Material Matters

Things are never just things. Materiality matters for market research, argue Simon Blyth and Simon Roberts.

We all want to be 'creative', don't we? Have you ever reflected on how creative you are yourself, whether at home or at work? Do you aspire to be more creative as a qualitative researcher and if so, what does it mean?

Drawing on recent developments in social theory, we will argue the need to reinstate 'the missing masses' into qualitative market research. Raiding the library, we will appropriate a selection of concepts, debates and ideas which prompt a wide-ranging re-assessment for the practice and profession of qualitative market research.

An ability to know the consumer is the source of the qualitative researcher's expertise and authority. We do fieldwork with people and our data sources are largely spoken or textual. What's important for us is how people use, display or, for that matter, ignore things. Rarely, if ever, do we focus on the product, stuff or thing. In any event, things can't talk, be interviewed or take part in group discussions and thus avail themselves to the qualitative researcher. Right?

Not quite. Within sociology, anthropology, cultural studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS), this blind focus on the consumer or, more accurately, humans, is coming under intense scrutiny. What has in the past been considered beyond 'social explanation', namely material objects, things or stuff, is today forming the basis of journal articles, books and PhDs. Everything, these authors contend, is sociologically interesting. Material things like the motor car, computer, hotel key fob and car seat belts can be socially explained or described in ways that provide new insights into consumer worlds.

We aim to provide a brief overview of this literature. We have made a necessarily ruthless selection of ideas and concepts, to sketch out what they might mean for the practice of qualitative market research. Our aim is simple: to return the missing masses to qual research.
 

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