Transforming client practices over time using ethnography

What happens when ethnographers work with the same clients over a long period of time? What power do we have to transform not only products and services, but also the clients themselves?

In this EthnoBorrel we are excited to welcome Christina Cheadle (Stripe Partners, UK) and Jeanne Carre (Insight Culture, Germany) to reflect on their experiences of working with clients over the long term.

Note: We will email attendees the link to this Zoom event closer to the date.

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LONG-TERM PROJECTS: ENSURING CLIENTS' SUCCESS OVER TIME - Christina Cheadle, Stripe Partners

Christina will be discussing both the good, the bad, and the ugly of long-term projects. When properly equipped, working with clients long-term can be rewarding and offer great opportunities for growth. However, if the apt considerations are not put into place ahead of time, it can quickly become a hindrance both professionally and emotionally. She will pull from her current year-long work with local government as well as a 14-week project with a large tech company. Lastly, Christina will provide advice on maintaining long-term client relationships and turning short-term commitments into long-term engagements.

A native Californian, Christina specialises in the study of domestic consumerism and holds a Master of Research in Anthropology from UCL. Prior to joining Stripe Partners, she spent two years working for Marie Kondo (of Tidying Up fame) where she paid special attention to how we form our identities through the objects we own. In addition to material culture, Christina is passionate about the anthropology of dating and most recently has been researching how social infrastructure can shape our society.

VEGETABLES AS A SERVICE: TRANSFORMING A FOOD COMPANY INTO A CLIENT-CENTRED BUSINESS - Jeanne Carré, Insight Culture

Five years ago, Bonduelle Food Service Europe, the B2B division of Europe's largest vegetable producer and processor Bonduelle, started a transformative journey with the driving vision of putting vegetables at the heart of the OOH food consumption. For years, the company had used the same traditional segmentation by product and vegetable type to develop new offerings and launch processing and packaging innovations in its test kitchens and laboratories. But then a new marketing management decided to lift Bonduelle Food Service into the future, namely to establish a customer-centered way of thinking in the company in general and in the strategic thinking and decision-making processes in particular.

The company was accompanied in this process by international research consultancy Insight Culture, whose ethnographic research approaches formed the core of the transformation. Jeanne Carré, sociologist and cultural anthropologist and founding partner of Insight Culture, was significantly involved in the process from the very beginning. She will report on this exciting journey, the methodological approaches, strategic implementations and their successes.

Jeanne Carré (M.A. sociology and cultural anthropology) is the co-founder and managing partner of the international research consultancy Insight Culture. She is a cultural anthropologist at heart and constantly works on developing and fine-tuning the application of anthropological and sociological theory in Insight Culture’s methods and thinking. She has over 25 years of professional experience as a research consultant to international brands. Her research missions have brought her across Europe as well as the globe including Africa, Japan and the US.