Culture and Subculture

UNIT 11 CULTURE AND SUBCULTURE

After going through this unit, you should be able to:
• Define culture and subculture
• Describe the characteristics of culture
• Distinguish between components of culture
• Explain how culture and subculture influence our behaviour.
Structure
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Culture: Meaning and Significance
11.3 The Characteristics of Culture
11.4 Cultural Values
11.5 Cultural Values and Change
11.6 The Need for Cross-cultural Understanding of Consumer Behaviour
11.7 Subcultures and their Influence
11.8 Summary
11.9 Self-Assessment Questions
11.10 Suggested Readings

11.1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most pervasive influences on our lives and indeed our consumption
behaviour is that of culture. Culture has a profound effect on family life, living
patterns, social interactions and is indeed an input in shaping personalities, attitudes
and perceptions, variables that you have studied earlier in this course. We shall in this
unit try to understand what is culture and how does it influence buyer's behaviour.
We will also briefly discuss the various subsects of culture-the subcultures within a
given society.

11.2 CULTURE-MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE

Culture is the broadest component that has an effect on consumer behaviour. It
provides the background for other factors that you have studied, namely the family,
social class and reference groups, that have an influence on buying behaviour.
Reference groups and families play a critical role in transmitting cultural and sub-
cultural values. Since they regulate people's lives on a day-to-day basis, they become
the agents for transmitting the standards of behaviour and the values of the culture in
which they exist.
Our clothing, diet, methods of food preparation and service, all these are
manifestations of our culture. It is difficult for us, or for people in any culture to see
just what our culture is like, because we are too involved with the specifics, to realise
its impact on our daily lives. In fact the impact of culture on our decision-making is
so natural and automatic that its influence is usually taken for granted. It is only when
we are exposed to people with different cultural values and customs that we
recognise that our own culture is unique.
At a general level, Culture is defined as:
"a complex set of values, ideas, beliefs, attitudes and other meaningful symbols,
created by human beings to shape human behaviour and the artefacts of that
behaviour as they are transmitted from one generation to another."
The significance of culture in understanding consumer behaviour is that, although
consumers may be biologically similar in their instincts, their views of the world
differ according to their cultural orientations. Culture provides the standards or rules
regarding when to eat, where to eat, what is appropriate to eat for breakfast, what to
serve guests for a dinner party, a picnic, or a wedding. For instance we can think of
French culture, Canadian culture, American culture, Indian culture. People in these
cultural groupings are more 39
Group Influences on similar in their outlook and behaviour than those in other groupings. They are
Consumer Behaviour also similar in their lifestyles, personalities, attitudes, values and belief systems, as
described in the definition of culture. This similarity would apply to their purchase
behaviour as well, much of which is culturally determined.
Culture results from interactions between people. The function of culture is to
establish modes of conduct, standards of performance, and ways of dealing with
people in interpersonal relations. This reduces uncertainities with people and
increases predictability. Over a period of time, behaviour values, and artefacts
become institutionalised. Since there are many ways in which people can organise
their social relationships, it is not surprising that a wide variety of cultural patterns
have emerged. Thus, while many aspects of all culture are the same, there are also
difference between cultures. We see this in our own country in India, which is so
large and diverse that it is difficult to consider it as a single culture. Within a given
culture, sub-cultures therefore arise due to geographic, religious, nationality and
ethnic differences.
'
In every society, the prevailing culture has a purpose. It provides a framework of
traditions, values, beliefs, practices and behaviours that facilitate interaction and
become institutionalised. It therefore results in commonly accepted standards of
conduct. Parents and social institutions such as schools and other organisations
transmit culture from one generation to the next generation.
Because culture is such a broad and pervasive concept, it is divided into two distinct
components:
1) The internal mental culture
2) The external material culture
The internal mental culture can be further divided into two parts, the cognitive
component and the normative component.
The Internal Mental Culture
The cognitive component of culture consists of its ideas and knowledge, such as
ideas about gods, ideas about supernatural phenomena, and concepts of an afterlife.
The normative component of culture consists of its values, rules of conduct and
norms which regulate behaviour, and which are shared by most members of a culture.
Consider, for instance, what happens to our consumer information processing system
