Ethnography is the study of the surroundings and circumstances in which products and services are used. During an ethnographic study, a team of skilled researchers of Majestic MRSS conduct customer visits to observe an existing product or service in use, or the environment in which a potential new product or service may be used. During the visit, the team focuses on specific areas of interest, but also takes stock of the general environment - the context that defines the customers’ world. The team may use a variety of observational techniques, including:

• Passive observation, where the researcher says nothing and aims to be as "invisible" as possible
• Capture live actions of respondents during the visit to explore the applications of existing product or service by the respondent in his/her daily day to day life activities
• "Time-slicing" studies, where the researcher documents the subject’s activities during predetermined intervals throughout the study period
• Periodic observation interspersed with intervals of in-depth interviews
• Detailed, respondent-narrated walk-through of tasks and activities

Focus groups and one-on-one interviews typically generate highly useful verbatim transcripts, but ethnography adds an assortment of several other data elements to the mix, including: still photographs, movies, respondents actions and respondent diaries of tasks performed. The result is a much more complete picture of the customers’ environment and additional advantage point from which the team can discern the answer to the underlying business questions and answers behind the entire research.