Why Do Marketing Research with an Anthropologist?

Deep Research & Writing | Jessica Share | http://www.fixieedits.com

Hi. I’m Jessica. I’m a freelance writer who loves long-form pieces that include research.

Marketing copy + Love of culture = Better Connection.

You already work with writers…

Writers that ALREADY use participation, interviews, and A cultural lens to get insights

for you can be:white paper writerS, case study writers, AND

EVEN THE FOLKS THAT RUN YOUR FOCUS GROUPS

And you probably don’t want to overspend on agencies for campaigns that don’t get your client.

So let’s put the two together

FIGURE OUT MARKETING PROBLEMS WITH CULTURAL TOOLS

+ WRITE SMARTER

=CAMPAIGNS THAT WORK

What if you already knew what your product meant deep down in your client’s life?

It’s about lifestyle. How they interact.Where they go. What it means to them.How it fits into the cultures of their lives.

U.S. Companies wanted to know if Japanese style management was more effective than

american style management.

CORPORATE ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE 1980s

It TURNED OUT WE ALL LOVED BASEBALL.

AND THAT LOTS OF CORPORATE CULTURES COULD BE SUCCESSFUL. WELL, LOTS OF MARKETING

CAMPAINGS CAN, TOO. IF MARKETERS REALLY PLUG INTO THEIR AUDIENCES with better data.

How can your campaign benefit from getting culturally deep data ahead of time?

OUTSIDER PERK

S

1. Get an Insider & Outsider Perspective

Being with clients – not assumingUsing products Interviewing, surveying, data collectionParticipating in ritualsForging trustGetting at the root of marketing issues

INSIDER

SWAG

Stepping back and doing analysisSeeing contextDeveloping theories that lead to action stepsPutting the pieces together

It’s Harder to Lie…when the researcher is in your life and space.

Getting around clients means insight into the ways they really live, even if they don’t want to come out and say it, or they don’t really know why they do the things they do.

2. See clients from multiple perspectives

Cultural Knowledge is Key to Campaigns within the U.S.

3. Avoid Marketing Fails Cross-Culturally

• Deep Play + Deep Hanging Out = Deep Data

• Symbolic meaning• Insight that offers more than click

rate• Begins to build campaigns

4. Deep Data

There is no wrong way to connect.Unless you don’t.

An Example…• The culture of the U.S. Army is

hierarchical, structured, and disciplined (Altman & Baruch, 1998). Group cohesion and loyalty are values.

Altman, Y., & Baruch, Y. (1998). Cultural theory and organizations: Analytical method and cases. Organizational Studies, 19(5), 769-786.

Adding deep research can show…

• HOW TO CHANGE ORGANIZATIONS HEAVILY INVESTED IN TRADITION

• How loyalties are broken• Where ideology and behavior do not

line up• How individuals VS GROUPS interact

with their productS• WHERE BELIEFS ARE NOT COHESIVE:

FOR INSTANCE, IN SOME REGIONS, SUBGROUPS, OR JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Anthropology demandsThe open-mindedness with which one

must lookAnd listen, RECORD IN astonishment

THAT WHICH ONE WOULD NOTHAVE BEEN ABLE TO GUESS.

…Margaret Mead

Summary• These observer anthropologists and

journalists can…– Conduct and write up deep focus groups– Be part of product use and ritual– Identify cultural clashes in current products

and campaigns– Identify product place in clients’ lives and

plug into market– Brands + clients = communities of meaning