Transcript Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy

CULTURE, Part II
• Hofstede’s
Dimensions
• Globalization and
anti-globalization
• Negotiations
• Western vs. Asian
culture
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Globalization of Culture
• Books by Thomas
Friedman
– The Lexus and the Olive
Tree
– The World is Flat
• Technology allows easier
communication and exchange
between people
– International media
– Internet
• Increased trade among nations
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Anti-Globalism
• Johny Johansson, In Your
Face: How American
Marketing Excess Fuels
Anti-Americanism
– “Three strikes:”
• Strike 1: Anti-marketing
• Strike 2: Anti-globalism
• Strike 3: Anti-Americanism
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Hofstede’s Cultural
Dimensions
Based on interviews with
• Individualism (vs.
IBM executives throughout
collectivism)
the World--1980s
• Power distance
• Masculine vs. feminine
• Strong vs. weak uncertainty
avoidance
• Short vs. long term
orientation (Confucianist
dynamics)
– “The Foolish Old Man Who
Moved the Mountain”
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Individualism vs. collectivism
• The extent to which
– Individuals as opposed to groups are rewarded
– It is desirable to “stand out” from others
• In collectivism, the unit of responsibility
can be (sometimes depending on context)
– Work group
– Family
– Nation, community, or society as a whole
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Power Distance
• The extent to which “rank” is important in
work and relationships
• Rank can be based on
– Position
– Family/ethnic status
– Age
• Implications for
– Strategy formation
– Delegation
– Correcting mistakes
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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“Masculine” vs. “Feminine”
• “Masculine” values: Dominating
environment, “conquering” nature,
“progress”
– E.g., damming, tunnels, land
development, land reclamation
• “Feminine” values: Harmony,
preserving environment
– E.g., environmental impact, working
around nature
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low uncertainty avoidance
– Willingness to
• Take risks
– Investments
– Social situations
– Consider new ideas
• High uncertainty avoidance
– Reliance on authority for decision
making
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Long vs. short term orientation
• Not included in Hofstede’s original work
• Complications—is U.S. shortsighted?
– Short term financial performance
– Investment in new technologies; firms with high
price/earnings ratios
• Net present value (NPV)
analysis/discounted cash flows
• Economic structure
– Accountability to stockholders; disclosure of
information
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Characteristics of Culture
• Comprehensive
• Acquired (learned)
• Manifested in boundaries of
acceptable thought and behavior-norms and sanctions
• Conscious awareness limited
(frequently taken for granted)
• Dynamic vs. static
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Homogeneity of Culture—Some
Dimensions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Linguistic
Religious
Ethnic
Climatic
Geographic
Institutional/political
Social/income
Source: Usinier and Lee, 2005
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Issues in Negotiation
• Non-verbal messages
• What the other side is likely to hear
(or fail to “hear”)
• Background of individual
– Within the given society (ethnic issues)
– Within the company
– Within the negotiating group
• Timing of concessions
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Negotiation Content
•
•
•
•
Non-task sounding
Task-related exchange of information
Persuasion
Concessions and agreements
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Eastern vs. Western Culture
• Differences in
– Values
– Perceptions of
• Objects
• Reality
– Stability vs.
change
– Control
– Perceived roles
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Time Issues in Culture
• Time as tangible, valuable
commodity
– “Time is money” vs.
– Traditional means of
relations
• Monochronic vs.
polychronic approach to
combining events
• Eating times
–
–
–
–
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Regularity vs. flexibility
Social purpose
Meal purpose and content
Distribution of food
consumption across the
day
CULTURE, Part II
• Life as “single continuous
event” vs. a series of
repeating cycles
– Impact of religion,
attachment to nature’s
cycles
• Preferred temporal
orientation
– Past
– Present
– Future
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Relating to Outsiders
• Perceptions of
outsiders—may be
seen as
–
–
–
–
“barbarian”
“lazy”
“backward”
“inefficient” vs. “uncultured”
– profane (relative to
in-group’s religion)
• Tendency to
perceive “outgroups” as more
homogeneous than
one’s own group—
the Sherif Boys’
Camp studies
• Locus of ingroup—may
depend on context
Source: Usinier and Lee, 2005
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Cultural “borrowing”
• Adoption of elements from other
cultures—e.g.,
– Language and writing systems
– Products (e.g., jeans, pizza)
• Adjustments/adaptations
• Hidden process; origin may be
unknown to contemporary members
of the culture
Source: Usinier and Lee, 2005
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Some Examples of Borrowing
• Japanese writing
system (sound and
concept
pictorals)—
adapted with
difficulty from
Chinese (concept
only pictorals)
• Arabic numeral
system and
mathematics
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
• English language
words from
– Latin
– Arabic
– Germanic and
Nordic languages
• Major world
religions
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Perceived Control Over Reality
• World is not generally seen
as predictable
– Trends are not expected to
continue
• Individual has little control
over the world
• BUT
– Outcome is believed to be
tied to effort, not individual
skill
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Some Tendencies
Issue
Western Culture
Eastern Culture
Focus of attention
Objects
Environment
Composition of the
World
Objects
Substances
Controllability of
environment
More perceived
control
Less perceived
control
Perceived stability
More stable
More change
Organization of the
world
Categories
Relationships
Reasoning
Formal logic
Less use of formal
logic
Resolution of
disagreement
Dialectic
“Middle way”
Source: Richard E. Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and
Westerners Think Differently … and Why, New York, 2003, The Free Press
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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More Tendencies
• Westeners tend to rate themselves
– More unique than average and what
they are
– “Above average” in ability
• Easteners tend to rate themselves
– Less unique than they really are
– “Below average”
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Parenting
• Western
– Child given choices
– In play, parent asks questions about objects
• Eastern
– Choices made for the child
– Child reared to stay with mother most of the
time
– Parent asks questions about feelings
– Feelings in disciplinary talks
• “The farmer feels bad that you did not eat
everything…”
• “The toy is crying because you threw it.”
