Transcript THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON CONSUMER BUYING …

THE INFLUENCE OF
CULTURE ON CONSUMER
BUYING BEHAVIOUR
WHAT IS CULTURE
• “A system of values and norms that are
shared among a group of people and that
when taken together constitute a design
for living.”
• Hofstede, Namenwirth and Weber
There are more than 160 definitions of culture
“Communicable knowledge, learned behavior passed on from
generation to generation”
“ An Integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are
distinguishing characteristic of the members of a given
society
“ The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes
the members of one group or category from those of another
WHAT IS CULTURE?
•
It is the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and
customs that serve to direct the consumer
behaviour of members of a particular society.
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The belief and value components of our definition refer to the accumulated
feelings and priorities that individuals have about ‘things’ and
possessions.
•
More precisely, beliefs consist of the very large number of mental or
verbal statements that reflect a person’s particular knowledge and
assessment of something.
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Values also are beliefs. Values differ from other beliefs, however, because
they meet the following criteria:
1.
They are relatively few in number
2.
They serve as a guide for culturally appropriate behaviour
3.
They are enduring or difficult to change
4.
They are not tied to specific objects or situations
5.
They are widely accepted by the members of a society.
• Therefore, in a broad sense, both values and beliefs are mental images that
affect a wide range of specific attitudes that, in turn, influence the way a
person is likely to respond in a specific situation. For example, the criteria a
person uses to evaluate alternative brands in a product category (such as
Volvo versus Jaguar automobiles), or his or her eventual preference for one
of these brands over the other, are influenced by both a person’s general
values ( perceptions as to what constitutes quality and the meaning of
country of origin) and specific beliefs ( particularly perceptions about the
quality of Swedish-made versus English-made cars).
• In contrast to beliefs and values, customers are overt modes of behaviour
that constitute culturally approved or acceptable ways of behaving in specific
situations.
• Customs consist of everyday or routine behaviour. For example, a
consumer’s routine behaviour, such as adding sugar and milk to coffee,
putting ketchup on hamburgers, putting mustard on frankfurters, and having
a salad after rather than before the main course of a meal, are customers.
Thus, whereas beliefs and values are guides for behaviour, customs are
usual and acceptable ways of behaving.
• By our definition, it is easy to see how an understanding of various cultures
of a society helps marketers predict consumer acceptance of their products.
• To produce and sell internationally, you must think of what the culture in that
particular country demands.
• Businesses need to advertise and in order for customers to get the message
of advertisement, it must be said in a language that can be easily
understood.
For example a multinational company advertising its products in China, has to
use a language that can
easily be understood ( of course Chinese), when advertising in Japan (
Japanese) , in Korea (Korean
Language), in England ( English) in France (French), in the USA (English) in
Brazil (Brazilian), in
Malaysia ( Malaysian), in Portugal ( Portuguese), in Italy (Italian) etc.
• In producing products, businesses have to think of the components,
aesthetics, Shape, size, quality, texture etc. For example British cars are
different from other cars because of the positioning of the stirring. In other
countries say France, USA etc the stirring appears to the left, but in Britain, it
appears to the right. The style of driving differs in Britain compared to other
countries say France, USA. For example cars are driven to the left but in
France, USA, Cameroon etc cars are driven to the right. These are a few
examples
• Therefore when designing cars for the British market, the car should be
designed to suit the British culture and when designing cars for say the US,
French or Japanese market etc, it should be designed to fit the culture.
Element of Culture
A. Language
• Spoken Language
• Written Language
• Official Language
• Body Language: eye contact, posture, gesture, distance, dressing,
Movement, facial expression:
• International Language
B. Religion
• Beliefs and Norms
• Sacred Objects
• Philosophical Systems
• Prayer/ Rituals
• Leading Religious of the World
C. Values and Attitudes
Toward
• Time (Monochromic (V.S) Polychromic)
• Achievement
• Work
• Change
• Risk Taking
D. Education
• Literacy Level
• Formal Education
• Vocational Training
• Human Resource Planning
• Primary / Secondary / High education
E. Social Organization
• Social Institutions
• Authority Structure
• Interest Groups
• Status Systems
• Social Mobility
F. Technology and Material Culture
• Science
• Invention
• Energy Systems
• Communications
• Tools and Objects
• Urbanization
G. Politics
• Nationalism
• National Interests
• Power
• Ideologies
• Political Risks
• Sovereignty
H. Law
• Common Law
• Code Law
• Foreign law
• Home / Host Country Law
• Regulation / Antitrust Policy
• International Law
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
• Values: Abstract ideas/assumptions about what a
group believes to be good, right and desirable
• Norms: social rules and guidelines that prescribe
appropriate behavior in particular situations
• Folkways: Routine conventions of everyday life.
