The Official Blog of AREA203 Digital

Why Do Humans Have Body Hair?

Or for that matter, why don’t we digest high fructose corn syrup very well? On what deeper levels does language retain meaning in different societies? Why in some cultures do men compete to have the biggest belly, while in others men compete to have washboard stomachs?

Anthropologists love questions like these and (even more so) love digging up answers, sometimes by way of complete cultural immersion, also known as field work. However, no matter how interesting the aforementioned inquiries may be, they don’t all apply to the world of business. Some more pertinent questions might be: Why are smart phones so addictive? How pervasive will social media get? Why is social media so pervasive? These questions hint more at bridging the gap between traditional anthropology and the digital space into which our society is moving.

Meet Genevieve

Genevieve Bell exemplifies the working anthropologist inside and outside the office. Her story paints a great picture of successfully stepping into the world of the customer, taking a few notes, and planning accordingly back at HQ. Bell works for Intel. She leads their Interaction and Experience Research Group, which she says “means I spend a lot of time talking to engineers and trying to get them to understand what life is like outside of the building.”

It’s Bell’s job to spend time in peoples’ lives in order to make sense of what they value. She delves into product innovation with engineering teams and offers her two cents regarding what role their products will take in customers’ lives. And, she has chutzpah. She has managed to persuade people in Malaysia, Australia, and Singapore to allow her and her team to inspect the contents of their cars, completely turning out their contents.

“We lay tarpaulins on the street and empty their cars of everything we can find, from the glove compartment, between the seats, the door pockets, the boot—the whole thing,” she told Wired. “We talk to people about what they’re carrying around with them every day of their lives.”

Bell and her team use the information from these car searches to get a sense of what people in those countries value. One interesting observation: Bell noted that people who own cars with onboard GPS systems were still using their smartphones for directions and carrying around maps.

Sometimes you have to get out of the office to find great information.

Meet Tom

Tom Denari, President of the Young & Laramore adveristing agency in Indianapolis, has a brilliant yet simple outlook on fitting anthropological principles into the overarching topic of market research.

“When you’re trying to sell someone something, you are developing a relationship,” he says. “The better I understand your general motivations, the easier it is for me to fit my product into your life.”

Knock, knock, anthropology.

In the same way that a cultural anthropologist immerses him- or herself in a different culture, so must businesses. In order to successfully speak to an audience, the speaker must understand the audience, how they interact with the world, and how they make decisions.

→ Jody Vasileff, Strategic Coordinator, AREA203 Digital; follow… @jody_vazz