The Influence of Culture on Consumer Behavior - Coursework Example

The Influence of Culture on Consumer Behavior Name Institution Tutor Date Introduction Consumers in the contemporary world cannot evade the increasing exposure to various forms of advertisements. Advertisement exists in every place, in addition, every technology used exposes the consumer to some form of advertisement. Among all the tools of marketing, advertisement is one the most significant practices. This is because it plays an important role in motivating the customer to purchase a certain product or service. The phenomenon of increased advertisement does have an impact on the behavior of consumers. This paper seeks to provide a review of literature on the impact of advertisement on consumer behavior. The scope of the paper will also be grounded on conducting a critical evaluation of the findings of the literature. Literature Review Background of Adverting and Consumer behavior Since previous years, advertising has played a significant role in the development of the promotional mix strategy of a business. This is due to its capability to communicate accurate information. Based on this fact, Elliot and Speck (1998) argue that consumer behavior is assumed to occur due to rational thinking. As a result, advertising works in an influential manner in order to develop a precise message that is aimed transforming the behavior and beliefs held by the consumers. The concept of consumer behavior can be described as a process in which consumer’s decide on where, what, when and from whom do they purchase their services and goods (Bansal1 and Shubham, 2014). Advertisements are characterized into two basic categories which include; the transformative and the informative types of advertisements. The informative type of advertisement seeks to offer information to the consumer concerning the precise facts of the service or product. This includes the quantity, price and other logical details about the brand. The transformative type of advertisement on the other hand focuses on various psychological attributes that can differentiate a product or a service from others (Bansal1 and Shubham, 2014). The Impacts of Adverting On Consumer Behavior Various studies have been conducted to examine the influence of advertising on consumer behavior. Dinu, (2012) conducted a study to examine the impact of advertising on consumer behavior in Romania. The study mainly focused on examining online advertising. The study method involved conducting a survey in one of the Romanian cities. The findings of the study disclosed that advertising does play a significant role on the buying behavior of consumers. Dinu, (2012) reveals that many of the consumers were actually interested in the brand products. Advertising leads to the creation of a brand image that further attracts the customer to the product. Additionally, the study disclosed that new products that were well advertised also influenced the development of a mental brand and thus influencing the customers to purchase the product. Priyanka (2012) also conducted a similar study to examine the impact of online advertising on consumer behavior. Priyanka (2012) discloses the fact that advertisers using online methods want to make advertising through the internet to be more like television advertising. The main objective is to make online advertising to be more interactive and involving and therefore making the customer to behavior in a certain manner. The findings of the study disclosed that the interaction of the customers with online advertising influenced their brand attitudes. As a result, the customers made a purchase decision on the basis of the brand image they acquired from the advertisement. Celebrity endorsement is another approach of advertising that has also been linked to influencing the behavior of consumers. Khatri (2006) highlights that a celebrity endorser can be described as any individual who has the benefit of public recognition and who utilizes the recognition on behalf of a consumer product by displaying it in an advertisement. According to Doss (2010), it has often been claimed that individuals tend to assume a number of roles in their purchasing decision-making process and which are described as initiator, influencer, purchaser and user. Khatri (2006) highlights that the manner in which the practice of celebrity endorsements influences consumer purchase decisions has been studied expansively by both marketing and psychological researches. Various hypotheses have thereafter been suggested including celebrity endorsement enhancing the recall of given product(s), the celebrity having credibility which makes the product more attractive or boosts perceptions of quality. Moreover, the celebrity endorser’s image shifted to the product so that anyone using the product has their images associated to the product. Fox (2006) highlights that a key impact of advertising on consumer behavior is that it results to attitude formation. Attitudes can be described as the tendencies and predispositions that influence a person to react in a consistent manner during a certain period of time. In some cases the immediate objective of advertisers to get an immediate action of the consumer. This implies that the consumer should react in several ways which includes purchasing the product and also buying the product. In most cases, consumers may not