Abstract Ethnographic focus allows analyzing people in their natural environment. This study used that so called methodology in a purchase context: a supermarket, where some marketing and advertising students designed and set some exhibits of an own brand. This was done in order to increase the sales for the highest increment in sales with designed advertising material for some stands filled with private (dealer) brand products. The exercised aimed to determine which group of students achieved the best results (all of the groups succeeded in increasing sales of their chosen products). In the mean time, behaviors of consumers and employees were observed for finding out the elements that appealed them the most. It was found that the higher the acceptance of the cultural symbols used in sales promotion, the lower was the chance of reluctance by the consumers. It was also revealed that using teen age related characteristics for the campaigns may be a successful feature in Barranquilla, as well as the fact that status results more important than price for a product. Resumen El enfoque etnografico permite analizar al consumidor en su medio natural. Esta investigacion uso dicha metodologia en el contexto de compra: un supermercado, donde unos estudiantes de Mercadeo y Publicidad disenaron y montaron unas exhibiciones de productos de marca propia con el fin de incrementar las ventas. Se pretendia conocer que grupo de estudiantes lograba mayor variacion en las unidades vendidas (todos alcanzaron aumento), a la vez que se observaba el comportamiento de los clientes y empleados en torno a los elementos de las exhibiciones montadas que mas les llamaran la atencion. Se encontro que usar los simbolos culturales normalmente aceptados en promocion de ventas dentro de un almacen genera menor posibilidad de rechazo. Campanas con caracteristicas relacionadas con la adolescencia en Barranquilla pueden ser exitosas, y si se aprecia una imagen del producto que de estatus, el precio puede ser secundario.