The Mindcam methodology: perceiving through the native's eye

Abstract

Purpose

Consumer researchers and marketing practitioners increasingly appreciate the potential of videography to generate better insights into consumers' behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Mindcam research methodology as an addition to the videographers tool‐kit, which uniquely records and interprets videographic data from a first‐person perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The philosophical rationale for collecting observational data from the informant's perspective is presented. A full description is provided of an innovative research method that allows market researchers to observe, record and interpret consumers' experiences from the informants' literal and figurative viewpoints. The technical and ethical issues that should be addressed when using this methodology are specified.

Findings

Observational research presently shapes and edits data as it is collected, filtering others' behaviour through the researcher's perspective to generate interpretive insights. Recording consumers' lived reality, from their own unedited perspective, allows the consumer experience to be re‐lived by the researcher. This assists in generating a negotiated interpretation of the consumer's reality. Findings are not constrained by the researcher's perspective of the informants' reality.

Originality/value

This new method integrates own‐perspective videography with post‐hoc visual elicitation, thereby generating informant‐driven perspectives of their own lived consumption reality. Dual‐mode presentation of the data (original experience with the informant's interpretation) enables viewers to judge the truthfulness of the interviewer‐informant negotiated interpretation of the informant's lived consumption reality. Enough information is provided for others to employ the Mindcam method in their own research.

Citation

Starr, R.G. and Fernandez, K.V. (2007), "The Mindcam methodology: perceiving through the native's eye", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 168-182. https://doi.org/10.1108/13522750710740835