1. Chapter 17 The Creation and Diffusion Of Global Consumer Culture
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition

2. Opening Vignette: Alexandra
What does Chloe mean when she says that the Capri pants are “tight”?
What makes the clothing they are buying seem tight?
Why does Alexandra want to give her classmates in Kansas the impression that she is “fresh off the streets of New York City”?
Why does Alexandra feel like she would fit in with the “sistahs” in the Bronx?

3. The Creation of Culture
Co-optation:
Process by which outsiders transform the meanings of cultural products
Cultural Selection:
Process by which many possibilities compete for adoption, and these are steadily winnowed out as they make their way down the path from conception to consumption
Culture Production Systems (CPS):
The set of individuals and organizations responsible for creating and marketing a cultural product

4. The Movement of Meaning
Figure 17.1

5. The Culture Production Process
Figure 17.2

6. Obsolescence
As this AT&T ad demonstrates, many products and styles are destined to become obsolete.

7. Vibe

8. Cultural Specialists

9. Components of a CPS Components of a CPS Cultural Gatekeepers
(1) Creative Subsystem (e.g. Eminem)
(2) Managerial Subsystem (e.g. Interscope)
(3) Communications Subsystem (e.g. Ad and publicity agencies)
Cultural Gatekeepers
Responsible for filtering the overflow of information and materials intended for consumers.
Throughput sector: Set of agents which serve as gatekeepers

10. High Art and Popular Culture
As this British ad illustrates, high art merges with popular culture in interesting ways.

11. Discussion Question
Tommy Hilfiger clothing originally targeted a preppie audience as is indicated in the ad on the left. However, Hilfiger now pursues the hip-hop crowd as well.
How does a company successfully change its product image to target other cultures? Can you think of other products that have pulled this off?

12. High Culture and Popular Culture
Arts and Crafts:
Art Product: Viewed primarily as an object of aesthetic contemplation without any functional value.
Craft Product: Admired because of the beauty with which it performs some function.
High Art Versus Low Art
Cultural Formulae:
When certain roles and props often occur consistently.
Aesthetic Market Research

13. Recycled Imagery
This perfume ad recycles imagery from pulp romance novels.

14. Reality Engineering Reality Engineering: Product Placement:
Occurs as marketers appropriate elements of popular culture and convert them for use as promotional vehicles.
Cultivation Hypothesis: The media’s ability to distort consumers’ perceptions of reality.
Product Placement:
Refers to the insertion of specific products and the use of brand names in movie and TV scripts.
Advergaming:
Where online games merge with interactive advertisements that let companies target specific types of consumers.

15. Rolling Stone

16. The Diffusion of Innovations
Any product or service that consumers perceive to be new.
Diffusion of Innovations:
Refers to the process whereby a new product, service, or idea spreads through a population.

17. Adopting Innovations Laggards: Late Adopters: Innovators:
People who are slow to pick up new products.
Late Adopters:
Consumers interested in new things, but do not want them to be too new. They deliberately wait to adopt an innovation.
Innovators:
The brave souls who are always on the lookout for novel developments and will be the first to try a new offering.
Early Adopters:
Share many of the same characteristics as innovators, but an important difference is their degree of concern for social acceptance, especially with regard to expressive products.

18. Types of Adopters
Figure 17.3

19. A Laggard

20. Behavioral Demands of Innovations
Continuous Innovation:
Refers to a modification of an existing product.
Dynamically Continuous Innovation:
A more pronounced change in an existing product.
Discontinuous Innovation:
Creates major changes in the way we live.

21. Prerequisites for Successful Adoption
Compatibility:
Innovation is compatible with the consumer’s lifestyle
Trialability:
People are more likely to adopt a product they can experiment with first
Complexity:
The product should be low in complexity
Observability:
Easily observable innovations are more likely to spread
Relative Advantage:
Should offer relative advantage over other alternatives

22. The Fashion System Fashion System Fashion
Consists of all those people and organizations involved in creating symbolic meaning and transferring these meanings to cultural goods.
Context-dependent: Different consumers can interpret the same item differently.
Undercoded: There is no one precise meaning, but rather plenty of room for interpretation among perceivers.
Fashion
The process of social diffusion by which a new style is adopted by some group(s) of consumers.

