Chapter 3 - Culture

The basic definition of a culture is the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular
people or society. It is everything that is socially learned and shared by the society. The two
components of culture are: material (ideas, customs and beliefs) and nonmaterial (physical
materials used by people like vehicles, clothes).
Culture are present here for a long time and anthropologists have claimed that these cultures
change the way a person thinks. National character, subculture, silent language, taboos and
rituals are some indications which are visible in cultural differences.
Some characteristics of the culture are:
i. Culture was invented by the people a long time ago and since then, it is followed. The
elements comprise of ideological system, technological system, and organizational
system.
ii. Culture is learned by the people by the later generations. It is followed from one
generation to next and the behaviour is thus transferred.
iii. Culture is shared by people in organized society and is kept uniform. This sharing is
done by groups that may vary in size.
iv. There are certain similarities in cultures like education, family but still there are
differences in cultures like clothing, eating habits.
v. Cultures, even with the society’s resistance to change, are changing gradually with
time.
vi. Cultures are integrated and organized. Although some elements are inconsistent still,
culture holds itself together.
Culture are defined by its core values. These values are what people accept in a culture. The
core values of US culture are:
i. Individualism – This states that people have freedom for actions and are not in social
constraints. The trend of “Me” focused on inner motivation, self-actualization and focus
on self. This shows the power an individual possesses.
ii. Equality – Everyone in the society is equal. The rights are given to everyone. These
rights are like right to liberty, opportunities given.
iii. Activity – The main focus was given on work. They are supposed to work hard and
save money for family. Work is conceived as religious disciple.
iv. Progress and Achievement – They believe in achievements and individual and society’s
progress. They believe in change and work in that direction.
v. Efficiency and Practicality – Americans believe in progressing through technological
excellence. They are always in search for better ways.
vi. Mastery over the Environment – They believe in controlling the environment by various
means like controlling sun and tides by converting them to energy resources which they
use.
vii. Religious and Moral Orientation – 90% of American believe in God and the level of
celebration of Christmas verifies the fact. US is also found to be one of the most
religious countries in the world.
viii. Humanitarian – They have high concern for the wellness and rights of other people.
Organizations like United Fund, CARE provides aid who are in the need.
 ix. Youthfulness – Americans are more diverted on looking and behaving young. The
products they use, the lifestyle they prefer and what culture they force to adapt are based
on their youthfulness.
Culture has a huge impact on the thinking and behavior of the customer and marketers have
started analysing this trend. They use it for appealing customers through providing desired
values to them. A theory of consumption values states why consumer buy a specific product or
why choose a specific brand over other. The five elements of this theory are functional value,
social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value. These values influence
the decision of the consumer.
In recent trends, baby boomers are showing a change in the culture of US. This emerging
society is not only present in US but also in other countries. For a marketer, it is most important
to understand these changes and come up with new ways to attract these consumers. Some
changes are increase in fun and leisure activities, importance of time and efficient use of it,
spending more time in home, thought of entitlement of rights and facilities like pension,
healthcare, education, more focus on self-fulfilment and self-directed, and more focus on
natural products like fabric, food and housing. Based on these changes, marketer needs to have
a proper marketing strategy for: product planning, distribution channels, promotion and market
segmentation.
Cross-cultural analysis understanding for consumer behavior is the process for determining up
to which level the consumers of two different regions i.e. nations, states are similar or different.
He main objective of this analysis is to determine how two consumers from different societies
are similar or different. For a multinational marketer, this understanding is important for
devising proper strategy to reach consumers in foreign market.