Transcript Culture, Tradition & Customer Behavior

Culture, Tradition & Customer
Behavior
Menekşe Uçaroğlu
Istanbul, May 25th 2011
III. Istanbul International Insurance Conference
Content
• The Role of Culture in Customer Behavior
• The Role of Tradition in Customer Behavior
• Regional Characteristics & The Role of Culture in Customer Behavior
• 5 Stages of Buying Process
• Turkish Market
• Insurance Buying Process in Turkey - Industrialised versus Emerging Markets
The Role of Culture in Customer Behavior
• The culture a person is born into goes a long way toward
determining that individual's behavior patterns, beliefs and
values
• Culture is defined as a shared set of practices or beliefs among
a group of people in a particular place and time
• Marketers, analysts and customers themselves use an
awareness of culture to learn how and why customers in a
particular culture behave the way they do.
The Role of Culture in Customer Behavior
• Culture is an important factor in determining customer
behavior.
• Besides purchasing decisions, culture also affects how
customers use the products they buy and how they dispose of
them.
• Culture exerts different levels of influence on members. Age,
language, ethnicity, gender and education level all affect which
customer behaviors a member of a given culture demonstrates
The Role of Tradition in Customer Behavior
• Traditions are central to the ways that culture influences
customer behavior.
• Traditional patterns change over time as a culture evolves, but
marketers who study and understand such patterns have an
advantage
• Young people may not adopt cultural practices that are
common for adults, and may develop practices unique to their
own subculture, this can involve everything from new buying
trends to new product use trends
Regional Characteristics & The Role of Culture in
Customer Behavior
• Culture explains why some products sell well in certain regions or
among specific groups, but not as well elsewhere.
• Marketers spend a great deal of time and money studying the
effects of culture on consumer behavior. This is especially true for
multinational companies that have customers from a diverse
series of cultural backgrounds.
• A strong marketing strategy in one culture might be unappealing,
or even offensive, to members of another culture.
• Religion must be taken under consideration because we are living
in a diverse region, both in terms of business culture and religion.
This will affect the way that we handle our business.
5 Stages of Buying Process *
• Problem Recognition (awareness of need)--difference between the desired state
and the actual condition. Can be stimulated by the marketer through product
information
• Information search
• Evaluation of Alternatives--need to establish criteria for evaluation, features the
buyer wants or does not want
• Purchase decision
• Post-Purchase Evaluation--outcome: Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction Cognitive
Dissonance, have you made the right decision
* Kotler
Turkish Market
• Turkey is an example of Emerging Market
• Turkey is the largest market in the region of the Middle East & Central Asia,
(Swiss Re, sigma No:2-2010)
• Insurance Density : Premiums per capita in Usd in 2009 is 106 Usd,
90 Usd Non-life , 16 Usd life (Swiss Re, sigma No:2-2010)
• Insurance Penetration : Premium as of % of GDP in 2009 is 1,3 %
1,1 % Non-life , 0,2 Lİfe (Swiss Re, sigma No:2-2010)
Turkish Market
• Turkish Market has Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Characteristics
with well established cultural & traditional habits
• Turkish Market is dominated by agents
• Almost each family has a favorite agent , emotional clients
• Young people are more open to buy from internet, but strong influence from
parents
Insurance Buying Process in Turkey
Industrialised versus Emerging Markets
• Problem Recognition
• Information search
awareness of need vs need creation
internet, friends & relatives,
• Evaluation of Alternatives
• Purchase decision
online pricing tools, agents, price cutting,
concerns about claims collection,
anonymous client vs agent’s client
collection options
we hate deductible
personal trust
• Post-Purchase Evaluation
no claim ! no problem !
real evaluation is done in case of a claim
claim is the product
unmet expectations
lack of training
Conclusion
Social psychologists say :
‘we need to analyse everything within its own context’
This is a key element in understanding cultural and traditional
characteristics of a country .
Which is also a paramount necessity for reaching succesful results.
Culture, Tradition & Customer
Behavior
Menekşe Uçaroğlu
Istanbul, May 25th 2011
III. Istanbul International Insurance Conference