ISL460U-CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Chapter 6: Culture and Consumption
Introduction
The effects of culture on consumer behaviour are strong and far-reaching. As a concept necessary for understanding of consumer behaviour, culture can be thought of as the collective memory of a society. Culture is the sum of meanings, rituals, norms, and customs that are commonly shared by the members of an organization or a society. Since each society has its own idiosyncratic culture, its impacts on consumer behaviour differ from society to society.
Culture
Culture is a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, moral rules, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by an individual as a member of society. The term culture consists of a system of common meanings or values that can exert a powerful influence on objects, events, and ideas which people attend and toward which they act and attribute value). Hofstede states that culture “is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of a group of people from another.” These definitions show that consumers acquire culture from their society or group to which they belong.
Characteristics of Culture
When defining their marketing strategies for target groups, marketers must take their cultural elements and characteristics into consideration. Examining and understanding culture requires knowing its characteristics. The characteristics of culture can be sorted as follows:
• Culture is discovered. • Culture is learned. • Culture is traditional. • Culture is the total of values and norms shared by the society’s members. • Culture can change. • Culture is not static. • Culture involves not only similarities but also differences. • Culture is an organization and a union. • Culture is conformity. • Culture meets a need.
The Components of Culture
Areas of Building Culture as a System
A cultural system consists of following functional areas. It is possible to mention three major functional areas that shape the culture of a particular society as a system: Ecology, social structure and ideology.
Elements of Culture
Given the far-reaching and pervasive nature of culture, its study generally requires an elaborative examination on the character of the whole society; this examination includes factors such as language, knowledge, laws, religions, food
customs, music, art, technology, work patterns, products and other man-made objects that give a society its distinctive tone. In a way, culture is the personality of a society. There are fundamental elements for each society that build their cultures, and these elements affect consumer behaviour. These elements are as follows:
Values and beliefs
Cultural values can be defined as a set of reasonable and approved beliefs, or from the viewpoint of sociology, as the total of beliefs and ideas on efforts, relations, desires, and purposes that have importance for a society’s identity. Cultural values are a total of beliefs that approve what is appropriate. Values help people decide what is right and what is wrong.
Norms and Behaviour Patterns
A limitation to behaviour defined by culture is named as a norm. Norms are the standards accepted by society and its individuals are expected to comply with them. They are the rules that define appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. Norms provide guidelines that regulate social life.
Religion
Religion affects individual thought within its system as it regulates social structure as a social institution. Each person’s degree of belief is different. Therefore, levels of religion’s effects on everyday life vary from person to person, and thus, consumption tendencies are different from person to person.
Language and Symbols
Language is probably the most obvious difference among cultures and is defined as a cultural mirror; that reflects the characteristics of the culture it represents. Language defines people’s perception of the world. In this sense, language and perception are intertwined. Without a common language, true communication is not going to be possible. A symbol is something (a word, an image, or an object) that represents or signifies something else (the desired cultural meaning). The symbolic nature of human language essentially distinguishes it from all other animal communication.
Rituals
A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that are practiced in a fixed sequence and repeated periodically.
Material Culture and Technology
Material culture refers to material objects made and used by people. Technology includes the techniques used in producing material objects. Technology is the knowledge that the members of society possess academically and technically.
Subculture
The culture in a country or a market can vary in terms of different values, habits, customs, and behaviours. There is
no proper and thoroughly homogeneous culture in hardly any market. The reason is that a society consists of people of different ethnicities and religions and that different geographic structures create different cultures. It is possible to say that the culture of a country or society consists of the two major sets of elements:
1. Beliefs, values, and customs specific to a particular subculture that is shared by its members. 2. Main cultural elements independent of subcultures that are shared by a great majority of society.
Subcultures significantly affect consumer behaviour. if the differentiated marketing policy is going to be carried out, patterns of culture can be projected to differentiation of strategies. However, if there are conflicts between the subcultures, using the cultural elements objectively is a necessity of a marketer’s social responsibility. Subculture types are as follows:
• Nationality or ethnicity subcultures • Religious subcultures • Geographic or regional subcultures • Age subcultures • Gender subcultures • Social class subcultures
Relation Between Culture and Consumer Behaviour
Consumption choices cannot be understood without considering the cultural context in which they are made: culture is the prism; by viewing products through it, people try to make sense of their own and other people’s consumer behaviour. Culture is also seen as the “lens” through which people see products. The irony is that the effects of culture on consumer behaviour are so strong and far-going that it is at times difficult to comprehend their importance.
In a consumption-oriented society, the meaning is conveyed two different ways. First, marketing strategies are designed to move cultural meanings from physical and social environments into products and services to make them appeal to consumers. Second, consumers actively put effort to get these cultural meanings in products to establish the desired personal identity or self-concept. Apart from cultural meanings, many products contain personal meanings as well. Personal meanings are transferred into products through the actions of individual consumers. Although these meanings tend to be distinctive and unique to each consumer, they are important as a source of inherent self-relevance that can affect the involvement of consumers with the product.
Global Consumption Culture
Global consumption culture makes up consumption on a global scale where people around the world consume similar products and services. Global consumption culture,
as a concept on which all the countries today try to dwell and which is sometimes described ironically as “McDonaldization” and “Coca-Colonization”, refers to the acceptance of the same patterns, trends, and actions of consumption all over the world. Global consumption culture describes the cultural identities of larger groups that are not merely related to one single country, that are generally international and whose members are not confined with their own national cultures. Cultural differences have importance, particularly for the global markets. Because culture differs from one region to another, and with this aspect, it has a potential to influence the success of global marketing.
Measuring Cultural Values
There are some methods used to measure cultural values. These methods are content analysis, consumer fieldwork, value scales.
Content Analysis
The content analysis of certain messages may help understand the dynamics of a given society in comparison with those of other societies. Content analysis focuses on the content of verbal, written, and visual communications, such as the copy and art composition of an advertisement. By using content analysis, it is possible to determine the typical characteristics or specific aspects of a culture and to make intercultural comparisons.
Content analysis is useful to both marketers and public policymakers focusing on comparing the advertising claims of competitors within a specific industry. It is also efficient in evaluating the nature of advertising claims targeted to specific audiences (e.g. women, elders, or children) Content analyses make possible the identification of changes that occurred in a specific period, society, or culture.
Consumer Fieldwork
The prominent characteristics of field observation are as follows:
1. It takes place in a natural environment; 2. Sometimes it is conducted without the subject’s awareness; 3. It focuses on the observation of behavior.
Since the emphasis is placed on a natural environment and observable behavior, field observation concerned with consumer behavior usually focuses on in-store shopping behavior and, less frequently, on in-home preparation and consumption. In such studies, researchers obtain data by making observations on the behavior of consumers.
Value Scales
The third major tool used for measuring cultures and cultural variables is the value scale. Value scales are the tools that aim to measure values and attitudes that define consumers’ behavior by using survey studies. The most frequently used value scales are
• Rokeach Value Survey, • List of Values (LOV), and • Values and Lifestyle.
In value scales, consumers are asked to answer a series of questions that intend to find out their thoughts about fundamental individual and social concepts, including freedom, comfort, national security, and peace. Based on responses given to these questions, cultural and individual values and attitudes that are of importance to consumers are identified.