Context

Context-based Research Group was established in 1999, the goal was simple – to help marketers and product designers do better work through the power of ethnography.

Margaret’s Walking Stick is Context’s perpetual anthropology / ethnography education project. Each month contains a cultural insight from around the world. This year it is devoted to teen trends.

Go to this page to download any of the following reports:

• The mobiles: social evolution in a wireless society
  A growing and vibrant international subculture has seamlessly integrated wireless products into their daily existence: The Mobiles. Context-Based Research Group’s latest global study reveals a shift in human consciousness as wireless integration alters behavior, attitudes and etiquette around the world ­ as well as how business should adapt to this evolution.
• The new normal: portrait of today’s consumer
  How are people doing one year after the attacks of 9/11/01 and what direction might businesses take to best communicate with them and meet their changing needs? Context-Based Research Group and Carton Donofrio Partners went back to the original participants from our initial 9/11/01 study, “Who I Am? How Business Can Survive a Global Crisis of Identity,” to find out the answers to these questions.
• 9/11 study: Who am I? how business can survive a global crisis of identity.
  Carton Donofrio Partners and Context-Based Research Group utilised their proprietary global network of anthropologists to conduct research in eight cities in the United States and in Israel, Northern Pakistan, Indonesia, Columbia, China and France. The anthropologists conducted interviews with consumers, who also produced photo essays, to get insights on how people were altering their lives after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. As the field reports came in, ethnographers and business strategists outlined scenarios to help companies who are looking for direction in this altered consumer environment.
• Home for the holidays. Retailers challenged to respond to shoppers’ new needs.
  This global study, conducted by Carton Donofrio Partners and Context-Based Research Group’s network of anthropologists, collected insights as to new holiday shopping behavior from gift selection, to holiday budgets and the desired in-store experience. Based on the research results, Context and Carton Donofrio Partners outlined possible holiday shopping scenarios in order to help companies prepare for the critical season.
• Global study on travel examines consumer behaviors
  The latest report published by Carton Donofrio Partners and Context Research Group gives new insight into the effects of current consumer experiences during business and leisure travel. A team of anthropologists in Tokyo, London, Israel, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando and Las Vegas gathered data from a global sample of travelers and identified basic needs that are not currently being met by the travel industry. These findings were used to understand and pinpoint opportunities within the travel experience where industries such as hotels, rental car companies, attractions and cruises can better meet the needs of their customers.
• Wireless opportunities: a global ethnographic study
  No one truly knows what consumers really want in a wireless experience. By interviewing
  and observing users of web accessible PDA’s, cellular phones with Internet access,
  pagers, and messaging devices, Context explored what “killer apps” and inventions people will want and need in the future.
• GenWired 2000: a longitudinal study of youth and technology
  This study explores the development of young people and interactive media in the home space and beyond. The study is designed to generate new technology ideas, marketing implications and social insight for innovations that improve people’s lives.
• Women in the outdoors
  This study of how women interact with and relate to the outdoors can help outdoor product manufacturers and retailers enhance marketing and product development efforts – particularly in response to the emerging casual outdoor market.