respond in the stated ways as a result a lag develops between the exposure to advertising and the action created by the consumer. Advertising however results to the development of both positive and negative attitudes by consumers which may further influence their purchase behavior. For examples various advertisements antismoking and antidrug have the objective of creating a negative attitude whereby the consumers should lose the likelihood of purchasing such products. A study conducted by Bansal1 and Shubham, (2014) examined the psychological influence of the newspaper advertisement on a consumer. The study also made a comparison of the perception of humans on advertisements made on the newspaper and the intended view of advertisement. The study found out that Psychological effects and perception are significant aspects that affect the behavior of the consumers. The study used advertisements that varied from services to products. The findings of the study further disclosed that 26% of the advertisements were informative while 40% were transformative. Similar comparisons were also conducted on other attributes of newspaper advertisement such performance components and the perception of the quality of the product (Bansal1 and Shubham, 2014). Theories and Models of Advertising and its Influence on consumer behavior A research conducted by Mortimer (2002) discloses that consumers usually pass through various stages prior to making a decision to buy a certain product. According to Mortimer (2002) the various stages that consumers pass through in order to come up with a purchase decision are critical for any advertiser. He demonstrates that the various stages that consumers go through are basically the cognitive and the affective stages. Studies conducted in the past have revealed a link between the involvement and the cognitive process which has resulted to the inception of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of attitude change. The model is composed of two basic routes, the peripheral route and the central route. The two routes give an indication that consumers who are actively involved or those who can quickly process information, can experience additional cognitive response. Consequently, advertising can become more persuasive if exposed in a strong and logical argument. The latter direction occurs when less effort is required by the consumers in order evaluate the argument thus advertising which consists of approaches such the use of music and celebrity endorsement are actually more real when it comes to persuading consumers (Mortimer ,2002) . An additional theory is the FCB grid theory. The theory propagates that consumers react to advertisement through the manner in which they think and feel. The theory majorly categories products into low involvement and high involvement feel or think which further influences the manner in which consumers react to a certain product (Mortimer , 2002). Huang (2001) highlights that the PAD model which entails pleasure, arousal and dominance is another crucial model that influences the manner in which consumers behave. The model consists of every emotional state that consumers posses and other feelings that come about. The model can assist in examining the emotions of people and how they behave due to the exposure to advertisement. Consumer Research Perspectives Psychological Perspective Kotler et al (2003) highlights that there are four main psychological processes that influence the responses of the customers on advertising stimuli. This include; perception, motivation, memory and learning. Additionally, Jokubauskas (2007) also associated the cognitive concepts of reasoning, senses, perceptions and language to the psychological effects of adverting. Although the authors do not present a hierarchy of the concepts , the cognitive division can be divided using the following approach; foremost , the attention of the consumer is concentrated , then follows the perception, the cognition through the emotions of the consumer’s which is followed by different senses, then an individual reasons out and then the assimilation of the advert is done. Table 1.0 Demonstrates the Key aspects of psychological Impacts of Advertising The traditional conceptual model of developing any marketing or advertising communication message( AIDA model) DAGMAR Model Four Major Psychological processes Kotler (2007) Cognitive aspects Jokubauskas, 2007) Attention Awareness Motivation Attention Interest Comprehension Perception perception Desire Conviction Learning Emotions, senses, thoughts, language, reasoning Action Action Action Action The table illustrates the hierarchy of advertising on the attention of customers. Jokubauskas, (2007) highlights that attention is attained through an advertisement and then it’s recorded on the person’s consciousness. Kotler (2007) on the other hand argues that in this particular order, it’s not the issue of attention but rather it’s the motivation of the customers that really matters. Cultural Perspective Advertising bring about various cultural influences and therefore influencing the behavior of consumers. Vanderkochhove, (2002) highlights that advertising has resulted to consumerism. This is because people develop tendencies of desiring to have more and more of what is advertised. For instance; there are people who find personal expression and emotional solace when they