Decision Making in Marketing Lecture 2, Chapter 12/13/14 - Cultural Characteristics

Culture

Characteristics and knowledge of particular group of people. Encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

Adopted through socialization

What does culture shape?

Norms = Collective decision about what is appropriate behavior

(Core) Values = What is good and bad?

Behavior = Words and actions which are apparent to the casual observer

Interpretations = How we feel the core values should be reflected in situations in daily life

What is step of Consumer Decision-Making Process is affected by culture?

Need-Recognition: The consumer realizes they have a need or problem.

How does culture influence marketing? Ethnic Targeting

Marketers group people based on demographics, throwing them all in the same pot —> Simplification to cluster people around those demographics

More specific measures need Value Questionnaires —> Targeting sub-groups is costly and might sometimes harm your brand

Social Class

A status hierarchy in which individuals and groups are classified on the basis of prestige acquired through economic succes and wealth.

Objective indicators: Income, ownership, job
Subjective indicators: Own opinion (how you like the way someone speaks)

Social Class - Marketing

• Social class is a natural form of segmenting consumers
  

• Social classes differ in terms of

  • Distributional channels and promotional efforts that can reach them

  • Product attributes they care about/benefits they seek out

  • Norms and values

—> Need to match marketing mix to social class

Social Mobility

The degree to which social status can change within a culture

Upward social mobility = People rise in status
Downward social mobility = People fall in social status
Horizontal social mobility = Change in social situation that does not affect status

Expressed social status vs Actual social status

Expressed and actual social status is not the same

• There are people who have high status need + high income who show off their money

• There are also people who have low status need + high income who consume premium goods but quietly without showing off

• And there are skeere people who have high status need + low income that buy counterfeits (nep merk) to show off.

Conformity

The tendency to behave as the group behaves

Brand-choice congruence

The likelihood that consumers will buy what others in their group buy

Compliance

Doing what someone explicitly asks you to do

Reactence

Doing the opposite of what the group wants us to do

Foot-in-the-door technique

Technique designed to induce compliance by getting an individual to agree first to a small favor, then to a larger one, etc.

Door-in-the-face technique

Technique designed to induce compliance by first asking an individual to comply with a very large request, then a smaller more reasonable request

Even-a-penny-will-help technique

Technique designed to induce compliance by asking individuals to do a very small favor (so small that it almost does not qualify as a favor)

Informational influence

The extent to which sources influence consumers simply by providing information

Consumer socialization

The process by which we learn to become consumers (value of money, spending vs saving)

Valence

Whether information about something is good or bad
Positive valence = good
Negative valence = bad

Viral marketing

Rapid spread of brand information among a population of people stimulated by brands, goal is to go viral. (Tiktok)

Tie-strength

The extent to which a close, intimate relationship connects people

Generational Cohort Theory

Theory that specifies that independent of age and period, generations share similar defining life events, and therefore long-lasting values and patterns of behavior.

Gender

Behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex

Sex

A person’s biological sex at birth

Gender identity

A person’s physchological sense of their gender

Communal goals

Goals that emphasize affiliation and fostering harmonious relations with others

Sexual orientation

Hetero, gay, non-binair etc.

Clustering

A statistical technique that groups consumers based on their common characteristics, such as demographics

Acculturation

Process of change in values, beliefs, behaviors, and identities of cultural groups

Bicultural consumers

These consumers identify with their cultural heritage and with their host culture (Chinees en NL)

Multicultural marketing

Marketing tactics that appeal to a variety of cultural groups at the same time

Accomodation

The more effort a source puts into communicating with a group, the greater the response by members an the more positive feelings

Trickle-down consumption

When products consumed by upper classes are adopted by lower classes

Trickle-up consumption

When products consumed by lower classes are adopted by upper classes

Trick-across consumption

When products are adopted by all social classes

Socioeconomics status SES

A consumer’s status in society compared and measured with others’

Subjective social status SSS

A consumer’s perceived relative social status in society

Conspicuous consumption

Buying and displaying services and products to show off their high status

Conspicuous compassion

Publicly donating to charity to signal one’s virtue (high moral)

Conspicuous waste

Visibly buying products and services that one never uses

Parody display

When status symbols start in the lower social classes and move upward.

Fraudulent symbol

Products/brands that become so widely adopted that they lose their status.

Compensatory consumption

Buying products to compensate frustrations or difficulties in life.

Psychographics

Description of consumers based on their psychological and behavioral characteristics, specifically, their personal values, personality traits, and lifestyles. Values, personality, and lifestyles

Value conflict

When a particular behavior is consistent with one or more of their core values but inconsistent with one or more of their other core values.

Terminal values

The desired end states such as equality and pleasure.

Instrumental values

Values that are needed to attain the desired end states.

Hedonism

The principle of pleasure seeking. Searching for gooods, services, experiences that make life enjoyable.

Value segmentation

Grouping consumers by their shared values and customizing marketing offeres based on these values

Means-end chain analysis

Describes how attributes of products and services link to the values of consumers

Rokeach Value Surves RVS

Survey that measures instrumental and terminal values proposed by psychologist Milton Rokeach

Big Five personality traits

Personality = Thinking and behavior that differentiate people from each other

Locus of control

How much control a person believes they have over the events in their life.

Political orientation

Set of beliefs that people have about the proper order of society and how it can be achieved