Relationship between Consumer Behaviors and Culture - Term Paper Example

Consumer Behavior: The Influence of Culture & Subculture ID Lecturer Introduction In early days of trading it was easy for the sellers to determine the consumer attitude because they used to communicate with them directly, on a daily basis. However, now the market place has changed tremendously and hence the importance of formal consumer research has increased immensely. This led to a formalized study of consumer behavior, which is the study of how, when, why and where do consumers indulge in buying behavior. There are many factors that affect the buying and consumer behavior of an individual. It is influenced by many internal factors such as personality, learning etc and also many external factors such as social class of the individual. One of the most important external factors is culture. Culture is the set of norms, values, beliefs and practices that characterize a group of people or institution. In this short report we will be discussing the effect of such culture and also sub culture on consumer behavior and marketing application. We will start off with the overall effect of the culture and explain it in detail with the help of a diagram. Further, we will take individual elements of the culture and explain their relevance with respect to marketing. Carrying on, the influence of subcultures will be highlighted with the help of examples. In the end, we will sum it up with a conclusion and some general recommendations. Overall Effects of Culture Culture influences each of our behaviors in a myriad of ways and most of the time it comes so naturally to us that when we are asked why did we do a certain thing we often say that, “it was the right thing to do” without realizing the fact that it is our culture that determines what is right and what is wrong. It is basically the lens through which each individual looks at the world. Culture works on our behavior on three different levels: The above diagram clearly shows that culture can be working at multiple levels and a whole nation does not necessarily work in one way opposing to the common belief. First, there is super national culture this include terms such as western culture and eastern culture that we normally use. Then there is national, which is limited to one nation. This is the common idea that comes to our mind when we think of culture; however, this is not so limited and even within a nation there are subcultures. Culture has the greatest effect on the consumer behavior and hence is the most studied and documented aspect. Importance of Considering Culture in Forming the Marketing Strategy There are many reasons because of which culture should be taken seriously; one of them is the increase in globalization and the trend of crossing the national boundary. Many firms have now become transnational and thus they need to be aware of the influence of culture on different groups of people and adapt their marketing strategy and practices accordingly. Another reason is that culture is a very strong determinant of consumer behavior and it can be used in favor of the brand by matching the marketing messages with the culture values of the target market. Further, cultural factors have even been scientifically proven to have an effect on the cognitive process of consumers. For instance, the perceptional distortion is influenced by the norms we are surrounded with. Yet another factor is, culture determines many different behaviors and help marketers to design related strategies accordingly. For instance, a later segment of this report will discuss the influence of culture on the impulsive buying behavior of individuals. Finally, another very important reason is the fact that now the cultures are merging and forming new subsets and variation and it is very important for marketers to understand them to cater to their individual needs. Therefore, culture has become a factor that is hardly ever ignored by successful marketers. Relationship of Culture and Consumer Behavior Once we have understood the importance of culture with respect to marketing we can now move on to understand its connection with consumer behavior in particular. The diagram below shows how different aspects of a culture influence the consumer behavior: Marketing Communications As can be seen the marketing communications is the moderator or connection between the consumer behavior and cultural values. The marketers can use the culture and intrigue its customers through using it. For instance, as the importance of family and joint holding is very high in Indian culture many of the ads build on this factor and show family affection and unity in their advertisement communication. Values Another component that has been highlighted in this diagram is that of values. Every culture has its own sets of values which is a good measure of predicting behavior of individuals. For examples, in United States the core values include the following: achievement and success, efficiency, material comfort ad individualism, youthfulness, along with many others. For example, American ads usually show that a particular product is needed to stay young, hand cream for younger hands, anti aging cream and many similar products. Heroes One more part of the culture is the reference group, celebrities or public figures that many look up to or idealize. This also differs from culture to culture. This is the reason a single brand has different brand ambassadors in different countries. For instance, if we consider the example of L’Oreal we see that in the United States the brand ambassador is different whereas for the same brand the representative in India is Ashwariya Rai. This is because of the importance of these two characters in these countries and also countries of similar origins and values (Cerulo 2001). Other Aspects of Culture Culture can be divided into many sub parts and all of them have marketing implication. We will discuss a few over here with the help of examples: Religion Religion values and beliefs are an important part of any culture and have multiple implications on the purchasing