Why Anthropology?

"It seems everyone is jumping on the ethnography bandwagon. These days, anyone who can operate a video camera or has taken a class on interviewing seems to be claiming to have anthropological fieldwork experience. The problem is that once it comes time to deliver a synthesis of findings, those without a solid background aren't able to go much beyond telling stories about what cool things they saw while hanging out with the interviewees. That's just not enough. And it misses the point of why anthropology can be such a relevant perspective for design and brand innovation.

This doesn't mean that only people with anthropology degrees should be conducting ethnographies. I have worked with plenty of people (many of them at Cheskin) from design, business, and market research backgrounds who have taught me so much about how to adapt and expand ethnography for business. What I believe this does mean is that we need to continually integrate more of the very best anthropological practices into business and design strategies. Or risk becoming a passing fad, as anthropology's contributions are minimized to cool anecdotes and MTV-like video clips. "