Know your customer: Client captivation and the epistemics of market research

In: Marketing theory, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 149-168

Abstract

Market research requires both making knowledge and maintaining client relationships. This article inquires into how this feature of commissioned knowledge is dealt with by a group of market researchers. Reception determines the value of the knowledge produced, prompting producers to both prepare informative content and ensure that it lands well with the recipient. Therefore, the nature and dispositions of clients and how their reception can be shaped are integral to the making of knowledge. The article explores an ethnographic case of how market researchers attempt to appeal to and shape the dispositions of their clients throughout the research process. Drawing on means of capture as a metaphor, I show how market researchers frame working with clients as a straightforward issue despite conflicting definitions of just who the client is and what it means to help them.