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Teaching Language to Children
• Emphasis is on verbs, not on
– Nouns
– Adjectives, adverbs (except if related to
emotions)
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Categorization
• Tendency to group into categories
based on members that go together
(e.g., monkey/banana rather than
monkey/panda)
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Proverbs
• Western: “The early bird gets the
worm”
• Eastern:
– “The first bird in the flock gets shot”
– “A nail that stands out will be hammered
down.”
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Values
Source: Richard E. Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and
Westeners Think Differently … and Why, New York, 2003, The Free Press
Issue
Western
Value
Eastern
Value
Distinctiveness of
people
Want to be distinctive
Not valued; emphasis
on tie to group
Perceived control
Significant; values
determine choices
Modest—societal
values are already
established
Emphasis
Success and
achievement;
relationships may get
in the way
Best outcome for
relevant group (e.g.,
family, work group)
Self-esteem
Strive to feel good;
assurances wanted
Tied to belonging with
group
Relationships
Equality or superior
position
Clearly defined;
hierarchical
Rules
Same rules apply to all
Depend on context and
relationship
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Some implications
• Thanking people—for things they are
clearly supposed to do?
• Why the need for a choice between
40 different brands of cereal?
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Socialization
• Western textbook: “See Dick run.
See Dick play. See Dick run and
play.”
• Chinese: “Big brother takes care of
little brother. Big brother loves little
brother. Little brother loves big
brother.”
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Perception of People
• Western: People have
characteristics independent of the
situation
– Fundamental attribution error: People
attribute their own behavior to the
circumstances but that of others to
innate characteristics.
• Eastern: Person is connected;
behavior is the result of specific roles
played at the time
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Contrasting Advertising
Perspectives (Aithison 2002)
• Western
• Asian
– “Atomistic”—broken
down to smallest
component parts
– “Unique selling
propositions”
– “How to”
– Positioning
– May be “dull and
boring”
– “Copy focused”
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– Holistic
– “Everything relates
to everything else”
– How things “fit
together” and
“relate”
– Visual and oral
Jim Aitchison, How Asia Advertises,
New York: Wiley, 2002.
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Advertising Content
Comparisons
• American:
– Individual benefit and pleasure (e.g.,
“Make your way through the crowd)
• Korean
– Collective values (e.g., “We have a way
of bringing people together)
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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“Priming” and learning in a
culture
• U.S. professor in Hong Kong started
letter apologizing for his unworthiness
for the job
• U.S. manager left room so that an
employee could “snoop” on
unfavorable report
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Debate and Conflict
• “The first person to raise his voice
has lost the argument.” (Chinese
proverb)
• Use of indirection and projection
• Face-to-face vs. anonymous
comments
• Western adversarial “rule of law”
based on consistent universal ideals
vs. solution for the case at hand in
context
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MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
Resolving Disputes
• Not based on
– Universal principles
– Formal logic (not because of inability but
because this is not a “mature way” to resolve
disputes)
• Emphasis on
– Compromise
– Discouragement of bringing about conflict
• Inherent belief that “contradicting”
statements can each have some truth
(attraction to paradoxes)
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Relationships, Education, and
Work
• Western
–
–
–
–
Standing out; being “better”
Self perceived favorably
Self-esteem building
Work longer on successful job
• Eastern
– Harmony
– Must “weed out” personal characteristics that might
annoy others
– Taught self-criticism
– Not recognized in profession until after many years of
practice
– Work longer on unsuccessful job
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Chinese Involvement in Product
Selection
• Low for products consumed
individually in private—emphasis on
price and quality
• Higher for products consumed in
public setting—social significance
becomes more important—e.g.,
– Status
– Harmony with others
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Mexican vs. U.S. culture
• Cautions
– Mexico is a large, heterogeneous
country
– “Urban” areas vs. indigenous cultures
– Large regional variations
– Some differences based on income and
lifestyle
– Some impact of religion
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Mexican Culture: General
Issues
•
•
•
•
•
•
High power distance
Strong uncertainty avoidance
Tendency toward “theoretical” education
Strong patriotism
Relatively formal etiquette
Strong emphasis on family
– Extended family
– Strong family emphasis within private life
– Relatives may be favored for jobs/business
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Wealth, Positions, Power, and
Privileges
• “He can’t be the owner; he works there!”
• Emphasis on titles—e.g.,
licenciado/licenciada
• Titles may be part of address
• Importance of connections
– U.S.: “Networking”
– Mexico: Greater emphasis on family and
social class connections
• Manager/subordinate relationships:
– Less question of “why” directions are given
MKT 769
CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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Time and Planning
• Balance of reality and stereotypes
• Often less of a feel of urgency
• Speech may be less clear on timing
(e.g., “I did” vs. “I am going to”)
• Keeping customer waiting may not be
recognized as inconvenience—but…
• Planning may be limited due to
changing environment (e.g., laws)
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CULTURE, Part II
Lars Perner, Instructor
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