The Effects of Culture on Marketing of Clothing - Essay Example

The Effects of Culture on Marketing of Clothing Culture refers to the lifestyle (way of doing things) of a given people with its facets such as customs, values and norms, beliefs, aesthetics, traditions, law and politics, education, language and religion (www.fao.org/docrep 2015, p.1) These are related and shared by members of a particular group with defined boundaries. One is never born with a culture but learns the culture thus, the nature of a society depends on both social and cultural aspects learned (Baig 2013, p. 11).
As the essence of society and being among the famous “environmental uncontrollables”, culture is particularly difficult to comprehend, control as well as harness to the advantage of marketing (www.fao.org/docrep 2015, p. 1). This scenario is common with culture bound products or service which, in most cases are naturally indigenous and have a relatively small value.
Culture has huge impact in the success or failure of product within a given market. A global market must therefore establish the similarities and differences in cultures and account for them in designing and developing marketing plans for various products such as clothing, music recording and software (Bearden, Netemeyer, & Haws 2011, p 24).
For instance, in most European cultures, there is little control on dressing code among citizens. Thus, freedom of dressing is paramount and one can put on as per tastes and preferences. Thus, women can wear tight fitting clothing, as well as, extremely short cloths without any kind of restriction. Global marketers have to design clothing with focus on satisfying the tastes and preferences of the European market. Adhering to such kind of cloth design ensures maximum sales arising from customer satisfaction. However, producing a different type of clothing without customers’ specifications and choice results in total failure in marketing of such clothing within the European market (Bearden, Netemeyer, & Haws 2011, p 29).
However, this is totally different in most Middle East countries. In some of these societies, Islamic culture on clothing is strict on dressing code particularly on women and girls. Muslims have particular dressing codes which, are to be strictly adhered to irrespective of one’s social class or political status. Mainly, wearing of tank tops, shorts and tight clothing revealing a woman’s charms is forbidden in Islamic culture as opposed to the European cultures (islamqa.info. 2015, p.1).
Muslim women and girls are supposed to wear hijab and cover their heads with a veil as opposed to putting on tight clothing which, Islam consider as being naked since their body charms are visible. Among Muslim women, such tight fittings are only supposed to be worn in the presence of the husband and not in the public (islamqa.info. 2015, p.1).
Therefore, marketing of the tight clothing, short and tank tops is huge challenge in Islamic culture and anyone putting on such clothing is considered to be against the Islamic teachings on dressing code. Marketing and success in making sales of clothing in this culture calls for soberness and keenness on meeting the tastes and preferences of the Muslim women (Tarlo 2010, p.47). In doing so, a global marketer would be assured of maximum sales and thence, enjoying maximum profits and business success. Otherwise, failure to do so is disastrous and leads to collapse in many businesses.
However, business people should never remain pessimistic since the effect of culture on dressing mode in various cultures is shrinking significantly. This is due to the shrinking communication whereby various media have lessened campaigns against adopting foreign cultures within most societies thereby, allowing most clothing businesses to thrive (www.fao.org/docrep 2015, p. 1).
Moreover, with the current increase in people travelling worldwide, there is increased exposure to various cultures and lifestyles thus, prompting even the most culturally conserved societies to adopt and use some of culture bound goods and services within their territories (www.fao.org/docrep 2015, p. 1). Therefore, culture bound products have found a market niche in various parts of the world with a good example being the infamous Veldschoen footwear which originated from South African finding market in many parts of the world (www.fao.org/docrep 2015, p. 1).
References
BAIG, E. (2013). Contemporary ideas and research in marketing. [S.l.], Lulu Com.
BEARDEN, W. O., NETEMEYER, R. G., & HAWS, K. L. (2011). Handbook of marketing
scales: multi-item measures for marketing and consumer behavior research. Thousand Oaks, Calif, SAGE.
Chapter 3: The Cultural Environment. 2015. Chapter 3: The Cultural Environment. [ONLINE]
Available at:http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5973E/w5973e07.htm. [Accessed 15 August 2015].
TARLO, E. (2010). Visibly Muslim: fashion, politics, faith. Oxford, Berg.
Wearing short or tight clothes in front of other women and mahrams - islamqa.info.
2015. Wearing short or tight clothes in front of other women and mahrams - islamqa.info. [ONLINE] Available at:http://islamqa.info/en/6569. [Accessed 15 August 2015]. Read More