– Little moral significance
– Generally, social conventions such as dress codes, social
manners, and neighborly behavior
• Mores: Norms central to the functioning of society and its social
life
– Greater significance than folkways
– Violation can bring serious retribution
• Theft, adultery, incest and cannibalism
DETERMINANTS OF CULTURE:
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Social structure
Religion
Language
Education
Economic philosophy
Political philosophy
THE INVISIBLE HAND OF CULTURE
• Consumers both view themselves in the context of their culture and react to
their environment based upon the cultural framework that they bring to that
experiences. Each individual perceives the world through his own cultural
lens.
• The impact of culture is so natural and automatic that its influence on
behaviour is usually taken for granted. For instance, when consumer
researchers ask people why they do certain things, they frequently answer,
‘because it’s the right thing to do.’ This seemingly superficial response
partially reflects the ingrained influence of culture on our behaviour. Often it
is only when we are exposed to people with different cultural values or
customs ( as when visiting a different region or a different country) that we
become aware of how culture has molded our own behaviour. Thus a true
appreciation of the influence that culture has on our daily life requires some
knowledge of at least one other society with different cultural characteristics.
For example, to understand that brushing our teeth twice a day with
flavoured toothpaste is a cultural phenomenon requires some awareness
that members of another society either do not brush their teeth at all or do so
in a distinctly different manner than or own society.
CULTURE SATISFISES NEEDS
• Culture exists to satisfy the needs of the people within a
society. It offers order, direction, and guidance in all phases of
human problem solving by providing ‘ tried and-true’ methods of
satisfying physiological, personal, and social needs. For
example, culture provides standards and ‘rules’ about when to
eat , where to eat what to eat, what is appropriate to eat for
breakfast, lunch and dinner; what to eat at a wedding or even at
a picnic.
• Culture is also associated with what a society’s members
consider to be a necessity and what they view as a luxury. For
instance, 55% of American adults consider a microwave to be a
necessity, and 36% consider a remote control for a TV or VCR
to be a necessity.
• Similarly, culture also provides insights as to suitable dress for
specific occasions ( such as what to wear around a house, what
to wear to school, to work, to church, at a fast-food restaurant,
or to a movie theatre). Dress codes have shifted dramatically;
people are dressing more casually most of the time.
• Cultural beliefs, values and customs continue to be followed as
long as they yield satisfaction. When a specific standard no
longer satisfies the members of a society, however it is
modified or replaced, so that the resulting standard is more in
line with current needs and desires.
CULTURE IS LEARNED
• Unlike innate biological characteristics (e.g. gender, skin, hair
colour, or intelligence), culture is learned. At an early stage, we
begin to acquire from our social environment a set of beliefs,
values, and customs that make up our culture. For children, the
learning of these acceptable cultural values and customs is
reinforced by the process of playing with their toys. As children
play, they act out and rehearse important cultural lessons and
situations. This cultural learning prepares them for later real-life
circumstances
HOW IS CULTURE LEARNED
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Anthropologists have identified three distinct forms of cultural
learning:
Formal learning in which adults and other siblings teach a young
family member how to behave
Informal learning, in which a child learns primarily by imitating the
behaviour of selected others, such as family, friends or TV heroes
Technical learning, in which teachers instruct the child in an
educational environment about what should be done, how it should
be done, and why it should be done. Although a firm’s advertising
can influence all three types of cultural learning, it is likely that
many product advertisements enhance informal cultural learning by
providing the audience with a model of behaviour to imitate. This is
especially true for visible or conspicuous products that are evaluated
in public settings ( such as designer clothing, cell phones, or status
golf clubs), where peer influence is likely to play an important role.
HOW CULTURE IS LEARNED
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We learn to do the following from childhood:
1.
Speak our language
2.
Write
3.
Eat
4.
Sing
5.
Play
6.
Drink
7.
Talk
8.
Dress
9.
Cook
10. Drive
11. Do politics
12. Acquire knowledge
13. Produce goods and services
14. Serve customers
These are examples of aspects of culture which we all have learned to perform
especially from childhood.
ENCULTURATION AND ACCULTURATION
• When discussing the acquisition of culture, anthropologists often distinguish
between the learning of one’s own, or native, culture and the learning of
some ‘new’ (other) culture. The learning of one’s own culture is known as
enculturation while the learning of a new or foreign culture is known as
acculturation.
• Acculturation is an important concept for marketers who plan to sell their
products in foreign or multinational markets. In such cases, marketers must
study the specific culture (s) of their potential target markets to determine
whether their products will be acceptable to its members and if so, how they
can best communicate the characteristics of their products to persuade the
target market to buy.
LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS
• To acquire a common culture, the members of a society must be able to
communicate with each other through a common language. Without a
common language, shared meaning could not exist, and true communication
would not take place.
• To communicate effectively with their audiences, marketers must use
appropriate symbols to convey desired product images or characteristics.
These symbols can be verbal or nonverbal. Verbal symbols may include a
television announcement or an advertisement in a magazine. Nonverbal
communication includes the use of such symbols as figures, colours,
shapes, and even textures to lead additional meaning to print or broadcast
advertisements, to trademarks, and to packaging or product designs.
• A symbol is any that stands for something else. Any word is a symbol. The
word hurricane calls forth the notion of wind and rain and also has the power
to stir us emotionally, arousing feelings of danger and the need for protection
and safety.
