Influence of culture on consumer behaviour

Influence of culture on consumer behaviour

MBA / BBA MARKETING MANAGEMENT 

                                QUESTION PAPER OCTOBER 2019    

                PUNE UNIVERSITY 

What are Cultural Factors ?

Cultural factors comprise of set of values and ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals.

 It is the culture of an individual which decides the way he/she behaves.

In simpler words, culture is nothing but values of an individual.

 What an individual learns from his parents and relatives as a child becomes his culture.

 Culture is the broadest and most abstract of the external factors. Culture refers to the complexity of learning meanings, values, norms, and customs shared by members of a society. Cultural norms are relatively stable over time, therefore, culture has a major impact on consumer behaviour. Research studies have consistently shown that culture influences almost every aspect of purchasing: it affects basic psychological domains such as self-identity and motivation; it also affects the way that information is processed and the way that advertising messages are interpreted.

Marketers, interested in global expansion, are especially interested in understanding cross-cultural differences in purchasing and consumption. For instance, Ferrari, one of the world's top brands found that Chinese consumers are very different from their Western counterparts. Whereas consumers in the US, UK and Australia expect to wait 12 months for a custom-made Ferrari, prospective Chinese buyers want to drive the vehicle off the showroom floor. China is an ‘instant-gratification market’. Buyers see their friends riding around in a luxury car and want to have the same as quickly as possible. To meet the growing demand for luxury goods, Ferrari and other luxury car makers have been forced to modify their production processes for Asian markets.

 Cultural elements

So which cultural elements are likely to influence buying behaviour? There are many different aspects of culture that have been analysed by cultural researchers over the years. These include, in particular, youth orientation, long-term vs short-term orientation (also known as time orientation), masculinity vs. femininity, the power distance index, individualism/collectivism, indulgence against restraint and uncertainty avoidance.

 Cultural factors have a significant effect on an individual’s buying decision.

Every individual has different sets of habits, beliefs and

principles which he/she develops from his family status and background.

What they see from their childhood becomes their culture.

 A person’s culture has a huge influence on their thought processes and behaviours. Because it’s so influential on how people perceive the world around them, their place in it, and how they make decisions, it tends to play a role in determining how and why we consume goods and services.

Sometimes, it’s really obvious how culture influences buying behaviour. Cultural prohibitions against consuming products such as alcohol or meat, or cultural preferences for styles of clothing, make it easy to understand some buying patterns. Cultural behaviours, such as household size or the role of women in managing households, also influence who buys certain products or in what size.

 But others are more subtle. Cultural elements such as time orientation (whether a culture tends to focus on the past, present or future) seem to bear influence on elements of online shopping such as trust and social interaction.

 Of course, human personalities vary and that variety encompasses the extent to which an individual takes on board the particular influences of their culture. Indian consumers tend to be more family orientated than western ones but that doesn’t mean there aren’t Indian consumers who don’t make highly individualistic purchasing decisions – or Western ones that don’t think collectively.

 But culture never really quite goes away. Anyone that violates cultural norms will be sanctioned by their wider social group, whether they choose to resist that pressure or not. Individuals are rarely uninfluenced by this effect and it will affect their behaviour.

 To some extent, culture is simply what comes most naturally to a person – what fits within their values and belief systems, and what they see others around them doing. Culture influences what feels right, normal and desirable.

 Retailers that ask consumers to swim against the social current are making it harder for the consumer to choose their services. It’s usually better practice to make it possible and easy for consumers to choose your product within their cultural comfort zone.

 INTRODUCTION

Culture is essentially a fabric of society in which we live. Culture plays an influencing role on consumerbehaviour and thus marketers are keen to understand it before they venture into any new overseas market.

 WHAT IS CULTURE?

To understand personality and its impact onconsumer buyer behaviour, it requires examination of characteristics of the society by covering factors likelanguage, caste, creed, religion, customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, laws, food habits, work culture, livingmethods, entertainment, art, technology absorption and other factors that give any society its distinct flavourcalled culture.Belief and value components are the two componentsthat comes from past knowledge and experience led feelings. Belief refers to knowledge based conclusive realization either hidden in mind or expressed verbally. Values are also beliefs. What differentiate values from

 beliefs are criteria such as 1) theyare limited in numbers 2) they are enduring 3) widely accepted, 4) free from any bonding 5) and guide culturallyappropriate behaviour. Customs are obvious modes of consumer behaviour that constitute culturally approved or acceptable ways of behaving in specific situations.

