s my thoughts:

• HOOK: My hook, I have decided, are men between the age of 24-35, and in a pre-/no family lifestage, which is based on statistics shwoing this particular group as more likely than anyone to have an unhealthy lifestyle. I’ve renamed this week ‘Research-Week’, where I will only focus on ethnographic research to ground my concepts into a real scenario with real people. The research this week is divided between; Full interviews, on-the-streets interviews, ‘consumer safari’ and revising of earlier diary research. As I have limited time, and in the need for insights and opinions, I have decided to focus more on the full interviews of the actual target group, than to spend time analysing what they eat, to draw cocnlusions from that. As I tried this with the food diary for one day, it seems more rewarding to go into a discussion around the topic in an interview. All the interviews are filmed with notes.
• CONSUMER PROFILE: Will be a summary of the insights, different types of people and common features from the interviews and observations. This will be made at the end of this week when all the interviews are over. Monday is set for analysis and idea generation.
• Personal VIEWPOINT, brand, or both?: I think it would be more interesting, and more suitable for the diverse nature  of my products (old, new and future) to choose a person, and include some of the brands in his life. So a mix of both I assume. I will be looking at brands that have coherence with my project brief and target group, to form a story behind him. Examples now would be: A beer company, a pub, a sandwich or kebab shop, a supermarket, a gym, a soda company, a workplace and a phone company. Ish. More info coming next week.

And – I saw this advertisement for Google Chrome in the tube today, which I think tells a nice story of the consumer.

[Via http://maidmonica.wordpress.com]

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