as cultural influences build up over our lives. They reflect our beliefs and opinions
and this guides our information processing. Social norms are actually beliefs and
opinions that are held by, people in exactly the same way. Internalising the prevailing
cultural values over time is called enculturation, and this is especially important in
the case of children learning to function in their own society. Culture is therefore one
of the most basic influences on our cognitions and behaviour.
The External Material Culture
The external or material culture refers to the things that we can see, touch and use in
our day-to-day living. This is the most obvious of cultural components. The material
culture allows us to express ourselves aesthetically, as for instance, in art, music,
theatre, clothing and housing and to protect ourselves from the elements. It concerns
how we enjoy our moments of leisure by means of books, movies, sports among
other things.
An important dimension of the material culture is the influence of technology and
how it has brought about cultural changes as for example, through television,
telephone links and the airlines. The material culture is important to marketing
because symbolism plays an important role in marketing to any culture. Clothing, for
instance, represents a highly visible form of expressive symbolism in any cultural
system. Virtually all product packaging and advertising also uses some form of
expressive symbolism to get a message across to persuade consumers to buy.
11.3 THECHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
To understand that brushing your teeth with toothpaste is a cultural phenomenon,
requires some knowledge and awareness of the characteristics of culture. The
following characteristics can be cited to describe its nature.
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1. Culture is invented Culture and Subculture
This means that culture is invented and is not a set of instinctive responses. It is a
way of thinking, feeling and acting that results from years of accumulated experience
and is handed down from one generation to another. Each generation adds to the
cultural heritage of the past. The response patterns are transmitted through values,
attitudes, beliefs, customs and symbols. Cultural norms consequently result from
defining and prescribing acceptable behaviour.
2. Culture is a set of learned responses
Cultural learning takes two forms. One is patterned instruction. The other is imitative
learning. While imitative learning is informal, patterned instruction may occur at
either a formal or informal level.
Patterned Instruction: This is the formal learning of values through family
members, of what is right or wrong, and technical learning, which occurs through
the educational environment.
Imitative learning: This is informal learning, and involves imitating the
behaviour of friends, family, television. Many advertisements influence the
consumer and enhance informal learning by providing the audience with a model
to imitate. Repetition of advertisements further reinforces beliefs and values by
teaching consumers what to desire.
3. Culture is shared
Culture is frequently viewed as a group phenomenon. It thus links together the
members of a society. Various social institutions within a society, namely the family,
educational institutions, and religious organisations make the sharing of culture
possible. Another important social institution is the mass media, and consumers
receive important cultural information from advertising.
4. Culture is gratifying and persistent
Culture in a society offers direction and guidance to the members, to satisfy
physiological and personal needs.
5. Culture is dynamic and adapts
In spite of resistance to change in societies, cultures are gradually and continuously
changing. Marry factors are likely to produce cultural change such as new
technologies," resource shortages, such as those of energy and water, and customs
borrowed from other culture. This means that marketers must constantly monitor
cultural change to find new opportunities.
6. Culture is an organised and integrated whole
This means that the elements of a culture are consistent aid woven together to form a
whole.
7. Cultures are similar yet different
In terms of elements that they exhibit, cultures are strikingly similar, You would find
elements like social institutions of family, marriage, rituals, schools, government,
housing, religious rituals, social functions, personal adornments, calenders, language,
music and dance forms and law in every society whose culture you may be interested
in studying. Societies, however, differ greatly in how each of these elements are
practiced in the society, which in turn results in important consumer behaviour
differences among consumers of different societies.
8. Culture is prescriptive
Culture determines desirable norms or patterns of behaviour so that in a given
cultural context people have a common appreciation of what is right and wrong,
indeed what is proper or improper. Culture also suggests items appropriate for
consumption in the pursuance of norms, moves, values and beliefs that prevail in a
given society.
Activity 1
Look at your own culture in terms of the elements that have been referred to above.
In terms of any five elements that you choose, compare your culture with that of any
other society that you are familiar with or have read about.