 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

Culture has various underlying characteristics. To understand the scope and complexity of a culture more fully, it is essential to understand it fully.

The Invisible Hands of Culture

Many times culture has so naturally impacted us that we are not even aware. We just follow as we see others doing it that way. Often when such behaviours are questioned, the answer would be ‘because it’s the right thing to do and most others do it that way’.

Culture Satisfies Needs

Cultural behavioural influences have come to us either in the form of order, or direction and guidance. Theyhave originated to satisfy the needs of people when they were faced with human problems and evolved as a‘tried and tested’ method to give assurance psychologically to its followers.Marketers expose the society to evolving new trends and standards thus, making individuals believe that the current culture no longer satisfies their needs and thus they evolve themselves.

Culture is Learned

Culture is not, and it is acquired through learning. Right from our birth we begin to acquire ourset of

 beliefs, values and customs that give us our culture.Culture is learned through formal learning (from family members), informal learning (friends, peers) andtechnical learning (from teachers, priests). Marketers take the advantage of these aspects and develop their advertisement that either hits them at following old habits, or evolve to embrace new habits.

Enculturation

The learning of one’s own culture is known as Enculturation. Your culture is considered as homeculture or native culture and it is a foundation of socialisation.

Acculturation

The learning of a new or foreign culture is known as Acculturation.Acculturation can be thus used to influence a shift in the current behaviour based on old culture orcommunicate in such a way that you get accepted well.

 

Language and Symbols

Language is a hindrance as well as a tool. To be able to understand different cultures,people of two different cultures must be able to communicate with each other.To communicate with the target audiences, marketers must use appropriate symbols. Symbolscan be such that they communicate the desired product image or characteristics. Communication using symbolscould be verbal or non-verbal. Use of logos, pictures, and figures are uses of non- verbal communication. Symbols are articulation of words in a drawing or picture form.

Rituals

 A ritual is a type of symbolic activity consisting of a series of steps (multiple behaviours) occurring in a fixed sequence and repeated over time. Ritualised behaviour is behaviour that is patterned on a ritual. It isup to marketers to develop a ritualised behaviour.

Culture is Shared

A particular belief, value or practice must be shared by a significant portion of the society to be considered as a cultural characteristic. Culture sharing gets magnified when practised by family, school, colleges, places of worship as well as mass media and it supports its transfer.

Culture is Dynamic

Culture must evolve continuously to remain acceptable within the confined limits in the best interest of thesociety. Earlier women were not allowed to work outside home and now they are freely allowed to have secondincome to come in the household in this tough economic environment. Products which were in the dominant male territory also now see womenbeing represented.

 

Examples.

 The US is one of the world’s more future-orientated countries and people there value being busy and living their lives at a fast pace. By contrast, France is a much more present-orientated culture and this seems to underpin the value it places on living well in the moment, such as taking a proper lunch break.

 Cultures with a time-orientation focused on the past, such as India, are often very tolerant of extreme lateness, such as trains that are delayed by hours. There are also some cultures, often small tribal ones living traditional and relatively primitive lifestyles, where time isn’t really recognised as a concept.

 Example - In India, people still value joint family system and family ties.

Children in India are conditioned to stay with their parents till they get married as compared to

 foreign countries where children are more independent and leave their parents once they start earning a living for themselves.

 Females staying in West Bengal or Assam would prefer buying sarees as compared to Westerns.

Similarly a male consumer would prefer a Dhoti Kurta during auspicious ceremonies in Eastern India as this is what their culture is.

Girls in South India wear skirts and blouses as compared to girls in north India who are more into Salwar Kameez.

Our culture says that we need to wear traditional attire on marriages and this is what we have been following since years.

People in North India prefer breads over rice which is a favorite with people in South India and East India.

Religion (Christianity, Hindu, Muslim, Sikhism, Jainism etc)

A Hindu bride wears red, maroon or a bright colour lehanga or saree whereas a Christian bride wears a white gown on her wedding day.