• Similarly, the word jaguar has symbolic meaning: To some it suggests a fine
luxury automobile, to others it implies wealth and status; to some it suggests
a sleek, wild animal to be seen in the zoo.
RITUAL
WHAT IS RITUAL?
• Ritual is a type of symbolic activity consisting of a
series of steps occurring in a fixed sequence and
repeated over time.
RITUAL CAN ALSO STAND FOR THE FOLLOWING:
1. established formal behavior: an established and
prescribed pattern of observance, for example, in a
religion
2. actions done formally and repeatedly: the
performance of actions or procedures in a set,
ordered, and ceremonial way (often used before a
noun)
3. unchanging pattern: a formalized pattern of actions or
words followed regularly and precisely (informal)
Examples of RITUALS
The way religious and other festivities are
celebrated
• Confirmation
• Baptism
• Christmas
• Easter
• Marriage
• Birthday
• New year
• Graduation
CULTURE IS SHARED
•
To be a cultural characteristic, a particular belief, value, or practice must
be shared by a significant portion of the society. Thus culture frequently is
viewed as group customs that link together the members of a society. Of
course, common language is the critical component that makes it possible
for people to share values, experiences, and customs.
EXAMPLES TO SHOW HOW CULTURE IS SHARED
1.
In the UK the language shared by its people is English
2.
In France it is French
3.
In US it is English
4.
In China it is Chinese
5.
In Japan it is Japanese.
This is important to marketers because when considering production, and
advertisement of products, they should consider that culture is shared by so
many people. If the company decides to advertise its products, then the
language shared by the people should be used because it can be understood
by a vast majority of people.
CULTURE IS SHARED
• In China, their food is eaten using chop sticks by
vast majority of people.
• Still in China they consume Chinese food
• While in Japan, Japanese food is consumed
• In UK vast majority of people belong to Christianity
as a religion.
• In Iran, Dubai, United Arab Emirate etc the people
belong to the Islamic religion
• Religious rituals are shared by vast majority of
people in these different countries.
CULTURE IS DYNAMIC
• To fulfill its need-gratifying role, culture continually must evolve if it is to
function in the best interest of a society. For this reason, the marketer must
carefully monitor the sociocultural environment in order to market an existing
product more effectively or to develop promising new products.
• Many factors are likely to produce cultural changes within a given society (
new technology, population shifts, resource shortages, wars, changing
values, and customs borrowed from other cultures, political and legal
factors)
• The changing nature of culture means that marketers have to consistently
reconsider why consumers are now doing what they do, who the purchasers
and the users of their products are ( males only, females only, or both),
when they do their shopping, how and where they can be reached by the
media, and what new product and service needs are emerging.
• Marketers who monitor cultural changes also often find new opportunities to
increase corporate profitability. For example, marketers of such products
and services as life insurance, financial and investment advice, casual
clothing, toy electric trains, and cigars are among those who have attempted
to take advantage of shifts in what is feminine and how to communicate with
female consumers.
THE MEASUREMENT OF CULTURE.
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A wide range of measurement techniques are
used in the study of culture.
Projective techniques
Attitude measurement methods
Field observation
Participant observation
Content analysis
Value measurement survey instruments
(technique).
Consumer fieldwork
American core values
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Achievement and success
Activity
Efficiency and practicality
Progress
Material comfort
Individualism
Freedom
External conformity
Humanitarianism
Youthfulness
Fitness and Health
Core values are not an American phenomenon
SUBCULTURE AND
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
WHAT IS SUBCULTURE?
• Subculture is a distinct cultural group that exists as an
identifiable segment within a larger, more complex society.
• Thus the cultural profile of a society or nation is a composite of
two distinct elements: ( 1. the unique beliefs, values, and
customs subscribed to by members of specific subcultures; and
(2) the central or core cultural themes that are shared by most
of the population, regardless of specific subcultural
membership.
Examples of Subcultures
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NATIONALITY SUBCULTURE
MAIN CULTURE
SUBCULTURE
BRITISH
African, Chinese, Indian,
Jamaicans, etc
African, Jamaican,
Malaysian, etc
AMERICAN
RELIGIOUS SUBCULTURES
MAIN RELIGION AND
DENOMINATION
CHRISTAINITY Anglican
OTHER RELIGIONS &
DENOMINATIONS
Catholics, protestants, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism
GEOGRAPHIC AND REGIONAL SUBCULTURES.
MAIN CULTURE
SUBCULTURE
USA
Washington DC
Newyork
Chicago
Los Angeles
Detroit
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Cleveland
Minnesota
Arizona
RACIAL SUBCULTURES.
MAIN RACIAL CULTURE:
THE WHITE AMERICAN
CONSUMER
SUBRATIAL CULTURE
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN
CONSUMERS
ASIAN AMERICAN
CONSUMERS
AGE SUBCULTURE
Sex as a subculture:
• SEX ROLES AND CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR
• CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND SEX
ROLES
• THE WORKING WOMAN