Contributions of Anthropology to Marketing Research: Reflections on the field and future trends

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY  ·  VENEZUELA  ·  2012

Contributions of Anthropology

to Marketing Research

 

 

Reflections on the field and future trends in Venezuela and Latin America

Anthropologists Miguel Palau  &  Julio de Freitas Taylor

Universidad Central de Venezuela  ·  2012

   

 

"Anthropology should become a profession of demand and not a generation of unemployed professionals."

 

— Miguel Palau & Julio de Freitas Taylor, 2012

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

Abstract

Anthropology for Marketing Research in Venezuela remains an underdeveloped field; paradigms and perceptions related to our areas of application are closely linked to the anthropological study of "bones," as we are called by recruiters in human resources. Currently, in Venezuela, there are only a few anthropologists who have spent almost a decade studying consumer behavior and the organizations in the country. The future development of business anthropology in Venezuela will involve a tremendous amount of research to increase the awareness of business anthropology, to enlarge the scope of our research areas, and the scope of the implications.

SECTION I

 

Introduction

This article is a set of reflections and the collection of professional experiences gathered by the authors in the implementation of business anthropology in Venezuela. Business anthropology in Venezuela began to take its first steps during the 1990s with studies of organizational culture in the public sector. Before that period, most scholars, such as sociologists, civil engineers, and administrators, were involved as consultants and developing very specific and minor studies. Most of these came from an academic background with limited ethnographical experience, and their main focus was to give explanations on the functioning of the organizational structures in the public sector, specifically in enterprises of strategic management in the regulation of electric aspects of the country.

 

We decided to open new doors and developed new challenges by doing more anthropological research with the objective of applying changes in the private sector. Reasons such as creating a participatory inclusion of anthropology outside the classroom were our main motivation. Formally, business anthropology was born in Venezuela with the first development of the co-author Miguel Palau's undergraduate thesis, Knowledge-oriented Specific Process of Decision-Making in Business Fields and their influences on managerial decision-making.

 

These internal flows of resistance to innovation and the changes, more than traditional research topics in Anthropology in our country — social, linguistic, indigenous, and physical anthropology — have contributed to creating barriers for this type of research. Through denials contributed directly and indirectly to the lack of knowledge of the scope of certain anthropological trends, the application of ethnographical tools for collecting information, and therefore to the application of importance of findings in the business. Worst of all, these currents had created a distorted image of the credibility of anthropology in Venezuela, especially in the business sector, where we are still considered.

 

"professionals with no skills to develop management or research positions in the private sector".

 

 

Despite all this, and assuming the risk of such resistance, we set out to continue the creation of this thesis giving a purely anthropological approach to the study of decision-making processes and make their results on the recommendation of management models of greater effectiveness, performance, and decrease of the bureaucracy for the resolution of administrative tasks.

 

Fortunately, we had the opportunity to contact a group of professionals in the United States, Brazil, Europe and convinced with personal visits and email contact — Ann T. Jordan, Ken Erickson, Mats Alvesson, Elizabeth Briody, Marietta Baba, Mary Meyer, James Dean, Patricia Marquez, Ramon Piñango, Omar Perez, among others specialists — who through their experience, gave me useful recommendations for methodological design and development.

 

The results of this research showed that in a large number of cases, routine managerial decision-making is directly influenced by individual values, and these lead to procedural delays characteristic of bureaucracy in Venezuela. Reason by which processes happen late and proportional scale vertical structures sometimes might have medium or low performance. The goal of the research has been met fully, beyond a great contribution to the business anthropology of the country, as the applied results allowed building managerial models promoting individual capacities of each manager based on their skills.

 

After this huge struggle, and with my bachelor degree in hand as an anthropologist just graduated with much desire to apply my knowledge and continue to grow, it was not 5 years later and after multiple rejections — over a thousand — in interviews to become a formal employee within large, medium and small local enterprises that coupled with the rise of anthropological tools needed especially in the field of market research and consumer behavior when becomes mildly necessary my recruitment as anthropologist in the country.

SECTION II

 

Anthropology — The Current Scenario

Currently, after many experiences learning along with my mentor, we can note that in Venezuela, business anthropology is at a stage where anthropologists are hired by specific studies mostly as contractors. Still few or non-existent engagements in the private sector in our country still do so. Our organization's research managers are mostly selected by developing skills in the numerical field alone — engineers, economists, administrators, and quantitative syndicated studies. Numerical representation is always needed for any final executive and marketing decision, including sometimes the calculation of return on investment for each study; the "give me a number paradigm" is the rule of thumb.

 

It is also worth emphasizing that the qualitative type, particularly research of an ethnographic nature, is not often developed as a mere curiosity of the novelty that seems to be this type of study, along with being considered "cheap" in strictly economic terms to the company that may need it. Beyond the concern about the deepening knowledge of the subjects studied, we think of this type of study as a relatively inexpensive approach versus the cost of working with "large numbers".

 

On the other hand, the legal uncertainty, plight of urban violence, and the situation of transition to a socialist economy led certain companies to increase or maintain their volume and value sales depending on their business strategies and products in the country — this is the case of organizations with a focus on mass consumption.

 

Contradictorily, the restriction of operating elements for the private sector, as the purchase of US dollars for imports of raw materials has led many companies to reduce their staff, due to the impossibility of manufacturing products locally, and therefore stopping recruitment of staff with experience in the area of marketing research, thus slowing the main motivations for growth and existence of capitalist enterprises.

 

Without removing importance to the development of "anthropological" studies in the country, the vast majority of them at this time are being made by the hands of staff associated with anthropology, but not by anthropologists. Sociologists, Engineers, and social communicators with "ethnographic" and "ethnographic" approaches who are passionate about what they think it may be important to collect on an in-home visit and interpret it as a major finding in the anthropological field, are the most frequent.

