Culture and consumer markets What is culture? Shared beliefs, values, behaviour Uniting a group and...

Culture and consumer markets

What is culture?

• Shared beliefs, values, behaviour• Uniting a group and distinguishing it from

others• formed through geography, history, language,

race, religion, economics• expressed in arts and sports, social,

educational, legal and political systems• Learnt, not inherited. Developing or dying

Assessing the cultural environment

• Identify the observable factors– on stage behaviour– back-stage attitudes (Brake and Walker)

• Gauge the important areas of difference from your own country

• Judge the implications for marketing

The single most important country to the world economy

Identifying the observable differences

Geographical• climate, terrain, fertility

• isolation from/proximity to others

Material/technical• natural resources/industrial/agricultural base

• urban/rural distribution

• level of development and infrastructure

Historical• imperial or colonial experience• allies and enemies• internal divisions and conflicts

Political• authoritarian/democratic• centralised/devolved• stability and change• bureaucracy

Social• family structure (extended/nuclear)• education (availability, system)• class system• religious beliefs and practice

Islam

• Submission– to the will of God

• Brotherhood

• Conversion– by jihad if necessary

• The Five Pillars– belief, – prayer, – fasting, – giving to charity,– pilgrimage to Mecca

Languages• business, social, regional

• concepts and mind-set

• shared with other countries?

• Similarity/differences from yours

Outside influences• exposure to foreign media

• foreign role models

• membership of economic/defence groupings

• shared ideologies (Islam/Catholic/Communist)

• Don’t ignore subcultures

How does culture affect marketing?

• Product usage - symbolic meanings – eg of food, clothing, leisure activities

• Motivation (needs, problems, solutions)

• Consumer decision making– family roles, social influences, criteria for choice

• Communication– meaning of words, images, body language

• Ways of doing business

Source: Doing Business Internationally Brake and Walker

Does Culture matter anymore?

• If the price is low enough, people will take standardised world products, even if these are not exactly what mother said was suitable, what ancient custom decreed was right, or what market research asserted was preferred (Levitt 1983)

• Global Products are a collection of local meanings (Usunier 1996)

No evidence of convergence in people’s value systems

The more discretionary income people have, the more they start to express themselves according to their own culturally-rooted values

De Mooij, M ‘The future is predictable..’ International Marketing Review Vol 17, 2, 2000

Quoted in Marketing 2/11/00 p28