An Interview with Robert V. Kozinets

As section editor of the “Digital Consumer” in the 2011 SoDA’s Digital Marketing Outlook I had the opportunity to speak with Robert Kozinets about his unique brand of online ethnographic research – netnography. An anthropologist by training, Robert is recognized as a pioneer of contemporary consumer research and is published in countless industry journals and is Professor of Marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto.

Briefly, what is netnography and how does it differ to traditional ethnographic research?

Netnography is cultural research adapted to the unique contingencies of the online environment. It is a cultural look at social media. Online, there is surely culture and community, but lots of things about culture change. Conversations are archived, for instance. Bodies are not present. "Location" becomes rather malleable. Identity is in flux. That means we need new techniques specifically adapted to this altered state of reality, a new state of culture. Netnography was devised for this purpose.

What are the primary collection tools and techniques employed in netnograpic research?

Netnographic data comes in three flavors. There is archival data that is already present on the social web, such as the many forums that are going on right now talking about Angelina's hair and lips. There is archival data that the researcher can elicit from people online, such as having an interview, or posting on a Brangelina forum. Finally, there is reflective data, field notes, that the researcher creates as she reflects on her own online experiences in a relevant way. Each is important. And each can rake place across multiple domains, such as wikis, forums, newsgroups, in virtual world, blogs, microblogs, social networking sites, mobile, and so on.

What unique consumer insights can be gleaned by tapping into the social media channels?

Consumers discuss things differently when their discussions are unelicited. Netnography allows us to see what consumers find important enough to discuss with one another without prompting. The same is true of other high-quality social media monitoring methods. The different in netnography is that the cultural and social nature of those interactions is respected, and treated as an inherently important part of the data. Unobstrusively derived, naturally occurring data are what we are after.

Identify a few fundamental shifts in consumer behaviors and/or expectations in the last 2 years.

Consumers are increasingly aware that the world of business is becoming a place that wants to integrate with their many social worlds. This is a gradual change, but it seems to have leaped forward in the Facebook age. So much of some people's social lives is conducted not only online, but online and within a business arrangement, that people are alarmed. They are alarmed, and also resigned to it.

What new consumer and/or sociocultural trends have emerged in the last year?

Laughing at the death of privacy. People sometimes realize that they have no privacy, but they deny it. If they realize it, then they laugh it away. We are becoming used to living under a corporate microscope. No one likes it, but most people will acknowledge that it is true and that they cannot do much about it.

How do you see those trends evolving over the following 12-18 months?

I think we will see companies like Facebook continue to make mistakes in how they use consumers' private data. and I think that through those mistakes the boundary between what is a community and what is corporate property will continue to shift and move. I think a major legal case will emerge in the USA to test some of those boundary assumptions. I think the role of some of these online tools in cyberbullying, online suicides, and such will require people to rethink some of these changes. But I also think that the trend will continue and intensify.

What impact might those trends have on the way that brands market their products and services?

The opportunities to engage with people in a meaningful way through their online social networks has never been greater. But the frustrating ham-fistedness of businesses in dealing with this new reality is seriously undermining the potential of the medium. Seriously, sometimes I think that the people who are running many of the social media marketing campaigns are the least in touch not only with social media itself, but with their own social sides. If privacy invasions continue with no sensitivity to the consumer, a number of brands will be individually burned. If they become more rampant and their infringements more egregious, the whole industry may be taken the task, as with the recent FTC guidelines that hit word-of-mouth marketers and marketing. It's still the wild West in social media marketing. I think we’re going to see more sheriffs coming to town.