 It is against Hindu culture to wear white on auspicious occasions.

Muslims on the other hand prefer to wear green on important occasions.

For Hindus eating beef is considered to be a sin whereas Muslims and Christians absolutely relish the same.

Eating pork is against Muslim religion while Hindus do not mind eating it.

A sixty year old individual would not like something which is too bright and colorful.

He would prefer something which is more sophisticated and simple.

On the other hand a teenager would prefer funky dresses and loud colours.

In India widows are expected to wear whites.

Widows wearing bright colours are treated with suspicion.

  Gender (Male/Female)

People generally make fun of males buying fairness creams as in our culture only

females are expected to buy and use beauty products.

 Males are perceived to be strong and tough who look good just the way they are.

 The study of culture is the study of all aspects of a society. It is the language, knowledge, laws, and customs that give society its distinctive character and personality. In the context of consumer behavior, culture is defined as the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to regulate the consumer behavior of members of a particular society. Beliefs and values are guides for consumer behavior; customs are unusual and accepted ways of behaving.

 The impact of culture is so natural and ingrained that its influence on behavior is rarely noted. Yet, culture offers order, direction, and guidance to members of society in all phases of human problem solving. Culture is dynamic, and gradually and continually evolves to meet the needs of society.

 Culture is learned as part of social experience. Children acquire from their environment a set of beliefs, values, and customs that constitute culture (i.e., they are encultured). These are acquired through formal learning, informal learning, and technical learning. Advertising enhances formal learning by reinforcing desired modes of behavior and expectations; it enhances informal learning by providing models for behavior.

 Culture is communicated to members of the society through a common language and through commonly shared symbols. Because the human mind has the ability to absorb and process symbolic communication, marketers can successfully promote both tangible and intangible products and product concepts to consumers through mass media.

 All the elements of the marketing mix serve to communicate symbolically with the audience. Products project an image of their own; so does promotion. Price and retail outlets symbolically convey images concerning the quality of the product.

 The elements of culture are transmitted by three pervasive social situations: the family, the church, and the school. A fourth social institution that plays a major role in the transmission of culture is the mass media, both through editorial content and through advertising.

 A wide range of measurement techniques are used to study culture. The range includes projective techniques, attitude measurement methods, field observation, participant observation, content analysis, and value measurement survey techniques.

 A number of core values of the American people are relevant to the study of consumer behavior. These include achievement and success, activity, efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort, individualism, freedom, conformity, humanitarianism, youthfulness, and fitness and health.

 Because each of these values varies in importance to the members of our society, each provides an effective basis for segmenting consumer markets.

 WHAT IS CULTURE?

1.         Given the broad and pervasive nature of culture, its study generally requires a detailed examination of the character of the total society, including such factors as language, knowledge, laws, religions, food customs, music, art, technology, work patterns, products, and other artifacts that give a society its distinctive flavor.

2.         In a sense, culture is a society’s personality. For this reason, it is not easy to define its boundaries.

3.         Culture is the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to direct the consumer behavior of members of a particular society.

4.         Beliefs consist of the very large number of mental or verbal statements that reflect a person’s particular knowledge and assessment of something.

5.         Values also are beliefs, however, values differ from other beliefs because they must meet the following criteria:

a)         They are relatively few in number.

b)         They serve as a guide for culturally appropriate behavior.

c)         They are enduring or difficult to change.

d)         They are not tied to specific objects or situations.

e)         They are widely accepted by the members of a society.

6.         In a broad sense, both values and beliefs are mental images that affect a wide range of specific attitudes that, in turn, influence the way a person is likely to respond in a specific situation.

7.         Customs are overt modes of behavior that constitute culturally approved or acceptable ways of behaving in specific situations.

a)         Customs consist of everyday or routine behavior.

b)         Although beliefs and values are guides for behavior, customs are usual and acceptable ways of behaving.

c)         An understanding of various cultures can help marketers predict consumer acceptance of their products.

 THE INVISIBLE HAND OF CULTURE

 1.         The impact of culture is so natural and automatic that its influence on behavior is usually taken for granted.

2.         Often, it is only when we are exposed to people with different cultural values or customs that we become aware of how culture has molded our own behavior.

