1. Bénédicte Chaboud
Mykhaylo (Mike) Mitkov

2. Agenda
1. What is Netnography
2. Process of Netnographic study
3. Applications: where to use Netnography
4. The game
5. Best practices

3. Netnography
 Netnography = InterNET + EthNOGRAPHY
Netnography is doing Ethnographic study online,
from the comfort of your office
 Ethnography is an observational research
 It is used because there is a difference between what people say they do and
what they actually do.
 Result of Ethnography is a discovery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV0jY5VgymI
position: 3:00 - 09:20min

4. Why do we use netnography?
 The increasing importance of the internet and of consumers who are
active in online communities

5. What does netnography track?
 Internet – source of information for consumers’ lifestyle, product and brand
choices.
•
keep record of interactions
•
quantify changes over time
•
perform analysis
 For advertisers netnography provides culturally-grounded understanding of:
• language
• meanings
• rituals
• practices

6. research planning
entrée
How?
The netnography process
data collection
interpretation
ensuring ethical standards
research representation
Source: Kozinets 2010

7. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion
First: research planning
 Where to go?
 Problem definition
 Research objectives
 Questions to be addressed
define the field of study
How to choose an appropriate online community?
1. Relevant 2. Traffic 3. number of poster 4. rich data 5. between
member interaction
Source: Kozinets

8. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion
Entrée
 Immersion in the communities
Getting to know the players
Learn culture and rituals
 Introducing yourself
Objective: learning as much as
possible about the subject and
getting a better understanding
of the behaviors
Source: Kozinets

9. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion
Data collection
Archive
• Without researcher involvement
Elicited
• Co created by researcher and members
Field notes
• Observational and reflective notes
Source: Kozinets

10. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
Data analysis
 Constructing classification system
 Coding
 Synthesis and contextualization
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion

11. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion
Ethical issues:
1) Are online forums private or public sites?
2) What constitutes « informed consent » in the internet?
 Fully disclose your identity
 Ensure anonymity of members
 Incorporate feedback
 Obtain permission before publishing
Source: Kozinets

12. research
planning
entrée
data
collection
interpretat
ion
ensuring
ethical
standards
research
representa
tion
Research representation
 member check
 add some insights
 correct any possible misunderstanding of the context
 feedback on the work.
Source: Kozinets

13. Benefits for companies
Understand consumer choices
and identify industry trends
Help product engineers develop new and improve
existing products
Assist companies in developing marketing
strategies

14. Advantages of Netnography
Individuals may be more open online than in real
life
Internet provides access to a broader cohort of
respondents
Greater continuity in research
Cheaper and faster than offline research
Plentiful and easy to obtain data

15. Disadvantages of Netnography
Difficult to extrapolate results to the general
population
Focused on textual data
Underdeveloped toolkit for data gathering and
analyses
Instability of the user base
Ethical issues of using information

16. Game
Background
Assume that there is an online community of customers.
Based on where you sit, you work for:
Bank
(TD, RBC, etc.)
CPG
(P&G, Nestle, etc.)
Car manufacturer
(Ford, BMW, etc.)
Retailer
(Canadian Tire,
Loblaw, etc.)
Task
Discuss and present to the class what you could learn about that community and how
you could use it for your company’s benefit (branding, advertising, product
development, etc.)

17. Best Practices of Netnography
Example of Netnography research:
http://www.netbase.com/netnography-and-innovation/example-netnography-onlisterine/

18. Thank you for your attention
Any questions?

19. Sources

Jiyao Xun, Jonathan Reynolds, “Applying netnography to market research: The case of the online
forum”, December 15, 2009, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, Vol. 18, 1, 17–31

Frank-Martin Belz, Wenke Baumbach “Netnography as a Method of Lead User Identification” Creativity and
innovation management, Volume 19, Number 3, 2010

Robert V. Kozinets, “Click to Connect - Netnography and Tribal Advertising” Journal of advertising
research, September 2006,

Robert V. Kozinets, , “The Field Behind the Screen - Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online
Communities”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 39, February 2002.

Robert V. Kozinets, “On Netnography - Initial Reflections on Consumer Research Investigations of
Cyberculture”, Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 25, 1998.

Ray Pettit, “Book review of ‘Netnography - Doing Ethnographic Research Online”, Journal of Advertising
Research, September 2010.

Hiro Sudo, Anferny Chen “Netnography: An Overview (Schulich MBA class)” February 18, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWApBu2ERTU

Stefan Neunhäuserer et al. “Netnography – the movie”, January 26, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pglroxm_Y4o