DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT
ON
 
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE AND SUBCULTURE ON CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR

June 2021
Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
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Group Members
Henok Getaneh
Adisu Tilahun
Fakiya Mohammed
Mahlet Ayalew
Tarekegn Tumebo
Ashenafi Ayele

Instructor: Mulugeta Girma (PhD)

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 Content
 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
 Cultural Factors
 Culture
 Characteristics of Culture
 Sub-cultural Influences
 Types of Sub-culture
 Social Class
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 Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
 Consumer behavior is the study of how individual customers, groups or organi-
zations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their
needs and wants.
 Consumers don't exist in a vacuum.
 Their behavior is influenced by the environment in which they live, and this be-
havior includes their buying behavior.
 This environment includes families and friends, lifestyle and lifecycle, and the
culture and beliefs of their social class.
 Consumer’s buyer behavior is influenced by four major factors: Cultural, So-
cial, Personal and Psychological.
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Cont’d

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 1. Cultural Factors

1.1. Culture
 Culture refers to the typical or expected behaviors, norms, and ideas that char-
acterize a group of people. It can be a powerful influence on all aspects of hu-
man behavior.
 Culture is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes
that shapes and influences perception and behavior – an abstract ‘mental blue-
print’ or ‘code’.
 Culture is a society's personality, unique in itself and differentiated from others;
it is further divided into various sub-cultures. Culture is also trans-generational,
and is passed on from one generation to another.
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 Cont’d

 As the definition suggests, culture has a tremendous impact on many aspects of

human behavior. Consumers have certain attitudes, and value certain objects be-
cause of the unique system of beliefs that define the group to which they belong.

 Culture is crucial when it comes to understanding the needs and behaviors of an

individual. Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important
cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behav-
ior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in
analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries.

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 Cont’d
 The kinds of products and services and/or brands that consumers’ buy and use,
are all based on their cultures and sub-cultures. For example, the food they eat
and the kinds of clothes they buy and wear, are all impacted by their culture,
their customs, traditions, norms and values.

 For instance, in many Asian cultures white is the traditional color of sorrow and
mourning.
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 1.1.1. Characteristics of Culture
Culture and its impact on consumption behavior can be better explained by
understanding the nature and characteristics of culture:
 Culture is natural and permeates naturally into the social system. It influences
the manner in which a person behaves, as consciously or sub-consciously, we
are all governed by culture. Culture unites the members of a social system.
 In terms of consumer behavior, the kinds of food we buy and eat or the clothes
that we purchase and wear, are all governed by the socialization process. Simi-
lar is with respect to other purchases that we make. Culture encompasses the
general and specific patterns of consumption behavior.

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 Cont’d
 Culture helps in satisfaction of needs. In fact, it exists as it helps satisfy the
needs of people. Values, beliefs, customs and traditions continue to exist as long as
they meet the needs of the people in the society. That is why culture evolves with
passage of time. As the needs of the people evolve, beliefs, values, customs and
tradition also undergo change so as to meet and match with newer needs and wants.

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 Cont’d
 For example, in earlier times, people preferred eating their whole meals at
home. In fact, eating out was considered unhealthy and undesirable. With a
change in society, and the emergence of dual income households, people have
begun eating out of home; the fast food culture is in. This has given a boost to
the fast food and restaurant industry. Thus, we see that when a value system
fails to satisfy the members of a social system, it is adapted, changed and/or
modified to suit newer social patterns and trends.
 Marketers must be conscious of newly developed and embraced values, customs
and traditions, so as to be able to take advantage of the situation.

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 Cont’d

 Culture is not inborn; it is learnt as a result of the socialization process. There

occurs a socialization process right from one’s childhood, a process that contin-
ues throughout life. Culture is imparted by this socialization process. This learn-
ing of culture could be of two kinds; viz., enculturation and acculturation.
The process of learning one's native culture is known as enculturation, while the
process of learning a new or a foreign culture is known as acculturation.

