Cultural and Social Environment

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Cultural and Social Environment

• Sarath A. Nonis

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What is Culture ?

• Culture is a set of traditional believes and
  values that are transmitted and shared in a given
  society
• It is also a total way of life and thinking
  patterns that are passed from generation to
  generation
• Means many things to many people since culture
  includes norms, values, customs, art, and more

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Why should we be studying culture in a marketing
class?

• Cultural orientation reflect the complex
  interaction of values, beliefs, attitudes, and
  behaviors. Since marketing involves the
  integration of how consumers behave, we need to
  learn about other cultures

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Some Definitions

• Values are general beliefs that either define
  what is right or wrong or general preferences in
  a given community.
• Belief is an organized pattern of knowledge that
  an individual holds to be true about the world.
• Attitude is a learned pre-disposition to act or
  react in a certain way .
• Behavior is a form of action.

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True or False?

• Culture describe most people in a society most of
  the time but not all people all the time.
• Accurate stereotypes refer to societal or
  cultural norms.
• What are cultural norms?
• Diversity exists both within and among cultures
  but within a single culture, certain behaviors
  are favored and others are not.

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Characteristics of Culture

• Prescriptive what should and what shouldnt be
  done is defined
• Socially shared these behaviors are shared by
  others in the culture. People act to reinforce
  cultures prescriptive nature
• Facilitate communication since individuals in a
  specific culture share common habits, thoughts,
  and feelings, it makes it easier for them to
  communicate. However, this can impede
  communications among different cultures.

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Characteristics of Culture Cont.

• Learned Socialization or enculturation is when a
  person absorb or learn the culture in which he or
  she is raised. Acculturation is learning about a
  culture he or she was not raised in.
• Subjective different people have different ideas
  about the same object.
• Enduring since culture is shared and passed
  along from generation to generation, it is
  relatively permanent.
• Cumulative adds as time passes. Some old ideas
  will be discarded too.
• Dynamic Change constantly

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Geert Hofsteds Cultural Typology

• Include three broad dimensions
• Expected Social Behavior (Individualistic or
  group Low or high power distance masculine or
  feminine).
• Mans search for truth (high or low uncertainty
  avoidance).
• Importance of time (short term or long term
  orientation).

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Geert Hofsteds Cultural Typology Cont.

• Individualism/Collectivism
• Individualism exists when people define
  themselves as individuals. It implies loosely
  knit social frameworks in which people are
  supposed to take care only of themselves and
  their immediate families.
• Collectivism is characterized by tight social
  frameworks in which people distinguish between
  their own groups (i.e., relatives, organizations)
  and other groups.

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Geert Hofsteds Cultural Typology Cont.

• Power Distance
• Measures the extent to which less powerful
  members of organizations accept the unequal
  distribution of power.

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Geert Hofsteds Cultural Typology Cont.

• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Measures the extent to which people in a society
  feel threatened by ambiguous situations and
  extent to which they try to avoid these
  situations by providing greater career stability,
  establish more formal rules, reject deviant ideas
  and behavior, and accepting the possibility of
  absolute truths and the attainment of expertise.

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Geert Hofsteds Cultural Typology Cont.

• Masculinity/Femininity
• Masculinity measure the extent to which the
  dominant values in society emphasizes
  assertiveness and acquisition of money things
  while not particularly emphasizing concern for
  people. Femininity is the extent to which
  dominant values in society emphasizes
  relationships among people, concern for others,
  and the overall quality of life.

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Influence of Culture on Consumption
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Influence of Culture on Thinking Process

• Self Reference Criterion (SRC)
• The unconscious reference to ones values,
  experiences, and knowledge as a basis for
  decisions. The SRC impedes the ability to assess
  a foreign market in its true light.

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Influence of Culture on the Communications Process

• Cross-Cultural Communications Process
• Cross-cultural communications is when a person
  from one culture sends a message to a person from
  another culture
• Cross-cultural communication continually involves
  misunderstanding caused by
• Cross-cultural ? Cross-cultural
  ? Cross-cultural Misperception Misinterpretation M
  isevaluation
• (SELECT) (ORGANIZE) (EVALUATE)
• Transmitting information accurately when cultural
  differences are present is very low

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Communications Process Cont.

• Cross-cultural Misperception
• The stage in which each individual select stimuli
  from the external environment
• Selective, learned, inaccurate, and culturally
  determined

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Communications Process Cont.

• Cross-cultural Interpretation
• The stage in which an individual organize the
  observation in a meaningful way to guide behavior
  (attempts to give meaning to the observation and
  their relationships).
• e.g., smoke --------? fire
• cloudy --------? rain
• Individuals CATEGORIZE to simplify their
  environments
• STEREOTYPING is due to the natural process of
  categorizing

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Communications Process Cont.

• Cross-cultural Evaluation
• The stage in which each individual evaluate
  whether something is good or bad, favorable or
  unfavorable, guilty or not guilty, right or wrong
  etc.

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Influence of Culture of Verbal Communications
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Influence of Culture on Non-Verbal Communication

• Language of time
• Language of space
• Language of things
• Language of agreement
• Language of friendship
• Language of negotiations
• Language of religion
• Language of superstition
• Language of color
• Language of gifts

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Influence of Context on the Communications
Process

• Context of a culture can either be high or low
  in terms of background information
• Low Context Cultures
• Actual words are used to convey the main point
• Messages are explicit and clear
• What is said is more important than how it was
  said or the background information
• Pushy/ impatient/ wants to get into business
  quickly/ position of the person not important
  Everything on paper
• M/Time Orientation

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Influence of Context on the Communications
Process Cont.

• High Context Cultures
• Actual words may not carry most of the important
  information
• Messages are indirect (not clear or implicit)
• Manner in which the message is delivered
  (background information) is critical
• Gets to business slow/ position of the person not
  important/ mostly verbal (not much is on paper)
• P/Time Orientation

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Influence of Culture on Time Orientation

• Monochronic Time (M/Time)
• Time is divided into small units and is used in
  a linear way. After one project is done, move to
  the other
• Polychronic Time (P/Time)
• Completion of human transaction is emphasized
  more than holding to schedules. People work on
  several fronts simultaneously. Greater
  involvement with people.

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Culture and Other Topics

• Diffusion Theory
• Marketing Implications of Social and Cultural
  Environment
• Cross-cultural Complications and Suggested
  Solutions
• Training in Cross-cultural Competency
• Cross-Border Negotiations