Consumer Behaviour 2nd Edition Supplementary Material

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Culture and consumer behaviour
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Importance of culture in consumer behaviour
Culture can be viewed as the collective memory
of a society (shared meanings, rituals, norms and
traditions among members). Consumption choices
cannot be understood without considering the
cultural context in which they are
made. Culture forms the prism through which
people view products and try to make sense of
their own and other peoples behaviour.
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Culture as an interpretation system
Makes sense of signifying practices that surround
the subject Culture is not obvious to the subject
just as water for the goldfish is not missed
until its not there Problem of culture shock and
cultural expectaions
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Co-optation

• Cultural products as symbols can be transferred
  to transfer to new audiences
• Guinnness is a symbol of Irishness world wide but
  has lost its class aspect
• Some not transferred. ie the British chip

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Culture and the Economy

• Was thought that culture was a variable that
  explained way economic economies operated
• Causation the other way round, Culture creates
  the economic structure

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Consumer behaviour and culture

• A consumers culture determines
• the overall priorities she/he attaches to
  different activities and products.
• the success or failure of specific products and
  services.
• In fact products are both the result of and
  reflect underlying cultural processes
• Process is bidirectional products fit a culture
  and makes that culture

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Aspects of culture

• A cultural system consists of three functional
  areas.
• Ecology the way the system is adapted to its
  habitat by the technology used to obtain and
  distribute resources.
• Social structure they way orderly social life
  is maintained including domestic and political
  groups.
• Ideology the mental characteristics of the
  people and the way they relate to their
  environment.

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Dimensions of Culture

• Geert Hofstede Cultures Consequences
• Culture as value system
• Four Dimensions
• Can compare all culture across these dimensions

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Different cultures as Value Systems

• Collectivist cultures where people subordinate
  their personal goals to those of a stable
  in-group.
• Individualist cultures where importance is
  attached to personal goals and where people are
  more likely to change memberships when the
  demands of the group become too costly.

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• Power Relationships
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Masculinity v Feminity

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Principles for an ethnoconsumeristapproach to
consumption
Figure 14.3  Source Laurie Meamber and Alladi
Venkatesh, Ethnoconsumerist Methodology for
Cultural and Cross-Cultural Consumer Research,
in R. Elliott and S. Beckmann, eds, Interpretive
Consumer Research (Copenhagen Copenhagen Business
School Press, 2000) 87108.
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Crescive norms
Crescive norms are embedded into a culture and
are only discovered through interaction with
other members of that culture. These norms can
include

• customs norms handed down from the past that
  control behaviours.
• mores customs with strong moral overtones.
• conventions norms regarding the conduct of
  everyday life. These deal with the subtleties of
  consumer behaviour.

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Myths
Myths are stories containing symbolic elements
that express the shared emotions and ideals of a
culture. Many myths involve some binary
opposition, where values are defined in terms of
what they are and what they are not, e.g. nature
versus technology. Modern myths are transmitted
through advertising, films and other media.
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Functions and structure of myths

• Myths serve four interrelated functions in a
  culture.
• Metaphysical they help to explain the origins
  of existence.
• Cosmological they emphasise that all components
  of the universe are part of a single picture.
• Sociological they maintain social order by
  authorising a social code to be followed by
  members of a culture.
• Psychological they provide models for personal
  conduct.

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Rituals
A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic
behaviours, which occur in a fixed sequence and
tend to be repeated periodically. Rituals are
related to many consumption activities, which
occur in popular culture, e.g. holiday
observances, gift giving and grooming.
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Rites of passage
A rite of passage is a special kind of ritual,
which involves a transition from one role to
another. These passages typically entail the
need to acquire products and services called
ritual artefacts, to facilitate the
transition. Modern rites of passage include
graduations, initiation ceremonies and weddings,
and funerals.
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Sacred and profane domains
Consumer activities can be divided into sacred
and profane domains. Sacred domains are set
apart from everyday activities or products.
People, events or objects can become sacralised
taking on sacred meaning to a culture.
Desacralisation occurs when objects that
previously were sacred become commercialised and
integrated into popular culture.