 

Over the years, we have heard expressions such as: "give me a number," "should be a greater number of cases, "it's too long to read a case study, we should better synthesize a field work of 3 or 8 months in only one PowerPoint slide." These are expressions of great ignorance of the scope of anthropology as a tool of research within organizations, in terms of knowledge versus practicality.

SECTION III

 

Trend Areas of Business Anthropology in Venezuela

Business Anthropology is usually subdivided by area of application, in some cases according to the North American tradition, and others in the UK school of anthropology. In either of the two, here we place what could be a local experience and give a brief explanation of what composed each of them. We stress that these classifications are integration in a complex process that involves the role of the researcher within private organizations.

Linguistics Applied to Marketing Research

We think that it is one of the most critical areas for development in our country. The constant search for language assessment techniques to define product concepts and their contents — reasons to believe — which are more attractive and are more akin to the language used by consumers, is one of the primary needs, especially in subsidiaries in Latin America. Every culture has a set of linguistic codes differentiated, and in our country, being a division often a requirement, the application, operation, and the sale of a particular product requires methodological development oriented not only to produce more sales and participation in companies, but also towards understanding the proper use and how consumers can give feedback to companies.

Social Anthropology Applied to Marketing Research

In this sense, the study of the culture of the consumer and contexts of consumption in Venezuela becomes increasingly important. It should be noted that on many occasions, methodological development involves observations not only at home but in scenarios where consumers are present. It is of great interest to the organizations in our country to not just look at a specific moment in time. In our experience, we mostly had the opportunity to work with housewives and related consumer goods, food, and, in some cases, with products and services. These experiences have led us to understand which are the current needs, uses, desires, and aspirations of those whom we call consumers.

Archaeology Applied to Marketing Research — Evaluation of Artifacts

In this sense, many shortcomings in the creation of products and local designs are displayed. Venezuela, being a purely importer of products of any order, needs professionals geared towards this area. Currently, the development of products in our country is related to costs. Decisions rarely include opinions related to the consumer, particularly as regards development, conceptualization, and development of packaging. The concepts needed for development are made inside the same companies, leaving aside the observations in the field and searching for opportunities related to packaging and increased functionality.

Physical Anthropology — The World of Visual and Functional Perception

Ergonomics is an area critical within organizations in Venezuela with local manufacturing and production, inclined not to the development of new products or the improvement of existing ones, but to industrial safety and reduced maintenance of occupational accidents. Products related to consumer goods like aromas, fragrances, perfumes, design of packaging, and colors associated with liquids and their contents have no previous local studies that reveal the voice of the consumer in our country.

SECTION IV

 

Compromising and Ethical Implications

Despite the barriers that damage our anthropological work externally, we must also weigh the ignorance barriers that exist within organizations. In many opportunities and interviews with human resources recruiters, we are optimistic and understand this situation as part of our labor. From explaining the etymology of the word anthropology in each interview or presentation, to even including a note to point out that somehow my experience has been associated with my professional training and the meaning of being an anthropologist.

 

Finally, there are also large areas of opportunity in relation to vocational training in anthropology in our country. The stigmatization of the anthropologist as purely academic must be broken, starting from undergraduate studies, to include matters related to the scope of industrial globalization, and everything related to the applicability of our knowledge in the business world.

 

Our responsibility as applied scientists and researchers is a must, and we must play more participatory roles at every level if we are in Latin America to generate awareness of the importance of our roles. Anthropology should become a profession of demand and not a generation of unemployed professionals. It is the responsibility of anthropologists in our country and the world to show in an ethical manner the scope and importance of our approaches to the human being, regardless of the area of application.

SECTION V

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, in our experience, we believe that the importance of mainstreaming anthropology in the private and public sectors would generate important contributions in implementing solutions in our society and beyond locally, with serious experience throughout Latin America. We believe that the coming years are very good for anthropologists, especially those with skills in managerial areas and who apply specialized studies to the world of business. We have the firm conviction that applied anthropology in future professionals will have to be some combination of both worlds — the theoretical and practical — supporting and giving new approaches in a dynamic world.

 

Our plans are focused on the dissemination of information, intellectual production, and contribution to the development of methodologies, applied methods, and their dissemination to generate interest in anthropology, especially among students and future generations. Our work is to be mentors and indicate those other possibilities and interests in non-traditional fields of anthropology, with a particular focus on areas related to the use of technology, since it generates greater influence in the development of societies in the present and future.

REFERENCES

 

References

Alvesson, Mats. (1993). Perspectives on Cultural Organizations. Cambridge University Publications. UK.

Atkinson, Hammers. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in Practice. Routledge.

Alberti & Pant. (1997). Anthropology and Business: Reflections on the Business Applications of Cultural Anthropology.

Baba, M. L. (1988). Anthropological Research in Major Corporations: Work Products of the Industrial Domain. Central Issues in Anthropology

VII(2):1–17.

Briody, E. K. and M. L. Baba. (1988). Guest Editors. International Business. Practicing Anthropology (Special Issue) 10(1).

Fabregat, Claudio Esteba. (1984). Business Anthropology. Spain: Anthropos.

Ferraro G.P. (1990). The Cultural Dimension of International Business. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Malinowski, Bronislaw. (1984 [1922]). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Sherry, John F., ed. (1995). Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior: An Anthropological Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

 © 2012 Miguel Palau & Julio de Freitas Taylor – Todos los derechos reservados.

Palau, M., & de Freitas Taylor, J. (2012). Contributions of anthropology to marketing research: Reflections on the field and future trends in Venezuela and Latin America. Universidad Central de Venezuela.

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