Cultural Change Processes

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Cultural Change Processes

• Cultural Change
• Cultural Production Systems
• High and Low Culture
• Diffusion of Innovation
• The Fashion System
• Fashion or Fad

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Cultural selection
The selection of certain alternatives over
others is the culmination of a complex filtration
process. Many possibilities initially compete
for adoption, and these are narrowed down as they
progress down from conception to consumption.
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Cultural production systems (CPS)?
The styles prevalent in a culture at any point
of time often reflect underlying political and
social conditions. The set of agents
(individuals and organisations) responsible for
creating stylistic alternatives is termed
cultural production system. The nature of these
systems helps to determine the types of product
that eventually emerge from them.
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The culture production process (1 of 3)?
Figure 15.1  Source Adapted from Michael R.
Solomon, Building Up and Breaking Down The
Impact of Cultural Sorting on Symbolic Consumption
, in J. Sheth and E.C. Hirschman, eds, Research
in Consumer Behavior (Greenwich, CT JAI Press,
1988) 32551.
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Components of a CPS

• A culture production system has three major
  subsystems.
• Creative subsystem responsible for generating
  new symbols and/or products.
• Management subsystem responsible for selecting,
  making tangible, mass producing and managing the
  distribution of new symbols and/or products.
• Communications sub system responsible for
  giving meaning to new products and providing
  these with a symbolic set of attributes that are
  communicated to consumers.

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Agents in a CPS
Many different agents can work together to
create a popular culture. The different members
of a CPS many not necessarily be aware of the
roles played by other members. Each member does
its best to anticipate what particular images
will be most attractive to consumers.
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The culture production process (2 of 3)?
Figure 15.1 Continued  Source Adapted from
Michael R. Solomon, Building Up and Breaking
Down The Impact of Cultural Sorting on
Symbolic Consumption, in J. Sheth and E.C.
Hirschman, eds, Research in Consumer Behavior
(Greenwich, CT JAI Press, 1988) 32551.
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Cultural gatekeepers
Cultural gatekeepers are the individuals
responsible for determining the types of messages
and symbolism that members of the mass culture
are exposed to.
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The culture production process (3 of 3)?
Figure 15.1 Continued  Source Adapted from
Michael R. Solomon, Building Up and Breaking
Down The Impact of Cultural Sorting on
Symbolic Consumption, in J. Sheth and E.C.
Hirschman, eds, Research in Consumer Behavior
(Greenwich, CT JAI Press, 1988) 32551.
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High and popular culture

• Culture is often described in terms of high
  (elite) and popular (low) forms.
• The distinction between high and popular culture
  are blurring.
• High culture has tended to be class biased.
• Popular culture reflects the world around us
  these phenomena touch both rich and poor.
• Products of popular culture tend to follow a
  cultural formula and contain predictable elements.

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Example of a Cultural Formula

• The Classic Western
• Time 1800s
• LocationEdge of civilisation
• Protagonist Lone individual (cowboy)?
• Heroine School mistress
• Villain Outlaws , killers
• Secondary characters Townsfolk, Indians
• Plot Restore law and justice
• Theme Justice
• Costume Cowboy hat, boots
• LocomotionHorse
• Weaponary sixgun , rifle

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Reality engineering
Reality engineering is the process where
elements of popular culture are appropriated by
marketers and become integrated into marketing
strategies. Elements of popular culture can
include sensory and spatial aspects of our every
day existence, for example products appearing in
films and advertising hoardings, etc. As
commercial influences on popular culture increase
marketer centred symbols make their way into
our daily lives more and more.
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Reality engineering and product placement
Reality engineering is accelerating due to the
current popularity of product placements by
marketers. These plugs (brands prominently
displayed or seen in films, etc.) have been
carefully inserted to get brands and products
noticed. Have product placements got out of
hand? some shows are now created not with
entertainment in mind but with marketing as the
priority.
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Media images their impact
Media images greatly influence consumers
perspectives of reality. Cultivation
hypothesis has shown that people who watch a lot
of television tend to overestimate the degree of
affluence and violence. This is due to the way
the television media has shaped consumers
perception of reality.
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Diffusion of innovation
Innovation any product or service that is
perceived to be new by consumers. Diffusion of
innovation the process where a new
product/service or idea is accepted and spreads
through the population. Consumers decision to
accept and adopt something new depends on their
personal characteristics and the characteristics
of the new item.
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The major types of innovation

• Continuous innovation a modification of an
  existing product, which can set one brand apart
  from others.
• Dynamically continuous innovation a more
  pronounced change in a product, which has modest
  impact on the way people do things.
• Discontinuous innovation creating major changes
  in the way consumers conduct their lives.

