exercise 2
mely1999
MARChapter14.pptx
Chapter 14: culture
Dr. Jennifer Houston MAR4503
Cultural systems
Our culture determines the overall priorities we attach to different activities and products, and it also helps us decide whether specific products will satisfy these priorities
The relationship between consumer behavior and culture is a two-way street
Culture is a societies personality
It includes both abstract ideas, such as values and ethics, and material objects and services
It’s the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions amount the members of an organization or society
Dimensions of culture
A cultural system consists of these functional areas:
Ecology: the way a system adapts to its habitat; the technology a culture uses to obtain and distribute resources shapes its ecology
Social structure: the way people maintain an orderly social life, including the domestic and political groups that dominate the culture
Ideology: the mental characteristics of a people and the way they relate to their environment and social groups
Worldviews
Ethos
Cultural movement
Styles reflect more fundamental societal trends
A style begins as a risky or unique statement by a relatively small group of people and then spreads as others become aware of it
Styles usually originate as an interplay between the deliberate inventions of creators and are modified by the consumer to suit their own needs
Cultural products travel widely, across countries & continents
Influential people in the media and everyday influencers play a significant role in which items will succeed
Most styles eventually wear out and people move on to newer things
The cultural selection process never stops
When we are looking at purchase options, many possibilities initially compete for adoption
Many possibilities initially compete for adoption, but through the process of collective selection most drop out of the mix on the process of conception to consumption
Cultural movement
A cultural production system (CPS) is the set of individuals and organizations that create and market a cultural product
The structure of a CPS determines the types of products it creates
A CPS has three major subsystems:
A creative subsystem to generate new symbols of products
A managerial subsystem to select, make tangible, produce, and manage the distribution of new symbols and productions
A communications subsystem to give meaning to the new product and provide it with a symbolic set of attributes
Cultural stories and ceremonies
Myths are stories with symbolic elements that represents a cultures ideals
Myths serve four interrelated functions in a culture
Metaphysical – explaining the origins of existence
Cosmological – emphasizes that all components of the universe are part of a single picture
Sociological – maintaining social order because the authorize a social code to follow
Psychological – provide models for personal conflict
Every culture develops stories and ceremonies that help its members make sense of the world
Cultural stories and ceremonies
When we analyze myths, we find that many stories involve binary opposition where two opposing ends of some dimension are in conflict
Often a mediating figure resolves the conflict
People create their own consumer fairy tales, telling stories that include magical agents, donors, and helpers to overcome villains and obstacles as they seek out goods and services in their quest for happy endings
Advertisements sometimes represent the mythic themes we see in our favorite movies, books, and tv shows
Every culture develops stories and ceremonies that help its members make sense of the world
Rituals
Many businesses benefit because they supply ritual artifacts to consumers (such as weddings and birthdays)
We also often follow a ritual script to identify the artifacts we need
Holidays like Christmas & Valentines Day have their own rituals
Many aspects of large rituals, such as weddings, originated for a purpose outside of consumerism and are now deep-seeded in monetary-based rituals
Giving away the bridge turned from a dowry ritual to a celebration ritual
The best man was originally there to make sure the bride wasn’t kidnapped
Throwing rice was a symbol of fertility
A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and are repeated periodically
Gift-giving ritual
In a gift-giving ritual, we procure the perfect object and deliver it to our recipient
The gift-giving ritual proceeds in three distinct stages:
During gestation the giver procures and item to mark some event (structural vs. emergent)
The second stage is presentation or the process of gift exchange where the recipient responds to the gift and the donor evaluates the response
In the reformulation stage, the giver and receiver redefine the bond between them (either looser or tighter)
We live in a culture where there is a reciprocity norm which obliges people to return the gesture of a gift with one of equal value
Experiential gifts often have more value and a higher chance of bonding than material gifts
Rites of passage
Rites of passage are rituals we perform to mark a change in social status
The rite of passage consists of three phases
In the first stage, separation, there is detachment from an original group
In the second stage, liminality, a person is in limbo between statuses
In the aggregation stage, a person returns to society with a new status
Sacred and profane consumption
Sacralization occurs when ordinary objects, events, and even people take on sacred meaning
Objectification occurs when we attribute sacred qualities to mundane items
One way that this process occurs is via contamination, whereby objects we associate with sacred events or people become sacred in their own right
Collecting and hoarding refers to our acquisition and reluctance to disregard objects
Sacred consumption occurs when we set apart objects and events from normal activities and treat them with respect or awe
Profane consumption, in contrast, describes objects and events that are ordinary and unremarkable
Domains of sacred consumption
Sacred places
A society sets apart sacred places because they have religious or mystical significance
Some places start out as profane, but we endow them with sacred qualities
In many countries, home is one of the most sacred places
Sacred people
We idolize sacred people as we set them apart from the masses
Sacred events
Sometimes sacred events are religious, but sometimes sacred events just refer to how the devotees of anything (a sport, a celebrity) express this devotion
The diffusion of innovations
Some people are quick to adopt, but some are laggards or late adopters
Even though innovators are only about 2.5 of the population, marketers are eager to identify them
Early adopters share many of the same characteristics as innovators
Diffusion of innovations refers to the process whereby a new product, service, or idea spreads through a population
An innovation is any product or service that consumers perceive to be new
Our adoption of an innovation resembles the decision-making sequence – we move through the stages of awareness, information search, evaluation, trial, and adoption
What determines if an innovation will diffuse?
Compatibility – the innovation should be compatible with consumers’ lifestyles
Trialability – trying something out first makes us more comfortable making decisions
Complexity – the product should be low in complexity and easy to understand
Observability – innovations that are readily apparent are more likely to spread because we learn about them more easily
Relative advantage – most importantly, the product should offer relative advantages over alternatives
There’s three types of innovations with varying levels of disruption
Continuous innovation
Dynamically continuous innovation
Discontinuous innovaction
The fashion system
Fashion Is the process of social diffusion by which some groups of consumers adopt new style
Sociologically, fashion follows a trickle-down theory where dominant styles start in the upper class and trickle down
There can also be trickle-across and trickle-up effects
A classic is a fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle as opposed to a fad, which is short-lived
The fashion system includes all the people and organizations that create symbolic meanings and transfer those meanings to cultural goods
Fashion is not just related to clothing – it processes affect all types of cultural phenomena
Global consumer culture
Many multinational firms are household names, widely recognized by literally billons of people
The dominance of these marketing powerhouses creates a global consumer culture that unites people around the world by their common devotion to brand-name consumer goods
Global consumer culture
The most widely used measure of global culture is the Hofstede Dimensions of Natural culture
Power distance
Individualism vs. collectivism
Masculinity vs. femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long-term orientation
Indulgence vs. restraint
