Offline ethnography

Home visits

Let us see the consumer in a natural setting, and as a result we get a better understanding of their habits and lifestyle.


Some of the approaches to conducting home visits are:

• Depth interviews at consumers’ homes
• Extensive participant observation
• Tests at consumers’ homes
• In-home friendship focus groups

Extras:

• Photo/video reports from consumers’ homes (requires participant’s consent )
• Accompanying clients to consumers’ homes

Accompanied shopping

Allows to observe consumer behaviors at public places and evaluate importance of external factors that influence decision-making.
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Some of the approaches to accompanied shopping include:

• Accompanied visit to a store/café/ any customer service outlet with participant observation and face-to-face interview

KidShadow©

Accompanied visit to a store (closest to the place where the kid lives) where respondent can choose products he/she is interested in; it allows to create a real-life situation and therefore identify:
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• Which product categories attract kinds in real life
• How kids react to POS materials and promos
• What impact product layout has on kids’ choices and reactions

For this purpose it is important to interact with the child face to face and in private (without the parent being involved).
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• Allows to identify behavioral patterns that have been formed in the young shopper

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KidSnapping© method:

• Technology helps us to see the world through the kid’s eyes (literally!).

TrueReaction©

Situation simulation to reveal target reactions in the respondent.
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The method allows to generate initial hypotheses that may be elaborated during the next stages of the research.

Mobile ethnography

Photo and video materials, live reports from the spot provide a sense of immersion in consumers’ everyday routine and special festive moments.
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Some of the approaches to mobile ethnography include:

• Various individual tasks (e.g. writing an essay or recording a video interview on a topic provided)
• Deprivation diary as an additional task
• Diaries
• Format: text, video/photo reports from the place of purchase/shopping or from home
• Mobile forum

Social media

Digital world is a full-fledged reality that not just reflects but largely creates and shapes contemporary life.
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Online environment is a space where thousands of the most topical focus group discussions are promptly organized and perfectly moderated by participants 24/7.

Secret Agent©

Participant observation on Internet forums and social media sides, when the researcher registers and actively participates in online communities where people discuss their experiences and problems.
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Unlike a moderated online forum, the audience is communicating in a more natural setting: users respond to things they really care about rather thinking over moderator’s questions; they discuss their genuine concerns or passions; people feel free to sincerely express their opinions, argue and prove their point.

Offline methods

Some of the research methods are thought to be classic for a simple reason of being proven and delivering the most trustworthy results.
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Some of the approaches to offline research include:

• Focus group discussions
• Variations: triads, dyads, friendship pairs etc.
• Depth interviews
• Concept Labs

However, good old classics should always have a fresh vibe. This is why we use the strengths of classic research, enhancing them with new qualitative and quantitative methods, plus use opportunities offered by the latest technology (eye-tracking, mentimeter etc.)

Online methods

Instead of duplicating experiences of offline methods, online approaches should employ all advantages of web communication. This is why we try to use gamificated platforms with a user-friendly interface, and also make it possible for respondents to log on to the platform whenever and however it is convenient for them.

Some of the approaches to online research include::

• Online communities
• Online blogs
• What’sApp chats

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Additional opportunities:

• Semiotic analysis

Desk research

Desk research can be both a part of a project (most often, a preparatory part), and an independent method, depending on research tasks

Specific tasks of desk research include:

• Exploration and analysis of both Russian and foreign scientific literature on the topic of interest to the client; review of key ideas / directions
• Exploration and analysis of a particular market segment; providing hypotheses on potential niches and audiences

Deep dive©

Using an integrated five-stage method, we team up with the client to create new products and find territories with the greatest potential.
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1. Briefing with the brand team to generate hypotheses for the project
2. Home task for respondents to enhance their involvement in the study and get additional material for analysis
3. Friendship/standard dyads/triads with respondents
4. Brainstorming /workshop (joint session with client). The tasks here are:

• Analyze and discuss research findings
• Generate insights or concepts to be tested during the final stage.

5. Verifying focus groups

Brainstorming

The method is suitable when you look to generate new ideas within your company

Workshop

Workshop is a way to quickly and effectively explore the existing hypotheses or generate new ones.
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Some of the approaches to workshops include:

• Workshops at the start of the research project to generate initial research hypotheses
• During the research:
• to immerse all persons interested in TA’s customer experience,
• to clarify and finetune the hypotheses
• At the end of the research
• For interactive presentation of results,
• To generate ideas that would help to improve products, services, communication concepts and for other analytical and creative tasks
• Instead of the research ​
• There are situations when a company has neither time nor a budget to conduct a study. Then we can help you facilitate a workshop to address your company’s goals and tasks together

Intro presentation©

We’ve been exploring kids, teens and parents for years, thus becoming experts in these complicated and changeable audiences.
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We will be happy to share our knowledge with you!
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What are these presentations for?

• They provide a deeper understanding of your audience
• They help you identify some aspects you may not be aware of to improve your work with the audience
• They help to better formulate questions and tasks of a potential research project

Insight 3D©

It is a special type of workshop where we invite not only the client team, including marketing-related departments and advertising agency, but also the consumer team..
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A workshop consists of two stages:

1. Immersing workshop participants in the project topic

• Working on the project together

1. Getting acquainted with real consumers

• Introducing project findings to the audience
• Finetuning the ideas together