My name is Rachel Plotkin and I’m the Social
Anthropologist.
I’m currently a junior studying advertising
communications at the International Academy of Design and Technology in
Chicago. I’ve always been fascinated by categorizing people. I even enjoy
categorizing myself. I’ve always loved questionnaires where I’m asked to
describe myself in three words: introspective, semi-cynical, wordsmith. Even as
we are all told not to “label” people, I like to label people because frankly,
it’s just fun and can be useful. Personalities are intricate and they often
have many layers. Humans are multi-dimensional. I like to break down complex
personalities into shorter descriptions because they are easier to digest that
way, easier to relate to and process. I’m observant and I believe this is one
of the keys to being a good social anthropologist. Throughout my life I have
taken all the extras out of personalities and stripped them down to the
essentials by grouping them. Some people claim to read people’s “auras” and I don’t know what
an aura is but I do enjoy reading personalities.
So you may be asking yourself, “What is a social
anthropologist and why do you keep using that word? What does this have to do
with advertising? Why am I asking questions out loud to myself in my living
room?” Anthropology, as defined by the Internet is “the study of humans.”
Within this study of human beings, I focus specifically on the social groupings
we assign to ourselves along with the ones that society assigns to us. The
intent of this blog is to explore different target markets and how they play into
current advertising. Target markets are in essence, social anthropology.
Marketing seeks to categorize and classify groups of people and then convince
them to purchase products that are meant for their peer group. Each week I will
be choosing two opposing target markets on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Within the posting I will compare and contrast these target markets and discuss
triumphs and challenges pertaining to advertising within these specific social
categories.
Next week I discuss dying target markets vs.
emerging younger target markets and tackle such topics as: Which one is more
heavily advertised to? Are there
any products that people actually buy for their entire lives? Why advertise to
an entire market segment that will die within the next decade?
(If you read this entire first blog and were
disappointed to find that it was about advertising target markets, I also empty
my brain at theplottt.tumblr.com)
