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Consumer Behavior Chapter: 08 Text: 01/11,12,13

08A: Culture’s Influence on Consumer Behavior
Chapter Content: [Chapter 11 of text book 01]
▪ Culture’s role, dynamics, evolution, and impact on consumers’ priorities and behaviors.
▪ Language, symbols, and rituals as expressions of learned culture.
▪ How to measure the influence of culture on consumer behavior.
▪ Green marketing and ecologically responsible consumption.
08B: Sub-culture and Consumer Behavior
Chapter Content….: [Chapter 12 of text book 01]
▪ Understand the subcultures within the Culture and their relationships to culture
▪ Influence of nationality and ethnicity subcultures on consumer behavior.
▪ Impact of religious affiliations on consumer behavior
▪ Influence of regional characteristics on consumer behavior.
▪ Age and generational influences on consumer behavior.
▪ Influence of gender on consumer behavior
08C: Cross-cultural Analysis
Chapter Content….: [Chapter 13 of text book 01]
▪ Cross-Cultural Analysis and Acculturation
▪ Localization versus Standardization
▪ Cross-Cultural Segmentation

08A: Culture’s Influence on Consumer Behavior

Culture
Culture is the collective values, customs, norms, arts, social institutions, and intellectual achievements of a particular society.
Cultural values express the collective principles, standards, and priorities of a community. Most of the promotional messages
across the world reflect, to some degree, the target audiences’ cultural values.
Culture’s Role and Dynamics
We often refer to culture as an “invisible hand” that guides the actions of people of a particular society. When consumer
researchers ask people why they do certain things, they frequently answer, “Because it’s the right thing to do”—a response
reflecting the ingrained influence of culture on our behavior.
Some researchers conceptualized different “levels” of cultural norms:
1. The supranational level reflects the underlying dimensions of culture that affect multiple societies.
2. The national level reflects shared core values, customs, and personalities that represent the core of the “national
character” of a particular country.
3. The group level reflects the subdivisions of a country or society, such as subcultures, and the influences of various
reference groups.
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• Cultural Beliefs Reflect Consumers’ Needs
Culture expresses and satisfies the needs of societies. It offers order, direction, and guidance for problem solving by
providing “tried-and-true” methods of satisfying physiological, personal, and social needs.
• Culture provides standards of food consumption
• Culture also determines whether a product is a necessity or discretionary luxury.
• Culture also dictates which clothes are suitable for different occasions
Learning Cultural Values
Culture is learned by an individual from his/her society.
Cultural value, a belief or custom must be shared by a significant portion of the society, because culture is essentially a
series of norms that guide personal and group conduct and link individuals into a largely cohesive group.
We learn cultural norms and customs mostly from family and peers, and begin to understand at a very young age that some
behaviors are appropriate and others are not.
Anthropologists have identified three forms of cultural learning;
1. Formal learning takes place when parents, older siblings, and other family members teach younger members “how
to behave.”
2. Informal learning takes place when children imitate the behaviors of selected others, such as family, friends, or
TV and movie heroes and characters.
3. Technical learning happens when teachers instruct children, in educational environments, about what should be
done, how it should be done, and why it should be done, in social as well as personal settings.
• Enculturation and Acculturation
Anthropologists distinguish between the learning of one’s own (or native) culture and the learning of new cultures.
– Enculturation is learning one’s own culture.
– Acculturation is learning new or foreign cultures.
When selling products overseas, marketers must study the culture(s) of their potential customers so as to determine whether
their products will be acceptable and how to communicate the characteristics of their products effectively and persuade
consumers to buy them.
• Marketing Influences on Cultural Learning
The contents of media, advertising, and marketing reflect cultural values and convey them to all members of society very
effectively.
In advertisements, cultural values are not only depicted in the advertising copy, but are also coded in the visual imagery,
colors, movements, music, and other nonverbal elements of an advertisement.
• Language and Symbols
Cultural values are reflected in the languages, symbols, communications, and artifacts of a society. A symbol is anything
that represents something else, and symbols can be either verbal or nonverbal. Words are verbal symbols, so the text of any
ad is a composition of symbols. Nonverbal symbols, such as figures, colors, shapes, and even textures, are cultural cues that
appear within advertisements, trademarks, packaging, and product designs.
Prices and channels of distribution are symbols and reflect cultural meanings of products. For instance, the stores where
clothes are sold (and also the prices of the items) symbolize their quality. In fact, all the elements of the marketing mix—
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the product, its promotion, price, and the stores at which it is available—are symbols that communicate the item’s quality,
value, and image.
• Rituals
In addition to language and symbols, cultures include ritualized behaviors. A ritual is a type of symbolic activity consisting
of a series of steps occurring in a fixed sequence and repeated periodically.8 Rituals can be public, elaborate, or ceremonial
(e.g., weddings), or mundane routines (e.g., daily grooming).
Measuring Cultural Values
Culture reflects a society’s values, customs, and rituals, which in turn reflect how we live and communicate. The most
widely used measurements of cultural values are;
– Content analysis,
– Consumer field observation, and
– Value measurement instruments
1. Content Analysis
Content analysis, as the name implies, focuses on the content of societies’ verbal, written, and pictorial
communications, including promotional messages.
Among other concepts, content analysis can:
1. Identify the intentions, focus, or communication trends of an individual, group, or institution.
2. Describe attitudinal and behavioral responses to communications.
3. Determine the psychological or emotional state of persons or groups

