Abstract

GONZALEZ VELEZ, César Augusto  and  GARCIA GONZALEZ, David Fernando. THE CONSUMER AS A RESOURCE. ETHNOGRAPHY OF CONSUMPTION APPLIED TO MARKET RESEARCH. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2019, vol.4, n.2, pp.53-64.  Epub Dec 01, 2019. ISSN 2393-7068.  https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v4.n2.4.

Anthropological studies on consumption tend to be focused on merchandise exchange scenarios, appropriation practices, and uses of material culture; however, there are few works taking into consideration the production of social subjects in economic processes. Several authors have noted that markets build specific subjects around goods, promoting the valuation and representation of people with the same interpretation tools applied to goods. This article seeks to explore the social construction of consumers through available means, such as market research. From an investigation called “Business ethnographies. The integration of the ethnographic method to market research ”, developed in the Master's Degree in Social Studies of Consumption of the Central University, we want to show the strategies with which the information on consumers in consumer ethnography is valued and discussed. Information markets are very common in the field of marketing, but in this case they are intertwined with the very construction of consumers through the interpretation of data and expert opinion on their habits. In this sense, the debate proposed here is connected with problems of the sociology of knowledge. In addition, the review of the valuation of market research services allows considering the economic rationality of the actors involved in this process, including entrepreneurs, businessman, and advertisers.

Keywords : ethnography; marketing; market; Colombia.

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