Using Digital Anthropology to Discover Marketing Innovation Opportunities

When researching marketing innovation opportunities, we often look at how new advances in marketing science, technology and engineering can help us market, sell and service customers better. But there is a real need to understand how consumer behavior is changing, so we can make it easier for consumers to buy. Looking at the buying process from the consumer’s perspective will yield insights for potential marketing innovation opportunities. One way to do that is to use, “Digital Anthropology.” Digital anthropology is the study of the relationship between humans and digital-era technology, and extends to various areas where anthropology and technology intersect.

Digital technology has had a significant influence on the buying process.  If we take a casual look at consumer behavior, we can see how people buy has changed. Now it is not uncommon for a person who is looking for a blender to post the question on Facebook or Twitter, “Looking for a new blender, does anyone have suggestions?” And the person will receive advice from friends and/or followers. Happy customers will post pictures of their new purchases and share the experiences online with their friends. In the information search process, consumers will review sites such as Yelp or Trip Advisor. Sites that didn’t exist that long ago.  Thus the need for digital anthropology.

Think  of how different buying the following items are now versus a decade or two ago. How we buy stocks and use a stock broker; how we buy cars, book travel and use a travel agent, buy a house and role or real estate agent, buy music using iTunes, etc.  As a result, entire industries have changed e.g. video rental stores, chain music stores, book stores, etc.

The problem is companies will continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their existing marketing techniques, when it is the consumer’s behavior that is making their existing techniques less and less effective. No matter how much music retailers tried to enhance the experience of buying music in a store, e.g. installing listening stations, it was not enough to  overcome the advantages of buying digital music online. Let alone the fact fewer and fewer people were buying physical CDs. Changing Consumer Behavior Provides Opportunities.

Let’s look at one buying process, bridal registration has changed from a digital anthropology perspective. According to Wikipedia the bridal registry was first started by Marshal Fields and Company, a department store in Chicago in 1924  as a means for the engaged couple to indicate chosen china, silver and crystal patterns to family and friends.  At the time family and friends lived fairly close together, couples got married younger and did not live together prior to marriage, as a result they had fewer housewares. F ewer women worked outside of the home and same sex couples were few and far between, These changes create changes in consumer behavior.

For almost 60 years or until 1983 when Target stores became the first to introduce an online self service registry, the bridal registry process did not change.  You had to make an appoitment with a bridal consultant, physically go to the store, and with the assistance of the consultant, register item by item. Once the registration was complete, you had to let your family and friends know where you were registered, and they had to physically go to the store you registered at, because even other stores that were part of the same chain were not connected. In some cases you could get the list faxed to you. The process was not convenient for either the bride or the guest, and as a result, it has changed almost 100%.With the changes in society, many of the items on the traditional registry were no longer relevant, now couples can register for anything from power tools to vacations/

While the societal changes and new technology, e.g. the Internet provided significant marketing innovation opportunities for department stores, who owned the incumbent process, who had the customers, the product lines and large IT staffs, it was new entrants such as, “The Knot” that took advantage of these opportunity. What could have been a gold mine of data, e.g. what products on the list were not purchased, what were the couple’s preferred brands, colors, etc. could have been leveraged for a personalized marketing campaign.

As a CMO, you might want to use Digital Anthropology techniques to identify marketing innovation opportunities, but where do you find a digital anthropologist? A quick Amazon search turns up books on the topic of Digital Anthropology.  Another option is to find a consultant such as Brian Solis, of Altimeter Group, who can help you with this type of research. Every good marketers knows they need to understand their customer, what is different today is the customer is a moving target changing with technology, so their attitudes, opinions and usage patters change, and change quickly. Digital Anthropology is another tool that can be used to discover opportunities created as a result of the changes.