Translating Anthropological Consumption Theories into Humanistic Marketing Practices (original) (raw)
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Digging Anthropology Mine for Marketing Gold
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Marketing, born out of industrial organization economics, has borrowed myriad concepts and frameworks from neoclassical economics since its inception, as much as it has acquired theories and methods from psychology and sociology. The theories in marketing depend heavily on these disciplines and their relevance in decoding the “consumer” who occupies the center point of all marketing thoughts has only increased over the years. This paper contends that cultural anthropological theories and practices have more sincere and serious implications in the pursuit of unmasking consumer's desires, wants, and needs that marketers ought to pay more attention. Distilling various motifs of twentieth-century anthropological thought, the author argues how culture is paramount in reflecting the realities of consumption.
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This paper focuses on teaching the application of anthropology in business to marketing students. It begins with the premise that consumer marketers have long used ethnography as a component of their qualitative market research toolkit to inform their knowledge about and empathy for consumers. A question for market research educators who include ethnography in their curricula is if and how to teach the richness of anthropologically based approaches, especially given a decoupling of ethnographic method from anthropological theory in much consumer research practice. This discussion might also resonate with anthropology educators who are interested in the ways anthropology is applied in commercial settings. As a demonstration of a teaching mode rather than a research report, this paper describes how a consumer anthropology market research project is used experientially in the classroom to help marketing students learn and appreciate the application of both anthropological method and th...
This paper is intended as a follow-up to Marshall Sahlins’s ‘‘The 13, 14)’’ (Sahlins 1996:397). Sadness of Sweetness: The Native Anthropology of Western Cosmology’’ (1996). It isolates one field of practical action—marketing and consumer behavior—to explore the ways in which the implicit theory of needs that Sahlins elucidates is embedded in marketplace behavior, broadly defined, in the United States. Supported by ethnographic illustration, it hypothesizes the process whereby professional marketers and consumers, via their practical disposition toward each other in the mutually constituted sociocultural field of the ‘‘market,’’ help perpetuate the Western cosmological duality of suffering and salvation. A critique of three writers on the subject of marketing and consumer behavior, Lefebvre, Baudrillard, and Bourdieu, forms the basis for a theory of cultural construction of the market and of consumer identities within it.
The sociology of consumption: the hidden facet of marketing
Journal of Marketing Management, 2004
Is marketing virtuous? The concept of marketing aims to "facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment" (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, and Ferrell 1997, p.3) and "enables consumers to choose a brand which seems to have the best potential for satisfaction" (Enis and Cox 1997, p. 89). As Marketing is driven by a desire to satisfy consumer needs , one can easily conclude that marketing is virtuous. The problem, of course, is the ontological simplicity of such argument. Today, arguing that consumers are in control over their life and that they can freely write their own stories appears too simplistic. Society and human beings are indeed too complex and too subtle to simply take a pure agentic approach to marketing. Consumers' motivations for buying goods are multiple and hybrid, made of many fragments of personal roles, of history, and of social experiences. The result is intricate and messy; consumer practices are not unified in the pyramidal order, and are not completely congruent with social, ethnic, or geographical groupings. Along with this position, we offer Baudrillard's structural approach to marketing as a conceptual warning, suggesting the need for more reflection and critique on the virtue of marketing.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion , 2020
Consumer culture is a concept that defines our contemporary societies by highlighting the importance of consumption as a dominant social ethos—that is, as a system of dispositions that orients and structures actors’ conduct and thus shapes relations to the self, others, community, society, and the world. It is intimately linked to the concept of consumerism, which emphasizes the ideological, normative, and encompassing dimensions that are constitutive of consumption in industrial and postindustrial economies. The concept posits the novelty and distinctive nature of modern consumption. Although modern consumption emerged in the West, the last wave of globalization has extended the penetration of consumerism to virtually all non-Western societies, and to an increasing spectrum of social classes, to the extent that the concept of consumer culture is now a powerful definer of life in the global age. This entry follows the trajectory of consumer culture and its global dissemination, with particular attention to its manifestations in the realm of the religious and spiritual dimensions of the self, as discussed in the work of a number of scholars specializing in the sociology of religion. (...)
International Journal of Sociologies and Anthropologies Science Reviews
Background and Aim: The integration of marketing and anthropology has become a valuable approach for marketers seeking to understand consumer behavior and cultural dynamics. This academic article aims to elucidate the concept of marketing anthropology, its definition, the scope and duties of marketing anthropologists, the imperative need for anthropological insights in marketing management, and the practical applications of anthropological principles in enhancing marketing strategies. Materials and Methods: This academic article compiles scholarly materials from academic databases that are related to marketing, anthropology, consumer behavior, and marketing management. This academic paper was compiled using analysis and synthesis techniques that addressed its primary objectives. The written content of this academic paper is structured in a systematic way to provide knowledge in conformity with the investigation objectives effectively. Results: This academic article found that market...
Can Society Nurture Humanistic Marketing?
Humanistic Marketing, 2013
For more than four decades, academic debates on the morality of marketing have focused mainly on the advantages and disadvantages of marketing as an institution. This essay questions the usefulness of such debates to addressing many challenges of life in contemporary society and argues that engagement in such discussions will only entrap us in vicious circles of argumentation. The author calls for collective social responsibility and argues that humanistic marketing can only be realised in a humanistic society.
Studying consumption behaviour through multiple lenses: An overview of consumer culture theory
Since ground-breaking directive to the anthropology community to research consumption within the context of production, CCT has come of age, offering distinctive insights into the complexities of consumer behaviour. CCT positions itself at the nexus of disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, media studies, critical studies, and feminist studies; overlapping foci bring theoretical innovation to studies of human behaviours in the marketplace. In this paper, we provide asynthesis of CCT research since its inception, along with more recent publications. We follow the four thematic domains of research as devised by Arnould and Thompson (2005): consumer identity projects, marketplace cultures, the socio-historic patterning of consumption, and mass-mediated marketplace ideologies and consumers' interpretive strategies. Additionally, we investigate new directions for future connections between CCT research and anthropology.
Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research
Social Anthropology, 2007
"This book is not a 'how to' guide, but it is a manifesto for cultural analysis. It speaks to a wide audience. One can imagine the book being useful and inspiring for many types of readers: those teaching research methods, students thinking about career trajectories, seasoned applied anthropologists looking to sharpen their thinking on current practices or market researchers wishing to develop their anthropological understanding. " - Simon Roberts