Marketing for Consumers in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example

Marketing to the consumers in Saudi Arabia: What facet of their multiple identities do they use when and Section # of course> 1. Research Challenge The long term strive of the marketers aim at understanding the consumption patterns of individuals, allowing them to target their precise segment, based on their understanding of the 'hows' and the 'whats' associated with the consumer spending. Researches that spread over decades of years are evident of the fact that culture plays a vital role in defining consumption patterns of individuals and societies. Various texts reveal numerous models that provide in-sight on national cultural differences. These differences are also responsible for the differences that can be observed in the attitudes and behaviors of various customer bases as they primarily differ due to the various backgrounds that they belong to. Despite the fact that cross border trade of various entities like people, products, ideas, etc. have resulted in cultures getting mixed up and losing their core identity, yet the foreign element in the home culture has not fully revamped the local culture anywhere in the world; the glimpse of the home culture remains there no matter how much the foreign culture influences it. However, this phenomenon does lead to the outcome that culture is no more a static variable but is dynamic and continues to grow as embedding of culture takes place. This dynamicity and the cross border trade has actually led individuals into behaving differently in a differing set of circumstances or simply put, they tend to portray different culture or cultural identities in different situations. Observations reveal that this is a major issue with immigrants in particular as they face dual challenge; adapt to the local environment and retain their identity. Subsequently, the arising phenomenon leads to the outcome that consumers tend to utilize varying facets as they come across different situations. 2. Research Purpose The purpose of this research is to analyze and differentiate between situations and circumstances that make consumer use one of the facets and prefer one over the other defining a varying consumer and consumption pattern. This research is to be conducted in the environment of Saudi Arabia. In particular, this research is aimed at investigating and highlighting the cultural variables that derive the process of marketing communication, perception of quality of service, and choice of consumption in the various categories of products and/or services. Consider the example of a young lady in Saudi Arabia; the first consideration when going out would be towards religious concerns in terms of meat and choice of restaurants. The same lady would definitely move beyond religious considerations when choosing an institute to study, for example. Even when the female goes towards shopping, the consideration and precedence for fashion and societal acceptability might be on the higher side. Similarly, her attraction to an advertisement may be totally opposite to what her clothing or religion or institute depict her personality to be. Understanding, comprehending and investigating the variables that derive these patterns of choice and consumption is the underlying aim of this research. Saudi Arabia has a different and unique set of characteristics that are associated with its dynamics and other variables. Some of these are listed as below: Firstly, the population constitutes various nationals present, and some of them tend to be influential due to the background or their strength. Secondly, the fact remains that Saudi Arabia is an expatriate driven economy, and the expats there have strong affiliation with their nations as they cannot gain the citizenship status therewith. Thirdly, Saudi Arabia nationals have this tendency of traveling overseas and interacting with individuals from various customs, backgrounds, religions, cultures, norms, etc. Another point of consideration is the tremendous growth that is currently taking place in Saudi Arabia, allowing individuals from all over the world to come and explore, and vice versa, thus, allowing interaction with nationals of other countries. All in all, this illustrates the fact that Saudi Arabia has been under influence of various cultures that has molded character, customs and traditions of various individuals to an extent that they have multiple personalities, which unconsciously influence the decisions of an individual at all times. 3. Relevant Literature There have been various models proposed by different researchers that talk about the differences and variations that are present amongst the prevailing systems of values and beliefs across the world. Probably the most famous model in this regard is of Hofstede (1980; 2001) who gave the five dimensions that define the points of deviation amongst cultures. These five dimensions were: power distance, masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and time orientation. Along the similar lines, Schwarz (1992) formulated his model based on a study that involved 60,000 individuals from over 60 nations, and the survey, as an outcome, revealed ten values that actually derive the consumer attitude defining the consumption pattern of individuals. These ten values are: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. He stated that these values are universal and the composition of a culture actually defines the weight that it wishes to assign to