Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.2 Marketers must fully understand both the theory and the reality of consumer behavior. A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social, and personal factors. Of these, cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence. Culture, subculture, and social class are particularly important influences on consumer buying behavior. Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. Through family and other key institutions, a child growing up in the United States is exposed to values such as achievement and success, activity, efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort, individualism, freedom, external comfort, humanitarianism, and youthfulness.3 A child
growing up in another country might have a different view of self, relationship to others, and rituals. Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification and socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. When subcultures grow large and affluent enough, companies often design specialized marketing programs to serve them. Social classes are relatively homogeneous and
enduring divisions in a society, hierarchically ordered and with members who share similar values, interests, and behavior. One classic depiction of social classes in the United States defined seven ascending levels: [1] lower lowers, [2] upper lowers, [3] working class, [4] middle class, [5] upper middles, [6] lower uppers, and [7] upper uppers.4 Social class members show distinct product and brand preferences in many areas.Cultural
Factors
Does Culture Influence Our Consumer Behavior? If so, How?
by Dr. Ahmad Chaudhry, Ph.D.
Review of Subject:
Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behavior. Research shows that culture, sub-culture, and social classes are particularly important on consumer buying behavior. Cultures differ in demographics, language, non-verbal communication, and values. Due to these differences, consumer behavior changed dramatically across cultures. Mooij [2004] defined culture as “the whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquires by the humans as members of society.” Culture is a comprehensive concept, and it includes almost everything that influences and individuals' thought process and behaviors. It not only influences preferences, but also the way people make decisions [Aaker and Sangupta, 2000], and how people perceive the world around them [Briley 2000]. Culture is acquired and doesn’t include inherited responses and predispositions. Since much of human behavior is learned than innate, culture doesn’t affect a wide range of behavior. Culture operates primarily by setting boundaries for individual behaviors and by influencing the functioning of each institution as the family and mass media. These boundaries set on behaviors are called norms, which are simply rules that specify or prohibit certain behaviors in specific situations. Norms are derived from cultural values, or widely held beliefs that affirm what is not desirable. Violation of cultural norms results in social disapproval to banishment from the group. Thus cultural values give rise to the norms and associated sanctions, which in turn influence consumption pattern.
Discussion:
Culture sets restrictions within which most individuals think, act, and feel in a manner consistent with that of other members of the same culture because it seems natural or right thing to do so [Parker-Pope, 1996; Fielding, 2006]. Cultural values are widely held beliefs that affirm what is desirable. These values affect behavior through norms, which specify an acceptable, range of responses to specific situations. Consumer behavior differs because values inherited by consumers differ from culture to culture. Research shows that consumers from cultures that differ on values differ in their reaction to foreign products, advertising, and preferred sources of information [Gurhan-Gnli and Maheswaran, 2000; Pronpitakpan and Francis, 2001; Money, Gilley, and Graham, 1998] that direct consumer behavior. Also, certain cultures are more youth-oriented than others [Barak, 2001] hence are more liberal and individualistic, and are more likely to work harder and spend more [Fattah, 2001]. Furthermore, research shows that altitudes towards work and leisure also differ from culture to culture [Paul, 2002] which has important consequences for lifestyle and demand for leisure activities. Another aspect that influences on consumer behavior is the religious beliefs. For example, many Islamic cultures and some Catholic cultures are much more religiously oriented [Al-Makaty, 1996] as compared to Chinese culture where religion plays a very small role. This implies that in Islamic and some Catholic cultures people are more inclined to buy and consume religious artifacts and related material.
Research further shows that some cultures pay more emphasis on family bondage than others. For example studies shows that in Mexico adolescents are more likely to seek parental advice or respond positively to ads with parental figures in the purchase of items ranging from candy to movies to fashion clothing than United States [Keillor, Parker, and Schaffer, 1996]. This difference in consumer behavior is primarily because in the United States the family is defined fairly narrowly, and is less important than in many other cultures. On the other hand, the role of family in India is more important than in more individualistic societies [Kripalani, 2005]. Not only are the items of purchase decided with reference to the family needs balancing individual and family requirements and resources, there is also often a pooling of resources across family members that is not seen outside Indian culture.
Another factor that affects the consumer behavior is the level of diversity and uniformity within culture. A culture that values diversity not only will accept a wide array of personal behaviors and attitudes, but is also likely to welcome variety in terms of consuming food, dress, and other products and services. Collectivist cultures tend to place a strong value on uniformity [Mooij, 2004]; where as more individualist cultures tend to value diversity. For example, research shows that in Japan and China people tend to consume products and avail services that everyone else is consuming, where as in United Kingdom and Unites States people are more inclined to make their own individual decisions bases on personal preferences and tastes [Sun. Horn, and Merritt. 2005].
Some cultures place more value on cleanliness than others. For example, in the United Stales a high value is placed on cleanliness, where germ-fighting liquid soaps alone are a $16 billion market [Shannahan, 2004]. People in United States expect their houses, offices, and public places to be cleaned “beyond reasonable health requirements.” On the other hand, in many poorer countries, cleanliness is not valued at a level sufficient to produce a healthy environment. Research shows that even in rapidly developing countries, such as China and India, a lack of basic hygiene still cause significant health problems [Kurian, 2002] because culture does not place such a high value on cleanliness.
Conclusion:
Culture influence consumers' thoughts and behaviors. Research shows that culture operates primarily by setting boundaries for individual behaviors and by influencing the functioning of each institution as the family and mass media. Research also shows that people from different culture consume differently primarily because of their differences in values and norms [Parker-Pope, 1996]. Norms are derived from cultural values, or widely held beliefs that affirm what is not desirable. Based on these values, consumers from different cultures differ in their reaction towards foreign products and advertising [Money, Gilley, and Graham, 1998], which leads to differences in consumption patterns. In order to gain competitive advantage, marketers should consider how to reduce the cost of selling the products across cultures. Studies shows that by offering standard products companies can cut cost savings' substantially [Mooij and Hofctede, 2002]. There is also evidence that suggests that urban youth around the world share at least some aspects of common culture, which is driven by worldwide mass media, common music and sports stars. Companies must be mindful in determining to what extent standardization strategy can be adopted. Uniformity is sometimes possible, but companies must also have to adopt to cultural differences. A blend of standardization and customization can be a good strategy, but a critical success factor for the companies is to achieve the right balance and to determine where standardization is possible and where customization is critical.
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