Business Welcomes Back Social Valuation and Difference in the Marketplace!

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

In an unprecedented whoosh, the business community’s welcoming back social valuation and difference in the marketplace. “Wow it really was starting to stink around here,” said one reputable marketing executive who would rather remain anonymous. “But you know, the reality is that this whole recession may be just what we needed!” The exec went on to say that the whole marketplace had become so overly commodified (lacking social value for the sake of commercial value) and commoditized (lacking any real difference across products and services) that we were really trading and selling stuff of very little value to people. “Now,” he said, “we’re seeing our customers seeking out, finding and demanding social values from what they buy and real difference in the products and services they receive.” He went on to say “It’s marketing 101, I know that. But it’s real breath of fresh air. And ultimately we all win with this new direction.” He finished by acknowledging the shame in the whole process – that it took a painful great recession to set off this new direction. “But at least change is in the air,” he said.

Recession Concessions: The Bargain Movie Theater

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

So the kids really wanted to to see the movie “Hotel for Dogs”. “Hotel” had long left the theaters, BUT lo and behold the good old bargain theater still had it in its line-up! WOO-HOO! So on a dreary Sunday afternoon (and my birthday) we headed out for the movie (and a follow-up “make-your own pizza” at a nearby restaurant). [Note: I actually like movies like this, so there was little arm twisting AND at bargain prices I could happily drown myself in soda and popcorn somewhat guilt free.] The movie was, well, SOLD OUT. We luckily got in and ended up in the FRONT ROW. It was a funny movie and the kids and the audience went from smiles to tears to smiles. The message was so on point with the recession — all about the importance of family and caring for everyone and everything. And puppies and homeless dogs are always perfect for hurting souls. I’d say all of us in the audience for the movie last Sunday gave that bargain theater experience a big thumbs up as a great “recession concession.”

War On Consumerism

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

It’s gone virtually unchecked and we’re in arguably the worst economic crisis ever. The consumer industry is collapsing and the casualties are piling up – real human suffering is happening. Why don’t we face it? We’re under attack. There’s a war on our way of life. No I am not talking about terrorism, I am talking about consumerism. What makes matters worse? The enemy is us. How do we battle a war against ourselves?

War on Consumerism? You hear those words put together and jaws drop. Two reactions follow: One camp will read those words and more or less think about how to save our sacred institutions. The other camp sees those words and says – thank-you for helping me get out from underneath that pressure.

But make no mistake, we are under siege. Think about it, arguably government backed banks appear to be withholding taxpayer dollars for loans. Just a few days ago, “insurgent” groups of consumers boarded busses to knock on doors of banking CEOs in New York and Connecticut – demanding the executives stop blocking foreclosure prevention efforts. And, in my line of work, consumer anthropology for corporations, we’re seeing more examples that a war is on. From conversations we’ve had, it’s clear that informal war rooms are hatching up everywhere – from credit card companies to consumer packaged goods companies to living and dining rooms across America. All of us are in this together and all of us are creating survival strategies, resource plans and back-up plans. The lucky ones are able to see the opportunity more clearly and are already on their way to grounding their consumerism in a deeper understanding of the differences between want and need. However, many millions are already well into their plan Bs and Cs as they figure out how to reduce the carnage from lost income, lost homes and more.

As a consumer anthropologist I believe we need to frame this situation in provocative and stark terms in order to push the conversation further. It’s kind of funny, I’ve never seen and heard so many people sounding like consumer anthropology colleagues of mine! We’re all able to see the way our way life works and truly examine its implications. We have a rare opportunity at this time to take what we learn and create something a new. I just believe that we need to formally declare a War on Consumerism to get us to enter into the necessary transformation process and begin to officially do battle with – ourselves. It is only in this way that we have the opportunity to realize the desire that consumers across the US have been sharing with us – the desire to reground their spending, their lives, and return the American Dream to its roots, and those aren’t about the opportunity to buy, but rather the opportunity to really enjoy life.

I believe people are ready to frame the discussion in a way that helps us all move forward. I believe they’re ready to hear what they need to hear and to feel the pain it will take to move forward. I’m certain we will emerge from this crisis with a functioning consumer economy that more or less chugs along. But what I am not certain about it is whether we will seize this opportunity and create a new kind of consumerism – a Grounded Consumerism – where we can all truly achieve what we desire most. To live better, for real. It’s for this reason that I declare a War on Consumerism today and invite you to join me in battle.

