Consumer solutions
Digital Ethnography
Go beyond claimed actions and observe real behaviour in the moment. The gap between what people say and do is often where the most valuable insight lives.
(participant filming their daily routine)
The approach
How it works in practice
Use incling's video, photo, screen-record, and audio tasks to bring participants' worlds, behaviours, and experiences to life, in real time and on their own terms.
01
Photo and video diaries
Participants document their daily routines, environments, and product interactions using their own devices, in the moment and on their own terms.
02
In-context observation
Observe first hand how people use a product or service in their home, at their desk, or on the go, rather than in a controlled environment.
03
Unfiltered in-the-moment reactions
Capture genuine emotional responses as they happen, not a retrospective version shaped by time or social desirability.
04
Structured task prompts
Guide participants through specific activities such as a shopping trip, a morning routine, or a product trial, and gather rich, contextual responses at every step.
05
Multi-market reach
Run the same ethnographic tasks across multiple geographies simultaneously, with automatic translation keeping everything accessible in one hub.
Why incling
Why incling beats traditional research
Traditional ethnography is expensive, slow, and geographically limited. Digital ethnography with incling removes each of those barriers without sacrificing the richness of what you find.
| Traditional ethnography | Digital ethnography with incling |
|---|---|
| Researcher must travel to participant locations | Participants self-document in their own space |
| Limited to one geography at a time | Runs across multiple geographies simultaneously |
| Researcher presence can alter behaviour | More natural behaviour, less observer effect |
| High cost and long timelines | Faster and more cost-effective at scale |
Outcomes
What you will uncover
The insight that comes from watching behaviour rather than asking about it.
Hidden context
The mood, environment, and micro-moments that shape decisions, which remain invisible in a survey.
Workarounds and friction
The clever fixes participants have stopped noticing, and the pain points they have learned to live with.
Real-world routines
How your product fits, or fails to fit, into the rhythm of everyday life.
Emotional truth
Genuine reactions and unconscious behaviours that go beyond stated preferences to reveal what people truly feel.
Success story
Assessing DTC subscription opportunities with Purina and Clear Strategy
The challenge
A global pet food brand identified a growing competitive opportunity to offer direct-to-consumer pet food products via subscription in the UK and Italy. They needed a deep, unfiltered understanding of the entire customer journey, from online purchase through to unboxing and feeding.
The approach
- +Two-week community for dog owners, one week for cat owners, in both the UK and Italy
- +Participants trialled leading local competitor subscription brands and documented the full experience
- +Feedback captured at every stage: website interface, product range, unboxing, and pet reaction
- +Follow-up two-hour online groups to explore trial experiences and emotional drivers in depth
The result
The project gave the brand a clear view of the category landscape and identified exactly where competitors excelled or fell short, providing a strong foundation for their own distinctive DTC proposition.
"By observing the journey in real time, they were able to identify exactly where competitors excelled or fell short, providing a strong foundation on which to shape their own distinctive DTC proposition."Read the full story
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ExploreReady to see incling in action?
Talk to the team about your research challenge and see how digital ethnography could work for your project.