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Diffusion of innovation
Products sometimes stand a better chance of being
adopted if

• they demand relatively little change in behaviour
  from consumers.
• they are compatible with current practices.
• they can be tested prior to purchase.
• they are not too complex.
• they provide a relative advantage against other
  products.
• Observability will increase awareness of
  innovation

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Categorising consumers adoption of
new products
Figure 15.2 
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Innovators V Early Adopters

• Innovators are concerned for product for its own
  sake
• Early adopters concerned with social
• Acceptance
• Involvement in product not just adoption
• Affects decision style

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Decision styles (1 of 4)?
Table 15.4   Source Gordon R. Foxall and Seema
Bhate, Cognitive style and personal involvement
as explicators of innovative purchasing of health
food brands, European Journal of Marketing
27(2)(1993) 516. Used with permission.
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Decision styles (2 of 4)?
Table 15.4 Continued  Source Gordon R. Foxall
and Seema Bhate, Cognitive style and personal
involvement as explicators of innovative
purchasing of health food brands, European
Journal of Marketing 27(2)(1993) 516. Used with
permission.
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Decision styles (3 of 4)?
Table 15.4 Continued  Source Gordon R. Foxall
and Seema Bhate, Cognitive style and personal
involvement as explicators of innovative
purchasing of health food brands, European
Journal of Marketing 27(2)(1993) 516. Used with
permission.
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Decision styles (4 of 4)?
Table 15.4 Continued  Source Gordon R. Foxall
and Seema Bhate, Cognitive style and personal
involvement as explicators of innovative
purchasing of health food brands, European
Journal of Marketing 27(2)(1993) 516. Used with
permission.
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Fashion systems
A fashion system consists of all those people
and organisations who are involved in creating
symbolic meanings and transferring these meanings
to cultural goods. Fashion processes affect all
types of cultural phenomena not just clothing.
Even business processes are subject to the
fashion process as they change and adapt
depending on the management thinking that is
currently in fashion.
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Fashion as a code

• Fashion can be seen as a code or language
• Its interpretation depends on the context
• Fashion products can be undercoded that is it
  leaves room for interpretation

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Differences in fashion

• Fashion the process of social diffusion by
  which a new style is adopted by consumers.
• A fashion a particular combination of
  attributes.
• In fashion where the combination of attributes
  has been positively evaluated and adopted by a
  group(s) of consumers.

Fashions tend to follow cycles that resemble the
product life cycle.
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Fashion cycles
Figure 15.3   Source Susan Kaiser, The Social
Psychology of Clothing (New York Macmillan,
1985). Reprinted with permission.
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Cultural selection

• Process by which certain symbolic alternatives
  are chosen over others
• Members of managerial and communication sub
  systems develop a common frame of mind
• Collective Selection

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Fashion as a complex process

• Why is fashion important
• Conformity
• Variety seeking
• Person creativity
• Sexual attraction

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Theories on Fashion

• Shifting erogenous zones
• Economic supply and demand and the idea of
  conspicuous consumption
• Trickle down with subordinate groups climbing
  social ladder and superordinate trying to keep
  ahead
• Trickle up with working class or deprived urban
  styles being adopted

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Cycles of Fashion

• Different cycles affected by whether fashion
  utilitarian, adopted on impulse, rapidly diffused
• May be only a fad not a fashion

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Meme Theory

• Sudden bursts in diffusion. Why?
• Meme is idea or product enters consciousness over
  time
• Spreads geometrically until it reaches a critical
  mass
• Then progresses exponentially like a virus

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References

• Ch 15 Consumer BehaviourA European Perspective by
  M Solomon et al
• Ch 15 Consumer Behaviour A European perspective
  byG Antonides and W van Raaij