Culture is the

accumulation of values,
knowledge, beliefs,
customs, objects, and
concepts of a society. It is
passed on to future
generations.
Culture also includes core values and the degree of
acceptability of a wide range of behaviours in a specific
society.

Culture influences buying behaviour because it fills our

daily lives.
Culture also influences how we buy and use products and
our satisfaction from them.

Because culture determines product purchases, it strongly

influences the marketing mix.

For example, society’s interests in the healthfulness of

food affects food companies approaches to developing
and promoting their products.
There are different levels for cultural
norms:
Norm: something that is usual, typical, or standard.

a) The supranational: reflects the underlying dimensions of

culture that affect multiple societies (i.e. subcultures, or people
living in the same region, i.e ME)

b)The national: shared norms, beliefs, values, concepts. These

reflect the national character of a particular country.

c)The group: reflects the subdivisions of a country or society,

such as the influence of different reference groups.
 Also, researchers have classified four categories of
lifestyle for segmenting global youth:

a)In-crowd: it’s all about privilege and reinforcement.

Members of these groups seek approval from others and
prefer classic brands to uphold tradition.

b)Pop: word-of-mouth spreads rapidly, and passion,

individuality, and instant pleasure are important.
c)Networked Intelligentsia: they are the hub of online
social networks, and it’s all about revolution, creativity,
and deconstruction. Members prefer exotic brands.

d)Thrill: it’s all about infamy, adrenaline, and anarchy

(pretending that law order does not exist).
Cultural Universals
A belief is an organized pattern of knowledge that an
individual holds to be true about the world.

Attitudes: is a learned tendency to respond in a

consistent way to a given object or entity.

A value is: enduring belief or feeling that a specific mode

of conduct is personally or socially preferable to
another mode of conduct.
 Example: A person possesses a number of
values. One of which is high Self-Esteem, which
is one’s own worth. This is a value because it is a
feeling toward a mode of conduct. Consequently,
this person has a belief that physical fitness is
not only one of the most important keys to a
healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and
creative intellectual activity. As a result, this
person will hold a negative attitude towards fast
food meals. At the same time, the person will
hold a favorable attitude towards working out.
 To counter the perceived influence of Mattel’s Barbie and
Ken dolls on Iranian values, a government’s agency
affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Education is marketing
its own Dara and Sara dolls. The new products, a brother
and sister, are modeled on Iranian school book
characters. Sara is dressed in a white headscarf covering
black or brown curls. A popular outfit is a full-length,
flower-dotted chador.
 Value: Wearing a chador.
 Belief: Kids playing with Matell’s golden hair freely
dressed Barbie opposes this value and may lead girls to
grow rejecting domestic value.
 Attitude: Favorability of an adjusted Barbie.
Religions: define the ideals of life, which in turn are reflected
in the values and attitudes of societies and individuals, which
shape the behaviour of members in society.

Aesthetics: Each culture makes good statement concerning

good taste, as expressed in the arts and in particular
symbolism of colours, form, and music.

Dietary Preferences: Cultural influences are apparent in food

preparation and consumption patterns and habits. Types of
food, hours of eating, modes of eating, etc.
Language: language is the mirror of culture.
Language itself is multidimensional by nature. This is true not only
of the spoken word but also of what can be called the nonverbal
language of international business.

Messages are conveyed by the words used, by the way the words
are spoken (for example, the tone of voice), and by nonverbal
means such as gestures, body position, and eye contact.

Time, space, friendship patterns, offer a starting point

from which managers can begin to acquire the
understanding necessary to do business in foreign
countries.
Learning Cultural Values
Enculturation: the process of learning one’s own culture.

Forms of Learning:

Formal: takes place when parents, older siblings, and other

family members teach younger members how to behave.

Informal learning: takes place when children imitate the

behaviours of selected others, such as family, friends, and
movie heroes.
Technical learning: happens when teachers instruct
children in educational environments, about what, how,
and why things should be done.

Acculturation: Acculturation is a process in which

members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and
behaviors of another group.
Consumer socialization: the process by which young
people develop consumer related skills, knowledge and
attitudes.

This process consists of teaching children and young

adults consumption-related values and skills, such as the
meaning of money and value, how to judge quality,
styles, and preferences, product usage, and the meaning
and objectives of promotional messages.
• Rituals:

-A ritual "is a sequence of activities involving gestures,

words, and objects, performed in a particular place, and
performed according to set sequence.

Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community,

including a religious community.

Rituals are characterized by formalism, traditionalism, rule-

governance, and symbolism.
-Ritualistic behaviour: is an action or series of steps that
have become a ritual.

-Ritualized behaviour is formal and often scripted

(religious service, or proper conduct in a court of law),
and occurs repeatedly (i.e. signing the national anthem
before the start of a sport event).
Measuring Cultural Values
• Content analysis: content of societies’ verbal, written,
and symbolic communication, including promotional
messages.

