Cultural Influences

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Buying, Having, and Being

Michael R. Solomon

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Chapter Objectives
1. A culture is a society’s personality; it shapes our identities as individuals.
2. We distinguish between high culture and low culture.
3. Many modern marketers are reality engineers.
5. Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times
marketing messages convey these values.
6. Many of our consumption activities including holiday observances,
grooming, and gift giving are rituals.
7. We describe products as either sacred or profane.
8. Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times
marketing messages convey these values.
9. Many of our consumption activities including holiday observances,
grooming, and gift giving are rituals.
10. We describe products as either sacred or profane.
11. Many people and organizations play a role in the fashion system that c
reates and communicates symbolic meanings to consumers.
12. Fashions follow cycles and reflect cultural dynamics.

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• A culture is a society’s personality; it shapes
our identities as individuals.

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What is Culture?
• Culture is the accumulation of shared
meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions
• Culture is a society’s personality

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Understanding Culture
• Products can reflect underlying cultural
processes of a particular period:
• The TV dinner for the United States
• Cosmetics made of
• natural materials
• without animal testing
• Fulla, Jamila etc dolls

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Functional Areas in a Cultural System

Ecology

Social structure

Ideology

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• We distinguish between high and low
culture.
• Mainstream culture often modifies symbols
from subcultures so that larger audiences
can consume them. Culture creates
meaning and then the meaning moves
through society.

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Figure 3.1 The Movement of Meaning

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Figure 3.2 Culture Production Process

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Where Does Culture Come From?
• An example is the influence of American
inner-city teens…..
• Hip-hop/black urban culture
• Outsider heroes, anti-oppression
messages, alienation of black peoples
• “Flavor” on the streets
• These people represent only 8% of all people
in the age group!!!!!!

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Culture Production System
• A culture production system is the set of
individuals and organizations that create
and market a cultural product
• It has three major subsystems
• Creative: NEW
• Managerial: Moves
• Communications : Meaning

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High Culture and Popular Culture
• An art product is an object we admire for its
beauty and our emotional response
• A craft product is admired because of the beauty
with which it forms a function
• Mass culture creates products for a mass market

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Cultural Formula
• This ad
follows the
cultural
formula of a
horror movie
poster.

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 BOND!!!

• Many modern marketers are reality

engineers.

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Product Placement
and Branded Entertainment

• Insertion of specific products and use of brand

names in movie/TV scripts
• Directors incorporate branded props for realism
• Is product placement a positive or negative
when it comes to consumer decision-making?

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• Myths are stories
that express a
culture’s values,
and in modern
times marketing
messages convey
these values.

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Myths
• Myths are stories with symbolic elements that
represent the shared emotions/ideals of a
culture
• Story characteristics
• Conflict between opposing forces
• Outcome is moral guide for people
• Myth reduces anxiety by providing guidelines

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Functions of Myths

Metaphysical Help explain origins of existence

Emphasize that all components of the

Cosmological universe are part of a single picture

Maintain social order by authorizing a

Sociological social code to be followed by members of a
culture

Psychological Provide models for personal conduct

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Myths Abound in Modern Popular Culture
• Myths are often found in comic books, movies,
holidays, and commercials
• Monomyths: a myth that is common to many
cultures (e.g., Spiderman and Superman)
• Many movies/commercials present characters
and plot structures that follow mythic patterns

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Rituals
• Many of our consumption activities including
holiday observances, grooming, and gift giving
are rituals.
• Rituals are sets of multiple, symbolic behaviors
that occur in a fixed sequence and that tend to
be repeated periodically
• Many consumer activities are ritualistic
• Family lunch on the weekends
• Taking a particular route

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Common Rituals
• Grooming (preparation for school/work)
• Gift-giving (type of card, type of present)
• Holiday (who brings what etc)
• Rites of passage (weddings, graduations)

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Gift-Giving Stages
• Gestation (get the gift)
• Presentation (give the gift)
• Reformulation (measure impact)

• Explain some of your own family holiday

traditions. How do they affect your
behavior as consumers?
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Rites of Passage

Separation

Liminality

Aggregation

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• We describe products as either sacred or
profane, and it’s not unusual for some
products to move back and forth between
the two categories.
• Many types of consumer activities involve
the opposition of categories such as good
and bad, male and female, and regular
and diet.

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Sacred and Profane Consumption
• Sacred consumption: involves
objects and events that are set
apart from normal activities
that are treated with respect or
awe
• Profane consumption: involves
consumer objects and events
that are ordinary and not
special

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Domains of Sacred Consumption
• Sacred places: Makkah, Madinah, Stonehenge
• Sacred people: celebrities, royalty
• Sacred events: athletic events, religious
ceremonies

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 Sacralization
• Sacralization occurs when ordinary
objects, events, and even people take on
sacred meaning
• Objectification occurs when we attribute
sacred qualities to mundane items,
through processes like contamination
• Collecting is the systematic acquisition of
a particular object or set of objects

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 Desacralization
Desacralization: when a sacred item/symbol is
removed from its special place or is duplicated in
mass quantities (becomes profane).

Religion has somewhat become desacralized;

Christmas and Ramadan celebrated more as
secular, materialistic occasions.

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 The Fashion System
The fashion system includes all those people and
organizations involved in creating symbolic
meanings and transferring these meanings to
cultural goods.
• Fashion is code
• Fashion is context-dependent
• Fashion is undercoded

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 Behavioral Science Perspectives
and Models of Fashion

• Psychological
• Economic
• Sociological
• Medical
• Meme

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 Fashions follow cycles and reflect cultural
dynamics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTShDK_vdi0

Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd.

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 Figure 14.4 Comparison of
Acceptance Cycles

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 Global Consumer Culture
• What drives consumers in other cultures?
• Global consumer culture – unites
consumers around the world by their
common devotion to brand-name
consumer goods, movie stars, celebrities,
and leisure activities.

Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd.

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• Products that succeed in one culture may
fail in another if marketers fail to
understand the differences among
consumers in each place.

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Taking a Global Approach
• Should marketers use a standardized
strategy around the world or adopt a
localized strategy?

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• Western (and particularly American)
culture has a huge impact around the
world, although people in other countries
don’t necessarily ascribe the same
meanings to products as we do.

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Hofstede Dimensions of National Culture
• Power distance (hierarchy)
• Individualism (vs collectivism)
• Masculinity (vs femininity)
• Uncertainty avoidance (risk)
• Long-term orientation (viewpoint)
• Indulgence versus restraint

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