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.

The Wii Fit?

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

I have seen the commercials and read the articles about the groundbreaking Wii Fit video game that is suppose to make weight-watching and fitness fun.

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand we should all be doing something to stay active and manage our weight in order to feel healthy. But on the other hand do we really need to spend more time indoors and in front of the tv?

I think that this launch of the Wii Fit should be a wake up call for society…I don’t mean to sound overdramatic here. But what if we used this as our motivation to talk to our employers about getting some time off during the day so we can get outside the office and do some things that help us stay fit.

Why should 5am or 8pm be the time for fitness for most working adults? I am not only talking about exercise here, I am thinking along the lines of a modified siesta. Maybe if our largest meal was in the afternoon, followed by a short period of “recharging” we could function more efficiently both physically and mentally.

So many corporations are studying health and wellness these days from the food we eat to the activities we engage in to try to crack the code. I think that changing up how we all live is the only way we are going to move the needle on the health and wellness factor.

Building Communities

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

We know that as the world continues to evolve and become more and more international, we look for ways to stay connected to our existing community and create new communities too.

We join message boards and user groups but what we may not have thought about is that this can allow us to become part of a community before you even arrive at a physical space. An example is the Brooklyn-based Park Slope Parent’s user group on Yahoo. If you are looking to move to the area, you can join the group to meet other parents in the area before you even arrive. This allows you to begin to establish a new community or be accepted into an existing community before you are there; thus, making your transition much smoother and more social.

What I am getting at is that using technology like these user groups actually has the ability to physically connect us. Another example is the Street View in Google Maps…

What will the future hold for us? Can you smell that birthday cake I am baking for you? And feel my hug? It doesn’t seem like we are too far off.

Starbucks in Crisis

Posted by: Robbie Blinkoff

Startling admission: I’ve had a cup of Starbucks coffee or two in my life!

What we have to ask ourselves about all the current Starbucks navel gazing and re-discovering its roots is: Why Now? Well because the company was feeling some distress and decided they needed to revisit and re-energize themselves around their origins.

That’s ok and cool.
I just wish they had done all this introspection before they hit hard times in the business. Becasue for all the cool stories about their beginnings and all they’ve done for the coffee movement, this recent move only comes off as a public relations stunt to drum up business.

Just keeping it real.

Is Home Cooked the new Organic?

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

Over the last few years Organic has been the hot word. From organic fruits and vegetables to dairy products and then organic finally found its way into packages goods like Organic Raisin Bran.

But as we look to see how this trend is changing we are seeing a rise in the idea of home cooked. A good example of this is the Food Network. The people who have risen to mega-star fame with multiple shows (Rachel Ray and Paula Dean) are in fact not classically trained chefs. Their recent additions to the food network are also not classically trained chefs, Nigella Lawson (Nigella Bites,), Ingrid Hoffman (Simply Delicioso) and Robin Miller (Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller).

Paula Dean really embodies the idea of home cooked. We want to use real butter and sugar in our food, like our parents did. Rachel Ray gives us the ability to cook a home-made meal every night in 30 minutes. We crave the warmth of a home cooked meal and to experience the joy of eating it. This moment when we sit down to eat something that we have made reminds us of meal times with loved ones. It is a moment of joy even if we can’t articulate it.

We have also seen this trend in restaurants offing up more home-cooked style foods like meatloaf and pot pies. Honestly, growing up did you ever think you would pay for meatloaf? But oh, how wonderful it is.

Boys Don’t Cry

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

Ok so people went ape-s*&t when Hillary cried but I have been watching the Biggest Loser and the amount of tears shed on this show alone is insane. A few weeks ago, the blue team had to vote someone off and it was a bunch of middle age men just weeping and I mean weeping. But they are still viewed as the “strong” team on all levels.

I know it is not apples to apples but seriously, why is this acceptable in our society but a woman running for President can’t express her feelings without being seen as weak? Hillary’s tear jerker got massive coverage in the press. But why? Is it because we wanted to expose her in a weak state? I thought so until I was in a meeting last week and someone thought it was because it brought some small resolution to a piece of the political fight. This fight that just goes on aimlessly and will continue to do so for months to come.

