Most qualitative methods do not allow researchers to actually see consumers in their natural setting. Ethnography, however, is a distinct form of qualitative data collection that seeks
to understand how social and cultural influences affect people’s behavior and experiences.
Because of this unique strength, ethnography is increasingly being used to help researchers
better understand how cultural trends influence consumer choices.
Ethnography records behavior in natural settings, often involves the researcher in extended experience in a cultural or subcultural context, called participant observation, produces accounts of behaviors that are credible to the persons who are studied, and involves triangulation among multiple sources of data.22 An ethnography of skydiving,
for example, employed multiple methods, using observation of two skydiving sites over a two-year time period, participant observation of one researcher who made over 700 dives during the research, and in-depth interviews with skydiving participants with varying levels of experience