shop. In addition many nations essentially developing nations want to move to the level of consumerism that exists in developing nations such as the United States. This is mainly attributed to increased advertisement which has transformed the cultural perspectives of many and therefore leading to increased consumerism. (Vanderkochhove, 2002). Advertising has also influenced consumers from different regions of the world to abandon their traditional cultures and products in order to adopt the culture and products of other nations. Noreen, (2010) highlights that advertising has resulted to the development of transnational culture essentially to cultures that exist in the third world counties. Many consumers in the developing world have today tried to adopt the cultures of other nations especially in developed countries. For instance; a study conducted by Pierre Thizier on the effect of transnational advertising on the culture if Ivory coast in West Africa, disclosed that transnational companies such as Nestle and Colgate have substituted the traditional products that were more effective and even cheaper in that particular country. Additionally, women in such countries chose to use cosmetics advertised by international firms in order for them to look younger. Noreen, (2010) therefore argues that advertisement essentially from developed nations has greatly transformed consumer behavior essentially in developing countries. Critical Evaluation From the findings of the existing literature it can be stated that most of the studies focus on the psychological implications of advertising. Many studies have actually examined the impact of various forms of media on consumer behavior. This includes newspapers, television, online advertising and celebrity endorsement. The key aspect being examined in most of this studies is basically the psychological aspect. A case in point is the study by Dinu, (2012) on the impact of advertising on consumer behavior in Romania. The study mainly focused on how advertising impacts of the minds of the consumers and therefore leading to the development of a mental brand image which further influences the customers to purchase the product. Additionally, similar studies on online advertising such the study by Priyanka (2012) discloses the fact that advertisers want consumer to think that online advertising can be as powerful as the advertising that is conducted on the television. It can be stated that the study is focused on how advertising can play with the minds of the consumers in order to influence their behavior. A study on another form of advertisement such as the use of celebrity endorsement also disclosed the contribution of psychological effects of advertising on consumer behavior. Khatri (2006) highlights that the manner in which the practice of celebrity endorsements influences consumer purchase decisions has been studied expansively by both marketing and psychological researches. Various hypotheses have thereafter been suggested including celebrity endorsement enhancing the recall of given product(s), the celebrity having credibility which makes the product more attractive or boosts perceptions of quality. Also the study by Bansal1 and Shubham, (2014) examined the psychological influence of the newspaper advertisement on a consumer. The study made a comparison of the perception of humans on advertisement on the newspaper and the intended view of advertisement. In general it can be stated that most of this studies focus more of the cognitive influence that is instigated by advertising in order to influence the behavior of consumers. The reason behind the focus on the psychological influence is due to the fact that most of the literature related to the issue of advertising and consumer behavior are usually more concerned about the memory or mind of the consumer. This has resulted to studying the characteristics advertisement that mostly capture the mind of the consumer and therefore influencing their behavior. This has been an important factor based on the fact that the mental segment of human being operates consciousness and unconsciously and therefore influencing the manner in which consumers behave. Heath et al., (2006) discloses the fact that advertising agencies usually attempt to attain three basic objectives which include; persuasion, brand awareness and the development of attention. This areas in most cases focus on the psychological perspective. In speculation it can be stated that the element that is missing in most of this studies is the concept of culture when it comes to examining the influence of advertisement on consumer behavior. As noted by most of the studies the key element was the psychological aspect developed which are linked to the cognitive domain such as perception, awareness, attraction, emotions and desires. Therefore, the element of culture is missing in most of the studies. In addition even the theories of advertisement and consumer behavior such as the; PAD model, the Elaboration Likelihood Model of attitude change and the FCB grid theory, are mostly derived from psychological perspective. There is therefore need to conduct more studies that can examine the influence of culture and even other factors such as political factors. This will assist in the development of a wide range of theories that can be used to explain the phenomenon. Study Proposal A topic of interest that