Magnetocrystalline anisotropy has a great influence on industrial uses of ferromagnetic materials.  Materials with high magnetic anisotropy usually have high coercivity, that is, they are hard to demagnetize.  These are called "hard" ferromagnetic materials and are used to make permanent magnets.  For example, the high anisotropy of rare-earth metals is mainly responsible for the strength of rare-earth magnets.  During manufacture of magnets, a powerful magnetic field aligns the microcrystalline grains of the metal such that their "easy" axes of magnetization all point in the same direction, freezing a strong magnetic field into the material.
On the other hand, materials with low magnetic anisotropy usually have low coercivity, their magnetization is easy to change.  These are called "soft" ferromagnets and are used to make magnetic cores for transformers and inductors.  The small energy required to turn the direction of magnetization minimizes core losses, energy dissipated in the transformer core when the alternating current changes direction.