Economic Darwism: Survival of the Fittest in a New Economic Environment

Posted by: shannon

It’s Darwin’s 200th birthday today, and I’ve been thinking a lot about evolution as it pertains to business. Marketing calls this “economic darwinism” and even though my anthro professors scoffed at such a term, I think it’s interesting to compare the econ concept of supply and demand to Darwin’s concept of natural selection.

I came across this article today (below) and it made me mad. From the consumer perspective, how dare you tell me to spend right now for the “good of the economy?” I’m finally starting to figure out how to do what’s best for me, my family, and our financial wellbeing–saving for our future, eliminating debt–and you’re telling me that it’s wrong? That I should be spending? No one is explaining WHY this is. Why is the answer to a weakened economy MORE mass consumption (which is tantamount to the self sacrifice of individual consumers)? Bush told us all to spend, spend, spend after 9-11 and it didn’t do us very much good. I think people are starting to see through these “spend” mantras and doubt the truth of the “economic collapse” warnings.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/12/news/economy/savings_rate/index.htm?cnn=yes

Here at Context, we’ve been doing some fascinating work on the major cultural changes that are underway in response to the economy. It starts with people realizing that there’s a new wind blowing through; a new realization that we are all responsible for our own financial and economical wellbeing that it is very strongly correlated with our spending habits. Folks move through stages as they “evolve;” moving closer to a new consumer identity that we’ve called “the Grounded Consumer.” Grounded Consumers understand the difference between need and want, between spending and saving. They pay off their debt and take measures to ensure a healthy future financially. They stop senselessly consuming and believe that experiences are more important and gratifying than things or the act of buying things. This is good news for consumers, bad news for companies. The reduced spending that puts consumers in a better place has companies all but panicked about their ability to sustain themselves.

The good thing is that hopefully when the dust settles we’ll be left with companies that actually fulfill a legitimate consumer need rather than exacerbating mindless conspicuous consumption. In this new environment (I saw on the news last night they’re coining it the “New Reality”), different pressures are on businesses than before which inevitably means some will be fitter than others. These pressures are largely driven by consumer culture and the changing landscape of the nature of “demand.” Hence, our focus on this being a cultural change hits right on the center of the issue. Companies that get this sooner rather than later and are able to form themselves to the new mold of the Grounded Consumer will be more likely to survive. Those that don’t adapt well to the new environment will be selected out of the producer gene pool and go the way of the dodo bird.

I’m Hearing Our Chord

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

I’m walking to work in downtown Baltimore. It’s raining and about 65 degrees. It’s two weeks from Christmas and Baltimore is having one of those humid days you get in the early winter. I’ve got my umbrella and so do others. My iPod in my ears. You need to find the rhythm of they day when you walk the sidewalks with an umbrella. You are as big as your umbrella extends. So more than ever you need to know everyone’s step to make sure the sidewalk flows. To make sure life flows.

Then it struck me. The Chord.

We all know there is ultimately no right or wrong, black or white, good or evil. All we have is the ability to strike the right chord, to find the right rhythm in life. Then we just have to hold on to that sound, that beat for as long as we can.

I’m starting to hear our chord. I believe we’re settling into a rhythm.

Can you hear it? Can you feel it? Can you see it?

Try.

No Money!

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

Friday October 3rd. The House passed the economic meltdown bill. I’m in Baltimore in front of one of those money shows on t.v. next to another guy. I say “we all need a good weekend.” He says “there’s a run on the Wachovia. I’m putting my money in my mattress.” I assume he’s a banker or broker but find out he’s just an ordinary guy who couldn’t get money out the Wachovia ATM down the street in downtown Baltimore. I grab my camera and head over to the ATM two blocks from work. I see a sign on the ATM. It’s a paper sign with a handwritten “No Money” on it.

No No Money

A couple of interesting ethnographic notables here. First, somebody in the bank went to the trouble to put up a sign AND to use the words “No Money” rather than just the usual “not in service.” There was money inside the bank afterall. Second, our country is steeped in two parallel “No Money!” meltdowns — the one on Wall Street and the one on “Wal” Mart. We have much to learn and see about how these two meltdowns proceed.

Want Insight? Go Tolstoy!?!?

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

I have to start by saying the following in the most non-judgemental way – I am PhD Cultural Anthropologist who did his dissertation research in Papua New Guinea and has spent the last 9 years doing market research (ethnographic consulting) for Fortune 500 companies like American Express, Microsoft, Kraft, General Mills, Adobe and many more. So I’ve read and gotten something from all those business books out there. But last night I’m reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and I hit a quote from one of his cast of characters and I am blown away by the insight the quote provides me – personally and professionally. Unlike most business books, the quote leaves me full and satisfied and able to apply it in so many ways. So here it is:

“It’s only those peoples that have an intuitive sense of what’s of importance and significance in their institutions, and know how to value them, that have a future before them – it’s only those peoples that one can truly call historical.”

