This article inquires into how market researchers produce a relationship between subjects of study and objects of knowledge in consumer research. The relationship is explored through the routines that a group of market researchers use to select and exclude research subjects. Adding to studies of how market research and other marketing activities establish their objects of knowledge in terms of performing and construction, the article draws attention to how recruitment shapes respondents: research participants are selected through principles beyond clients' recognition of their customers, issues of representativity or resemblance to targeted groups. Selection practices are explored through notes from participant observation and interviews at the research firm studied, as well as the recruitment forms that are used to undertake selection. The assessed recruitment shows researcher concern over identifying respondents useful for producing descriptions of consumers and how common features of a targeted group may be excluded in this production.

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.