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Group Influences on
Consumer Behaviour

11.4 CULTURAL VALUES

Cultural Values
Cultural values are important to the organised and integrated nature of culture. A
cultural value can be defined as a widely held belief that endures over time. Values
therefore produce inclinations to respond in standard ways. They serve as standards
or criteria for behaviour. Values deal with modes of conduct and, therefore, transcend
specific situations. We therefore have in a culture, two types of values:
1) Instrumental value (or modes of conduct)
2) Terminal values (or states of existence)
These values together influence consumer behaviour in several ways such as methods
of shopping, tastes and preferences. It is necessary, therefore, to understand a
society's basic value structure before marketing to it.
Different social classes may respond to cultural values in different ways. Consider
the cultural value of achievement, for example. While all individuals may share the
same '
cultural values, their methods of responding to them may differ greatly, depending on
the sub-culture and social class.
each culture has what is termed the core values.
These are the dominant or basic cultural values. It is not necessary that the core
values be exclusive to a particular culture. Several values are borrowed as people
emigrate to societies.
While somewhat obvious to you, the important fact is that these values are pervasive
and accepted as givens. For example, core values that have been cited may be any of
the following.
1) Progress, achievement and success: These values lead to progress for society
2) Activity: Being and keeping active is widely accepted as a healthy and necessary
part of life.
3) Humanitarianism
4) Individualism
5) Efficiency, Practicality
Commonly held cultural values shape consumption choices to a large extent.
Marketers therefore try to appeal to consumer values through advertising. These
values influence both, product and brand choices. It has been found that terminal
values such as comfort, security, pleasure, are influential in the choice of product
class. Instrumental values such as broadmindedness become important in the brand
choice decision.
Though limited amount of research has been done on how to measure values, Milton
Rokeach has created a Rokeach Value scale consisting of two sets of values, eighteen
terminal values and eighteen instrumental values. Ranking or agreement scales are
used to find out the importance of these values to the individual respondents. Table
11.1 presents the values listed in the Rokeach Value Survey.
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 Culture and Subculture

Activity 2

Select five core Indian cultural values, and provide a consumer behaviour example
for each.

11.5 CULTURAL VALUES AND CHANGE

The core values discussed above do not represent a static concept but are dynamic in
nature. Depending upon the rate of change a society is going through cultural change
may evolve slowly, in an evolutionary manner which is adapted more easily and is
least disruptive. A culture may also change rapidly owing to fast paced changes in a
society, changes which come rapidly produce stress for the social system and may
even be disruptive of some basic values.
As world trade globalises, information and communication technology bring the
people of the world in closer interaction with each 9ther, cultures of nearly all open
or opening societies are likely to face the winds of change. John Nasibilt in his book
Megatrends 2000 has predicted the ten most important trends that will mark the
1990'x. These are:
1) A renaissance in arts literature and spirituality.
2) The end of the welfare state and the decline of socialism.
3) Emergence of English as the worldwide language.
4) Emergence of the age of biology and genetic engineering.
5) Shift from dominance of Atlantic culture to the Pacific culture.
6) Decline of cities and growth of electronic heartland.
7) Worldwide free trade.
8) No limits to growth.
9) Era of globalisation.
10) Human resources as the cutting edge or competitiveness. 43
Group Influences on As the world around us changes, reverberation are naturally likely to be felt in the
Consumer Behaviour Indian society. Already sign of changes in the cultural values of respect for authority,
religious and family ties, responsible consumption etc. are becoming apparent in the
Indian society. The need for the marketer is to clearly understand and track the
changing value orientations of Indian consumers and respond in designing products
and services to be offered for consumption.
Activity 3
Some of the megatrends noted above have already become apparent. How are they
likely to change some of the Indian cultural values. Give your own opinion. Talk to
some of your peers and report upon their opinion.

