Influence of Culture and Subculture on Consumer Behavior

What is culture and subculture?

CultureIt is a detailed examination of the character of the total society, including such

factors as language, knowledge, laws, religion, food customs, music, art, technology, work patterns, products, and other artifacts that give a society its distinctive flavor. In a sense, culture is a society’s personality.

Culture is the sum total of learned learned beliefs, values, and customs that server to direct the consumer behavior of members of a particular society.

• SubcultureIt is a distinct cultural group that exists as an identifiable segment within a larger,

more complex society.

Relationship between culture and subculture

Sub cultural traits Of easterners (east of the Mississippi river

Dominant cultural Traits of U.S Citizens

Sub cultural Traits of westerners (west of Mississippi River)

Influence of culture

Consumers both view themselves in the context of their culture and react to their environment based upon the cultural frame work that they bring to that experience. Each individual perceives the world through his own cultural lens.

Culture Satisfies Needs 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 Americans adults consider a microwave to be a necessity and 36% consider a remote control for a TV or VCR to be necessity.

Culture is Learned

At an early age, we begin to acquire from our social environment a set of beliefs, values, and customs that make up our culture.

Anthropologists have identified three distinct forms of cultural learning:

1. Formal learning: in which adults and older siblings teach a young family member “How to behave”;

2. Informal learning: in which a child learns primarily by imitating the behavior of selected others, such as family, friends, or TV stars.

3. Technical Learning: Which teachers instruct the child in an educational environment about what, how and why it should be done.

Advertising can influence all three types of cultural learning's.

Culturally Constituted World

Advertising/Fashion System

Fashion System

Consumer Goods

PossessionRituals

Exchange Rituals GroomingRituals

Disinvestment Rituals

Individual Consumer

Enculturation and Acculturation

The learning of one’s own culture is known as enculturation. The learning of a new or foreign culture is known as acculturation.

Language and Symbols

To communicate effectively with their audiences, marketers must use appropriate Language and symbols to convey desired products characteristics.

Symbols

Verbal Non verbal

Pepsodent

Rituals

A Ritual is a type of symbolic activity consisting of a series of steps occurring in a fixed sequence and repeated over time.

The standpoint of marketers is the fact that rituals tends to replete with ritual artifacts that are associated with or some how enhance the performance of the ritual.

Week Nights are Rich and Ritual

Culture is Shared

Culture is viewed as group customs that link together the members of the society. Common language is the critical component that makes it possible for people to share values, experiences, and customs.

Social Institutions transmitting the element of culture and sharing of culture

1. Family : primary agent for enculturation2. Educational Institutions : imparts learning skills, history, patriotism,

citizenship and technical training.3. Religious Institutions : Perpetuate religious consciousness, spiritual

guidance, and moral training.4. Mass Media : wide range of cultural values.

Culture is Dynamic

To fulfill the need gratifying role, culture continually must evolve if it is to function in the best interests of a society. The marketers must carefully monitor the socio culture environment in order to market an existing product effectively or to develop promising new products.

Measurement of Culture

Content Analysis Consumer Fieldwork Value measurement survey instrumentsContent AnalysisConclusion about a society, or specific aspects of a society, or a

comparison of two or more societies sometimes can be drawn from examining the content of particular messages. Content analysis, as the name implies, focuses on the content of verbal, written, and pictorial communications. It can be used as a relatively objective means of determining what social and cultural changes have occurred in a specific society.

Consumer Fieldwork : In this study the trained researchers, they are likely to select a small sample of people from a particular society and carefully observe their behavior. Based on their observations, researchers draw conclusion about values, belief, and customs of the society.

Characteristics of field observation are :1. It takes place within a natural environment;2. It is performed sometimes without the subject’s

awareness.3. It focuses on observation of behavior.

Value Measurement Survey Instrument :

In this researchers observed the behavior of members of a specific society and inferred from such behavior or underlying values of the society. Researchers use data collection instruments called value instruments to ask people how they feel about such basic personal and social concept as freedom, comfort, national security, and peace.

Subcultures . . .

. . . a subdivision of a national culture that is based on some unifying characteristic.

. . . members share similar patterns of behavior that are distinct from those of the national culture.

Sub Culture

Categories1. Nationality2. Religion3. Geographic region4. Race

5. Age6. Gender7. Occupation8. Social class9. Ethnicity

ExamplesJamaican,Vietnamese,FrenchMormon, Baptist, CatholicNortheast, Southwest etc.Pacific Islander, Native American,

Caucasian.Senior citizen, teenagerFemale, maleBus driver, mechanic, engineer.Lower, middle, upper.Similar values and customs.

Age Subcultures

Consumers undergo predictable changes in values, lifestyles, and consumption patterns as they move through their life cycle.

Four Major Age Trends Baby Boomers Generation X Generation Y Elderly

The Baby-Boom Generation. . .

. . . are those Americans born between 1946 and 1964 and share lifestyle similarities.

. . . number 77 million.

The Baby...

Bust Boom Xers Yers

1930s 1940s 1960s 1970s 1980s

The Baby Boom Generation

Roomer chinos are needed now.

Their difficulty in finding good jobs has led to RYAs and ILYAs.

Generation X . . .

. . . is small in number, but possesses $125 billion of discretionary income

This group is known for valuing religion, formal rituals (e.g., proms) and materialism,

and has more negative attitudes toward work and getting ahead than the boomers had at their age.

Generation Y . . .

This group, like Xers, is more heterogeneous in racial and socioeconomic terms than the boomers.

They are pragmatic, value oriented, weighing price quality, relation ships, brand embracing.

The Elderly

The “Graying of America” refers to the fourth major age trend

By the year 2020 Americans over 65 will outnumber teenagers two to one.

Process information differently. Experience motor skill declines

which mean walking, writing, talking, etc. abilities deteriorate.

Ethnicity . . .

. . . refers to a group bound together by ties of cultural homogeneity (i.e., linked by similar values, customs, dress, religion, and language).

African-American Subculture

Represents almost 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Income deprivation a major factor: In the 1990s, 37 % of African-American households had incomes of under $15,000.

The Hispanic Subculture

. . . is the second-fastest-growing ethnic sub- cultural group in the United States and will become the largest ethnic minority in the U.S. by the year 2010.

Commonalities:– Language (82 % of U.S. Hispanic households speak

primarily Spanish).– Religion (over 85% of Hispanics are Catholic).– Tendency to live in metropolitan areas (63%).

Hispanic Segmentation

There are at least four distinct segments:

Mexicans (65.2 % of U.S. Hispanics)

Cubans (4.3 %)

Puerto Ricans (9.6 %)

Central and South Americans (14.3 %)

The Asian-American Subculture

. . . is the fastest-growing ethnic subculture in the United States.

The percentage of Asian-Americans who graduated from college is nearly twice that of white Americans

Asian-American family incomes are significantly higher than the other ethnic subcultures

More than Hispanics, Asian-Americans differ in language and culture of origin

Comparing Anglo-, African-American and Hispanic Buying

No brand loyalty differences No differences in coupon proneness, impulse

buying, or shopping for generic products African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely

to shop for bargains

Representation in Advertisements

African-Americans and Hispanics are slightly under-represented.

Asians are slightly over-represented.

Regional Subcultures . . .

. . . have distinct lifestyles resulting from variations in climate, culture, and ethnic mix of people.

Consequently, different product preferences exist.

Geodemographics . . .

. . . takes as a unit of analysis the neighborhood (i.e., census blocks) and obtains demographic information on consumers within the neighborhood.