Specific Habit Shapes Consumer Behaviour - Coursework Example

ANALYSIS OF HOW A SPECIFIC HABIT SHAPES CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Bourdieus Theory Distinction3 McCracken’s Model of Meaning Transfer 10 Conclusion 13 Reference List 15 Bibliography 17 Introduction The traditional consumer behaviour theories have predicted few models for business that have the best effect on consumers purchase decision making. The traditional theories here would suggest the models of consumer behaviour in the pre-IT boom days. Today the purchase behaviour has changed where the consumer brings in lot of information, judgment and passion in their purchase behaviour. The class, habitus and cultural capital aspects of the consumers are taken into consideration in such a changing market dynamics, to create and group the segment. The essay would seek an answer to the specific habit that led to newer purchase behaviour observed in the market. The Bourdieus theory of distinction and other relevant theorists on social class would be critically examined to interpret consumer behaviour. The class distinction, wealth and cultural capital involved in such a demographic shift of behaviour are analyzed herein. Bourdieus Theory of Class Distinction Based upon the various concepts like habitat, cultural, social distinction of the consumers, the Bourdieus theory is developed on critical judgement of taste as in practice (Boyne, 2002). In accordance to Bourieus, people belong to social class where each individual is occupying a social space in which the individual can articulate their judgements through social relations. Further in the observation, he extended the idea of capital in social, cultural, financial and symbolic perspectives. The idea of each of these capitals is based upon imperial study of theories pertaining to each aspect of capital. The ‘capital’ for each individual is developed in accordance to the inputs that they get from various sources and those they are exposed to as economy, political, arts, bureaucracy, journalism etc. Based on these elements the theory suggests, an individual develops the social relationships where the aforesaid elements interacts and have a distinct effect on their practices of everyday life (Campbell, 2005). Hence, the theorem suggests that the multidimensional inputs are liable to form a trait that gives each a perspective to see the events occurring. The mannerisms like tone of voice, movements, opinion, taste etc would portray itself on the social forum in their interactions demonstrating a specific habitat or space in the social sphere that they live in. However, the determination of such structures can be determined with statistical data and is not deterministic (Dai and Fishbach, 2014). While determining the concepts of the theory, the various elements are to be seen in the following perspective: Capital: The capital in economy suggests the finance and assets like factories, intellectual capital (manpower), stock, shares and equity etc. The non-economic capital as explained in the theory insists that these capitals can be converted into economic capital and can be arranged into a single axis when plotted, keeping other conditions constant. Bourieus in this context said ‘projection onto a single axis, in order to construct continuous, lineal homogeneous, one-dimensional series with which the social hierarchy is identified, implies an extremely difficult operation, where the different capital is reduced into a single standard’1. Bourdieu’s work has influence of Karl Marx where the concept of society was demonstrated as the ensemble of social relationships. Individual relationships with objectivity have their own independent consciousness and will, generate the scope of economic production. Thus the ‘constructionist view of social life’ is the capital asset that each individual develop. Capital resource enables an individual to exercise and rejects dominance in social relationships. Thus putting it objectively, it is an ‘organizing principle’ (Hassan and Craft, 2012). Therefore the capital in this form enables the relation between two individuals in social space to create the ordering relationship. This capital confers the right to subordinate others by representing a degree of command on a specific subject. Further, one with lesser economic capital would have lesser choice of product and goods to choose from due to financial constrains, differentiating purchase behaviour. Thus the concept of domination of economic capital is often challenged by the cultural capital by a class of artists, professionals, academicians etc who strive to achieve own specific form of capital to challenge economic capital domination. Thus this capital of dominance gives the taste of a class across various other fields of domination and is represented by Bourdieu as ‘habitat’ (Rose, 1986). Thus for a poet the capital would be his choice of words and composition skills while to a business man the capital would be his ability to compete and invest in business to make it prosperous. The target is development in individual fields, for both the poet and businessman, but the capital and objectives are different. Cultural and Educational Capital: The theory observes that cultural capital is a possession closely related to social origins. For an example, the professional know the director of a film while a working class girl knows the actress in the film. The culture of buying gold for ornamental use in the Indian culture as female adoration element compared to its use as an investment option in the US is a stark example of consumer behaviour shaped by the Cultural habitus of the two different nations. These are the difference in cultural capital and are closely in-tuned with individual social origin. The other aspect is that the theory shows that ‘scholaristic’ cultures can never duplicate the cultural capital a student is getting exposed at home. This is the class difference initiator. The struggle within class between the rich of economic capital with the class rich in cultural capital is observed those are emphasized on taste. The taste emphasizes the capital of the class, determining