Culture

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Culture
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Sociological Influences on Consumer Decision
Making

• People are sensitive to the values, behaviors and
  beliefs of the people around them.
• Culture is considered to have a more subtle and
  more pervasive influence on consumer decision
  making than any other Circle of Social
  Influence.

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Culture

• What is culture?
• a set of traditional beliefs and values that are
  transmitted and shared in a given society
• Cultural prescribes the kinds of behavior
  considered acceptable in a society
• Culture provides a useful function by
  facilitating communication among those within a
  culture

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Nature of Culture - Components

• Norms rules that designate forms of acceptable
  and unacceptable behavior
• Customs behaviors that last over time and are
  passed down in the family setting
• Mores moral standards of behavior
• Conventions practices tied to the conduct of
  everyday life in various settings

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Components of Culture (continued)

• Sanctions taking negative actions against
  members of a culture who do not conform to the
  norms, customs, mores or conventions of the
  society.

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Culture Is . . .

• Shared
• culture is based on social interaction
• Learned
• culture is not genetically acquired as such it
  is possible for people to absorb new cultures and
  cultural trends
• Subjective
• people in different cultures have different ideas
  about the same object
• Enduring
• culture is shared and passed from generation to
  generation
• Dynamic
• culture gradually changes from one generation to
  the next

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Effect of Culture on Consumption and Marketing

• Cultural places restrictions on consuming certain
  goods
• Pork, chicken, beef, sushi, alcohol, locusts,
  etc.
• Products people buy, the attributes they value,
  and the options they accept, are all
  culture-based choices

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Effect of Culture on Thinking Process

• Self-Reference Criterion (SRC)
• refers to phenomenon of making reference, perhaps
  subconsciously, back to personal cultural values
• Examples
• A researcher or marketing manager must attempt to
  eliminate the SRC effect problems should be
  defined in terms of the culture of the host
  country

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Effect of Culture on Communication Process

• A classification to provide an understanding of
  cultural orientations and explain how
  communication is conveyed and perceived
• Low-context culture messages are explicit and
  clear in the sense that actual words are used to
  convey the main part of information in
  communication words can be separated from
  context in which they occur
• High-context culture communication is indirect
  verbal part does not carry most of the
  information context of communication is high
  because it contains a good deal of information
• Need to realize whether youre dealing with high
  or low context culture to effectively
  communication advertisement

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Effect of Culture on Communication Process

• Low Context Cultures
• Tends to prefer direct verbal interaction
• Tends to understand meaning at one level only
• Is generally less proficient in reading
  non-verbal cues
• Values individualism
• Relies more on logic
• Employs linear logic
• Says no directly
• Communicates in highly structured messages,
  stresses literal meanings, gives authority to
  written info
• High Context Cultures
• Tends to prefer indirect verbal interaction
• Tends to understand meanings embedded at many
  socio-cultural levels
• Is generally more proficient in reading nonverbal
  cues
• Values group membership
• Relies more on context and feeling
• Employs spiral logic
• Talks around point, avoids saying no
• Communicates in simple, ambiguous, non-contexted
  messages understands visual messages readily

Low High Context Context Culture Ge
rman, North American, French, Spanish, Mexican,
Arab, Chinese, Japanese Culture
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Effect of Culture on Communication Process

• There are also differences in the manner by which
  information processing occurs
• Monochronic culture handles information in a
  direct linear fashion sense that time forms a
  straight line
• Polychronic culture handles information on
  several fronts simultaneously instead of pursing
  a single task

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Effect of Culture on Communication Process

• Example
• Germany is a monochronic/low context culture
• France is a polychronic/high context culture
• Thus, a German might insult a French counterpart
  by giving too much information about what is
  already known. Or a German might become upset
  that they dont get enough details from a French
  individual.

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Communication Faux-pas

• GM fiasco in Central South America
• In Spanish, No va means It Doesnt Go
• The Dairy Assoc. huge success with the campaign
  Got Milk? prompted them to expand advertising
  to Mexico.
• They soon found out that the Spanish translation
  reads Are you lactating?

