Lecture 8

Question 1

Define culture and how values guide culture

Answer 1

= sum total of learned beliefs, values and customs that serve to direct the consumer behaviour of members of a particular society (Schiffman)

Values = also beliefs but (eg. showing love for family is important => Schwartz 10 values)

• Fewer in number
• Guide culturally appropriate behaviour
• Enduring
• Not tied to specific objects/situations
• Widely accepted by society

Question 2

Explain the properties of culture

Answer 2

= Satisfies needs

• Provides individuals with order, direction and guidance about how to best satisfy physiological, personal and social needs
• Cultural beliefs, values and customs continue to be followed as long as they yield satisfaction, however when a specific standard no longer satisfies the members of a society, it is modified or replaced so the resulting standard is more in line with current needs and desires

= Dynamic

• Culture changes when existing cultural beliefs/values/customs no longer satisfy needs
• > Eg. decline in wearing hats once shampoo became more common (cleaner hair)
• In response to other social changes
• > Eg. new technology like mobile phones
• But can be cyclical eg. mullet

= Learned
- From an early stage, we begin to acquire from our social environment a set of beliefs, values and customs that constitutes our culture
- Marketing tends to enhance information learning by providing the audience with a model of behaviour to imitate (particularly for visible or conspicuous prodiucts or language where peer influence is likely to play an important role)
->Repetition of advertising messages both creates and reinforces cultural beliuefs and values eg. learnt to expect unlimited texts
- Culture can be transmitted through
->Formal learning (eg. parents explicitly teaching children how to use chopstickls)
->Informal learning-> learnt from imitating or modelling the behaviour of selected others (eg. watching how one’s parents greet strangers to learn appropriate ways of greeting)
->Technical learning (eg. sex education received at school)
->Enculturation = when we learn our own culture
->Acculturation = when we learn other’s culture
->International firms need to engage in acculturation, otherwise they may expose their brand to ridicule or contempt
- Language and symbols
->To acquire a common culture, the members of a society must be able to communicate with each other through a common language , otherwise shared meaning could not exist and true communication would not take place
->Marketers must use appropriate symbols to convey desired product images or characteristics to communicate effectively with their audiences
-> Can be verbal/non-verbal eg. red and yellow M&M, red Kit Kat, or textures to lend additional meaning to print or broadcast advertisements to trademarks and packaging or product designs
->Symbol is anything that stands for something else eg. word ‘razor’ calls forth a specific image related to an individuals own knowledge and experience
->Humans can understand symbolically ow a product, service or an idea can satisfy their needs makes it easier for marketers to sell the features and benefits of their offerings
->Through a shared language and culture, individuals already know what the image means, thus an association can be made without actively thinking about it
->May have many (or contradictory meanings), so is important that the advertiser ascertains exactly what symbols are communicating to intended audience eg. the stores a product is sold may provide a symbol of quality
- Rituals
->Culture includes various ritualised experiences and behaviours that until recently have been neglected by consumer researchers
= a type of symbolic activity consisting of a series of steps (multiple behaviours) occurring in a fixed sequence and repeated over time
-> Rituals extend over the human life cycle from birth to death and include a host of intermediate events (eg. 18th birthdays) – can be public, elaborate religious or ceremonies or as mundane as grooming behaviour
->Rituatlised behaviour is typically rather formal and often scripted behaviour and is likely to reoccur repeatedly over time
->Ritualistic behaviour = any behaviour that a person has made into a ritual
->Rituals tend to be replete with ritual artefacts that are associated with or somehow enhance performance of the ritual eg. tree, stocking, lights associated with Christmas

= Shared

• beliefs/values/customs only become cultural characteristics if they are widely held by all members of that culture (group customs that link together the members of a society)
• Various institutions transmit these elements of culture, including
• > Family: serves as the primary agent for enculturation, passing along of basic cultural beliefs, values and customs to societys newest members
• > Educational institutions: specifically charged with imparting basic learning skills, history, patriotism, citizenship and technical training needed to prepare people for significant roles within society
• > Religious bodies: moral leadership for society (reinforce training through the teaching of economic and ethical concepts)
• > Media: extensive exposure of media and easily ingested, entertaining format in which the contens of such are usually presented, important vehicle for imparting, reinforcing and occasionally changing a wide range of cultural values eg. SBS cultural maintenance – helping EAL Australians to celebrate their cultural origins