the difference between economic capital to cultural capital (Kravets and Sandikci, 2014). Kent’s theory of Taste and aesthetics is argued to be a view of aesthetics by Bourdieu, stating legitimate taste of society to be a generalization of a class judgement. Again it suggests that the legitimacy of taste is class dependent and in reverse the same also infers that taste and choices determines the class. Interestingly, Campbell (2005) notes that in a society when people with economic capital finds their fashion is adopted by another class not referred to as ‘elite’, they change their fashion choices. Therefore taste and consumption have a correlation that in this context of consumer behaviour study is imperative to note. Zara the multinational fashion brand has developed a ‘trendy fresh fashion’ concept which signifies the urban working class choices and preferences. Therefore the craft of consumption is well exploited by Zara to use the craft of consumption in a way that creates its demand among a segment. Social, Body, linguistic and Political capital: Consumption is manufactured by the trends of production was argued by Veblen to suggest that the study of formation of taste for a specific consumption pattern is important for its economy. The other forms of capital that represents the individuals cultural capital, draws the subordination within the society or to say identifies one in a social context as rich with a certain cultural capital over others. The affinity towards a specific product of one individual has effect upon another individual’s taste development for the same, when they have close social relationships. Social capital would be the connections or certifications of the ‘scholaristic’ capital of one that makes the individual distinct among many in a social framework. The body capital in the context refers to the physical attribute of an individual that gives them edge over others in a social struggle. Linguistic capital on the subset of cultural capital would determine the ease or command of language. Political capital of an individual empowers them to command votes of others. All these capitals share the commonality of production of economic and cultural capital (Loi et.al. 2012). These elements are well observed in fan following culture of Celebrities across the globe. The change of hair style for David Beckham (Ex- Captain English Football Team) has influenced millions across the globe to adopt the similar hairstyle. This is the affinity of an individual to relate his or her choices or taste of ‘celebrity worship phenomenon’. The hedonistic or pleasure oriented consumptions too are dependent upon the taste that an individual adopts for pleasure. Class, Fraction and Habitus: The Aquinas theory suggests ‘....one must return to the practice-unifying and practice generation principles i.e. the class habitus, the internalized form of class condition and of the conditionings it entails’. Thus it infers ‘social class’ is not defined solely by a position in relations to production, but by class habits which is normally associated with position’2. As a result it can be said that the habitus is an internalized form of class condition by means of which a member from a particular class reacts to a certain cultural stimuli perceiving vulgar to beautiful, for an example. For an example the habitus of the Oriental heavy engineering, like South Korea have a cultural capital of working together with a competitive attitude. This has made their ship building industry so competitive in the global market due to assemble time span with a well coordinated team effort. This has challenged the cultural capital of US that generally tends to stick with individualistic habits of technology oriented assembling. A particular habitus would define the preferences of body, language, attributes of an individual irrespective of their cultural or economic capital. The example of Porridge is Victorian English society was considered a ‘peasant class’ food. The different distinction of class based upon cultural capital and habitus of an individual is used to determine the social group that they belong. The business is dependent upon how their merchandise is perceived in a market, to demonstrate competence and survival in market. The social consumer behaviour is a subject that is derived from Bourdieu’s observations to study and demographically label the class for business interest. The target audience identification is vital for designing the deliverables like product and promotions. The business is rapidly changing with consumer’s changing social behaviour (Skeggs, 2004). The consumer never acted in the vacuum while purchase decision making or perceiving a brand or product in their context. The vacuum has been further reduced by information sharing and knowledge level enhancement creating the need to gain the desired traits to be perceived useful. The example of South Korean shipbuilding industry is gaining edge over its US counterparts due to the delivery time advantage. This is the reference group that have significant relevance on individual’s evaluation, aspirations or behaviour. ‘Reference groups that people refer to when evaluating their own qualities, circumstances, attitudes, values and behaviours’ suggested Thompson and Hickey in 20053. The idea of reference group is well defined and observed in the frozen meat segment of supermarkets. The changing social composition has given diversity of faith, culture and tradition gather at one place. The concept of ‘Halal meat’ is one that has been introduced to attract the Muslim consumers to try the meat guaranteeing the availability of the religiously permitted production and processed meat. Perception again is the process that gives the sound, smell, sight like senses are ‘picked up’ to give every event a meaning and context (Randolph, 2014). Further, each stimulus may have effect depending on cultural capital of an individual, thus used in marketing to suitably position the brand in context. Vision picks up symbols and thus marketing use these elements to design their advertisements and packaging to add the perceived fondness for one out of many