behavior of individuals. An example will make it clearer, In Malay culture which is predominantly a Muslim society they are reluctant to avail the insurance products because it is against their religion. Colors and symbols Many different symbols and colors mean different things in different culture. For instance, white means purity in some culture and peace in other. Rituals Every culture has its set of rituals and events and each one celebrates it in a unique and different manner. For instance, stuffed turkey immediately brings the idea of thanksgiving in the minds of most Americans. Language Language is another very important element of culture and thus important for marketers to understand its implication. Simply translating slogans into another language is not always a very practical approach. A famous example of this is Pepsi’s slogan brings you to life was translated in Chinese a bringing your ancestors back from the grave. This obviously had disastrous effects on the reputation of the brand. Tastes and Preferences This aspect of the culture is often undermined but has great importance because taste and preference form a special part of a culture. For instance in Indonesian culture there is high preference for rice whereas Indians mostly like spicy food. Subcultures Subculture values are those distinctive factors that set people apart from people within the same society. For instance, all the Americans are part of the American way of live but can also be Texan or African American. This focus on individual subculture is important because it gives rise to a sizeable market which can be selected as the target market for a particular brand. Many further subcultures have emerged and this is because of migration and globalization (Brenton 2005). People move to another nation with their own set of values and beliefs and then they inherit some of the values of the host culture (acculturation) and the end result is a whole new subdivision. Subcultures can be based on religion, nationality or on geographical division. For instance, in India there are the Punjabis, the Gujratis and Sikhs, and many others. All these groups have their own set of cultural values and practices which influences their behavior greatly. An interesting fact to note here is that there are focused advertising agencies that design an advertising message that suits the specific need of a subculture. For instance, there are African American advertising agencies in USA. Further, once the research is focused on subcultures many consumer insights can be discovered which would have no apparent connection or reason. For instance, it was discovered that Asian Americans use internet more for their news and other work in comparison to other groups living in USA. Further, they even start using the internet at an early stage in comparison to their counterparts (Davidson 2003). This has no obvious reason as such but it is a part of their subculture. There is great marketing application for products that are targeted at this group. They can advertise online and they can even sell it online and there is a high chance that they will be able to reach their market at this touch point. Few Words of Caution All marketers have to deal with the cultural aspect of their audience however, there are some factors that they need to be careful about when using these variables. The first such factor is that they should not generalize. As mentioned that the culture operates at many different levels and sometimes marketers only observe the broader division. For instance, eastern and western culture and they ignore the fact that there can be a cultural difference between the western culture holders even. Another factor that should be considered is that a marketer should only take into account the factors that are relevant to the consumer behavior towards a specific product. For example, Disney world when they opened a branch in Europe they faced more problems from the cultural side then when they opened it in Japan. This was because the vacation pattern of American and Japanese culture was more similar in comparison to that of France. Finally, culture is dynamic and ever evolving. This holds true for the present time because the increase in globalization and international exposure has increased the rate of change of culture. Therefore, marketers need to be flexible and to not only identify these changes but also respond to them profitably. Influence of Culture on Impulsive Buying Behavior The importance of impulsive buying behavior studies have increased tremendously because of its growing importance. Statistics show that 80% of the purchases are due to impulsive buying. One of the researches on this topic shows that culture has an influence on this aspect and factors such as individualistic and collectivistic concepts have an influence on this. Because in collectivistic culture people care about the norms and value of their whole group and thus sometimes curb their own impulses and hence impulsive shopping behavior is more common amongst individualistic value holders (Estlund 2003). Conclusion Though our above discussion, we can clearly see the strong relationship between consumer behaviors and culture that they live in. Further, we have also seen that culture works at different level and all these levels have to be considered when a marketer is trying to design a strategy that would appeal to their target audience. However, there is one dimension of culture and all the different elements have to be considered to avoid a marketing disaster. Not only this, a perfect blend has to be discovered and that blend then needs to be altered if you are a global player. Therefore, we can conclude that the extensive studies conducted on this topic are justified as culture is one of the most important external factors in determining the consumer behavior of an individual. References Brenton, A (2005). Organizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook. Sage Publications, 1st Edition Cerulo, K (2001). Culture in Mind: Towards a Sociology of Culture and Cognition. 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