The aim of this paper is to present and to train attendees to a new methodology made to decipher in a qualitative manner web navigation data. This paper will discuss the opportunity of using this kind of data for qual researchers, present the methodology that we suggest, and use it on a couple of examples from various industries. One of our core illustrations will be based on the 'appiness project presented at an earlier conference..
The presentation will demonstrate from a client perspective how the shift from product to user-centricity brought about a powerful impact both on a strategic as well as human resources level. BFS, well- established company offering processed vegetables, seeks to increase vegetable consumption in the professional kitchen. To do so, they must enter a professional kitchen, learn form chefs about their culture and immerse themselves into the professional gastronomical world before they can come out the other end with ideas of how radically reconfigure their approach to selling vegetables.
This presentation demonstrates how a cultural model was constructed and applied to gain a textured understanding of the new age Indian rural consumers whose lives are significantly different from traditional rural consumers. At the core of this model is Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), a popular social research method that was successfully adapted to understand the affluent rural consumers. This was flanked by ethnography, material anthropology and trend spotting each complementing the other to generate actionable insights for the client.
The theme of our paper is inspired by Clotaire Rapaille's work as described in his book The Culture Code. And by India, an exciting, dynamic place which is just screaming to be decoded by cultural theory as brands and products enter the race to touch the hearts of the Indian consumer. Our research approach combines anthropology, storytelling, neuro-scientific theory and the Language and Behaviour Profile to explore cultural imprints. We are going to show how to communicate to a wide audience with profound cultural, linguistic and social differences in a constructive way. This will inform how brands can operate in an incredibly diverse arena, without alienating or oppressing the differences within it.
Life is one big story and as market researchers we make it our stock in trade to turn certain lives, the attitudes, behaviours and preferences that cascade in these lives into stories. As well as factual and relevant, we try to make them lively, colourful, interesting and illuminating. This conference focuses on generating great stories, telling them and then living them. We also have a story to tell. But ours is not about consumers the so-often quoted subject of stories and the central character in so many cases. Our story is about employees. They are perceived by some to be the minor character in a sexy story about consumers, marketing plans, brand strategy and new product development. We argue differently. We feel they are central characters and their story is an important theme in the consumer story.But our story is not just unique because it is about employees. It is unique on other levels. It uses several theoretical frameworks in its narrative. Blending anthropology of the body, transactional analysis and subtle aspects of feminist sociology, it tells a tale of female train operators (FTOs who drive Underground trains) and their personal needs relief (PNRs). It tells of how they have to ask to use the toilet facilities. It tells of how this makes them feel guilty and embarrassed. It delves into the feelings of the storyteller when confronted with a highly sensitive and personal account of bodily functions.
This paper adapts aspects of the work of anthropologist Claude Levi- Strauss for use in market analysis and research. The methodology has been pioneered by the author's company, and is regularly used by them in their analytical work. The paper explains how successful brands embody myths; and outlines a technique by which this brand myth can be identified, evaluated and exploited. The technique can also be used by non-semiotic market researchers and planners as a useful tool in analysis, strategic planning and brand development.
This paper starts with a discussion of the overlapping domains of anthropological study and market research, pointing out the fundamental role culture plays in shaping brands. It then explores the uses of anthropological theory and ethnographic methods in deciphering consumer relationships with brands. Anthropology's focus on contextual details for understanding and interpreting behavior is offered as a means for managing increasing complexity of consumer markets. Methods for capturing cultural context are listed and examples given. Lastly, I suggest that these participatory, experiential research methods include clients as well. In a heterogeneous, fragmented society, words are inadequate translators of consumer behavior, thoughts and desires.
This paper addresses certain ways in which anthropology may be applied with relevance to market research. Four main topics are discussed: the development of semiology as a powerful potential tool for understanding the dynamics of advertising; the possible existence of certain cross-cultural beliefs which might bear investigation, again primarily in the field of advertising; the means by which an anthropology of consumption may aid market research especially in the segmentation of markets; and the power structures which exist in all societies and which need to be understood in order to reach the widest possible audience in the most correct way - branding and advertising which fail to obey such systems run the risk of rejection.