2. Cultural and Cross-Cultural Influences
Chapter 12
Cultural and Cross-Cultural Influences
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. What is Culture?
The meanings that are shared by most people in a social group
In a broad sense, cultural meanings include
Common affective reactions
Typical cognitions
Characteristic patterns of behavior

4. What is Culture? cont.
Several issue to consider when analyzing culture
Cultural meanings can be analyzed at different levels
Macro
Subcultures
Social classes
Reference groups
Family influences

5. What is Culture? cont.
The concept of shared or common meaning is critical to understanding culture
Need to consider cultural meaning at a macro social level
A meaning is cultural if many people in a social group share the same basic meaning

6. What is Culture? cont. Cultural meanings are created by people
Construction of cultural meanings is more obvious at the level of smaller groups
Cultural meanings are constantly in motion and can be subject to rapid changes
Social groups differ in the amount of freedom people have to adopt and use certain cultural meanings

7. The Content of Culture The content of culture includes
The beliefs, attitudes, goals, and values held by most people in a society
The meaning of characteristic behaviors, rules, customs, and norms that most people follow

8. The Content of Culture cont.
The meaning of significant aspects of the social and physical environment, including
Major social institutions in a society
Typical physical objects used by people in a society
The goal of cultural analysis is to understand the cultural meanings of these concepts from the point of view of the consumers who create and use them

9. The Content of Culture cont.
Behaviors can have important cultural meanings
Aspects of the social environment can have rich cultural meanings
Marketing strategies may have shared cultural meanings

10. The Content of Culture cont.
Marketers need to understand the cultural meanings of their products and brands
Measuring the content of culture
Content analysis
Ethnographic fieldwork
Measures of values
The core values of American culture
Abstract end goals that people strive to achieve in their lives

11. The Content of Culture cont.

12. The Content of Culture cont.
Changing values in America
Can create problems for marketers
Can create new marketing opportunities
Usually accompanied by changes in behavior

13. Culture as a Process
Model of the cultural process in a highly developed consumer society

14. Culture as a Process cont.
Cultural meaning is present in three locations
Social and physical environments
Products and services
Individual consumers

15. Culture as a Process cont.
The cultural process describes how this cultural meaning is moved about or transferred between these locations by the actions of organizations and by individuals in the society

16. Culture as a Process cont.
Two ways that meaning is transferred in a consumption-oriented society
Marketing strategies are designed to move cultural meanings from the physical and social environments into products and services in an attempt to make them attractive to consumers
Consumers actively seek to acquire these cultural meanings in products in order to establish a desirable personal identity or self-concept

17. Culture as a Process cont.
Moving cultural meanings into products
Advertising
Symbols
Pricing strategies
Design strategies
Distribution strategies

18. Culture as a Process cont.
Cultural meanings in products
Products, stores, and brands express cultural or symbolic meaning
Cultural meanings of products are likely to vary across different societies

19. Culture as a Process cont.
Some cultural meanings in products are obvious to anyone who is familiar with that culture, but other meanings are hidden
Many products contain personal meaning in addition to cultural meanings

20. Culture as a Process cont.
Moving cultural meanings from products into consumers
Rituals are symbolic actions performed by consumers to create, affirm, evoke, or revise certain cultural meanings
Acquisition rituals
Bargaining rituals

21. Culture as a Process cont.
Possession rituals
Product nurturing rituals
Personalizing rituals
Exchange rituals
Grooming rituals
Divestment rituals

22. Culture as a Process cont.
Cultural meanings in consumers
Consumers buy products as a way to acquire cultural meanings to use in establishing their self-identities
Americans have a lot of freedom to create different selves through their choices of lifestyle, environments, and products

23. Culture as a Process cont.
Goods cannot provide all the meanings that consumers need to construct healthy self-concepts
Many people consumer products in an attempt to acquire important life meanings
Most people have favorite possessions that are filled with very important, self-relevant meanings

24. Culture as a Process cont.
Moving meanings to the cultural environment
Meanings in consumers can be transferred to the broad cultural environment through people’s social behavior
Cultural process is portrayed as a continuous and reciprocal movement of meaning between the overall cultural environment, organizations, and individuals in the society

25. Culture as a Process cont.
Marketing implications
Managing cultural meaning
Using celebrity endorsers in ads
Helping consumers obtain cultural meanings

26. Cross-Cultural Influences
Cross-cultural differences
Consumption culture
Self-concept
Similar cross-cultural changes
Materialism
Marketing implications

27. Cross-Cultural Influences cont.
Developing international marketing strategies
Adapting strategy to culture
Standardizing strategy across cultures
Global marketing
Changing the culture
Marketing implications

28. Summary
Examined influences of culture and cross-cultural factors on consumers’ affective responses and cognitions, behaviors, and the physical and social environment
Defined culture
Discussed how marketers can study the content of culture

29. Summary cont.
Identified several important values and lifestyle trends in American culture
Drew some implications for marketing strategies
Presented a model of the cultural process by which cultural meaning is moved between different locations

30. Summary cont.
Examined the influences of cross-cultural differences on consumers
Discussed how marketers might use this knowledge to develop effective international marketing strategies