Applied Anthropology

"Come alive with the Pepsi generation." This was the 1963 Pepsi slogan in response to the post-WWII baby boom. The product made marketing history for being the first to not only be recognized by its attributes but by the lifestyle of its consumers. The Pepsi generation. Feeling popular and ambitious Pepsi marketed in China and other Oriental countries only to find that Pepsi wasn't selling. Come to find out Pepsi's great new slogan literally translated into Chinese meant "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave." There have been many marketing blunders such as this one. For example, when Gerber Baby food attempted to market in Africa sales were terrible. Reason being that the majority of people in Africa are illiterate, thus African companies advertise by placing a picture of what is in the can on the can. In the case of Gerber baby food, the adorable baby on the front wasn't as appealing. Also Colgate-Palmolive toothpaste tried to market a new toothpaste called "Cue" in France, only to find that Cue in French was a pornographic word for butt and also the name of a popular porno magazine.

Why did I tell you these stories? To illustrate that culture and business go hand in hand. Anthropology is imperative to good business. Marketing cross culturally isn't easy when one is unfamiliar the people or their way of life. Anthropology helps us to understand other cultures and can prevent such marketing errors such as these.

In order to use anthropology is it important to understand what it is and how it works? Literally Anthropology is the study of humans, from the Greek words "anthropos" meaning human and "logia" meaning study of. Anthropologists seek to understand the human existence.

There are many subfields of Anthropology. Cultural Anthropology is the study of individual cultures mostly through participant observation, or living and learning in a culture different from your own. They seek to learn and compare cultures to help us as humans understand each other and recognize our diversity.

Linguistic Anthropology is the study of human language and how it plays a role in our culture and our behavior. Without language culture and society could