Download Cultural and Cross-Cultural Influences

Chapter 12
Cultural and CrossCultural Influences
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
What is Culture?
• The meanings that are shared by most
people in a social group
• In a broad sense, cultural meanings include
– Common affective reactions
– Typical cognitions
– Characteristic patterns of behavior
12-3
What is Culture? cont.
• Several issue to consider when analyzing
culture
– Cultural meanings can be analyzed at different
levels
•
•
•
•
•
Macro
Subcultures
Social classes
Reference groups
Family influences
12-4
What is Culture? cont.
– The concept of shared or common meaning is
critical to understanding culture
• Need to consider cultural meaning at a macro social
level
– A meaning is cultural if many people in a social group share
the same basic meaning
12-5
What is Culture? cont.
– Cultural meanings are created by people
• Construction of cultural meanings is more obvious at
the level of smaller groups
– Cultural meanings are constantly in motion and
can be subject to rapid changes
– Social groups differ in the amount of freedom
people have to adopt and use certain cultural
meanings
12-6
The Content of Culture
• The content of culture includes
– The beliefs, attitudes, goals, and values held by
most people in a society
– The meaning of characteristic behaviors, rules,
customs, and norms that most people follow
12-7
The Content of Culture cont.
– The meaning of significant aspects of the social
and physical environment, including
• Major social institutions in a society
• Typical physical objects used by people in a society
• The goal of cultural analysis is to
understand the cultural meanings of these
concepts from the point of view of the
consumers who create and use them
12-8
The Content of Culture cont.
• Behaviors can have important cultural
meanings
• Aspects of the social environment can have
rich cultural meanings
• Marketing strategies may have shared
cultural meanings
12-9
The Content of Culture cont.
• Marketers need to understand the cultural
meanings of their products and brands
• Measuring the content of culture
– Content analysis
– Ethnographic fieldwork
– Measures of values
• The core values of American culture
– Abstract end goals that people strive to achieve
in their lives
12-10
The Content of Culture cont.
12-11
The Content of Culture cont.
• Changing values in America
– Can create problems for marketers
– Can create new marketing opportunities
– Usually accompanied by changes in behavior
12-12
Culture as a Process
• Model of the cultural process in a highly developed
consumer society
12-13
Culture as a Process cont.
• Cultural meaning is present in three
locations
– Social and physical environments
– Products and services
– Individual consumers
12-14
Culture as a Process cont.
• The cultural process describes how this
cultural meaning is moved about or
transferred between these locations by the
actions of organizations and by individuals
in the society
12-15
Culture as a Process cont.
• Two ways that meaning is transferred in a
consumption-oriented society
– Marketing strategies are designed to move
cultural meanings from the physical and social
environments into products and services in an
attempt to make them attractive to consumers
– Consumers actively seek to acquire these
cultural meanings in products in order to
establish a desirable personal identity or selfconcept
12-16
Culture as a Process cont.
• Moving cultural meanings into products
– Advertising
• Symbols
– Pricing strategies
– Design strategies
– Distribution strategies
12-17
Culture as a Process cont.
• Cultural meanings in products
– Products, stores, and brands express cultural or
symbolic meaning
– Cultural meanings of products are likely to vary
across different societies
12-18
Culture as a Process cont.
– Some cultural meanings in products are obvious
to anyone who is familiar with that culture, but
other meanings are hidden
– Many products contain personal meaning in
addition to cultural meanings
12-19
Culture as a Process cont.
• Moving cultural meanings from products into
consumers
– Rituals are symbolic actions performed by
consumers to create, affirm, evoke, or revise
certain cultural meanings
• Acquisition rituals
• Bargaining rituals
12-20
Culture as a Process cont.
• Possession rituals
– Product nurturing rituals
– Personalizing rituals
• Exchange rituals
• Grooming rituals
• Divestment rituals
12-21
Culture as a Process cont.
• Cultural meanings in consumers
– Consumers buy products as a way to acquire
cultural meanings to use in establishing their
self-identities
– Americans have a lot of freedom to create
different selves through their choices of lifestyle,
environments, and products
12-22
Culture as a Process cont.
– Goods cannot provide all the meanings that
consumers need to construct healthy selfconcepts
– Many people consumer products in an attempt
to acquire important life meanings
– Most people have favorite possessions that are
filled with very important, self-relevant meanings
12-23
Culture as a Process cont.
• Moving meanings to the cultural
environment
– Meanings in consumers can be transferred to
the broad cultural environment through people’s
social behavior
– Cultural process is portrayed as a continuous
and reciprocal movement of meaning between
the overall cultural environment, organizations,
and individuals in the society
12-24
Culture as a Process cont.
• Marketing implications
– Managing cultural meaning
– Using celebrity endorsers in ads
• Helping consumers obtain cultural meanings
12-25
Cross-Cultural Influences
• Cross-cultural differences
– Consumption culture
– Self-concept
– Similar cross-cultural changes
– Materialism
– Marketing implications
12-26
Cross-Cultural Influences cont.
• Developing international marketing
strategies
– Adapting strategy to culture
– Standardizing strategy across cultures
• Global marketing
– Changing the culture
• Marketing implications
12-27
Summary
• Examined influences of culture and crosscultural factors on consumers’ affective
responses and cognitions, behaviors, and
the physical and social environment
• Defined culture
• Discussed how marketers can study the
content of culture
12-28
Summary cont.
• Identified several important values and
lifestyle trends in American culture
• Drew some implications for marketing
strategies
• Presented a model of the cultural process
by which cultural meaning is moved
between different locations
12-29
Summary cont.
• Examined the influences of cross-cultural
differences on consumers
• Discussed how marketers might use this
knowledge to develop effective international
marketing strategies
12-30