The Trend of Ignoring Trends (And Why Ethnographic Research Beats Focus Groups)

Most drinks brands spend thousands of dollars on focus groups and surveys yet miss the insights that actually matter. Here's why observation beats interrogation every time.

Traditional market research has a fundamental flaw: it asks people to articulate behaviors they perform unconsciously and problems they've learned to accept as normal. When drinks brands gather consumers in facilities with double-sided mirrors, they're optimizing for the wrong environment entirely.

The real insights don't happen in research facilities. They happen at bars, in homes, at festivals, during Sunday dinners, and sometimes in completely unexpected places like McDonald's.

This distinction between where brands look for insights and where insights actually exist represents one of the most significant missed opportunities in the drinks industry today.

Ethnographic research is the methodology that captures these authentic moments, and it fundamentally challenges how most brands approach consumer understanding.

What Ethnographic Research Actually Means

Ethnographic research centers on going where people naturally are and observing what they actually do, rather than asking structured questions in artificial environments. This approach reveals unconscious behaviors and unarticulated needs that traditional research methods systematically miss.

The methodology doesn't require silent observation from a distance. Participant observation allows researchers to be present and engaged.

If researchers want to study how people drink at bars, they should have a drink.

If they want to understand how someone navigates their small kitchen while preparing dinner, they should help them cook and experience the space constraints firsthand.