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Chapter 11

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Cultural Influences on
Consumer Behavior

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CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR, 8e
Michael Solomon

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Understanding Culture

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• Culture: the accumulation of shared meanings,
rituals, norms, and traditions among members

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• Culture is the lens through which we view products
• One‟s culture determines product priorities and

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mandates a product‟s success/failure

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Discussion
describe its personality traits?

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• If your culture were a person, how would you

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• Now, select another culture you’re familiar with. How

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would those personality traits differ from your own?

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Understanding Culture (cont.)

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• Products can reflect underlying cultural processes
of a particular period:

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• The TV dinner for the United States
• Cosmetics made of natural materials without animal


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testing
Pastel carrying cases for condoms

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• Cultural system function areas:

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• Ecology: the way a system adapts to its habitat
• Social structure: the way in which social life is

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maintained
Ideology: mental characteristics of a people and the
way in which they relate to each other

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Understanding Culture (cont.)
Way members perceive differences in power
when they form interpersonal relationships

Uncertainty
Avoidance

Degree to which people feel threatened by
ambiguous situations

Individualism
versus
Collectivism

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Degree to which sex roles are clearly delineated

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Masculine
versus
Feminine

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Power
Distance

Extent to which culture values the welfare of the
individual versus that of the group

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Understanding Culture (cont.)

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Norms: rules dictating what is right or wrong

• Enacted norms: explicitly decided on (e.g., green

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light equals “go”)

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• Crescive norms: embedded in a culture and

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include:
• Customs: norms handed down from the past that
control basic behavior
• Mores: custom with a strong moral overtone

• Conventions: norms regarding the conduct of
everyday life

• All three crescive norms combine to define a
culturally appropriate behavior
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Discussion

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• When you go out on a first date, identify the set of
crescive norms that are operating.

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• Describe specific behaviors each person performs
that make it clear he or she is on a first date.

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• What products and services are affected by these

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norms?

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• Every culture develops

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practices that help members
make sense of the world

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Myths and Rituals

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• Other cultures‟ myths/rituals

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can seem bizarre

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• “Magical” products and interest

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in occult tend to be popular
when members of a society feel
overwhelmed and powerless
• Example: Luckysurf.com free
lottery site


 Click photo for
Luckysurf.com

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Myths
Myth: a story containing symbolic elements that
represent the shared emotions/ideals of a culture

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• Conflict between opposing forces
• Outcome is moral guide for people
• Reduces anxiety

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Marketers create own myths:

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• McDonald‟s golden arches = sanctuary to

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Americans around the world

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• Startup myths for Nike, Apple Computer

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Functions and Structure of Myths

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• Myths serve four interrelated functions in a culture:

Help explain origins of existence

Cosmological

Emphasize that all components of the
universe are part of a single picture

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Sociological

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Metaphysical

Psychological


Maintain social order by authorizing a
social code to be followed by members of a
culture
Provide models for personal conduct

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Myths Abound in Modern Popular Culture

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• Myths are often found in comic books, movies,
holidays, and commercials

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• Consumer fairy tales: Disney weddings
• Monomyths: a myth that is common to many

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cultures (e.g., Spiderman and Superman)

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• Many movies/commercials present characters and

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plot structures that follow mythic patterns
• Gone With the Wind
• E.T.: The Extraterrestrial
• Star Trek

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Rituals

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• Rituals: sets of multiple,

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symbolic behaviors that occur
in a fixed sequence and that
tend to be repeated periodically

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• Many consumer activities are

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ritualistic
• Trips to Starbucks
• “Pulling” the perfect pint of
Guinness


• College campus rituals
• Tailgating at football games
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Rituals (cont.)

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• Businesses supply ritual

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artifacts (items needed to
perform rituals) to consumers
• Wedding rice, birthday
candles, diplomas, online
gift registries

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 Click photo for
Weddingchannel.com

• Consumers often employ a
ritual script
• Graduation programs,
etiquette books

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Types of Ritual Experience


Ritual Type

Examples

Cosmology

Religious

Cultural Values

Rites of passage
Cultural

Graduation, holidays, Super
Bowl

Group Learning

Civic

Parades, elections

Group

Fraternity initiation, office
luncheons

Family

Mealtimes, bedtimes, Christmas


Personal

Grooming, household rituals

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Primary Behavior
Source

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Baptism, meditation

Individual Aims and
Emotions


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Table 16.1
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All consumers have private
grooming rituals

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public self (or back again)

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• Aid transition from private to

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Grooming Rituals

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• Inspires confidence, cleanses

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body of dirt

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• Before-and-after phenomenon

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Private/public and work/leisure
personal rituals

• Beauty rituals reflect
transformation from natural state
to social world or vice versa
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Gift-Giving Rituals

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• Gift-giving ritual: consumers procure the perfect

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object, meticulously remove price tag, carefully wrap
it, then deliver it to recipient

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• Gift giving is a form of:
• Economic exchange
• Symbolic exchange
• Social expression
• Every culture prescribes certain occasions and

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ceremonies for giving gifts

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Gift-Giving Rituals (cont.)

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• Stages of gift-giving ritual
• Gestation: giver is motivated by an event to

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procure a gift
• Structural event: prescribed by culture (e.g.,
Christmas)
• Emergent event: more personal
• Presentation: process of gift exchange when
recipient responds to gift and donor evaluates
response
• Reformulation: giver and receiver adjust the bond
between them
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Gift-Giving Rituals (cont.)

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• Japanese gift-giving rituals
• Symbolic meaning of gift:

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duty to others in social group
• Giri: giving is moral
imperative
• Kosai: reciprocal gift-giving
obligations to
relatives/friends

• Self-gifts
• Socially acceptable way to
reward ourselves

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Discussion

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• Have you ever given yourself a gift?
• If so, why did you do it and how did you decide what

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to get?


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Holiday Rituals

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• Holidays are based on a myth with a character at

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center of story
• Consumers perform rituals unique to those
occasions

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• Marketers find ways to encourage gift giving
• Businesses invent new occasions to capitalize on


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need for cards/ritual artifacts
• Secretaries‟ Day and Grandparents‟ Day

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• Retailers elevate minor holidays to major ones to
provide merchandising opportunities
• Cinco de Mayo
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Christmas

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• Myths/rituals: Santa‟s adventures and mistletoe
• Began as a publicly rowdy celebration
• Santa = champion of materialism
• Appears in stores and shopping malls
• Socializes children to expect a reward when they

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are good (we get what we deserve)

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Halloween


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• Its rituals are unusual:
• Involves nonfamily members
• Celebrates evil and death
• Encourages “tricks” for treats
• Halloween is an antifestival: distorts symbols

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associated with other holidays
• Witch = inverted mother figure; resurrection of
ghosts; evil jack-o-lantern
• We act out uncharacteristic behaviors and try on

new roles

• Second most popular party night for adults
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Rites of Passage

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• Rites of passage: special times marked by a change

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in social status
• Puberty, death, divorce, dating, bar/bat mitzvah

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• Practices vary across cultures but are rich in

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symbolic value
• Funeral rituals negotiate social identities of
deceased through expression of
material/symbolic wealth

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Rites of Passage (cont.)
Three phases:

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• Separation: individual is detached from his original


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group
• Example: college freshman leaves home

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• Liminality: person is literally between statuses
• New freshman tries to figure out status during

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orientation week

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• Aggregation: person re-enters society after rite of
passage is complete
• Student returns home for winter break as college
“veteran”
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Discussion

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• Describe the three stages of the rite of passage
associated with graduating from college

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• “Fraternity hazing is just a natural rite of passage

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that should not be prohibited by universities.” Do
you agree?

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