I have is in the area of fashion. Fashion is an interesting area of research that can provide facts concerning the influence of culture on consumer behavior within the fashion industry and also in other industries. It can be stated that the fashion industry is quite diverse. In addition, consumer behavior in this particular industry varies greatly. A concept that should be studied in the topic of fashion is the issue of the influence of advertising from different cultures on consumer behavior. Culture is one of the critical factors that influences consumer behavior however the influence of different cultures on consumer behavior in the fashion industry has not been effectively examined. Studying the area will be potentially beneficial. I would actually focus on the American culture due to the immense influence of American culture on different industries essentially the fashion industry. When one travels to other nations for instance developing countries in Asian and Africa, one can take note of the influence of the American culture on various elements such as , the food, clothing , shopping centers and many other areas of life style. Indeed, I can state that the American culture does have an influence on many aspects of life in developing countries. Therefore studying the area will provide an introspective perceptive on the influence of culture on consumer behavior. As argued by Noreen, (2010) the spread of transnational advertising has greatly influenced the adoption of diverse cultural practices. In order to study this particular topic, I will conduct a survey among music celebrities in five nations. My selection of celebrities is due to the fact that their celebrity status demands of them to be fashionable at all times. As a result, they celebrities usually focus a lot on how they look in order for them to be appealing to the public. Celebrities have also played a significant role in advertisement as a result they can be used to demonstrate the manner in which culture can influences consumer behavior. Celebrity endorsement is evidently one of the most popular ways of advertising within the highly competitive contemporary business environment. The use of celebrities from different cultures will also demonstrate the manner in which culture is a significant aspect when it comes to demonstrating the significance of culture in defining consumer behavior. As stated earlier from the literature the concept of culture has been left out by many scholars who mostly examine the psychological component of advertising and its impact on consumer behavior. The study will therefore be intended to bring in the domain of culture as an influential factor that influences consumer behavior. In addition, it will result to the development of more theories that can be applied in this field of study. Conclusion The above discussion has presented an in-depth literature review on the topic of the impact of advertising on consumer behaviour. From the various review of literature it has been noted that advertisement does have an impact on consumer behaviour. Another common factors from the various studies is that they mostly examined the psychological aspect of how advertising influences consumer behaviour. This has resulted to the existence of a gap that should be keenly examined. This paper therefore proposes the need to examine other key aspects such as culture and the role in which it plays in influencing consumer behaviour. References Dinu , G,2012, The impact of advertising on consumer behavior In the resita city population, International DAAAM Symposium, 23 (1). Doss, S, 2010, The transference of brand attitude: the effect on the celebrity Endorser, Journal of Management and Marketing Research. Bansal1, M and Shubham, G, 2014, Impact of Newspaper Advertisement on Consumer Behavior, Global Journal of Finance and Management,6(7), p699-674. Elliot, M.T., & Speck, P.S, 1998, Consumer perceptions of advertising clutter and its impact across various media, Journal of Advertising Research, 38 (1), 29-41. Hadjiphanis, L, The Effects Of Advertising On Cypriot Consumer, Journal of Business Administration , 10 ( 1) ,P1-4. Heath, R, Brandt, D and Nairn, A, 2006, Brand relationships: strengthened by emotion, weakened by attention, Journal of Advertising Research, 46 (4), 410-420. Huang, M, 2001, The theory of emotions in marketing, Journal of Business and Psychology, 16 (2), 239-247. Fox, J, 2006, Toward an Understanding of How News Coverage and Advertising Impact Consumer Perceptions, Attitudes and Behavior, VMS Company Jokubauskas, D, 2007, Reklamos poveikio etapai. Retrieved< from://www.marketingas.lt/> Kotler, P, Saunders, J, Armstrong, G, Wong,, 2003, Rinkodaros principai, p. 488. Khatri, P, 2006, Celebrity Endorsement: A Strategic Promotion Perspective, Indian Media Studies Journal , I(1), p56-57. Mortimer, K, 2002, Integrating advertising theories with conceptual models of services advertising. Journal of Services Marketing, 16 (5), 460-468. Noreen, J. (2010). Advertising and Global Culture. CSQ Issue. Priyanka, S, 2012, Study on impact of online advertising on consumer Behavior (with special reference to e-mails), International Journal of Engineering and Management.3 (4) 2012: 461-465 Vanderkochhove, M.(2002). International Advertising In Developing Countries: The Negative Effects On Developing Countries Of Consumerism And Advertising. Nn Read More