choices. Smell stirs emotional effects like calming, release stress or invoke a memory. Likewise Sound effects can invoke certain feelings while touches have its symbolic meanings. The stimuli of taste contribute to experience of various natures. Therefore the stages of perceptual processes are studied to design schemes of associated images, functions, values, feelings or characteristics that suits best to invoke the purchase decision making due to perceived fondness in the behaviour (Seyfarth and Cheney, 2015). The use of visual symbols with sound to invoke a special sentiment is common among the advertisement agencies. The colour schemes of the national flag or tune of national anthem are often used to invoke a patriotic nationalistic feeling relating the product’s values interwoven with nationalistic values. This gives the stimuli to associate the brand with national culture and have a perception of faith and trust while deciding to purchase, the product. The consumption pattern of a specific market is studied by the business to develop an idea of the identity that relates to the distinct mode of consumption. This is well expressed in market context by theories like Gestalt Principle, Figure ground principle of closure and similarity4. Gestalt Principle suggests people derive meaning out of a bunch of stimuli than one in particular. Figure ground Principle suggests that people can see the picture in totality no matter what is not there. They can fill those incomplete parts with imaginary colours from previous experience (Heien, 2001). The Principle of Similarity tends to group objects with similar physical attribute together. The perception of the individual have a social and cultural context based on which the value derives each attribute with an element of recognition. The McCracken’s Model of Meaning transfer have the ability to partially explain the idea of what individual would absorb in accordance to the individual’s social class and cultural background. For an example, brands use celebrity endorsements to promote their brand among target audience. The culture specific orientation of the principle is observed in the Indian and Chinese market more. The people in these cultures have a soft corner for celebrity endorsement of their choice which allows the superstars to endorse up to 20 brands a year in these economic cultures. This segmentation is derived out of the class distinction depending upon the capital and faith system they follow. The craft of consumption suggests the features to be designed, appropriated and customised for a particular class of consumers. Appropriateness of a product or people’s faith on one particular endorsement over others is brought by endorsements where the specification tailored product offerings are communicated to the audience via a celebrity to express a desire or persona or characteristics of the offerings. A celebrity chef for an example would attract cooking enthusiasts to taste or prepare in accordance to the processes that the chef shows. However, the craft of personalization and creativity is an innate character of human so the consumption pattern can be identified and expressed to a certain level, those are saleable. Bourdieu in such a case noted the level of craft or pattern of consumption is dependent upon the Cultural capital which is exploited by mass production units to produce goods for a group with specific taste. Thus the consumption culture would express an individual culture and fulfilment means. McCracken’s Model of Meaning Transfer 1. Possession 2.Exchange 3.Grooming 4. Divestment (Source: Gupta, 2013, p. 24) The model gives a pictographic idea of how the business tries to percolate into an individual consumer whose cultural traits of grooming, possession or wealth, the likes and dislikes in communication are key to his trait or class specifications (Boyle, 2015). The brands thus organize the attributes of the class or target audience to give its products a name, to evoke a meaning, make familiar with a set or products, create image, use events as metaphor to attribute for advertisements etc. For a very interesting example the idea of fitness can demonstrate many meanings to individual depending on their functional values. Fitness is a daily routine for an athlete; however the lifestyle and cultural capital may make them perceive the same event in different view. For an Athlete it is for performance and career development while for a professional it is for a healthy lifestyle. Thus the sports shoe is supposed to have the quality to keep up to the daily exercise routines. While for another individual who follows fitness Yoga lifestyle, flexible linen clothing like Lululemon is projected. The attribute of fitness is therefore used for two different products with different attributes in line with the audience, among other factors while selecting target audience (Telegraph.co.uk, 2012). Kopytoff observed that there is a rise in among businesses to identify the singularization of complexities of a specific society. This is the craft that the producer’s use to develop product that an individual would buy to express their own opinion and self expression. Seyfarth and Cheney (2015) observed that the consumption patterns in the postmodern consumers are adopting the consumption patterns that signify their class in terms of economy while also display the cultural capital superiority. Use of a specific trait can be differentiated in two ways and that is used by business not only to differentiate them but also to suite the respective tastes. The middle class had been the biggest source of consumption for any developing economy and has been the target audience of the business for decades. The middle class is widely regarded by the economist as the group who are not poor and not one from the top 1% or the economic capital strong class either5. The emerging middle class is however not regular in each economy (Cooke, 2007). Each market’s middle class would be subjected to their cultural and social values to shape the market and define the needs for middle class. Evidently, what is proper in west cannot be in oriental countries. Therefore the