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Communication Faux-pas

• Coors put its slogan, Turn It Loose, into
  Spanish, where it was read as Suffer from
  Diarrhea.
• Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used
  the following in an American campaign Nothing
  Sucks Like an Electrolux.

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Communication Faux-pas

• Clairol introduced the Mist Stick, a curling
  iron, into Germany only to find out that Mist
  is slang for manure.
• Not too many people had use for the Manure
  Stick.
• Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called
  Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

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Communication Faux-pas

• When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa,
  they used the same packaging as in the U.S.with
  the smiling baby on the label.
• Later they learned that in Africa companies
  routinely put pictures of whats inside on the
  labels since many people cant read.

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Communication Faux-pas

• Pepsis Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation
  translates in Chinese into Pepsi Brings Your
  Ancestors Back from the Grave.
• Frank Perdues chicken slogan, It takes a strong
  man to make a tender chicken was translated in
  Spanish as It takes an aroused man to make a
  chicken affectionate.

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Other Communication IssuesLanguage of . . .

• Time
• Space
• Agreement
• Friendship
• Negotiation
• Religion
• Superstition
• Gifts

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Consumer Behavior

• What cultural factors drive consumer behavior?
• Hofstede came up with five dimensions to describe
  national social values
• Complete survey

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Individualism/Collectivism
• Masculinity/Femininity
• Time Orientation

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

• Power Distance (PD)
• High power distance means people accept
  inequality in power among institutions,
  organizations, and people high PD cultures
  usually have centralized, top-down control low
  PD cultures imply greater equality and
  empowerment
• Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)
• High uncertainty avoidance means that members of
  a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and
  ambiguity high UA cultures have strong
  traditions and rituals and tend toward
  bureaucratic structures and rules

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

• Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Individualism - reflects a value for a loosely
  knit social framework in which individuals are
  expected to take care of themselves individual
  rights are more important than group rights
• Collectivism - is a preference for a tightly knit
  social framework in which individuals look after
  one another group rights are important tend to
  find in cultures with strong family values

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

• Masculinity versus Femininity
• Masculinity - cultures stress the importance of
  achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material
  success toughness and achievement are valued
• Femininity - cultures value relationships,
  modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life
• Time Orientation
• Long-term patient willing to wait for results
  delays gratification to achieve long-term success
• Short-term impatient people expect rapid
  feedback from decisions, expect quick profits, etc

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

• Are these measures useful for anything?
• Collectivist cultures have 3x more accidents than
  individualistic cultures high PD cultures have
  about 2.5x more accidents than low PD cultures
• More individualistic and less UA cultures tend to
  be more innovative and entrepreneurial
• PD and individualism affects brand strategies
• use brand images that de-emphases social,
  symbolic, and sensory benefits of product in low
  PD countries
• high PD countries should focus on social and/or
  sensory needs of a product
• In individualistic cultures, brands should focus
  on functionality, verity, novelty, etc.
• In collectivist countries, social brand image
  strategies will be more appealing

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Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture
Source Zandpour et al. J. Advertising Research,
1994
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Cultural Values

• Personal values enduring beliefs that specific
  modes of conduct or end-states of existence are
  preferred to other specific modes of conduct or
  end-states.
• Instrumental values modes of conduct in order to
  obtain certain end-states
• Terminal values the end-states toward which a
  person is moving.

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Identifying Cultural Values

• Rokeach personal values scale
• Useful in identifying how culturally relevant
  instrumental and terminal values shape demand for
  goods and services
• See survey

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Cultural Dimensions and Values

• Data can be used to conduct cross-cultural
  analysis of consumer behavior
• determine relevant motivations in culture
• determine characteristic behavior patterns
• determine broad cultural values relevant to
  product
• determine characteristic forms of decision making
• evaluate promotion methods appropriate for
  culture
• determine appropriate institutions for the
  product in mind of consumers