(i.e. high context culture and low context culture,

interpersonal commumication)

Among other concepts, content analysis can:

-Identify the intentions, focus, or communication trends of an

individual, group, or institutions.
-Describe attitudinal and behavioural responses to
communications. (interpersonal communication)

-Determine psychological or emotional state of persons or

groups. (hofstede)

-Determines what social and cultural changes have

occurred in a specific society.
• Field observations:

-Field research or fieldwork is the collection of information

outside of a laboratory, library or workplace setting. The
approaches and methods used in field research vary across
disciplines.

For example, biologists who conduct field research may simply

observe animals interacting with their environments, whereas
social scientists conducting field research may interview or
observe people in their natural environments to learn their
languages, folklore, and social structures.
-Field research involves a range of well-defined, although
variable, methods: informal interviews, direct
observation, participation in the life of the group,
analyses of personal documents produced within the
group, self-analysis, results from activities undertaken
off- or on-line, and life-histories.

-Marketers have used depth interviews and focus groups.

-In depth interviewing is a method of qualitative research in which the
researcher asks open-ended questions orally and records the
respondent’s answers.

Interviewing is typically done face-to-face, but can also be done via

telephone.

In-depth interviews are different from survey interviews in that they are
less structured.

In survey interviews, the questionnaires are rigidly structured – the

questions must all be asked in the same order, the same way, and only
the pre-defined answer choices can be given.
-In-depth qualitative interviews, on the other hand, are
flexible and continuous.

They are often not prepared in advance. The method of

the in-depth interview is appropriate if you need rich
insights.

This method is suitable to answer research objectives that

inquire why.
-Focus groups: Focus groups approach is considered a valuable mechanism to
solicit data from customers.

Focus groups are a primary format for qualitative research.

This is a type of research that seeks open-ended thoughts and feelings from
consumers, as opposed to quantitative research that involves numerical-based
data collection.

-A focus group typically consists of around 6 to 12 target market consumer

participants engaged in a discussion with a research moderator.

-There are many advantages for focus groups including deeper insights,
interactive dialogue, brainstorming, participation inducer, and low cost.
• Value measurement:
-The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) is a classification
system of values. Developed by social psychologist
Milton Rokeach, the system consists of two sets of values,
18 individual value items in each. One set is called
terminal values the other instrumental values.
-Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of
existence.

These are the goals that a person would like to achieve

during his or her lifetime.

These values vary among different groups of people in

different cultures.
- The terminal values in RVS are:
- True Friendship
- Mature Love
- Self-Respect
- Happiness
- Inner Harmony
- Equality
- Freedom
- Pleasure
- Social Recognition
- Wisdom
- Salvation
- Family Security
- National Security
- A Sense of Accomplishment
- A World of Beauty
- A World at Peace
- A Comfortable Life
- An Exciting Life
Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of
behaviour.

These are preferable modes of behaviour, or means of

achieving the terminal values.

The Instrumental Values are:

Cheerfulness,
Ambition,
Cleanliness
Self-Control
Capability
Courage
Politeness
Honesty
Imagination
Independence
Intellect
Broad-Mindedness
Logical
Obedience
Helpfulness
Responsibility
Forgiveness
-The task for participants in the survey is to arrange the
18 terminal values, followed by the 18 instrumental
values, into an order "of importance to YOU, as guiding
principles in YOUR life".
Dominant Cultural Values:
Time & Activity: today time is considered a valuable –if not a
scarce- resource. “time is money” “time waits for no one”.

Time is held in high standards in the modern world, and it is

correlated with productivity and achievements.

Modern cultures dislike wasting time and are discouraged from

sitting around doing nothing. Instead planning and following a
schedule and at times they seem to be controlled by schedules.

Modern world countries value being active and contribution to

society.
Efficiency and Practicality
The modern world is highly efficient and pragmatic.

Many businesses executives concentrate on trial and error,

a pragmatic approach that consists of trying several
potential solutions to a given problem individually and
selecting the most effective one.

Some say, this pragmatic orientation has led modern

countries to develop advanced inventions.
Progress
Modern countries view change as desirable because it
symbolizes development, improvement, and growth.

Traditional cultures often consider change disruptive,

try to avoid it, and value stability and continuity.
Materialism:
The belief that material possessions improve individuals’ personal and social well-being
permeates the modern world.

However, contrary to this belief, multiple studies show that materialists, compared to non-
materialists, have lower social and personal well-being.

Compulsive and impulsive spending,

increased debt,
decreased savings,
depression,
social anxiety,
decreased subjective well-being,
less psychological need satisfaction,

and other undesirable outcomes have all been linked with materialistic values and
materialistic purchasing behaviours.
 Humanitarianism is a “moral of kindness, benevolence, and
sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human
beings”.

 In additions to acts of charity and donations, Humanitarianism

can also be described as the acceptance of every human being
for plainly just being another human, ignoring and abolishing
biased social views, prejudice, and racism in the process, if
utilized individually as a practiced viewpoint, or mindset.

 A person actively engaged in promoting human welfare and

social reforms, as a philanthropist.

 The humanitarian's first obligation is to do no harm.

 Green marketing is the marketing of products
that are presumed to be environmentally
preferable to others.

 Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range

of activities, including product modification,
changes to the production process, sustainable
packaging, as well as modifying advertising.

 Other similar terms used are environmental

marketing and ecological marketing.