ABSTRACT
Anthropological analysis, whether by focus groups, ethnography, or thoughtful cultural perspectives, can enhance advertising and marketing initiatives by offering a broader view of culture, from its fads and fashions to its deep enduring structures. Embedded in the persistent misunderstandings of what anthropology is lies a perception in business that anthropologists are inherently exotic. Anthropologists’ chief role as investigators of the other is then juxtaposed with the anthropologist’s own position in business settings as the other. Success in marketing and advertising requires that anthropologists move among disciplines, incorporating psychological and philosophical perspectives with anthropological ones. Cultural analysis in business is already infused with concepts of the person, discussions on emotions of individuals, what motivates the self, and other psychological constructs. Cooperative arrangements with advertising agencies and marketing research firms would educate students on the ways that anthropology contributes to these enterprises. Anthropology adapts as a social science, a discipline of humanism, and as a form of social critique.
