El valor de la antropologia

Companies have been harnessing the social sciences, including ethnography, since the 1930s. Back then executives were mostly interested in figuring out how to make their employees more productive. But since the 1960s, when management gurus crowned the consumer king, companies have been tapping ethnographers to get a better handle on their customers. Now, as more and more businesses re-orient themselves to serve the consumer, ethnography has entered prime time.

The beauty of ethnography, say its proponents, is that it provides a richer understanding of consumers than does traditional research. Yes, companies are still using focus groups, surveys, and demographic data to glean insights into the consumer’s mind. But closely observing people where they live and work, say executives, allows companies to zero in on their customers’ unarticulated desires. “It used be that design features were tacked on to the end of a marketing strategy,” says Timothy deWaal Malefyt, an anthropologist who runs “cultural discovery” at ad firm BBDO Worldwide. “Now what differentiates products has to be baked in from the beginning. This makes anthropology far more valuable.”

Mas: http://www.annezelenka.com/2006/05/mindfully-engaging-with-customers-ethnography-vs-focus-groups

Timo Viekkola - Nokia - Ethnography

Video Conferencia Future Strategist Nokia:
http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/timo-veikkola-future-strategist-at-nokia-on-a-vision-of-our-future-at-the-psfk-conference-london.html

My Space vs Face Book y su relacion con los NSE

In sociology, Nalini Kotamraju has argued that constructing arguments around "class" is extremely difficult in the United States. Terms like "working class" and "middle class" and "upper class" get all muddled quickly. She argues that class divisions in the United States have more to do with lifestyle and social stratification than with income. In other words, all of my anti-capitalist college friends who work in cafes and read Engels are not working class just because they make $14K a year and have no benefits. Class divisions in the United States have more to do with social networks (the real ones, not FB/MS), social capital, cultural capital, and attitudes than income. Not surprisingly, other demographics typically discussed in class terms are also a part of this lifestyle division. Social networks are strongly connected to geography, race, and religion; these are also huge factors in lifestyle divisions and thus "class." ....

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers. Mas :

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

Como piensan los consumidores.

Zaltman: "Though called by other names, many consumer-research topics directly involve cognitive structures, including product perceptions, brand attitudes, brandattribute, beliefs, brand personality, and consumer expertise. As consumers acquire new knowledge and interrelate it with existing knowledge in memory, they are assumed to form cognitive structures in memory. These cognitive structures or mental models represent the interpreted meanings of a product or a brand...." (Think)

La diversidad hiere a la vida civica.

Un reciente estudio Norte Americano demuestra como la diversidad amenaza la vida civica y pone en cuestionamiento el concepto del multiculturalismo. OJO!

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/08/04/the_downside_of_diversity/