The Secret, Dark Arts of Ethnography: Space, Spatial Theories, and the Study of Social Action in Market Research
The "Playground Noraebang." One of at least 15 similarly named karaoke places across Korea. The word/concept “playground” seems to be the operative culture codeword for adult playspaces in Korea. Photo courtesy of Noe Alonzo.
Ethnomethodology is that word you’ve never heard of, and the secret concept and invisible hand of market researchers quietly focusing you to do what you do, buy what you buy, and even engage in certain social and market actions. It has its origins in largely forgotten, wonkish sociology before being rediscovered by Business and Marketing folks and put into action by big players from Intel and Parc-Xerox labs to Google and every major company you have ever heard of. Too often, “Marketing” is thought of as a synonym for advertising (which it not) or simply the PR basics (such as opening a company Twitter account or Instagram feed, which is more akin to the logistics of having a storefront in the digital age), but increasingly, a part of marketing as telling a story about the brand or product is also simply having the data to know how to tell that story effectively. That data can also tell you what your product even is.
Also, too many people think that market research is simply numbers and demographics. While a profile of the market can be chopped up and spewed into nice pie charts in a PowerPoint presentation, in the end, companies need to know where the rubber hits the road. It needs real data from studies of real use, feedback that is not theoretical. This is where ethnographic research comes in and offers a look at things directly. The reknowned anthropologist put it simply:
“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”
This is one of the most important insights in the study of people and what deep dive ethnographers do; while focus groups and surveys are helpful towards seeing reality as it is, direct (and sometimes, even clandestine) observation, content analysis, or even exotic techniques such as regression therapy can be useful in gaining market insights. In short, this makes some market research look like Anthropology, because that is where some of it is epistemologically rooted. In terms of “how we know what we know, a student in this learning course Unit in the Society of Praxical Research will be immersed in the theory of ethnographic market research while being trained to apply that theory in real-world situations as an ethnographer doing multimedia fieldwork, data analysis, and interpretation. This particular skillset is rare, and its utilization is not common knowledge. Yet, as one of the few places where seemingly esoteric and “useless” academic knowledge commands higher billable hours than a top law firm, it is a useful skillset to learn about and directly experience.
You can take a look for yourself at the various projects Dr. Hurt has been engaged in and the kinds of integrated skills they required.
Our course will place our burgeoning ethnographers into a several, weird-yet-wonderful places, both to have class sessions and do field-based research:
Museum displays of movie-related memorabilia at the Yongsan iPark CGV. are par for the course in CJ’s flagship C(J)G(olden Harvest V(illage roadshow) complex.
WEEK ONE — Theory loading. Learning about Seoul’s flexible sociality (Cho), spatial multi-modality (Shumacher), and the history of a consumer item (coffee consumption in in Korea). We will consume anthrolopologist Sangmee Bak’s “Bitter Concoction“ in a Seoul Starbucks in our first session that will literally place theory into the field while we get the theory digested through directed discussion before journeying over to the Yongsan CGV for an object lession in multi-modal space use.
WEEK TWO — After having read more about the DDP (Hadid Architects, Hwang, Yun), we will spend the late afternoon and early evening doing guided “drifting” through the DDP mega-structure in the spirit of the derivé of psychogeography. applying and recording ethnographic insights with camera, field recorder, and research subject encounters.
WEEK THREE — This week will be pure market encounter and ethnographic research trip, with a descent into camera-friendly Pierrot Shopping in both Dongdaemun and Myeongdong. Here, the students will have free reign to explore and gather data about this consumer play space.
WEEK FOUR — For our final group encounter with Seoul space, we will do an initial ethnographic encounter in Bonny’s Pizza, a trendy location in Seoul’s Haebangchon neighborhood. Afterwards, we will retreat to a local coffee shop to participant-observe to discuss final research output.
Consumption as frenzied, frenetic play on the electronic signboard at Pierrot Shopping in Dongdaemun's Doota.
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