2. Field Observation
When examining a specific society, anthropologists frequently study cultures through field observation, which
consists of observing the daily behavior of selected members of society. Based on their observations, researchers
draw conclusions about the values, beliefs, and customs of the society under investigation.
Field observation:
1. Takes place within a natural environment.
2. Generally, the subjects are not aware that they are being watched.
3. Focuses on observation of behavior.

3. Value Measurements
Anthropologists have traditionally observed the behavior of members of a specific society and inferred the
underlying values of the society from the behaviors observed. However, there are also structured,
self-administered questionnaires that measure individuals’ cultural values, such as;
• Rokeach Value Survey,
• Values and Lifestyles VALS measure, and
• Gordon’s survey of personal and interpersonal values.
• Rokeach Values Survey
The Rokeach Value Survey is a self-administered, two-part values inventory:
1. Eighteen terminal values that reflect goals and desirable states of existence and are defined as ends (e.g.,
happiness, pleasure, freedom, self-respect).
2. Eighteen instrumental values, defined as the means to achieve the ends (e.g., ambitious, honest, polite,
responsible).
Respondents are asked how important each value is to them as “a guiding principle” in their lives.
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• Gordon’s Surveys of Personal and Interpersonal Values
Gordon’s Survey of Personal and
Interpersonal Values measures values
that determine how people cope with
their daily lives.
There are two surveys—one for
personal values and one for
interpersonal value

Green Marketing
Green marketing is producing and promoting reusable and eco-friendly products. Over the past twenty years or so, virtually
all companies have adopted at least some environmentally friendly practices in response to the global awareness of climate
change and its potentially dire consequences for our planet and its inhabitants.
Most advertisers inform consumers that they use renewable, clean, and sustainable energy and recycled and non-polluting
materials. So Green marketing is now a significant part of culture that influence consumer behavior.