11.6 THE-NEED FOR CROSS CULTURAL UNDER-

STANDING OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
As world trade globalises, corporations tend to look upon the whole world as their
market. Major Corporations of the world today, Coca Cola, IBM, Gillette receive
more than half of their earnings from their overseas operations. A parallel emergence
of common culture of management has however not taken place. Research surveys of
management personnel serving across countries reveal that managers views tend to
relate more to their country's cultural context and less to the geographical location of
their company.
The International marketer however would need to understand the different value
orientation in the various cultures that he operates in or is planning to operate in. A
useful conceptualisation of a frame of reference has been developed by Florence R
Kluckholm, which may enable the international marketer to evaluate cross cultural
variation on a range for five important value orientation. These value orientations are
given in the Table 11.2.

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Important among the steps to be undertaken while trying to understand cultural Culture and Subculture
orientation of international markets are suggested below.
a) Research into underlying values and the rate at which these are altering-Try to
understand the direction of the change specially with references to the target
market.
b) Evaluate how the intended product concept relates to the cultural values, in terms
of any possible or perceived conflicts with the values. In the cultural context in
which the product is to be introduced, how important are the needs for which the
product is created? Are there alternative satisfiers available?
c) Analyse the existing individual and family decision patterns and characteristic
criteria used for decision making, as well as the information sources for decision
making.
d) Decide on appropriate Marketing Communication- Looking at the language,
symbols, beliefs and the role models that exist in a given cultural context, the
marketer must decide upon messages and formats which effectively
communicate. What media would be the most appropriate would again vary
depending upon the preferred . information sources and media habits of people in
different cultures.
e) Take appropriate pricing and channel decision-What are the valuation norms ofa
given society? Do people value an imported product label higher than a domestic
one or is it vice versa? Are people aware and sensitive of price differentials? Are
existing channels adequate and appropriate? How willing are people in a given
cultural context to try new distribution alternatives? These are some of the issues
which would enable the markets to evolve suitable pricing and distribution
strategies in a cross cultural marketing situation.
Activity 4
Try to look at some of the new products introduced by multinationals in India (for
e.g. Kellog breakfast cereals, microwave oven etc.) and evaluate how do they, in
terms of product concepts and communication messages relate to the Indian cultural
contexts
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11.7 SUBCULTURES AND THEIR INFLUENCE
You have after going through the above section, a very clear idea of how pervasive
and lasting is the influence of culture on a person's consumer behaviour. Not all
segments of a given society, however, display the same behaviour pattern. This is
partly due to `ethnicity' - the basic origins from which these segments emanate or
different religious beliefs or even climatic and geographical considerations. It is
therefore possible for a marketer to identify more homogeneous subgroups within the
heterogeneous national culture.
These subgroups are referred to as subcultures. The members of a specific subculture
display customs, values and beliefs which are distinct enough to set them apart from
the other segments in the same culture. However, in addition to the above different
beliefs values and customs, they conform to the dominant values and behavioural
patterns of the larger society to which they belong. To take an example, if we refer to
the Indian society as the larger "Culture" segment, the various religious subgroups
like Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, represent the religious subcultures. They
may possess different religious beliefs and customs, but are also similar in the sense
that they all display common value system as Indians. In a multi racial society like
America, there is an American way of life which typifies the American Culture, the
various social groups like blacks, hirpanics and Asians display values and customs
which are typical of them as subsegments. Each of these then represent a subculture.
Subcultures therefore can be defined as a distinct cultural group that exists
within a layer, complex society as an identifiable segment in terms of its beliefs
customs and values. A culture is thus made up of the distinctive values beliefs and
customs followed by 45
Group Influences on the members of its various subcultures as well as the core cultural values and beliefs
