Businesses need to know who their consumers are and what those customers want.
About 50 marketers and designers visiting Baltimore got a taste of consumer anthropology Monday, interviewing customers at Lexington Market and Harborplace and analyzing their interactions with the different markets.
“This process gives you an all-natural setting,” said Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist and co-founder of Baltimore?s Context-Based Research Group, as he led the study in Inner Harbor. “You get people who are involved in what they?re doing, not saying what they do.”
Consumer anthropology has gained momentum in the business world in recent years, said Brian Stonecipher, a human factors engineer with Boston-based Design Continuum who took part in the study.
“This gives you an accurate picture of what the user wants,” Stonecipher said. “Business today is very competitive, and you can?t make a product that?s going to end up in the trash or at a yard sale ? that?s the bottom line.”
The group studied Lexington Market first, noting the produce and food shops were bustling with activity as local residents interacted with their longtime vendors. Harborplace, the group found, was a tourist destination lacking seller-buyer interaction.
“You really understand how people move through the market, what gets their attention, what their purpose is,” said Tracy Johnson of Context-Based Research Group. “Lexington Market is considered an older marketplace and might be less attractive to people, but in fact, it was far busier than Harborplace.”
The group treated the studies with the hypothetical purpose of making recommendations to the city on how to increase local consumer activity in built-up areas like Inner Harbor.
The field study was part of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society?s 51st Annual Meeting, happening all week at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel.
