Cultural and Social Environment

1. Cultural and Social Environment Sarath A. Nonis

2. What is Culture ? Culture is a set of traditional believes and values that are transmitted and shared in a given society • It is also a total way of life and thinking patterns that are passed from generation to generation • Means many things to many people since culture includes norms, values, customs, art, and more

3. Why should we be studying culture in a marketing class? Cultural orientation reflect the complex interaction of values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Since marketing involves the integration of how consumers behave, we need to learn about other cultures

4. Some Definitions • Values are general beliefs that either define what is right or wrong; or general preferences in a given community. • Belief is an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds to be true about the world. • Attitude is a learned pre-disposition to act or react in a certain way . • Behavior is a form of action.

5. True or False? • Culture describe most people in a society most of the time but not all people all the time. • Accurate stereotypes refer to societal or cultural norms. • What are cultural norms? • Diversity exists both within and among cultures but within a single culture, certain behaviors are favored and others are not.

6. Characteristics of Culture • Prescriptive: what should and what shouldn’t be done is defined • Socially shared: these behaviors are shared by others in the culture. People act to reinforce culture’s prescriptive nature • Facilitate communication: since individuals in a specific culture share common habits, thoughts, and feelings, it makes it easier for them to communicate. However, this can impede communications among different cultures.

7. Characteristics of Culture Cont. • Learned: Socialization or enculturation is when a person absorb or learn the culture in which he or she is raised. Acculturation is learning about a culture he or she was not raised in. • Subjective: different people have different ideas about the same object. • Enduring: since culture is shared and passed along from generation to generation, it is relatively permanent. • Cumulative: adds as time passes. Some old ideas will be discarded too. • Dynamic: Change constantly

8. Geert Hofsted’s Cultural Typology Include three broad dimensions: • Expected Social Behavior (Individualistic or group; Low or high power distance; masculine or feminine). • Man’s search for truth (high or low uncertainty avoidance). • Importance of time (short term or long term orientation).

9. Geert Hofsted’s Cultural Typology Cont. Individualism/Collectivism • Individualism exists when people define themselves as individuals. It implies loosely knit social frameworks in which people are supposed to take care only of themselves and their immediate families. • Collectivism is characterized by tight social frameworks in which people distinguish between their own groups (i.e., relatives, organizations) and other groups.

10. Geert Hofsted’s Cultural Typology Cont. • Power Distance Measures the extent to which less powerful members of organizations accept the unequal distribution of power.

11. Geert Hofsted’s Cultural Typology Cont. Uncertainty Avoidance Measures the extent to which people in a society feel threatened by ambiguous situations and extent to which they try to avoid these situations by providing greater career stability, establish more formal rules, reject deviant ideas and behavior, and accepting the possibility of absolute truths and the attainment of expertise.

12. Geert Hofsted’s Cultural Typology Cont. Masculinity/Femininity Masculinity measure the extent to which the dominant values in society emphasizes assertiveness and acquisition of money things while not particularly emphasizing concern for people. Femininity is the extent to which dominant values in society emphasizes relationships among people, concern for others, and the overall quality of life.

13. Influence of Culture on Consumption

14. Influence of Culture on Thinking Process Self Reference Criterion (SRC) The unconscious reference to ones values, experiences, and knowledge as a basis for decisions. The SRC impedes the ability to assess a foreign market in its true light.

15. Influence of Culture on the Communications Process Cross-Cultural Communications Process • Cross-cultural communications is when a person from one culture sends a message to a person from another culture • Cross-cultural communication continually involves misunderstanding caused by: Cross-cultural  Cross-cultural  Cross-cultural Misperception Misinterpretation Misevaluation (SELECT) (ORGANIZE) (EVALUATE) • Transmitting information accurately when cultural differences are present is very low

16. Communications Process Cont. Cross-cultural Misperception • The stage in which each individual select stimuli from the external environment Selective, learned, inaccurate, and culturally determined

17. Communications Process Cont. Cross-cultural Interpretation • The stage in which an individual organize the observation in a meaningful way to guide behavior (attempts to give meaning to the observation and their relationships). e.g., smoke -------- fire • cloudy -------- rain • Individuals CATEGORIZE to simplify their environments • STEREOTYPING is due to the natural process of categorizing

18. Communications Process Cont. Cross-cultural Evaluation The stage in which each individual evaluate whether something is good or bad, favorable or unfavorable, guilty or not guilty, right or wrong etc.

19. Influence of Culture of Verbal Communications

20. Influence of Culture on Non-Verbal Communication • Language of time • Language of space • Language of things • Language of agreement • Language of friendship • Language of negotiations • Language of religion • Language of superstition • Language of color • Language of gifts

21. Influence of Context on the Communications Process Context of a culture can either be high or low in terms of background information Low Context Cultures • Actual words are used to convey the main point • Messages are explicit and clear • What is said is more important than how it was said or the background information • Pushy/ impatient/ wants to get into business quickly/ position of the person not important; Everything on paper • M/Time Orientation

23. Influence of Context on the Communications Process Cont. High Context Cultures • Actual words may not carry most of the important information • Messages are indirect (not clear or implicit) • Manner in which the message is delivered (background information) is critical • Gets to business slow/ position of the person not important/ mostly verbal (not much is on paper) • P/Time Orientation

24. Influence of Culture on Time Orientation Monochronic Time (M/Time) Time is divided into small units and is used in a linear way. After one project is done, move to the other Polychronic Time (P/Time) • Completion of human transaction is emphasized more than holding to schedules. People work on several fronts simultaneously. Greater involvement with people.

25. Culture and Other Topics • Diffusion Theory • Marketing Implications of Social and Cultural Environment • Cross-cultural Complications and Suggested Solutions • Training in Cross-cultural Competency • Cross-Border Negotiations