each of these values. Hall (1973) presented his view point of differentiating between the high context and low context cultures. Trompenaars (1993) investigated five dimensions that are similar to those of Hofsteve (2001); these are: universalism/particularism, individualism/communitarism, neutral/affective, specific/diffuse, and achievement/ascription. Most of these and other studies are primarily based on the comparison of cross-country, while various researchers and critics have also identified and investigated the significance of the cultural variations that exist within a country, like the various sub cultures. The later may not be highly applicable to the case of Saudi Arabia under consideration because the multiple cultures that exist within Saudi Arabia are primarily based on cross country differences rather than the intra-country culture or the sub cultures as they call it. Other than these, the impact of service quality and its perception has also been found to have a significant impact on the shift in consumption patterns or the consumer behavior and patterns. Aaker and Williams (1998) investigated that emotional appeals in advertisements are more effective if they have lesser 'affiliation' to a cultural aspect. There are several other researches and research aspects beyond these models that would be included and discussed in the research report. 4. Research Approach The research mechanism to be used for this research is a dual or multi step approach towards research. In the first step, the phenomenological approach shall be utilized whereby in-depth interviews and focus groups shall be conducted for understanding the influence of cultural origin and the situational impact on consumer behavior. This initial research would assist in investigating the various facets of identity that these consumers own, and also assist in understanding how these identities vary and apply to various sorts and circumstances. Another critical outcome of this step would be determining the formation a set of propositions about the critical factors that affluence the cultural variance on different consumption scenarios. In the next stage, the research would utilize a quantitative approach using hypothesis testing technique about the various identity facets such as religion, traditionalism, country of origin, community, societal impact, language, etc; these would assist in projecting consumer choices under varying degree of circumstances. As a result, it may be concluded that Arabs and Pakistanis may act in a similar manner when religion is the major operating aspect of identification. Similarly, the young women of Arab and the West may act in a similar manner when global culture is the major operational facet of identity, and so on. Subsequently, it might be a likely observation that though the groups may differ significantly in various manners but there may be some situation under which they act in a likely manner, and understanding the influence and this situation of likely behavior is the aim of this research. 5. Significance of the Research The markets in Saudi Arabia are composed of a mixture of identities, as a high proportion of the population mix belongs to the expatriates; subsequently, it may seem to a marketer as a large population with small distinct segments. To some marketers, this seems a tremendous opportunity while for others, it poses a threat. The most significant aspect of this research is that it turns the possible threat of small segments into larger segments by means of identifying the influencing variable under which sub-segments of the overall segments act in a similar manner. This information can be critical for the marketers as it would allow them to identify the grouping criteria for their respective product category. This can be termed as a fragmentation approach or some marketers may also term it as segmentation based on 'x' variable, where 'x' is the influencing factor as the research aims to determine. On theoretical grounds, this research would assist in determining how the various facets of identity interact in various consumption scenarios, within different product categories. However, at the methodological ground, this research will promote Saudi Arabia as one of the prime places in the world where interaction of various cultural influences can be studied by the interested researchers. Over all, this research would assist in not just assisting marketing activities within Saudi Arabia but also promoting Saudi Arabia itself as a hub of various cultures, thereby, making it a prime place for various cultural researches. 6. References Ali D. Johany, Michel Berne, J. Wilson Mixon (1986) The Saudi Arabian economy. Edition: illustrated. Taylor & Francis Beng Huat Chua (2000) Consumption in Asia: lifestyles and identities. Routledge Grant David McCracken (1990) Culture and consumption: new approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Indiana University Press Grant David McCracken (2005) Culture and consumption II: markets, meaning, and brand management. Indiana University Press Mark Gottdiener (2000) New forms of consumption: consumers, culture, and commodification. Rowman & Littlefield Martyn J. Lee (1993) Consumer culture reborn: the cultural politics of consumption. Routledge Michael R. Solomon, Gary Bamossy, Soren Askegaard, Margaret K. Hogg (2006) Consumer behaviour: a European perspective. Edition: 3. Financial Times/Prentice Hall Yiannis Gabriel, Tim Lang (2006) The unmanageable consumer. Edition: 2, revised. SAGE Read More