So which is it, weakness or resolution…I believe it is both. We hunger for the “story” but also need it to have an ending, hence the propensity of reality tv and people being voted off and maybe even our numbness towards news about Iraq. What if the run for our presidential elections was shorter, more engaging and featured more resolutions? Would it be okay if people cried? Would more people vote?

Social Crockpots

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

The last couple parties I have gone to have featured a crockpot dish as the main entrée. Now it has been a long long time since the crockpot has surfaced in my life. I have fond memories of mom’s crockpot dishes growing up…meat cooked all day until it is so juicy and tender that it just splits when your fork hits it. But the past 10 years have been filled with the ever increasing popularity of the food network and chefs teaching us how to “execute” home cooking. A far cry from the crockpot! We have been marinating meat all day but not popping it in a device that we then could go about our lives and not have to worry about the exact temperature when it would be perfectly cooked.

The crockpot gives us the freedom to spend more time with people, it acts as our social connector as well as our personal chef and cooks your dish to the perfect done-ness without the worry and time of manning a meat thermometer. The new crockpot recipes are updated classics. Updated classics - maybe that is what we are all searching for. In our busy, over-scheduled world, this resurgence of the crockpot is just another symbol of our desire for an easier way to feel homey and share with friends and family.

The Cardigan

Posted by: Stephanie Simpson

When I was in New York last week I couldn’t help but notice that most of the men looked like they were out of the 1950’s and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why and then it hit me, the cardigan. They were all wearing cardigans.

I know fashion cycles but I can’t help but think is there something more behind this. It’s far from the recent bright colors and patterns of the 80’s surge.

The cardigan is a symbol of home, warmth and security. The standard dress from the Leave it to Beaver times. I think this might be a manifestation of our deeper feelings and need for simpler times and a return to security.

The Primaries: Who Will Keep the Momentum Going?

Posted by: Tracy Johnson

Everywhere you look the focus is on the momentum of the Obama campaign… and the question of whether that momentum is sustainable. Yet the question always seems to be framed as whether Obama himself can sustain this momentum. Maybe this is the wrong way of framing the question, that we should be concerning ourselves with taking a closer look at who really has the power to sustain the momentum.

As anthropologists we think about power a lot. Mostly we think about power as double-edged. It operates from above as domination and from below as resistance. Primarily we look at cultures that have traditionally been relegated to the margins of society–colonized societies, marginalized groups, ethnic communities, and so on.

The question then becomes how do people sustain a culturally meaningful life in the face of large-scale domination? How do people engage and enact life projects that have transformative capacity?

Framed this way, the Obama momentum takes on a different quality. Is what we’re seeing here a form of resistance, a fighting back from the dominant feeling that the people in our studies express? For as they have told us, particularly the younger Millennials and Generation Xers, they feel they have no place in the realm of politics, there is no room for them to engage in the debate, there is no entrée for understanding what is really going on in the higher echelons of power.

Has Obama instilled hope that the people can speak, that they can engage and enact life projects that are meaningful to them, that have the capacity to transform the current political landscape?

If the answer is yes, then the gift he has given is that of power. And, it’s up to the people to keep the power flowing, to keep the momentum going.

Superbowl Advertising: Are we really all the same?

Posted by: Tracy Johnson

What was up with the ads that debuted during the Superbowl? As I think back to them, and of course, working so closely with an advertising agency, talk about them in their aftermath, I’m left with a singular vision. Loud, beat driven music, with in-your face graphics… and everyone in the commercial being brought together for the final shot dancing, or head banging, in unison.

Do companies really believe that we’re all struggling to be the same? The work we’ve done over the past year with Context shows that to the contrary, consumers are all struggling to be different within the onslaught of the same. Yes, most Moms, for example, are struggling with the question of how to make a nutritious dinner for their families in a short amount of time - and one that they’ll eat. But just like each child in the family has his and her own dislikes that they bring to the table every night, each Mom has her own unique take on the struggle.

One company that we worked with during 2007 had the courage to go beyond the ever constant drive to segment. They looked at the market outside of their segmentation. They struggled to understand how people were changing and ultimately how in fact they were all quite different.

We hope more will follow in 2008.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Most Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

Hope… ?

The Wii Fit?

Building Communities

Starbucks in Crisis

Is Home Cooked the new Organic?

Boys Don’t Cry

Social Crockpots

The Cardigan

The Primaries: Who Will Keep the Momentum Going?

Superbowl Advertising: Are we really all the same?