Social and Cultural Environments

1. Social and Cultural Environments

2. This chapter includes: Society, Culture, and Consumer Culture Ethnocentricity and Self-Reference Criterion Hall’s Theory Maslow’s Hierarchy Hofstede’s Cultural Typology Diffusion Theory Introduction African Market

3. “This can happen to anyone, anywhere, at anytime if you don’t understand other people’s culture.” Finn Hansen, Head of international operations at Arla Foods referring to the boycott of Danish products by Muslims and the political debacle that followed the publication of images of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Introduction

4. Task of Global Marketers • Study and understand the cultures of countries in which they will be doing business • Understand how an unconscious reference to their own cultural values, or self-reference criterion, may influence their perception of the market • Incorporate this understanding into the marketing planning process

5. Society, Culture, and Global Consumer Culture • Culture – ways of living, built up by a group of human beings, that are transmitted from one generation to another • Culture is acted out in social institutions • Culture has both conscious and unconscious values, ideas and attitudes • Culture is both material/physical (clothing and tools) and nonmaterial/nonphysical (religion, attitudes, beliefs, and values)

6. Society, Culture, and Global Consumer Culture “Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from those of another.” Geert Hofstede A nation, an ethnic group, a gender group, an organization, or a family may be considered as a category.

7. Social Institutions • Family • Education • Religion • Government • Business These institutions function to reinforce cultural norms

8. Physical components of culture Clothing Tools Decorative art Body adornment Homes Subjective or abstract culture Religion Perceptions Attitudes Beliefs Values Material and Nonmaterial Culture

9. Society, Culture, and Global Consumer Culture • Global consumer cultures are emerging • Persons who share meaningful sets of consumption-related symbols • Pub culture, coffee culture, fast-food culture, credit card culture • Primarily the product of a technologically interconnected world • Internet • Satellite TV • Cell phones

10. Attitudes, Beliefs and Values • Attitude - learned tendency to respond in a consistent way to a given object or entity • Belief - an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual holds to be true about the world • Value - enduring belief or feeling that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable to another mode of conduct

11. The sense of what is beautiful and what is not beautiful What represents good taste as opposed to tastelessness Visual– embodied in the color or shape of a product, label, or package Styles – various degrees of complexity, for example are perceived differently around the world Aesthetics

12. What do you associate Aesthetics and Color with“red”? with white”? • Blood, wine-making,activity, heat, vibrancy in somecountries, • Weddings in some Asian cultures but... • Poorly received in African countries with“gray”? • Purity, cleanliness in western parts but... • Death in parts of Asia • Inexpensive in Japan and China, • but … • high quality and expensive in the U.S.

13. Dietary Preferences • Domino’s Pizza pulled out of Italy because its products were seen as “too American” with bold tomato sauce and heavy toppings. • Subway had to educate Indians about the benefits of sandwiches because they do not normally eat bread.

14. Language and Communication • Spoken or verbal cues • Nonverbal cues or body language

15. Language and Communication

16. Phonology in action • Colgate – a Spanish command that means ‘go hang yourself’ • Whirlpool – consumers in Italy, France and Germany had trouble in pronouncing the name • Diesel – one of the few words pronounced the same in most languages • Technology implications for sending Text messages by mobile phones • Example: phonetic pronounciation of some numerical sequences in Korea: • 8282 means ‘hurry up’ • 7170 means ‘close friend’ • 4 5683 968 means ‘I Love You’

17. Speaking English around the Globe There are more people who speak English as a foreign language than native speakers 85% of European teens study English Sony, Nokia, Matsushita require managers to speak English Nonverbal Communication Westerners tend to be verbal; Asians value nonverbal communication In Japan, bowing has many nuances In the Mideast, Westerners should not show the soles of shoes or pass documents with the left hand Language and Communication

18. Language and Communication • Verbal Cues • Nonverbal cues or body language • Shrug • Head wobble - In Western countries, "Yes, definitely!" is communicated by nodding the head multiple times. In South Asia, it is communicated by a single strong head-wobble.

