Culture and Consumer Behavior

How people behave and what motivates them is largely a matter of culture. Differences in how people process information, how they make decisions, whether they are innovative, all aspects are related to culture. For effective global marketing, branding, and advertising, these differences must be known and understood.

Consumer Behavior This is the study of the processes involved when people select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. It is viewed as a process that includes the issues that influence the consumer before, during, and after a purchase.

Attributes “WHO” Consumer The Person Values Culture Processes “HOW” Income Consumer Behavior Domains Personality Self-Concept Identity Image Attitude Lifestyle Social Processes: motivation, emotion, group processes Mental Processes: cognition, learning, language, perception, information processing, communication, decision-making Product ownership and usage Adoption/diffusion of innovations Complaining behavior Brand loyalty Responses to advertising Media usage

The model above structures the cultural components of the person in term so of consumer attributes and processes, and the cultural components of behavior in terms of consumer behavior domains. Income interferes. If there is no income, there is little or no consumption, so income is placed in a separate box.

Consumer Attributes One aspect of Western marketing is its focus on product attributes, benefits, or values that are to distinguish the user’s self from others. Another aspect is the distinction between the actual self and the ideal self.

Consumer Attributes One aspect of Western marketing is its focus on product attributes, benefits, or values that are to distinguish the user’s self from others. Another aspect is the distinction between the actual self and the ideal self.

The Concept of Self The concept of self, as used in consumer psychology, is rooted in individualism. It includes the following ideas about a person: –A person is an autonomous entity with a distinctive set of attributes, qualities, or processes –People’s individual behavior varies, and this distinctiveness is good –People’s attributes and processes should be expressed consistently in behavior across situations, and this is consistency is good.

In cultures of the configuration individualism/masculinity, self- enhancement, or ego-boosting, is most pronounced.

Personality This is the sum of the qualities and characteristics of being a person in individualistic cultures where the person is defined as an “independent self-contained, autonomous entity who comprises a unique configuration of internal attributes and who behaves primarily as consequence of these internal attributes.”

Identity and Image Identity is defined as the idea one has about oneself, one’s characteristic properties, one’s own body, and the values one considers important. Image is how others see and judge a person

Brand Personality Traits Attributed to Strong Global Brands F I&D P T UA+ PD+ PD- UA- F – Friendly T – Trustworthy P – Prestigious I – Innovative D – Different UA – Uncertainty Avoidance PD – Power Distance

Attitude Attitudes have affective and cognitive components. The affective component includes feelings and emotions one experiences in response to an attitude object. The cognitive component includes attributes and functions of the object.

Lifestyle Lifestyle is described in terms of shared values or tastes as reflected in consumption patterns. Personal characteristics are viewed as the raw ingredients to develop a unique lifestyle. In an economic sense, one’s lifestyle represents the way one allocates income, but lifestyle is viewed more as mental construct that explains, but is not identical with, actual behavior.

Social Processes Social processes deal with the hows of consumer behavior and include motivation, needs, drives, emotion, and group processes. All are processes that steer behavior. Although some emotions are internal, many result from interaction with the social environment.

Needs Consumption can be driven by functional or social needs. Clothes satisfy a functional need; fashion satisfies a social need. A car may satisfy a functional need, but the type of car can satisfy a social need. The bicycle is a functional need to many Chinese, who need it for transportation, whereas it is a social need to most Americans who use it for socializing or fitness.

Motivation Motivation can be defined as the internal state of an organism that drives it to behave in a certain way. Drives are the motivational forces that cause individuals to be active and to strive for certain goals. Motivation influences our purchase decisions. Motives underlie brand loyalty, brand preference, brand image, and the importance of luxury brands.

Emotion Emotion tends to be described as a process that involves an interaction between cognition and physiology. Emotions consist of various components like experience, facial expression, and physiological response that are closely linked together. The concept of global advertising as first introduced by the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in the early 1980s was based on the assumed universality of basic emotions such as happiness or love. This has led to parity advertising showing happy people connected to the brand. The use of emotions in global advertising is NOT advisable.

Group Processes In consumer decision-making, the degree to which group members depend on others, in particular family members, varies with collectivism and power distance. Reference group generally is defined as an actual or imaginary individual or group that is relevant for an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior.

Opinion Leaders Opinion leaders are strong, informal sources of product information. They achieve their status through technical competence and social accessibility. The roles of opinion leaders vary across cultures. People with technical competence, or competent people in general, are likely to be favored in strong uncertainty avoidance cultures. Masculine cultures have high regard for the successful. In large power distance cultures, the power holders may have an important role as opinion leaders.

Mental Processes The term cognition covers the main internal psychological processes that are involved in making sense of the environment and deciding what action might be appropriate.

Language, Perception, and Memory The structure of a language has consequences for basic consumer processes such as perception and memory. Structural differences seem to affect mental representation which in turn influence memory.

Categorization How people categorize other people and objects varies with individualism-collectivism. The European brand Nivea has been careful to limit line extensions to related personal care products and linked them all consistently core brand values: purity and value for money. The Spanish Brand Chupa Chups includes many different products: from lollipops to sunglasses, clothes, shoes, and stationery.