Anthropology in marketing proves more useful than you might think in this presentation by Akhilesh Pant, Strategist at One North Interactive. From the 2014 Experience Lab: Reimagine Marketing. To watch a video of this presentation, visit http://bit.ly/1xSktbD.

1. REVEAL AND REFLECT
Using Anthropology to Extract
Customer Gems

2. Akhilesh Pant
@pant_ak

3. No Chimps

4. No Shirtless Digging

5. Just No.

6. IT’S ABOUT HUMAN
BEHAVIOR IN CONTEXT

7. “All service which
a [person] can
perform for
humanity must
serve to promote
truth.”
-Franz Boas
The Foundation

8. Broad Definitions
Anthropology:
“The study of humans, past and present.”
Cultural Anthropology:
“The study of cultural variation among humans.”
Ethnography:
“The systematic study of people and cultures…from the point of
view of the subject of the study.”
Ethnographic Design:
“A process in which the needs, wants and limitations of end
users of a product, service or process are given extensive
attention at each stage of a design process.”
Theory
Application

9. The Hype

10. More Hype

11. THERE’S A LITTLE
MORE TO IT…

12. The Spectrum
Assumptions Testing Assumptions Untestable Insight
What We Think
We Know
What We Couldn’t
Have Known
What We Actually Know

13. The Ethnographic Toolkit
Institutional-knowledge-gathering
Start with curiosity: what do people think they know
about the target population? These are initial
hypotheses.
Surveys
Refine hypotheses based on responses.
Structured / semi-structured interviews
Test the hypotheses: prove, support, modify or
disprove.
Participant observation; immersion
Gather behavioral tendencies, deduce desires; fine-tune
previous findings, generate insights
Assumption
Testing
Assumptions
Untestable
Insight

14. The Result
Brand loyalty
and
strengthened
relationships
Understanding
of context
Empathy
Informed
design

15. PROVE IT.

16. Fact: If You’re Normal, You Hate Exercising
Adidas - USA
Shift from flashy, striking colors to softer and “less agitating” designs.
Why? Because the average target consumer’s most significant concern
is motivation, not aesthetics.

18. None of this Western Nonsense
Fotile – China
Stovetop designed specifically for the urban Chinese family.
Factors considered: two primary cooking vessels, high heat, smoke,
“tossing” motion.

19. SO…
WHAT DOES THIS LOOK
LIKE FOR US?

20. Assumption
Posting thought leadership content on
platforms like LinkedIn can significantly
influence an executive’s perception of your
firm.
Sidenote: 88% of executives have a LinkedIn profile, 73%
consider it their “platform of choice”

21. Refine Assumption
Survey question:
On a scale of 1 - 5 (5 = most important), how important is it for you
to see a firm post thought leadership content on social media?
General answer:
Between 2 and 3.
…important, but not game-changing.

22. Test Assumption
Interview Question:
Can you tell me about how thought leadership content posted
on LinkedIn might impact your perception of a firm?
It’s always nice to see it. It tells me that they are producing
unique knowledge, not just leeching it from others.

23. Test Assumption
Follow-up:
…you mentioned “producing knowledge.” What tells you
that this knowledge will make the firm more effective?
My company often has novel problems, so the firm I
choose needs to be on the cutting-edge of my industry.

24. Recommendation
Urge firm contributors to write about their research, focusing on
recently developed knowledge that is specific to industries they
work with.
But is this everything?
Are there other factors at play?

25. Deeper Analysis
We never got to the immersion piece.
What if we could observe their behavior and, more
importantly, their immediate reactions?
What if we could track their reposts, their shares and their
commentary?
What if we could talk to them (relatively) on-demand, and
get their reasoning right after they perform the action?

26. The Result
We could learn something like this:
They not only like new knowledge that is relevant to their
industry…
But they appreciate when authors are able to display
expertise without using complex jargon, instead
simplifying it for the audience.
Maybe this could bring that 2-3 to a 4-5.

27. Where We End Up
Assumptions Testing Assumptions Untestable Insight

28. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

29. The Bottom Line
Marketing and business development
strategies need to be centered as much
around qualitative data (emotionality) as
they are around numerical indicators
(rationality).
Don’t ignore either side of the equation.
Both can help you break ground and stay
competitive.

30. What You Should Do
Take steps to move as far as possible from
assumption towards truth.
Go from stereotypes to deeply-informed
personas, scenarios and use cases.
Ask yourself: are you putting yourself in
your users’ shoes?