Consumer behavior is influenced by reference groups, social class, culture, and subcultures. [REFERENCE GROUPS] such as friends, celebrities, coworkers can influence purchasing decisions. [SOCIAL CLASS] is a hierarchy that impacts status and consumption patterns. [CULTURE] is learned and influences symbols, rituals, and sharing beliefs. [SUBCULTURES] like age, religion, region also shape behavior. Cross-cultural analysis examines psychological and social similarities and differences between nations to effectively target foreign consumers.

1. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Module-4
• Influence of reference group
• Impact of social class, culture, sub
culture, and cross cultural factors on
CB
Lekshmi S Nair
MBA/50026/11

2. INFLUENCE OF
REFERENCE GROUP

3. Reference Groups
Any one can be influence by other peoples specially whom are
coming in contact with or observe
A person or group that serves as a point of comparison (or
reference) for an individual in the formation of either general
or specific values, attitudes, or behavior that called (Reference
group )

4. Types of Reference Groups

5. • Its are typically called informal group becous they
are unstructured and lack specific authority levels
• Friends fulfill a wide range of needs they provide
companiship, security and opportunity to discuss
problems that an individual may be reluctant to
discuss with family members

6. • Tow or more peoples who shop together , whether
for food, clothing or simply to pass the time , can
be called (Shopping groups )
• A special type of shopping group is the in home
shopping party, which typically consist of a group
that gathers to gathers in the home of a friend to
attend a party devoted to demonstrating and
evaluating a specific line of products.

7. • Celebrities can be a powerful force in creating
interest or actions with regards to purchasing or
using selected goods and services, its may be
based on admiration, aspiration, empathy or
recognition,
• There are five major types of appeals which market
common usage like (celebrity, expert, common-
man, executive and employee )

8. • The sheet amount of time that people spend at
their jobs frequently more than 35 hours a week
those can be easily influence on each others
behavior.
• The both formal and informal groups can be
influence the consumer behavior , the formal group
consist of individual who work together as pare of
team and those they have sustained opportunity to
influence each others,

10. SOCIAL CLASS
Th e d i v i s i o n o f
me mb e r s o f a s o c i e t y
i n t o a h i e r a r c h y o f
d i s t i n c t s t a t u s
c l a s s e s , s o t h a t
me mb e r s o f e a c h c l a s s
h a v e e i t h e r h i g h e r o r
l o we r s t a t u s t h a n
me mb e r s o f o t h e r

11. CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CLASS
• Is hierarchical
• Is a natural form of segmentation
• Provides a frame of reference for
consumer behaviour
• Reflects a person’s relative social
status

12. SOCIAL CLASS AND SOCIAL STATUS
Status is frequently thought of as the
relative rankings of members of each
social class
• wealth
• power
• prestige

13. SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
States that individuals compare their
own possessions against those of others
to determine their relative social
standing.

14. SOCIAL CLASS MEASUREMENT
• Subjective Measures: individuals are asked to
estimate their own social-class positions
• Reputational Measures: informants make judgments
concerning the social-class membership of others
within the community
• Objective Measures: individuals answer specific
socioeconomic questions and then are categorized
according to answers

16. OBJECTIVE MEASURES
• Single-variable  Composite-variable
indexes indexes
• Occupation – Index of Status
• Education Characteristics
• Income – Socioeconomic
Status Score

17. INDEX OF STATUS CHARACTERISTICS
(ISC)
A classic composite measure of social class
that combines occupation, source of
income, house type / quality of
neighborhood into a single weighted index of
social class standing.

18. SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS SCORE
(SES)
A multivariable social class measure used by
the United States Bureau of the Census that
combines occupational status, family
income, and educational attainment into a
single measure of social class standing.

23. SOCIAL CLASS AND MARKETING
STRATEGY
• Clothing, Fashion, and Shopping
• Where one shops
• External point of identification
• The Pursuit of Leisure
• Type of leisure activities differ

24. • Saving, Spending, and Credit
• Level of immediate gratification sought varies
• Responses to marketing
communication
• Upper classes have a broader and more general view of
the world
• Regional variations in language rise as we move down the
social ladder
• Exposure to media varies by social class

25. LIMITATIONS
• Social class is more difficult to measure than income
• Many purchase behaviours are related more to
income than social class
• Consumers often use expected social class for their
consumption patterns
• Dual incomes have changed consumption patterns
• Individual dimensions of social class are sometimes
better predictors of consumer behaviour

26. CULTURAL INFLUENCE
ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

27. Th e s u m t o t a l o f
l e a r n e d b e l i e f s ,
v a l u e s , a n d c u s t o ms
t h a t s e r v e t o
r e g u l a t e t h e
c o n s u me r b e h a v i o r o f
me mb e r s o f a

28. CULTURE IS LEARNED
• Enculturation and acculturation
• Language and symbols
• Ritual
• Sharing of culture

29. • Enculturation
• The learning of one’s own culture
• Acculturation
• The learning of a new or foreign
culture

30. LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS
• Without a common language shared
meaning could not exist
• Marketers must choose appropriate
symbols in advertising
• Marketers can use “known” symbols for
associations

32. RITUAL
• A ritual is a type of symbolic activity
consisting of a series of steps
• Rituals extend over the human life cycle
• Marketers realize that rituals often involve
products

