Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología

Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol | eISSN 2011-4273 | ISSN 1900-5407

“The Businessman’s New Clothes”: The Use of Ethnography in Market Research

No. 38 (2020-01-01)
  • David García González
    Universidad Nacional de Colombia
  • César González Vélez
    Universidad Central, Colombia
https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda38.2020.03

Abstract

Objective/context: In the last ten years, ethnography has consolidated itself as a central service in the portfolio of many market research companies in Colombia that offer their clients consumer ethnographies. The objective of this article is to describe and analyze how market research professionals understand and use ethnography. Methodology: The research that led to this article involved several phases. Initially, we identified the institutions that offer consumer ethnographies in Colombia. This was followed by an analysis of the service portfolios of these institutions, as well as an analysis of the discourse with which they offer their services, particularly in terms of ethnographic studies. Finally, more than twenty interviews were conducted with market research professionals in Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, all with experience in carrying out consumer ethnographies. Conclusions: Despite the fact that professionals in this field have recently opened up spaces for debate in academia, in Colombia, the process of integrating the ethnographic method into market research companies has not been analyzed in depth. An example of this is that at the XVII Congress of Anthropology in Colombia in 2019, for the first time, there were four tables devoted to anthropology applied to consumption, markets, industry, and business. Originality: These spaces are ideal for discussing the postulates and findings of this article, especially our conclusion that, in the field of market research, the discourse of anthropology is used and instrumentalised to endow consumer ethnographies with academic and scientific legitimacy, even though its methodological practices and assumptions tend to be underestimated.

Keywords: Business anthropology, consumer ethnographies, consumption studies, ethnography, market research, marketing

References

Aragón, Catherine. 2015. El “otro” de la antropología. Tensiones y conflictos generados en la práctica de la antropología de negocios. Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario.

Ariztia, Tomás. 2018. “Consumer Databases as Practical Accomplishments: The Making of Digital Objects in Three Movements”. Journal of Cultural Economy 11 (3): 209-224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2018.1435421

Atkinson, Paul, AmandaCoffey, SaraDelamont, JohnLofland y LynLofland, eds. 2001. Handbook of Ethnography. Londres: Sage Publications.

Baba, Mariette. 2014. “De-anthropologizing Ethnography: A Historical Perspective on the Commodification of Ethnography as a Business Service”. En Handbook of Anthropology in Business, editado por RitaDenny y PatriciaSunderland, 43-68. Nueva York: Left Coast Press Inc.

Belk, Russell. 2017. “Qualitative Research in Advertising”. Journal of Advertising 46 (1): 36-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2016.1201025

Cardoso, Roberto. 1996. “La antropología latinoamericana y la ‘crisis’ de los modelos explicativos: paradigmas y teorías”. Maguaré 11-12: 9-23.

Clifford, James. 1983. “On Ethnographic Authority”. Representations 1 (2): 118-146.

Dussel, Enrique. 1992. “Crítica del mito de la modernidad”. En: 1492: el encubrimiento del otro. El origen del mito de la modernidad, 99-117. Bogotá: Anthropos.

Etnográficos. 2012. “Tres ventajas de la etnografía en la investigación de mercados” (blog), 31 de enero de 2012. http://centroestudiosetnograficos.blogspot.com/2012/01/

García González, David, MauricioMontenegro, FernandoAstaiza, CarlosMartín, María ClaraSalive y CarolinaAlba. 2012. El campo laboral publicitario. Identidades, roles e imaginarios. Bogotá: Universidad Central.

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. Nueva York: Basic Books.

Guber, Rosana. 2001. La etnografía. Método, campo y reflexividad.Bogotá: Norma.

Guglielmucci, Ana. 2015. “Publicidad, antropología y etnografía del consumo: coqueteos actuales entre disciplinas divergentes”. Poliantea 11 (21): 41-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.15765/plnt.v11i21.703

Happy Mundo. 2018. “Know How. Zona de investigación”. Acceso el 25 de noviembre de 2018. http://happymundo.com/movil/unidadesdenegocio.php

Harris, Marvin. 1968. The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture.Nueva York: Thomas Crowell Company.

Isaacs, Ellen. 2013. “The Value of Rapid Ethnography”. En Advancing Ethnography in Corporate Environments: Challenges and Emerging Opportunities, editado por BrigitteJordan, 92-107. Nueva York: Routledge.

Jordan, Ann. 2010. “The Importance of Bussiness Anthropology: Its Unique Contributions”. International Journal of Business Anthropology 1 (1): 15-25.

Kozinets, Robert. 2010. Netnography. Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Nueva York: SAGE.

Malefyt, Timothy. 2009. “Understanding the Rise of Consumer. Ethnography: Branding Technomethodologies in the New Economy”. American Anthropologist 111 (2): 201-210.

Malefyt, Timothy. 2017. “Anthropologist in Advertising Agencies: Mediating Structures of Power and Knowledge Capital by Managing Relationships”. Journal of Business Anthropology 6 (1): 89-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.22439/jba.v6i1.5318

Ospina, José, LuisMolina, GabrielCifuentes y CarlosDávila. 2014. Historia de la investigación de mercados en Colombia. Trayectoria empresarial de Napoleón Franco.Bogotá: Universidad de Los Andes.

Percy, Larry y RichardRosenbaum. 2001. Strategic Advertising Management.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pink, Sarah, ed. 2006. Applications of Anthropology: Professional Anthropology in the Twenty-first Century. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Reguillo, Rossana. 2002. “El otro antropológico. Poder y representación en una contemporaneidad sobresaltada”. Anàlisi 29: 63-79.

Restrepo, Eduardo. 2015. “El proceso de investigación etnográfica: consideraciones éticas”. Etnografías Contemporáneas 1 (1): 162-179.

Reyes, Darío. 2013. “La etnografía en los estudios de marca: una revisión bibliográfica”. Pensamiento y Gestión 34: 211-234.

Silva, Carlos y CésarBurgos. 2011. “Tiempo mínimo-conocimiento suficiente: la cuasietnografía sociotécnica en psicología social”. Psicoperspectivas 10 (2): 87-108.

Skaggs, Paul. 2010. “Ethnography in Product Design. Looking for Compensatory Behaviors”. Journal of Management and Marketing Research 3: 1-6.

Suárez, Andrés. 2007. “La poderosa empleada del servicio”. Portafolio, 22 de octubre. https://www.portafolio.co/economia/finanzas/poderosa-empleada-servicio-investigacion-bogota-identifico-flujo-decisiones-registra-hogares-bogotanos-momento-realizar-compras-471246

Thornton, Sarah. 2003. “An Academic Alice in Adland: Ethnography and the Commercial World”. Critical Quarterly 41 (1): 58-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8705.00213

Vasco, Luis. 2007. “Así es mi método en etnografía”. Tabula Rasa 6: 19-52.

Vera, Juan y JeffersonJaramillo. 2007. “Teoría social, métodos cualitativos y etnografía: el problema de la representación y reflexividad en las ciencias sociales”. Universitas Humanística 64: 237-255.