Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
    big data and remote work
    Data Helps Speech-Language Pathologists Deliver Better Results
    6 Min Read
    data driven insights
    How Data-Driven Insights Are Addressing Gaps in Patient Communication and Equity
    8 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Futurist and Culture Guru Grant McCracken – Optimistic on Effects of Recession?
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Uncategorized > Futurist and Culture Guru Grant McCracken – Optimistic on Effects of Recession?
Uncategorized

Futurist and Culture Guru Grant McCracken – Optimistic on Effects of Recession?

TomAnderson
TomAnderson
6 Min Read
SHARE

Grant McCracken Q&A with Tom H. C. Anderson

I learned of Grant’s work just before the ESOMAR Annual Congress in Montreal last year where he was the Key Note. It turns out he lives in the next town over and is now a member of the Next Gen Market Research Group (NGMR) which I moderate on LinkedIn.

Grant holds a PhD from the University of Chicago in anthropology. He has been Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum; a senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; a visiting scholar, University of Cambridge; and is now a research affiliate at C3 at MIT. He has consulted for many companies, including the Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, IBM, IKEA, and Kimberly Clark. He has served on advisory boards for IBM and the Boston Beer Company.

More Read

The Risks of Using One Backup Solution Over Another [VIDEO]
Why Do Once Successful Companies Fail?
NPR’s radio series on Big Data
Social Media for Authors, Questions from the Teleseminar Part 3
Calling All Companies Implementing Enterprise 2.0!

Some of his recent books include: “Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace,” “Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods” and “Activities, Culture and Consumption II: Markets, Meaning, and Brand Management.” This fall his newest book “Chief Culture Officer” will be published.

Tom: You are an Anthropologist interested in contemporary …

Grant McCracken Q&A with Tom H. C. Anderson

I learned of Grant’s work just before the ESOMAR Annual Congress in Montreal last year where he was the Key Note. It turns out he lives in the next town over and is now a member of the Next Gen Market Research Group (NGMR) which I moderate on LinkedIn.

Grant holds a PhD from the University of Chicago in anthropology. He has been Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum; a senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; a visiting scholar, University of Cambridge; and is now a research affiliate at C3 at MIT. He has consulted for many companies, including the Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, IBM, IKEA, and Kimberly Clark. He has served on advisory boards for IBM and the Boston Beer Company.

Some of his recent books include: “Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace,” “Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods” and “Activities, Culture and Consumption II: Markets, Meaning, and Brand Management.” This fall his newest book “Chief Culture Officer” will be published.

Tom: You are an Anthropologist interested in contemporary culture. What does that mean?

Grant: I study contemporary culture the way an anthropologist studies any culture. There are important differences, lots of variation at any given time, change over time, dynamism all the time. Contemporary culture is a handful. But anthropologists are good at finding patterns in broad, noisy data sets.

Tom: I believe your most recent book is Transformations and deals with self reinvention. Can you tell me a little about self reinvention, why it’s important now, especially for marketers?

Grant: In culture, individuals have the right to reinvent themselves. This doesn’t happen in other cultures, so the challenge was to figure out why and how this reinvention works.

Tom: How will the current economy affect our culture, especially consumption/consumerism?

Grant: I am working on this very topic at the moment. I think there’s a good chance that consumers will merely scale back their consumption and when prosperity, credit, and confidence return we will party like its 1999. Still, we could see some major changes. I’m in the process of trying to sketch out the possibilities now.

Tom: That sounds good to me! Which are the most important sub/counter cultures currently, and which aspects within them are worth paying extra attention to currently?

Grant: In a way, sub and counter cultures have moved out of the social world into the personal world. Each of us has lots of selves within. This internal diversity is the thing we need to understand more. Marketers have been segmenting markets externally for decades. Now it’s time to segment by the internal distinctions and speak to one or several of the selves within.

Tom: Is it possible/wise for marketers to try to segment customers by culture, or is it too broad to be actionable/useful?

Grant: Well, certainly they can and should segment by culture theme and trend.

Tom: You’ve said our culture is changing at lightning speed and have given examples of the Old Regime, as Martha Stewart, and Oprah Winfrey as the new more influential regime because Oprah doesn’t care about status. Any other good examples of old regime brands and new regime brands?

Grant: There will always be a Martha. She speaks to and for a certain constituency. But I think her cultural trend and theme is being supplanted by the Rachel Rays of the world.

For those of you interested learning more about Grant you can check out his blog here: www.cultureby.com and his website “which is about 2 days from completion” at www.grantmccracken.com

Here is a link to the NGMR group on LinkedIn.

Link to original postTom H. C. Anderson – Anderson Analytics

Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

data analytics and truck accident claims
How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
predictive analytics for interior designers
Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
Analytics Exclusive Predictive Analytics
big data and cybercrime
Stopping Lateral Movement in a Data-Heavy, Edge-First World
Big Data Exclusive
AI and data mining
What the Rise of AI Web Scrapers Means for Data Teams
Artificial Intelligence Big Data Exclusive

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

Going Paperless: When does it work?

8 Min Read

How you can use Social Media for Online Business Branding?

5 Min Read

See you at PAW (Predictive Analytics World) and Teradata Partners

2 Min Read

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Océ Part Three: Change Management

8 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai chatbot
The Art of Conversation: Enhancing Chatbots with Advanced AI Prompts
Chatbots
AI chatbots
AI Chatbots Can Help Retailers Convert Live Broadcast Viewers into Sales!
Chatbots

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?