scope of ‘must have’, proper, normal to possess, the good life concepts etc would also vary depending on market values and cultural context. However, the source of debate comes in such a context where the creation of middle class is viewed from the angle of factors that gives it a shape. From the economies that have developed the middle class based out of what attributes would suggest their preferences too (Cns.nyu.edu, 2010). In the context ‘I have found that, instead of talking directly about class, people will tell you a story about their upbringing and their various changes of status. This is partly because, for most of us, class is complicated. But it is also a way of avoiding being quite so unambiguously middle-class, for instance, as I am’6. For an example since different economy has its own unique culture therefore the class specifications are different. For a developed economy eating out in a classical restaurant may be a usual trait to display class and culture but for other developing economies it would be seen as an extravagant lifestyle. With experience sharing, the individuals from different cultures can have an idea of the class relating to events culturally similar to a specific class in their own economy. The instances gave the idea of the variety of definitions based on the social background. Demetry et al. (2013) in this context suggested that the middle class gives economy its political stability or otherwise. An example is the rise of anti government middle class revolutions of Turkey and Egypt. Conclusion The patterns of consumption has changes with the advent of times and technology. The ways and lifestyle is seeing significant changes where the use of the word capital would have different meaning to each one. The individuality that one wish to convey to others in a society is based out of the cultural or educational capital that they possess to be identified and placed on the same rank with others. However the consumption economy determines the style of expenditure that a consumer would prefer to do for fulfilment of desire. This would suggest the taste, class, capital and cultural aspect of the individual to others in the society. On the converse the individual would show their individualism or cultural capital in the way they consume. The class distinction is no more a economy based distinction but a capital that makes one’s taste superior to others and gives one a distinct identity to others. However the mode of production also differs with mode of consumption. The mass production of a product would be significantly used for consumer’s ‘end of means’ trait while the craft or individualistic taste based consumption demonstrates the individualism of a person, in the same society. Thus the productive activity is changing where customization, as a means to meet the inner values and wants of an individual. The business picks these traits up to design their activities based upon such socio-cultural capital expression mode, as a postmodern consumer behaviour trait. Reference List Boyle, D., 2015. My name is David and I am middle class. Why am I embarrassed to say it? [online] The Guardian. Available at: [Accessed 6 March 2015]. Boyne, R., 2002. Bourdieu: from Class to Culture : in Memoriam Pierre Bourdieu 1930 - 2002. Theory, Culture and Society, 19(3), pp.1l-14. Campbell, C., 2005. The Craft Consumer: Culture, craft and consumption in a postmodern society. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(1), pp.23-42 Cns.nyu.edu, 2010. Perceptual Organization. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 March 2015]. Cooke, E., 2007. Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer (review). Technology and Culture, 48(3), pp.653-655 Dai, X. and Fishbach, A., 2014. How Non-consumption Shapes Desire. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(4), pp.936-952 Demetry, D., Thurk, J. and Fine, G., 2013. Strategic poverty: How social and cultural capital shapes low-income life. Journal of Consumer Culture. Gupta, N., 2013. Understanding acculturation of consumer culture in an emerging market. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 8(1), pp.24-40 Hassan, S. and Craft, S., 2012. Examining world market segmentation and brand positioning strategies. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(5), pp.344-356. Heien, D., 2001. Habit, seasonality, and time aggregation in consumer behaviour. Applied Economics, 33(13), pp.1649-1653. Kravets, O. and Sandikci, O., 2014. Competently Ordinary: New Middle Class Consumers in the Emerging Markets. Journal of Marketing, 78(4), pp.125-140 Loi, D., Ganapathy, S. and Prabhala, S., 2012. Emerging Markets: Product and Service Opportunities for Middle and Upper Middle Class. AMR, 601, pp.626-634. Randolph, S., 2014. Maximizing Project Value: A Project Managers Guide. Project Management Journal, 45(2), pp.e2-e4. Rose, D., 1986. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Pierre Bourdieu’s Taste theory. American Ethnologist, 13(1), pp.163-164 Seyfarth, R. and Cheney, D., 2015. How sociality shapes the brain, behaviour and cognition. Animal Behaviour, 12(2), pp. 46 Skeggs, B., 2004. Exchange, value and affect: Bourdieu and the self. The Sociological Review, 52, pp.75-95 Telegraph.co.uk., 2012. Shoes that provide clues to social class. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 March 2015] Bibliography Assael, H., 1998. Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action. 6th ed. Massachusetts: PWS-Kent Branscomb, L. and Keller, J., 1998. Investing in innovation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Desmond, J., 2003. Consumer Behaviour. London: Palgrave Engel, J.F., Blackwell R.D. and Miniard, P.W., 2002, Consumer Behaviour. 8th ed. London: The Dryden Press Evans, J., 2009. Innovation: Harnessing Creativity for Business Growth. Work Study, 52(4), p. 22 Foxall, G.R., Goldsmith, R.E. and Brown, S., 1998. Consumer Psychology for Marketing. London: Thomson Business Press Packard, V., 1981, The Hidden Persuaders, 1st Ed. Penguin Books: London Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M.K., 2013, Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Read More