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 Cont’d

 We are impacted by our family (family of orientation and family of

procreation), as well as our friends throughout our life. People learn from fam-
ily and friends about what are acceptable and what is not in terms of our values
and beliefs.
 As consumers, it is through our culture learning that we are taught what is re-
garded as a desirable purchase and what is not. For example, in certain cultures,
eating pork and beef is a taboo; thus, when McDonalds go to India, they had to
introduce the chicken burger, instead of the normal beef burger sold in the
US. They could not disregard the vegetarian population of the country and so
introduced the veg-tikki burger. 13
 Cont’d
 Culture is shared. It is accepted and imbibed by all the members of the social
system. In fact, it ties together the people that form a social system. Social insti-
tutions (family), educational institutions (schools, colleges and universities), po-
litical institutions (law, public policy, leaders and government), and religious in-
stitutions (like places of worship, artifacts, and religious leaders) etc., all help in
transmitting this culture to the members of the society.
 As consumers, we are also impacted most by such institutions, and primarily by
mass media. As discussed in the above paragraph, with the advent of satellite
channels, there is growing awareness of other cultures and sub-cultures. An im-
portant role on spread of culture is also through advertisements.
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 Cont’d
 Culture is dynamic in nature, and evolves constantly with time. It adapts itself to
the changing environment. As said above, values, beliefs, customs and traditions
continue to exist as long as they satisfy the needs and wants of the people. Once
they cease to satisfy people’s needs, they change. Thus, culture changes and adapts
to the environment.

 Marketers need to continually assess the environment so as to identify changing

need patterns, and change/modify/adapt existing products and services, and even
come up with new ones. One such example, i.e. dual income households and the
need for eating out, resulting in demand for fast food and restaurants, has already
been discussed above.
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 1.1.2. Components of Culture
 Culture is reflected through the various components that it comprises, viz., val-
ues, language, myths, customs, rituals and laws. These are briefly explained as
follows:
 Values: Values are the beliefs and ideals shared by the people of a society, for
which they have great respect and regard. They could assume both positive
(do’s) and negative (dont’s) connotations, and are indicative of appropriate
thoughts, feelings and acts of behavior.
 Language: Man is a social animal and needs to communicate with others.
Language is used as a means to communicate with people in a social set up. It
is the common language that binds together the people in a social structure.
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 Cont’d
 Myths: Myths are legendary folktales and stories that describe events and oc-
currences, and teach values to society. They are imaginary and fictitious, and
comprise characters that are gods, heroes and common men, ultimately aimed at
giving lessons to the people, with respect to the causes and effects, good and
bad, right and wrong, etc.
 Customs: Customs are habitual practices that formulate the established way of
doing things and reflect culturally accepted patterns of behavior. They reflect
practices that have permanent continuance and are so long established that they
have the force of law; in other words they are conventions.

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 Cont’d
 Rituals: Rituals are prescribed processes and procedures for conduct of religious
or social rites. They are established rites, ceremonies and proceedings that are
symbolic in nature. Rituals are collective in nature, comprising many patterns of
behavior that are interdependent to each other.
 Laws: Laws are principles, rules and regulations that are formulated/sanctioned
by an authority (ruler, government, constitution etc.), and supported/protected by
judicial authority. Their basis can actually be found in the society’s values, cus-
toms, and rituals. Laws are universally applicable across people in a society/coun-
try. They are written collection of rules and regulations to be adhered to by the
people, and non-adherence to which would lead to legal action from the judiciary.
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 2. Sub-cultural Influences
 While culture is defined as the “personality of a society”, (inclusive of language,
customs and traditions, norms and laws, religion, art and music, etc), it is not en-
tirely homogenous in nature. Not all people within a social system, share the same
language, religion, customs and traditions. Every society is composed of smaller
sub-units, homogenous within, and heterogeneous outside, all of which when put
together make a complex society. Such sub-units or sub-groups are known as sub-
cultures; people within sub-cultures possess distinctive sets of values, beliefs, cus-
toms and traditions etc.

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 Cont’d

 For example, while they are all Indians, and their culture is Indian (with a com-
mon national language, Hindi, and common festivals like Diwali), North Indians
are different from South Indians. While North Indians, celebrate Lohri, as a harvest
festival in January, the South Indians celebrate Pongal as their harvest festival at
the same time.