Consumer Behaviour of subcultures as well as the core cultural values and beliefs shared by most of its
population regardless of specific subcultural identification.
Activity 5
Look around yourself and try to identify the type of subcultural group that you see in
the Indian society. In what ways do they tend to differ from the other subsegments.
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Types of subcultures
Marketers have tended to look at subcultures as specific segments in terms of the
differential mores of these subgroups result in consumption patterns and behavioural
patterns specific to them. You have only to refer to the different customs followed by
the various communities in India to understand how the marketer would like the
consumption patterns at different religious festivals and performance of customary
rites of these communities to identify distinct marketing opportunities. The different
food habits of the geographical subcultures, for example, North and South India,
represent possibilities for segmenting and targetting consumers for the food market.
Looking around us we can see that for multicultural societies, it is possible to identify
several types of subcultures. We would briefly refer to the major types of subcultures
here.
Racial or nationality subcultures: Multiracial societies like America are today
comprised of citizens who come from different nationalities or belong to
different races. While they are subscribe to the wider concept of the core
American values, each one of them display interesting differences for the
marketer to be able to identify them as important, subculture segments. The
broader American culture therefore can be seen as consisting of the Afro-
American subculture, the asian subculture the hispmic subculture to name some.
These subcultures tend to vary in their values, aspiration and beliefs which get
reflected in their consumption priorities, spend save patterns, purchase behaviour,
use of credit, social mores and customs etc. Marketers have found it useful to
look at each of these subcultures as distinct market segments and tailor marketing
plans to effectively reach them.
Religious subcultures: Most societies of the world today consist of people
subscribing to different religions, which may differ in their beliefs, values and
customs. We have referred to the Indian society earlier which is a good example
of a multi-religion society. The religious subgroups may follow different custom,
have important rites of passage (like birth, marriage and death) performed in
different ways and have different festivals. These in turn suggest items
appropriate for consumption for the above activities which may not be common
to all the members of the wider society. In addition, religion subcultures may
suggest important "taboos" in consumption terms, certain foods are prohibited
among the different groups, consumption of liquor or non-vegetarian foods may
be specifically prohibited by some religious norms.
Geographical and regional subcultures: Large countries, partly on account of
geographical and climatic condition display geographical and regional
differences which are distinct enough to enable marketer to envisage a country as
consisting of different geographical or regional subcultures. One has only to look
at our own country to clearly identify and appreciate the Gujarati, Tamil, Punjabi,
Kasluniri, Bengali subculture identities with the Indian culture. Of special
significance to the marketer are the various food preferences of these
geographical regional subculture and the languages spoken in different regions.
India today had 1 7 languages identified as official regional languages. These
create unique challenges in terms of creating and delivering marketing
communication.
Geographical subcultures also result in different consumption patterns in
clothing, housing patterns and food habits on account of climatic conditions.
While cottons may
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 be the most preferred fabric in North West India, silk predominates in South, Culture and Subculture
Wollens have a very low priority in coastal regions as they are not required at all.
Age subcultures: You have already read about the stages in family life cycle and
understand how consumption priorities change as the age pattern of the family
changes. Marketers have, on a more generic basis have been able to use age as a
basis of identifying different subcultural identities as the youth market and the
elderly market. The youth market (14-24) is important to marketers not only
because it is a growing and lucrative segment but also because consumption
preference found at this age are likely to continue for a long time. The youth
market is distinctive enough in terms of its spending patterns, demographics,
psycholography, profiles etc. In a very interesting in depth study of teens, Young
and Rubicon ad agency found the following:
• Teens want to learn things but do not want to be told
• want independence yet want to be taken care of
• want to be treated as adult but don't want too much responsibility
• want to be active yet spend hours relaxing
• want to try new things but only acceptable ones
• want to be individuals, but also members of the group