08B: Sub-culture and Consumer Behavior

Subculture
A subculture is a group that shares certain beliefs, values, and customs and exists within a larger society. A subculture can
stem from a person’s ethnicity, religion, geographic location, age, or gender.
As Bangladeshi, all of us share some common values, norms, rituals, and other cultural elements, at the same time we also
belong to some specific groups which are different from other groups in the same society such as religious groups, age
groups, regional groups etc.
Culture and Subcultures
A society’s cultural profile includes two elements:
1. The unique beliefs, values, and customs of specific
subcultures; and
2. The core cultural values and customs are shared by most of the
population, regardless of specific subcultural memberships.
Subcultures are based on sociocultural and demographic variables,
such as nationality, religion, geographic locality, ethnicity, age, and
gender.
When marketers single out a subculture, they must often modify the
product to better meet the needs of the targeted consumers and also change the marketing message to suit the subculture’s
values and tastes.
Types of Subcultures
– Nationality and Ethnicity Subcultures – Generational (Age) Subcultures
– Regional Subcultures – Gender Subcultures
– Religious Subcultures
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- Nationality and Ethnicity Subcultures
A country’s population may consist of people from different nationalities and ethnicity, especially in immigrant-accepting
countries like the USA, Canada, UK, etc. These ethnic and national groups hold their subculture which influences their
buying and consumption behavior. In USA, there are Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Arabian
Americans and so other sub groups exist.
- Regional Subcultures
Several studies examined the impact of consumers’ religion on their consumption related behavior. The members of all
these religious groups at times are make purchase decisions that are influenced by their religious identity. Commonly,
consumer behavior is directly affected by religion in terms of products that are symbolically and ritualistically associated
with the celebration of various religious holidays.
In Bangladesh EID and Durgapuja festivals are the major clothing, fashion, and food products purchasing seasons. In
Christian-majority countries, Christmas has become the major gift-purchasing season of the year.
The United States is a large country, one that includes a wide range of climatic and geographic conditions. Given the
country’s size and physical diversity, it is only natural that many Americans have a sense of “regional identification” when
comparing and describing themselves to others (e.g., “he is a true Southerner”). Anyone who has traveled across the
United States has probably noted many regional differences in consumption behavior, especially when it comes to food
and drink.
Regional subcultures also exist in many other countries, especially in large countries like India.
- Generational (Age) Subcultures
Each generation is a distinct subculture and market segment because its members have unique priorities and purchase
patterns.
There are five generational (age) subcultures:
– The older- born before 1946 – Generation Y- born in 1980-1996
– Baby Boomers- born in 1946-1965 – Generation Z- born after 1996
– Generation X- born in 1966-1979
- Gender Subcultures
One study has reported that men and women exhibit different reactions to identical print advertisements. Gender plays an
important role with respect to shopping motives. Female shoppers tend to be more prone to such shopping motives as
uniqueness and assortment seeking, social interaction, and browsing. Women are more loyal to local merchants than their
male counterparts. It is also important to note that women generally control a substantial portion of the a household’s
expenditures and the family’s spending.
08C: Cross-cultural Analysis
Within the scope of consumer behavior, cross-cultural analysis is defined as determining to what extent the consumers of
two or more nations are similar or different. Such analyses can provide marketers with an understanding of the
psychological, social, and cultural characteristics of the foreign market they wish to target so that they can design effective
marketing strategies for specific markets.
An understanding of the similarities and differences that exist between nations is critical to the multinational marketer
who must devise appropriate strategies to reach consumers in specific foreign markets. The greater the similarity between
nations, the more feasible it is to use relatively simi- lar marketing strategies in each nation. However, when the cultural
beliefs, values, and customs of specific target countries are found to differ widely, then a highly individualized marketing
strategy is indicated for each country.
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Measures of cross-cultural Aspects

There are several frameworks for assessing consumption-related cultural differences. One study identified the dimensions
that cross-cultural studies should address:
1. Judgments regarding the quality of a country’s products.
2. Willingness to buy a country’s products.
3. Ethnocentrism—willingness to buy foreign-made
4. Perceptions of a country’s consumption culture.
5. Acculturation—identification with a country’s culture.
6. Ethnic self-identification.
7. National self-identification.
Acculturation
Acculturation is the process by which marketers learn—via cross-cultural analysis—about the values, beliefs, and customs
of other cultures and then apply this knowledge to marketing products internationally.
In fact, acculturation is a dual learning process:
First, marketers must learn everything that is relevant to the product and product category in the society in which they plan
to market;
Then second; they must persuade, or “teach,” the members of that society to break with their traditional ways of doing
things and adopt the new product.
Localization versus Standardization
Global companies use standardization strategies if they found significant cross-cultural similarities among markets of
several countries, and also adapt to a local culture based on the differences found in cross-cultural analysis.
Companies follow localization because;
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– Product and Service customization needed to align with Local cultures
– Linguistic Barriers
– Promotional Appeals require to reflect local culture
– Legal Barriers
World Brands versus Local Brands
Marketers of products with a wide or almost mass-market appeal have also embraced a world branding strategy.
A 12-nation consumer research project found that global brands tend to be viewed differently than local brands and that
consumers worldwide associate global brands with three characteristics:
1. Quality Signal:
2. Global Myth:
3. Social Responsibility
Cross-cultural Segmentation
As the world became more integrated—largely because of shared communication media—a global marketplace has
emerged.
Some global market segments, such as teenagers, appear to want the same types of products, regardless of which nation
they call home: They desire products that are trendy, entertaining, and image-oriented. This global “sameness” allows, for
example, a sneaker marketer to launch styles appealing to segments in different countries using the same global advertising
campaign.
Global psychographic research often reveals cultural differences of great importance to marketers. For example, Roper
Starch Worldwide, a major multinational marketing research company, interviewed 35,000 consumers in 35 countries in
order to identify shared values, irrespective of national borders.
After completing the interviews in North and South America, Asia, and Europe, six global value groups were uncovered:
1. Strivers—ambitious and materialistic.
2. Devouts—responsible, respectful, and conservative.
3. Altruists—unselfish in their concern for others, society, and the future.
4. Intimates—focus on social relationships and family.
5. Fun Seekers—young in age and outlook, value adventure and good times.
6. Creatives—seek knowledge and insight, and have a keen interest in books and new media.