Cultural Influences on Consumer Behavior

Chapter 16

Understanding Culture
Culture = societys personality
The accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions among members Discussion: If your culture were a person, how would you describe its personality traits?

Culture is the lens through which we view products

Culture shock Ones culture determines product priorities and mandates a products success/failure
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Understanding Culture (Contd)

Products can reflect underlying cultural processes of a particular period:
The TV dinner Cosmetics made of natural materials without animal testing Pastel carrying cases for condoms

Cultural system function areas:

Ecology Social structure Ideology
Worldview and ethos
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Understanding Culture (Contd)

Dimensions of cultural variability
Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity/femininity Individualism vs. collectivism

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Understanding Culture (Contd)

Norms
Enacted norms Crescive norms
Custom More Conventions

All three crescive norms combine to define a culturally appropriate behavior

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Discussion
When you go out on a first date, identify the set of crescive norms that are operating
Describe specific behaviors each person performs that make it clear he or she is on a first date What products and services are affected by these norms?

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Myths and Rituals

Every culture develops stories/practices that help its members to make sense of the world
Other cultures myths/rituals can seem bizarre
Magical products and interest in occult tend to be popular when members of a society feel overwhelmed and powerless

LUCKYSURF.COM
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Myths
A story containing symbolic elements that represent the shared emotions/ideals of a culture
Conflict between opposing forces Outcome serves as moral guide for people Reduces anxiety

Little Red Riding Hood

Cannibalism, incest, and promiscuity
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Myths (Contd)
Marketers often pattern messages along a mythic structure
McDonalds golden arches, Ronald McDonald vs. the Hamburglar, and Hamburger University

Myths/legends of corporations
Nike: corporate storytellers

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Functions and Structure of Myths

Four functions of myths
Metaphysical Cosmological Sociological Psychological

Underlying structure of myths

Binary opposition Mediating figure
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Myths Abound in Modern Popular Culture

Myths are often found in comic books, movies, holidays, and commercials
Consumer fairy tales Monomyths: Spiderman and Superman Many movies/commercials present characters and plot structures that follow mythic patterns
Gone With the Wind E.T.: The Extraterrestrial Star Trek La Llorona
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Rituals
Sets of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that tend to be repeated periodically Many consumer activities are ritualistic
Trips to Starbucks Pulling the perfect pint of Guinness

College campus rituals Tailgating at college/pro football games

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Table 16.1 (Abridged): Types of Ritual Experience

Primary Behavior Source Ritual Type Cosmology Cultural Values Group Learning Religious Rites of passage Cultural Civic Group Family Individual aims and emotions Personal Examples Baptism, meditation Graduation, holidays, Super Bowl Parades, elections Fraternity initiation, office luncheons Mealtimes, bedtimes, Christmas Grooming, household rituals
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Rituals (Contd)
Many businesses supply ritual artifacts to consumers
Wedding rice, birthday candles, diplomas, etc. Online gift registries

Consumers often employ a ritual script

Identifies artifacts as well as the sequence in which they are used and who uses them
Graduation programs, etiquette books
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Grooming Rituals
Virtually all consumers have private grooming rituals
Sequences of behaviors that aid transition from private to public self (or back again) Inspires confidence, cleanses body of dirt Before-and-after phenomenon

Private/public and work/leisure personal rituals

Beauty rituals reflect transformation from natural state to social world or vice versa

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Gift-Giving Rituals
Consumers procure the perfect object, meticulously remove price tag, carefully wrap it, then deliver it to recipient
Store-bought objects, homemade items, or services

Gift giving as form of:

Economic exchange Symbolic exchange Social expression
Exchange-oriented in early relationship stages, then altruistic as relationship develops Third-party influence on gift giving

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Gift-Giving Rituals (Contd)

Every culture prescribes certain occasions and ceremonies for giving gifts Business gifts = define/maintain professional relationships, improve employee morale, and result in higher sales Stages of gift-giving ritual
Gestation
Structural vs. emergent motivational event

Presentation Reformulation
Appropriateness of gift and reciprocity norm
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Gift-Giving Rituals (Contd)

Japanese gift-giving rituals
Symbolic meaning of gift: duty to others in social group Giri: giving is moral imperative Kosai: reciprocal gift-giving obligations to relatives/friends

Self-gifts
Socially acceptable way to reward ourselves Discussion: Have you ever given yourself a gift?
If so, why did you do it and how did you decide what to get?
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Holiday Rituals
Most holidays are based on a myth with a character at center of story
Consumers perform ritualistic behaviors unique to those occasions to appeal to their deep-seated needs Ritual artifacts and scripts

Marketers find ways to encourage gift giving Businesses invent new occasions to capitalize on need for cards/ritual artifacts
Secretaries Day and Grandparents Day

Retailers elevate minor holidays to major ones to provide merchandising opportunities

Cinco de Mayo
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Christmas
Myths/rituals: Santas adventures and mistletoe Began as a publicly rowdy celebration Santa = champion of materialism
Appears in stores and shopping malls Socializes children to expect a reward when they are good (we get what we deserve)

Discussion: Christmas has become just another opportunity to exchange gifts and stimulate the economy. Do you agree? Why or why not?
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Halloween
Its rituals are unusual
Primarily involves nonfamily members Celebrates evil and death Encourages threats of tricks for treats

Antifestival: distorts symbols associated with other holidays

Witch = inverted mother figure; resurrection of ghosts; evil jack-o-lantern We act out uncharacteristic behaviors and try on new roles

Second most popular party night for adults

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Rites of Passage
Special times marked by a change in social status
Every society sets aside times at which such changes occur
Puberty, death, divorce, dating, bar/bat mitzvah

Three phases:
Separation Liminality Aggregation

Practices vary across cultures but are rich in symbolic value

Funeral rituals negotiate social identities of deceased through expression of material/symbolic wealth
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Discussion
Describe the three stages of the rite of passage associated with graduating from college Fraternity hazing is just a natural rite of passage that should not be prohibited by universities. Do you agree?

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Sacred and Profane Consumption

Sacred (set apart objects/events) vs. profane consumption (ordinary) Domains of sacred consumption
Sacred places: religious/mystical and country heritage
Contamination Theme parks Home as a particularly sacred place Discussion: For many Disney is a sacred place. Do you agree? Why or why not?
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Sacred and Profane Consumption (Contd)

Domains of sacred consumption (contd)
Sacred people
Celebrity autograph

Sacred events
Public events Sports Tourism (at home vs. away)

Souvenirs
Local products, pictorial images, piece of the rock, literal representations of the site, markers

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Desacralization
When a sacred item/symbol is removed from its special place or is duplicated in mass quantities (becomes profane)
Souvenir reproductions

Religion has somewhat become desacralized

Fashion jewelry Christmas and Ramadan as secular, materialistic occasions
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Sacralization
When ordinary objects, events, and people take on sacred meaning
Super Bowl, Elvis Presley, Dallas Cowboys

Objectification through contamination and collections

Ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and phaser from Star Trek Collecting vs. hoarding
Collecting as a socially acceptable form of worship, as an aesthetic experience, and as extension of self
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