Culture and Cb

Report 1 – Culture and Consumer Behavior

Table of contents
1.1 Cover Page ……………………………………………………………………….......……1
1.2 Table of contents ……………………………………………………………..……………2
1.3 Executive Summary ………………………………………………………………………..3
2.0 Culture and CB
2.1 Definitions of culture and consumer behavior………………………………….…………..4
2.2 Discussion of the relationship between culture and CB…………………………………….4
2.3 Examples of the relationship between culture and CB……………………..………………6
3.0 The “Big Three” and CB
3.1 Definitions of the “Big Three” American subcultures…………………………………..….6
3.2 CB differences among the “Big Three” subcultures………………………………..………7
4.1 References…………………………………………………………………………….…….9
5.1 Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………11

Executive Summary For the requirement of the MKTG6371 course, spring 2013, first, the report provides the definitions of cultures and consumer behavior in general. The report also presents the strong relationship between culture and consumer behavior. Besides, it provides some illustrating examples to prove the points. Second, the report defines the “Big Tree” in the US as well as their similarities and differences. Moreover, using the understandings on those, the report explains the consumer behavior differences among the “Big Three” subcultures.

Culture and Consumer Behavior
Definitions of culture and consumer behavior
Culture – (Solomon, 2011) (1) A society‘s personality. It includes both abstract ideas such as values and ethics, and material objects and services, such as the automobiles, clothing, food, art and sports a society produces; (2) A accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions among the members of an organization or society, (3) A lenses through which people view products
Consumer Behavior – (1) According to Kuester (2012), consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society (p. 110); (2) The term consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumer display in searching for, purchasing using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption-related items that includes what they buy, why they buy, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluations on future purchases, and how they dispose of it.
Discussion of the relationship between culture and Consumer Behavior
The effects of culture on Consumer Behavior are so powerful. The ‘culture shock’ is when people encounter a difference in a new culture.
The relationship between relationship and consumer behavior is a two-way street – consumers are more likely to embrace products and services that resonate with a culture ‘s priorities at any given time/ it ‘s worthwhile to understand which products to get accepted because this knowledge provides a window into the dominant cultural ideals of that period. Enacted norms – rule that a green traffic light means ‘go’ and a red one means ‘stop’. Crescive norms include custom, more (‘mor-ay’), and conventions. Three of them completely define a culturally appropriate behavior.
According to Kacen and Lee (2002), cultural differences show up in all kinds of daily activities
The relationship between trait buying impulsiveness and impulsive buying behavior will be stronger among people from individualist cultures compared to people from collectivist cultures. The emotional factors of pleasure and arousal that characterize impulsive buying behavior will also be more positively related to impulsive buying behavior among individualists than among collectivists. People in collectivist cultures learn at an earlier age to control their emotions and behavior. Compared to Caucasians, Asians engage in less impulse buying behavior due to trait buying impulsiveness. In addition, independence—an individual level measure of cultural influence—was not shown to impact Asians’ impulsive buying behavior, although it did contribute to impulsive buying among Caucasians. For Caucasians, the more independent their self-concept, the more impulsive buying behavior they are likely to engage in.
In 2000 Coca-Cola decided to get closer to local markets because of declining profitability. Coca- Cola’s local managers and bottlers now have more leeway to set pricing, tailor advertising campaigns, and even introduce new brands (Foust, Rocks, and Kripalani, 2000, p. 33). Coca-Cola’s marketing chief stated that the firm’s “big successes have come from markets where we read the consumer psyche every day and adjust the marketing model every day” (Byrnes, 2000, p. 126).
Effectiveness in marketing means adapting to cultural values. In particular, Hofstede’s (2001) five dimensions of national culture relate to country differences in motives for buying products and services, the degree of dependence on brands, adoption of new technology, and media use.
For example, culture has been shown to influence the volume of mineral water and soft drinks consumed, preferences for new or used cars, ownership of insurance products, possession of private gardens, readership of newspapers and books, television viewing, ownership of consumer electronics, use of the Internet, use of cosmetics, deodorants, toothpaste and hair care products, and consumption of fresh fruit, ice cream and frozen food as well as numerous other products and services (Mooij, 2000, 2001).
For example, in collectivist cultures in Europe, people allocate a higher percentage of consumption expenditures to food than do people in individualist cultures, perhaps because food has an important social function in collectivist cultures.
In supermarkets, the variation and display of food needs more attention in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures, where people are more focused on convenience and fast food.
Batra and Sinha (2000) described how some consumer characteristics are likely to influence propensity to purchase private label brands (p. 177).
The research suggested that people in collectivist cultures are more likely to prefer national or global brands to private label brands. There are two reasons for preferring national or global brands to private label brands in collectivist cultures. First, national or global brands are used to demonstrate one’s status or “rightful place” in society. Status needs are related to power distance that in many cases is in turn related to collectivism. Second, the need for harmony makes people more brand-loyal. Long-term orientation adds to this because it includes a preference for long-term relationships between customers and national or global brands.
The relationship between uncertainty avoidance and the need for being well groomed was confirmed by the significant correlation between uncertainty avoidance and the percentage of consumption expenditures spent on clothing and footwear or furniture.
This relationship may be why IKEA, selling no-nonsense cheap furniture, originated in the weak uncertainty avoidance Swedish culture, whereas solid design furniture, such as that by Rolf Benz, originated in strong uncertainty avoidance cultures like Germany and Italy (Mooij and Hofstede, 2002)
Examples of the relationship between culture and Consumer Behavior
One popular Japanese I-mode service is downloading cartoon characters, which is consistent and compatible with the popularity of cartoons in Japan. Such a service is not expected to be popular in Europe (Mooij & Hofstede).
The relationship between uncertainty avoidance and the need for being well groomed was confirmed by the significant correlation between uncertainty avoidance and the percentage of consumption expenditures spent on clothing and footwear or furniture. This relationship may be why IKEA, selling no-nonsense cheap furniture, originated in the weak uncertainty avoidance Swedish culture, whereas solid design furniture, such as that by Rolf Benz, originated in strong uncertainty avoidance cultures like Germany and Italy (Mooij & Hofstede).
The “Big Three” and CB
Definitions of the “Big Three” American subcultures (Solomon, 2011) • African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans accounts for much of America‘s current growth. • African – homogenous, same w Caucasian on spending – 2/3 on house, transportation, food • Hispanic – the biggest number. This group is including many different backgrounds – Mexicans (60%), Puerto Ricans (

References: Batra and Sinha (2000) described how some consumer characteristics are likely to influence propensity to purchase private label brands (p. 177). The “Big Three” and CB Definitions of the “Big Three” American subcultures (Solomon, 2011)