comment spam: influential marketing blog edition

3 October 2007 in anthropology, marketing, the new new
Tags: anthropology, comment spam, ethics, marketing, the new new

Rohit Bhargava taps another one into the coffin of traditional demographics. I tried to post a comment over there but Typepad (or perhaps Safari) didn’t like me so I’ll do it here after jump:

Demographics are a numbers game and is part of a top down way of thinking. It’s just counting. Looking at your existing customers and taking an average. And to some extent, the wishes of your demographics. This is something common in publishing. Were your target audience isn’t exactly your real audience — and so your brand becomes aspirational for those outside of your target. Of course, this is fine if you want to create a world of exclusivity, not okay if you want to engage your multifaceted customer base.

The importance of new tools is really important here.

In the last several years, of course, anthropological thinking has chipped away at that approach in academia — and now it’s making its way into marketing and product design. As someone with a minor interest in cultural anthropology (my undergraduate major) this doesn’t surprise me.

Gratuitous mention of my education aside, where I was to say that my fellow anthro majors and I knew then the power of anthropology to understand what moves individuals. There are ethical questions about using your power for good and not just greasing the capitalist machine. With the rush to monetize our anthro/ethnogoraphic skills, I’m not sure that everyone has figured out the ethics yet, though.