 A single culture can be broken up into various consumer subcultures. A subculture

can be defined as a culture that is not dominant in its society.

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 1.2.1. Types of Sub-culture
 Based on the varying criteria, there can be different types of sub-cultures. The
important sub cultural categories are nationality, geographical location, religion,
race and caste, gender and age. From a marketing perspective, these could also
be discussed as market segments, which need to be studied and assessed carefully
before deciding on a product/service offering and formulating a marketing mix for
a particular segment(s).

 Nationality: Sub-cultures could be based on nationality. While they are all

Asians, the are distinct with respect to culture, and are different in terms of lan-
guage, customs and traditions etc. Thus, they are classified as Indians, Burmese,
Nepalese, and Pakistani etc. 21
 Cont’d
 Geographical location: Within a country, there could be different across geog-
raphy, climatic conditions, regions and terrains, and density of population. Peo-
ple tend to develop regional affinity and identification, and this gets reflected in
the food they eat, clothes they wear, interests they pursue, etc.
 Religion: People also exhibit differences when it comes to the religions that
they belong to. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis etc. are all different
from one another and have different values and beliefs, customs and traditions
etc. As consumers, they make purchase choices and purchase decisions that are
influenced by the dictates of their religious leaders, scriptures, and holy books.

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 Cont’d

 Religion can also have a major impact on consumer behavior. Religion impacts
on the values and behavior of many individuals. It establishes a set of beliefs and
dictates norms of behavior. Religion can impact on an individual consumer’s deci-
sion making on anything from the food they eat, to the clothes they wear.

 Given the number of consumers for whom religion is important, some marketers
have chosen to specifically target these groups with their marketing efforts. Two
key areas where religion could impact marketing activities are promotion and the
product itself.

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 Cont’d
The ‘Fulla’ doll - In the Middle East many parents are concerned by an over-abundance of western
toys. Dolls are of particular concern, especially Barbie, who is often seen dressed in little more than a
bikini. Given the strict standards of dress followed by many Muslims in the Middle East, toys of this na-
ture are simply inappropriate. In response, a company in Egypt manufactured an alternative that would
be acceptable to Muslims. The doll, named ‘Fulla’, is dressed in an Islamic headscarf and Muslim over-
coat and carries a pink felt prayer rug. Launched in 2003, the doll quickly became a hit in Egypt and
then grew in popularity in other Middle Eastern countries.

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 Cont’d

 Race and caste: Culture and its components also vary across race and caste.
Jats, Jaats, Rajputs, Pathans and Yadavs are all different from one another. Such
racial sub-cultures also impact buying behavior and consumption patterns.
 Gender: Because gender roles have an impact on acts of behavior, gender con-
stitutes an important cultural sub-group. Males and females across all cultures
are assigned different traits and characteristics that make them masculine and
feminine. They also perform different roles in society and are two distinct sub-
groups.

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 Cont’d

 The pace of change has been further accelerated with households no longer being
single income households, but turned to dual-income households. The role of
women is no longer restricted to bearing children and managing the home. Women
have started working outside, and are contributing to household income. This has
impacted consumer needs and wants as also the priorities. The impact is evinced on
consumption behavior, where the ‘decider’ role is no longer confined to a single
person, i.e. the man of the family. Today buying decisions are jointly taken by hus-
band and wife.

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 Cont’d

 Age: Infants, kids, teenagers and adolescents, adults and the aged, may all be
looked up as distinct sub-groups. They have different values and beliefs, and all
this impacts upon their priorities in life. Daily lifestyles, activities and interests,
fashion and accessories, food and diet, etc. receive varying priorities across the
various sub-groups.

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 1.3. Social Class
 By social class we refer to the group of people who share equal positions in a
society.
 Social class is defined by parameters like income, education, occupation, etc.
 Within a social class, people share the same values and beliefs and tend to pur-
chase similar kinds of products.
 Their choice of residence, type of holiday, entertainment, leisure all seem to be
alike.
 The knowledge of social class and their consumer behavior is of great value to
a marketer.
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Thank You!

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