3.         Consumers both view themselves in the context of their culture and react to their environment based upon the cultural framework that they bring to that experience. Each individual perceives the world through his or her own cultural lens.

4.         Culture can exist and sometimes reveal itself at different perceived or subjective levels.

5.         Those interested in consumer behavior would be most concerned with three “levels of subjective culture:

a)         Supranational level – reflects the underlying dimensions of culture that impact multiple cultures or different societies.

b)         National level factors – such as shared core values, customs, personalities, and predispositional factors that tend to capture the essence of the “national character” of the citizens of a particular country.

c)         Group Level factors – are concerned with various subdivisions of a country or society. They might include subcultures’ difference, and membership and reference group differences.

  CULTURE SATISFIES NEEDS

 1.         Culture exists to satisfy the needs of people within a society.

a)         It offers order, direction, and guidance in all phases of human problem solving by providing “tried and true” methods of satisfying physiological, personal, and social needs.

b)         Similarly, culture also provides insights as to suitable dress for specific occasions (e.g., what to wear around the house, what to wear to school, what to wear to work, what to wear to church, what to wear at a fast food restaurant, or a movie theater).

2.         Cultural beliefs, values, and customs continue to be followed as long as they yield satisfaction.

3.         In a cultural context, when a product is no longer acceptable because it’s related value or custom does not adequately satisfy human needs, it must be modified.

4.         Culture gradually evolves to meet the needs of society.

 CULTURE IS LEARNED

1.         At an early age we begin to acquire from our social environment a set of beliefs, values, and customs that make up our culture.

2.         For children, the learning of these acceptable cultural values and customs is reinforced by the process of playing with their toys.

a)         As children play, they act out and rehearse important cultural lessons and situations.

 How Culture Is Learned

1.         There are three distinct forms of learning:

a)         Formal learning—adults and older siblings teach a young family member “how to behave.”

b)         Informal learning—a child learns primarily by imitating the behavior of selected others.

c)         Technical learning—teachers instruct the child in an educational environment as to what, how, and why it should be done.

2.         Advertising and marketing communications can influence all three types of cultural learning..

a)         It most influences informal learning by providing models of behavior to imitate.

b)         This is especially true for visible or conspicuous products that are evaluated in public settings, where peer influence is likely to play an important role.

3.         The repetition of advertising messages creates and reinforces cultural beliefs and values.

4.         Cultural meaning moves from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods and from there to the individual consumer by means of various consumption-related vehicles (e.g., advertising or observing or imitating others’ behavior.)

 Culture Is Shared

 1.         To be considered a cultural characteristic, a particular belief, value, or practice must be shared by a significant portion of the society.

2.         Culture is often viewed as group customs that link together members of society.

3.         Various social institutions transmit the elements of culture and make sharing of culture a reality.

a)         Family—the primary agent for enculturation – passing along of basic cultural beliefs, values, and customs to society’s newest members.

i)          A vital part of the enculturation role of the family is the consumer socialization of the young.

b)         Educational institutions—charged with imparting basic learning skills, history, patriotism, citizenship, and the technical training needed to prepare people for significant roles within society.

c)         Houses of worship—provide religious consciousness, spiritual guidance, and moral training.

d)         Mass media—is a fourth and often overlooked transmitter of culture.

i)          It disseminates information about products, ideas, and causes.

ii)         We have daily exposure to advertising, and through those ads, receive cultural information.

e)         Virtual communities – is a fifth and somewhat more recent social institution for sharing cultural values.

i)          It has been estimated that over 40 million consumers, worldwide, participate in such communities.

 CULTURE IS DYNAMIC

1.         Culture continually evolves; therefore, the marketer must carefully monitor the sociocultural environment in order to market an existing product more effectively or to develop promising new products.

a)         This is not easy because many factors are likely to produce cultural changes within a given society.

2.         The changing nature of culture means that marketers have to consistently reconsider:

a)         Why consumers are now doing what they do?

b)         Who are the purchasers and the users of their products?

c)         When they do their shopping?

d)         How and where they can be reached by the media?

e)         What new product and service needs are emerging?

3.         Marketers who monitor cultural changes often find new opportunities to increase corporate profitability.