• can be very critical but are very sensitive to criticism.
The youth market differs significantly from the elderly market in term of its norms,
purchase preferences, information sources used, media habits and preferences and to
an extent values and beliefs, to constitute a subcultural segment for the marketers.
For a very large variety of consumables, apparels, accessory and entertainment,
education and training, fast food and hospitality industry, the youth market
constitutes a substantial and lucrative market segment.
The Elderly Market: In terms of age subcultures, the `Elderly' constitute the 50 plus
Market segment. They have traditionally received low priority attention from the
marketers but it is fast being realised that in terms of purchasing power and
discretionary incomes, this segment is one of the most attractive segments. In
subculture segment term, this segment has been found to display value orientation
which are more stable, have identified shopping patterns and store preferences, and
are a very attractive market for home improvement, investment, insurance, health
services and home equipment enabling convenience in living. Though they tend to
view advertising as a less reliable source of information, their media habits are more
stable to enable the marketers to carve out communication positioning better.
Gender subcultures: It has been increasingly felt that as men and women vary in
terms of dominant traits they posses, information search and processing norms they
follow, gender may be indeed used as a subculture segmentation variable. While the
traditional role identification of men as breadearners and women as homemakers are
getting blurred, products can still be seen as being strongly associated or as
exclusively developed for one sex or the other. Assignment also in terms of
predominant decision making roles, tend to relate to gender subcultures. In
behavioural terms, it hasbeen found that consumers lend to assign a gender to
products, in term of the perceived meaning of the product it may either be seen as a
feminine or a masculine product. These are perceptions that need to be borne in mind
by advertisers in addition to the gender of the target market. One gender subcultural
segment that has been distinctively identified and used is,the.segment of the working
woman.
Working women as a subcultural segment and consumption patterns: Whatever
be their career orientation, working women have been found to spend less times
shopping and tend to be weekend shoppers. This higher discretionary income enables
them to try out new brand alternatives and be a very attractive market for time
saving, convenience oriented goods or improved home services. Media usage is more
diverse among working women and the messages that have been found to be most
effective are those that relate to both career and family rather than those targeting
only family or only career.
As proportion of working women continue to rise across the world, greater research
is bound to be directed towards specific value orientation and role identification of
this important segment.
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Group Influences on
Consumer Behaviour 11.8 SUMMARY
The study of culture enables us to understand and appreciate all aspects of a given
society-language customs beliefs value systems and customs and religion in a given
society. The unit studied by you defines culture as the sum total of the beliefs, values
and customs learned by the members, of a society that set them apart from other
societies. The unit also explains the characteristics of culture and the way it affects
our behaviour as consumers.

In an internationalising world economy several cross cultural transactions and

adaptation have to be made by the international marketers. The unit addresses some
of the value orientation across which different societies can be seen and analysed.
Subcultures and their understanding enables the marketers to segment this markets so
as to tailor their offerings to the needs, motivations value orientations and attitudes of
members of specific groups. Subcultures exist as identifiable distinct groups within a
given culture. The unit describes the various types of subcultures that can be
identified in a society.

11.9 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Define Culture and Subculture. Compare the Indian culture values with the
American culture or that of any other culture that you have read about or are
familiar with.

2. How are cultural values relevant to a marketing practioner?

3. How does subcultural analysis help a marketing In the segmentation exercise?

4. Discuss the importance of subcultural segmentation for food products, clothing

and accessories.

11.10 SUGGESTED READINGS

Schiffinan, Leon G. and Kanuk, Leslie Lazar, 1987, Consumer Behaviour, Preiltice
Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs.

Engel, James F., Blackwell, Roger D. and Kollatt, 1986, Consumer Behaviour, CBS
College Publishing, New York.

Loudon, D.L. and Della Bitta, Al, 1984, Consumer Behaviour, Concepts and
Applications, McGraw Hill.

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