23. Cultural Categories Cultural Categories:
Cultural distinctions that correspond to the way we characterize the world
Collective Selection: The process by which certain symbolic alternatives are chosen over others.
Behavioral Science Perspectives on Fashion
Major approaches:
Psychological Models of Fashion
Economic Models of Fashion
Sociological Models of Fashion

24. Instant Gratification of Needs
A cultural emphasis on science in the 1950s and 1960s affected product designs, as seen in the design of automobiles with large tail fins (to resemble rockets).

25. Economic Models of Fashion
Parody Display:
Where upscale consumers deliberately adopt formerly low-status or inexpensive products and stores.
Prestige-Exclusivity Effect:
When high prices still create high demand.
Snob Effect:
Where lower prices actually reduce demand.

26. Female Anatomy Throughout History
This ad for Maidenform illustrates that fashions have accentuated different parts of the female anatomy throughout history.

27. Sociological Models of Fashion
Trickle-Down Theory:
There are two conflicting forces that drive fashion change
First: Subordinate groups adopt the status symbols of the groups above them.
Second: Superordinate groups look at subordinate groups to make sure they are not imitated.
Mass Fashion: When media exposure permits many groups to become aware of a style at the same time.
Trickle-Across Effect: Fashions diffuse horizontally among members of the same social group.
Trickle-Up: Fashions that originate with the lower class first.

28. A “Medical” Model of Fashion
Meme Theory:
When an idea or product enters the consciousness of people over time
Tipping Point:
When a few people initially use a product, but change happens in a hurry when the process reaches the moment of critical mass.

29. Cycles of Fashion Fashion Life Cycles Fashion Acceptance Cycle
Introduction Stage
Acceptance Stage
Regression Stage
Classic: A fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle.
Fad: A very short-lived fashion.

30. A Normal Fashion Cycle
Figure 17.4

31. Comparison of Acceptance Cycles
Figure 17.5

32. The Behavior of Fads
Figure 17.6

33. Cyclical Nature of Fashion
This Jim Beam ad illustrates the cyclical nature of fashion.

34. BadFads.com

35. Fad or Trend? Does it fit with basic lifestyle changes?
What are the benefits?
Can it be personalized?
Is it a trend or a side effect?
What other changes have occurred in the market?
Carryover effects
Who has adopted the change?

36. Discussion Question
Fads such as tie dye clothing, bell bottoms, parachute pants, etc. have made many appearances on the market.
What distinguishes a fad from a trend? How can marketers prevent their product from just being a fad?

37. Transferring Product Meanings to Other Cultures
Think Globally, Act Locally
Adopt a Standardized Strategy:
Etic Perspective: Focuses on commonalities across cultures.
Adopt a Localized Strategy:
Emic Perspective: Stresses variations across cultures.
National Character: A distinctive set of behavior and personality characteristics.

38. Globalization
We expect today’s technical products to satisfy our needs – instantly.

39. Emic Perspective
JCDecauz, a French advertising agency, specializes in “street furniture” like these kiosks, newsstands and public toilets. They represent an emic perspective because each is designed to reflect the local culture.

40. Cultural Differences Relevant to Marketers
Back Translation:
A different interpreter retranslates a translated ad back into its original language to catch errors.
Does Global Marketing Work?
The Diffusion of Consumer Culture
Culture tends to flow from stronger nations to weaker ones (wealthier, freer, & more advanced)
I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke…

41. Emerging Consumer Cultures in Transitional Economies
Globalized Consumption Ethic:
People worldwide begin to share the ideal of a material lifestyle and value brands that symbolize prosperity.
Transitional Economies:
Refers to a country that is struggling with the difficult adaptation from a controlled, centralized economy to a free-market system.
Creolization
Occurs when foreign influences are absorbed and integrated with local meaning.

42. World Advertising Appeals
Many advertising messages appeal to people the world over. This Australian ad for a Finnish product would appeal to sophisticated young people from many different cultures.