ABSTRACT
The “Get a Mac” series of advertisements that ran nearly forty different iterations from 2006 to 2010, is regarded as a highly successful advertising campaign. A hybrid methodology also enables business anthropologists to be seen as experts in understanding the breadth of human behavior rather than solely as research ethnographers. Business anthropologists must be like them in that they must learn and function effectively within their client’s culture or risk alienating them. The anthropologists discovered that both experienced and novice home cooks receive and share recipes and meal ideas through a social network of other women, including women in their family, friends, neighbors, associates at work, and in the local community. The US cereal market is cluttered with brands that compete for a place on the consumer’s palate. Epistemologically, the academic disciplines of psychology and anthropology have clear distinctions, but in consumer marketing and research practices, the units of analysis are often intertwined.
