Worth a Thousand Words
Gwen S. IshmaelDecision AnalystJerry W. ThomasDecision AnalystIt has been said and repeated millions of times that "a picture is worth a thousand words." The truth of this old proverb is part of the underpinnings of ethnography (or observational research) and suggests that "seeing" reveals what words alone cannot describe. Traditional ethnography, as applied to marketing research, involves the analyst spending time observing the consumer in her natural lair, so to speak, as she goes about buying and using a product or service. But ethnography does...