Read that quote and then consider any or all of the following thought starters:

What does the quote say about:
1) How well I know myself?
2) My relationship with my family?
3) How I work with others?
4) The way I make decisions about my business?
5) The choices I make (or made) in my personal and professional life?
6) Who I trust as the next president of the United States?
7) How I make sense of the current economic bailout package?

The measure of great insight is how much clarity of thought you get and the positive direction that insight takes you. So I have an unlimited offer. Call me 410 223 3589 or write me rblinkoff@contextresearch.com and I will provide totally solicited advice based on this quote. My goal is to insight as many people as possible by using this quote. What do you have to gain?

Death by Texting

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

I just read that it’s possible the engineer during the fatal California train wreck was driving and texting. As anthropologists we often speak about the evolution of technology or more aptly the evolution of behavior and technology. Boundaries around people’s behavior with new technology take longer to develop than the adoption of the technology itself. If these deaths in California (which did include the engineer) were due to texting while driving, it’s terribly sad and tragic. Even if texting ends up not the cause, clearly California and likely the nation, will create texting legislation. It’s not the first time in my personal experience where I’ve felt the need for the boundaries around behavior to catch up with texting and mobile phone adoption. I used to frequent the buses here in Baltimore and more often than I care to mention I watched drivers make phone calls and text while driving. As anthropologists it’s fascinating to watch the evolution of behavior with new technology. But when that adoption curve means likely death, society needs to step in sooner to speed up the adoption.

Dems Say “Thanks for the Gift, Karl.”

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

Really, is it a surprise that his name is Karl? It’s kind of like a “he who shall not be named” and Harry Potter kind of thing, huh? He helped us Dems come back to our roots. We’re flying high on Obama — and rightly so. But we need to fully embrace our real work — to sit down and really engage with people whose points of view we do not share. We must remember, as a friend pointed out yesterday, on the face of it we share their values — autonomy, integrity, family, hard work. It’s not about turning them into us or us into them. It’s about finding ground on which we can move forward. And that’s where Dems shine in their lives. And it’s precisely this ability that makes Obama the person he is and the president he will be. Thanks Karl.

Hope… ?

Posted by: Tracy Johnson

(Reader beware… this one is personal). I recently had friends over this weekend, and they asked the question that I often get, “How do you use anthropology in the private sector?” Well, this time I was more prepared than usual. I had recently had a lot of time to think through this question as I spent a couple of weeks in the hospital dealing a fairly scary health event.

One of my husband’s friends called me while I was in the hospital and said something to me, which although seemingly simple on its surface, was truly earth shattering at the time. He told me, “You have to have hope.”

Hope. It totally blew me away. How do I get that… where does hope come from? I started to think about the places where I seen hope or where and when people have talked to me about hope. And that’s when it hit me that out in “the field” anthropologists are always talking to people about their hopes.

Traditionally, anthropologists go into the field (years in Thailand, or Papua New Guinea, or post Communist Russia) believing that we are going to ask a lot of questions, or really stimulate a lot of discussion around a wide array of topics political systems, religious beliefs, marriage rites, daily rituals, educational processes, and the like. But as our informants, our collaborators bring us into their social and cultural worlds much of what they speak of is tied to their hopes and dreams, their sense of themselves in the world they inhabit and how they seek to find happiness within this world.

In fact, this is no different from what we talk to our clients about here at Context. We go out into the field-Mom’s kitchen, the community playground, a yoga class, the local Target-and we spend time with people striving to pursue small hopes. By small I don’t mean inconsequential; indeed these hopes are very consequential. Rather I mean that they are rooted in the reality of people’s lives. These folks are not dreaming up big schemes; rather they are looking to get through the complications of each day happy and whole, and surrounded by loved ones who are also happy and whole.

So, when marketers are trying to understand where their products fit into peoples’ lives what they need to look for is hope.

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Business Welcomes Back Social Valuation and Difference in the Marketplace!

Recession Concessions: The Bargain Movie Theater

War On Consumerism

Economic Darwism: Survival of the Fittest in a New Economic Environment

I’m Hearing Our Chord

No Money!

Want Insight? Go Tolstoy!?!?

Death by Texting

Dems Say “Thanks for the Gift, Karl.”

Hope… ?