Abstract:

Advancing technology, global competition, fragmented and demanding markets, the internet, and the growing power of consumers are major forces, placing intense pressures upon local and global management to understand and better meet the needs of consumers. This paper evaluates the benefits of ethnography observational research in contributing to management consumer understanding. We illustrate the everyday lives of Asian and western consumers with case studies, video clips and analyses, and demonstrate the power of the ethnographic approach to new product development (NPD), branding and communications. Consumers are often unwilling or unable to expose their personal lives in interviewing, and observational research permits direct contact with real Asian everyday life behaviour.