Findings tied consumer behavior and brand perceptions to brand positioning for the marketing team and the development of creative strategy for the advertising agency. Findings were delivered in the form of a long report, a Power Point presentation, and a short video presentation.

Retail and Merchandising Strategy Development
A brand is a system of meanings that consumers integrate into their personal space to satisfy unmet needs. As a branch of anthropology devoted to symbolic communication, SEMIOTICS provides methods of articulating and codifying brand communication and applying findings to marketing problems. For a major retailer, we used semiotic methods to examine social and psychological cues in-store that shaped the consumer’s experience in the retail setting and affected product purchase. Working with retail designers, we developed an integrated marketing communications grid that tested brand consistency across several channels, including promotional advertising, the product catalogue, and merchandising in-store. Findings incorporated recommendations for redesigning a more consumer friendly retail space consistent with overall brand communication.

The Future of Mobile Entertainment
We used secondary sources as well as observational research among heavy users of consumer electronics in several age segments in order to gauge future trends in the mobile entertainment category. By comparing findings in the U.S. market with findings from European users, we helped the client identify business decisions that needed to be tailored by culturally determined values and attitudes toward electronics on the one hand and entertainment on the other.

Ethnic and Ethnographic Research
We have teamed up with ethnic researchers in the United States and abroad to conduct in-home ethnographies for projects in the personal care, automotive, and entertainment categories. This multi-cultural perspective on consumer behavior enriched findings and highlighted unique behaviors and perceptions of African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, and Asian consumers, while underscoring their similarities.

Using Ethnography to Track Global Brand Awareness in Shanghai
Laura Oswald traveled to China in 2001 to develop research protocols on women’s lifestyles in Shanghai. I interviewed housewives and university students about the effects of modernization and consumer culture on their lives. I conducted in-home interviews with three middle-aged, working-class housewives, and a three-day observational and discussion study with five M.B.A. students at Tong Ji University. With the help of an interpreter, I focused on the personal care rituals of the housewives and their perceptions of brands in the personal care category, including shampoo, soap, and body lotion. With the M.B.A. students, all in their early twenties, I discussed changes in the perceptions and experiences of being a woman in the “new China.”

Litigation Support: Intellectual Property on the Internet
In the year 2000, Laura Oswald served as an expert witness in two simultaneous trademark violation cases in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, involving the use of the word "playboy" on the Iinternet. [United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; No.9-56239 AHS; DC #cV99-320, the Case of Playboy Enterprises, inc. versus Netscape Communications, Corporation; and No.99 - 56231; DC# CV99 - 321 AHS, the case of Playboy Enterprises, inc. versus Excite, Inc.] The Playboy litigation bears directly on issues of public policy concerning the use of intellectual property in general and brand names in particular, on the Internet. They draw particular attention to the issues involved in proving ownership of a word that, over time and through numerous marketing activities, has achieved brand status and recognition. When an internet user types a word in the search box, there are currently very few restrictions on how that word will be linked to sites on the web ­ will it connect immediately to a site for the brand, or will it bring up lots of other sites where the word is used as a common noun? As these kinds of cases come before the court, the main argument finding trademark violation will concern misleading use of a recognized brand name to bring traffic to sites other than that for the brand in question.

Corporate Strategy
In order to help a client effectively communicate new policies and directions for the corporation to corporate leaders, we conducted a broad trend study among heavy users of fast food and grounded findings in an understanding of popular culture, the work of experts, and census data. We then designed a multi-media presentation of findings about the fast food industry, which included slides, collages, and a short video documentary. This documentary was accepted into the Film Program of the Association of Consumer Research.

Internet Marketing Strategy
At the start of the Internet boom, we were hired to help a computer company leverage their brand in a new web-based business. A semiotic audit of their brand communication revealed that their brand positioning derived from an unhappy relationship between Man and Machine. Everything from the manual, to the advertising, to the technology itself contributed to the image of an impersonal, distant and insensitive authority figure targeted to experts. This positioning spelled disaster for their new venture. By conducting secondary research into successful Internet businesses, we discovered that the winners were sensitive to the human factor driving Internet usage. We then designed a consumer study that provided insights into ways our client could reposition their brand to include user-friendly qualities such as warmth, creativity, and empowerment while drawing upon core brand equities.

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