19. Marketing’s Impact on Culture • Universal aspects of the cultural environment represent opportunities to standardize elements of a marketing program • Increasing travel and improved communications have contributed to a convergence of tastes and preferences in a number of product categories

20. Controversy Surrounding Marketing’s Impact on Culture • “McDonaldization of Culture” Eating is at the heart of most cultures and for many it is something on which much time, attention and money are lavished. In attempting to alter the way people eat, McDonaldization poses a profound threat to the entire cultural complex of many societies. George Ritzer

21. Controversy Surrounding Marketing’s Impact on Culture • Protest against the opening of McDonald’s in Rome led to the establishment of the Slow Food movement • “Slow Food” movement: has 70,000 members in 35 countries • “Slow food is about the idea that things should not taste the same everywhere”

22. High Context Information resides in context Emphasis on background, basic values, societal status Less emphasis on legal paperwork Focus on personal reputation Saudi Arabia, Japan Low Context Messages are explicit and specific Words carry all information Reliance on legal paperwork Focus on non-personal documentation of credibility Switzerland, U.S., Germany High- and Low-Context Cultures

23. High- and Low-Context Cultures

24. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Power Distance • Individualism/Collectivism • Masculinity • Uncertainty Avoidance • Long-term Orientation

25. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Power Distanceğthe extent to which the less powerful members of a society accept - even expect- power to be distributed unequally (can be differences in the levels of power) • Latin American and Arab nations are ranked the highest in this category; Scandinavian and Germanic speaking countries the least. • Countries with high power distance rating are often characterized by a high rate of political violence.

26. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Individualism / Collectivismğa reflection of the degree to which individuals in asociety are integrated into groups • the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves, or alternatively act predominantly as a member of the group or organization. • Latin American cultures rank the lowest in this category, while U.S.A. is the most individualistic culture.

27. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Masculinity/ Femininityğrefers to the value placed on traditionally male or female values. • Masculinityğa society in which men are expected to be assertive, competitive, and concerned with material success and the accumulation of wealth, and women fulfill the role of nurturer and are concerned with issues such as the welfare of children. • Femininityğdescribes a society in which the socialroles of men and women overlap; feminine cultures place more value on relationships and quality of life. • Japanis considered by Hofstede to be the most "masculine" culture, Swedenthe most "feminine“. The U.S. and UK are moderately masculine.

28. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Uncertainty Avoidanceğthe extent to which the members of a society are uncomfortable with unclear, ambiguous, or unstructured situations • Reflects the extent to which a society attempts to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. • Cultures that scored high in uncertainty avoidance prefer rules (e.g. about religion and food) and structured circumstances, and employees tend to remain longer with their present employer. • Mediterranean cultures and Japanrank the highest in this category.

29. Hofstede’s Cultural Typology • Long-term Orientation (vs. short-term orientation) ğconcerning “a society’s search for virtue”, rather than a search for truth. • Describes a society's "time horizon", or the importance attached to the future vs.the past and present & assesses the sense of immediacy within a culture, whether gratification should be immediate or deferred. • In long term oriented societies, thrift and perseverance are valued more; in short term oriented societies, respect for tradition and reciprocation of gifts and favors are valued more. • Eastern nations tend to score especially high here, with Western nations scoring low and the less developed nations very low; • Chinascored highest and Pakistan lowest.

30. http://www.geert-hofstede.com

32. Self-Reference Criterion and Perception • Unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values; creates cultural myopia • How to Reduce Cultural Myopia: • Define the problem or goal in terms of home country cultural traits • Define the problem in terms of host-country cultural traits; make no value judgments • Isolate the SRC influence and examine it • Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve for the host country situation

33. Diffusion Theory: The Adoption Process • The mental stages through which an individual passes from the time of his or her first knowledge of an innovation to the time of product adoption or purchase • Awareness • Interest • Evaluation • Trial • Adoption

34. Diffusion Theory:Characteristics of Innovations • Innovation is something new; five factors that affect the rate at which innovations are adopted include: • Relative advantage • Compatibility • Complexity • Divisibility • Communicability

35. Diffusion Theory:Adopter Categories

36. Marketing Implications • Cultural factors must be considered when marketing consumer and industrial products • Environmental sensitivity reflects the extent to which products must be adapted to the culture-specific needs of different national markets

37. Environmental Sensitivity

38. Environmental Sensitivity • Independent of social class and income, culture is a significant influence on consumption and purchasing • Food is the most culturally-sensitive category of consumer goods • Dehydrated Knorr Soups did not gain popularity in the U.S. market that preferred canned soups • Starbucks overcame cultural barriers in Great Britain and had 466 outlets by 2005