Impact Of Culture On Consumer Behaviour

IMPACT OF CULTURE ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

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Executive Summary International marketers believe that consumers would increasingly resemble each other and that they will eat the same food, wear same clothes, l watch the same television programs to an increasing proportion. But the reality is very different. Therefore, to trade in international markets, man must overcome the large cultural and economic boundaries. Not only improve the worldwide competition in the market also different traditional beliefs, preferences, habits, customs are needed to be understood. Culture involves society's thoughts, words, their traditions, language, materials, attitudes and feelings. One of the elements that make culture is beliefs. Beliefs of the people in a community can show similarities. For example, four, and four times in Japan are seen as unlucky, because of that most products are sold in groups of five leads. Another element of culture, tradition, is related with nonverbal behaviour of individuals. In France the men use more cosmetic products than the women, which shows the selfconscious tradition of the French men As a result, learning of cultural properties in the analysis of consumer behavior has been an important variable in marketing, especially in market segmentation, target market and product positioning.

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Table of Contents Topic Page Number  Introduction 4  What is Culture 5  What is Consumer Behavior 6-7  Role of culture, in understanding the consumer behavior 8  Why it is important for marketers to understand the cultural Impact on consumer behavior 9-10  Conclusion 11  References 12  Appendices

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Introduction Consumer behavior is largely dependent on cultural factors consisting of mutually shared operating procedures, unstated assumptions, tools, norms, values, standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and communicating. Cultural factors vary by country but become increasingly complex when people immigrate to foreign countries that have different cultural dimensions. In these situations, people are subjected to a wide variety of cultural reference groups that ultimately affect their purchase behavior. In addition, reference groups may consist of familial groups or external peer groups with each group providing specific and often conflicting information that affects purchase and consumption behavior. In response, marketers must develop marketing communication that addresses cultural and reference group factors from both a domestic and global perspective. To this end, marketers use market segmentation and micromarketing to develop customer-centric marketing messages with the goal of providing precisely defined marketing messages that satisfy consumer’s need for personal information regarding products and services so that consumers should be adequately stimulated to purchase the product or service being advertised.

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We define culture as the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to direct the consumer behavior of members of a particular society (Consumer Behavior, Shiffman and Kanuk) In a broad sense both values and beliefs are mental images that effect a wide range of specific attitudes that, in turn, influence the way a person uses to evaluate alternative brands in a product category (such as Volvo versus an Audi automobile), or his or her eventual preference for one of these brands over the other, are influenced by both a person’s general values (perceptions as to what constitutes quality and the meaning of country of origin) and specific beliefs (particular, perceptions about the quality of Swedish made versus German made automobiles) In contrast to beliefs and values, customs are usual and acceptable ways of behaving, where the former are guides for behavior. E.g.- Consumer’s routine behavior, such as adding a diet sweetener to coffee, putting ketchup on scrambled eggs etc….. 5

What is Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropolog y and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Research has shown that consumer behavior is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behavior analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, 6

customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

Black box model ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

BUYER'S BLACK BOX

Buyer Marketing Environmenta Characteristi Stimuli l Stimuli cs

Economic Product Technological Price Political Place Cultural Promotion Demographic Natural

Attitudes Motivation Perceptions Personality Lifestyle Knowledge

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Decision Process

Problem recognition Information search Alternative evaluation Purchase decision Postpurchase behavior

BUYER'S RESPONSE

Product choice Brand choice Dealer choice Purchase timing Purchase amount

The black box model shows the interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision process and consumer responses. It can be distinguished between interpersonal stimuli (between people) or intrapersonal stimuli (within people). The black box model is related to the black box theory of behaviorism, where the focus is not set on the processes inside a consumer, but the relation between the stimuli and the response of the consumer. The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the companies, whereas the environmental stimulus is given by social factors, based on the economical, political and cultural circumstances of a society. The buyer’s black box contains the buyer characteristics and the decision process, which determines the buyer’s response. The black box model considers the buyers response as a result of a conscious, rational decision process, in which it is assumed that the buyer has recognized the problem. However, in reality many decisions are not made in awareness of a determined problem by the consumer.

Role of culture in understanding the market behavior of the consumer

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This model depicts the role that subjective culture plays in determining our beliefs, practices, and values, which in turn impact our social norms, attitudes, behavioral intentions and ultimately our behavior. Subjective culture reflects regional character (e.g. – People living in several nations in a particular region of South America) and religious similarities or differences, or shared or different languages, national factors, such as shared core values, customs, personalities, and group level factors are concerned with various subdivisions of a country or society (e.g. families, work groups, shopping groups, friendship groups) and many more factors.

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Why it is important for marketers to understand the cultural impact on Consumer Behavior  Because culture satisfies needs Culture exists to satisfy the needs of the people within a society. 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. e.g.:- Culture provides standards and ‘rules’ about when to eat, where to eat, what is appropriate to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner… etc...  Because culture is learned Unlike innate biological characteristics, culture is learned. The three distinct forms of cultural learning are formal learning, informal learning and technical learning. Although a firm’s advertising and marketing communications can influence all three types of cultural learning, it is likely that many product marketing messages enhance informal learning by providing the audience with a model of behavior to imitate.  Because of Acculturation Acculturation is an important concept for marketers who plan to sell their products in foreign or multinational markets. In such cases, marketers must study the specific cultures of their potential target markets to determine whether their products will be acceptable to its members and if so, how they can best communicate the characteristics of their products to persuade the target market to buy.  When using Language and Symbols To communicate effectively with their audiences, marketers must use appropriate symbols to convey desired 10

product images or characteristics. These symbols can be verbal or nonverbal. A symbol may have several, even contradictory meanings, so the advertiser must ascertain exactly what the symbol is communicating to its intended audience.  When facilitating Rituals Most important from the standpoint of marketers is the fact that rituals tend to be replete with ritual artifacts that are associated with or somehow enhance the performance of the ritual.  Because culture is shared Various social institutions within a society transmit the elements of culture and make the sharing of culture a reality. Such institutions are family, educational institutions, houses of worship and most importantly mass media. Because consumers receive important cultural information from advertising.  Because culture is dynamic To fulfill its need gratifying role, culture continually must evolve if it is to function in the best interests of a society. For this reason, the marketer must carefully monitor the socio-cultural environment in order to

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Conclusion As it has been seen and said before, the world is becoming more and more globalize. People tend to have the same needs and wishes and that is why in some cases, companies may have the possibility to produce the same items and the same advertising campaigns for its international consumers. However, thanks to the analysis previously done, it has been realized that strong diff erences remain according to the cultures of the citizens. Companies must understand these diff erences, especially when they sell products that can be considering as chocking by the population. If they understand them and learn how consumers think according to their cultures, they will be able to produce good ways of communication and sell their products properly.

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References 

Shiff man and Kanuk Consumer Behavior( The pages are attached at the back)

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Wikipedia Research papers

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