33. RITUAL
SELECTED RITUALS TYPICAL ARTIFACTS
Wedding White gown (something old, something new,
something borrowed, something blue)
Birth of child U.S. Savings Bond, silver baby spoon
Birthday Card, present, cake with candles
50th Wedding anniversary Catered party, card and gift, display of photos of the
couple’s life together
Graduation Pen, U.S. Savings Bond, card, wristwatch
Valentine’s Day Candy, card, flowers
New Year’s Eve Champagne, party, fancy dress
Thanksgiving Prepare a turkey meal for family and friends

34. SHARING OF CULTURE
• To be a cultural characteristic, a belief,
value, or practice must be shared by a
significant portion of the society
• Culture is transferred through family, schools,
houses of worship, and media

35. THE SOUTH KOREAN DIAPER COMPANY GOOD-NITES
SPOOFED DAVID BECKHAM’S SEXY ARMANI ADS

36. THE MEASUREMENT OF CULTURE
• Content Analysis
• Consumer Fieldwork
• Value Measurement Instruments

37. A method for
systematically analyzing
the content of verbal
and/or pictorial
communication. The
CONTENT method is frequently used
ANALYSIS to determine prevailing
social values of a society.

38. A cultural measurement
technique that takes place
within a natural
FIELD environment that focuses
OBSERVATION on observing behavior

39. CHARACTERISTICS OF FIELD
OBSERVATION
• Takes place within a natural environment
• Performed sometimes without the subject’s
awareness
• Focuses on observation of behavior

40. Researchers who
participate in the
environment that they are
studying without
PARTICIPANT notifying those who are
OBSERVERS
being observed

41. VALUE MEASUREMENT SURVEY
INSTRUMENTS
• Rokeach Value Survey (RVS)
• A self-administered inventory consisting of eighteen
“terminal” values (i.e., personal goals) and eighteen
“instrumental” values (i.e., ways of reaching personal
goals)
• List of Values (LOV)
• A value measurement instrument that asks consumers
to identify their two most important values from a nine-
value list that is based on the terminal values of the
Rokeach Value Survey
• Values and Lifestyles (VALS)
• A value measurement based on two categories: self-
definition and resources

42. IMPACT OF SUBCULTURE
FACTORS ON CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR

43. WHAT IS SUBCULTURE????
• Subculture is defined, as a distinct cultural group
that exists as an identifiable segment within a
larger, more complex society.
• Each subculture has its own unique traits.
• Sub cultural analysis enables the marketing manager
to focus on sizable and natural market segments.

44. TYPES OF SUB CULTURE
• NATIONALITY SUBCULTURES
It’s a composition of citizens who come from
different nationalities or belong to different races.
Subcultures tend to vary in their values, aspiration
and beliefs which get reflected in their consumption
priorities, spend save patterns, purchase behavior,
social mores and customs etc.

45. • RELIGIOUS SUBCULTURES
Most societies of the world today consist of people
belonging to different religions, which may differ in
their beliefs, values and customs.
Consumer behavior is directly affected by religion in
terms of products that are symbolically and
ritualistically associated with the celebration of
various religious holidays.

46. • GEOGRAPHIC AND REGIONAL SUBCULTURES
They take into account of geographical and climatic
condition which displays the regional differences that
are distinct enough to enable marketer to identify a
country as consisting of different regional
subcultures.
Of special significance to the marketer are the
various food preferences of these geographical
regional subculture and the languages spoken in
different regions.

47. Geographical subcultures also result in different
consumption patterns in clothing, housing patterns
and food habits on account of climatic conditions.
Example: Cottons may be the most preferred in North
West India, silk materials in South, Woolen cloths
have a very low priority in coastal regions.

48. • AGE SUBCULTURES
Its explains about the stages in family life cycle(culture)
and understands how consumption priorities change as
the age pattern of the family changes.
Age is a basis of identifying different sub cultural
identities - youth market and the elderly market.
The youth market (14-24) is important to marketers
not only because it is a growing and profitable
segment but also because consumption preference
found at this age are likely to continue for a long
time.

49. The youth market is distinctive enough in terms of its
spending patterns, demographics, psycholography,
profiles etc.
The youth market differs significantly from the
elderly market in term of its norms, purchase
preferences, information sources used, media habits
and preferences and to an extent values and beliefs, to
constitute a sub cultural segment for the marketers.

50. The `Elderly Market' constitute the 50 plus Market
segment.
In subculture segment term, this segment has been
found to display value orientation which are more
stable, have identified shopping patterns and store
preferences, and are a very attractive market for home
improvement, investment, insurance, health services
and home equipment enabling convenience in living.
Though they tend to view advertising as a less reliable
source of information, their media habits are more
stable to enable the marketers to carve out
communication positioning better.

51. GENDER AS A SUBCULTURE
Men and women vary in terms of dominant traits
they posses. For instance, aggressiveness and
competitiveness often were considered traditional
masculine traits ,whereas neatness, tactfulness,
gentleness, and talkativeness were considered
traditional feminine traits.
In terms of role differences, women have historically
been cast as homemakers with responsibility for
child-care and men as the providers or bread earners.

52. SUB CULTURAL INTERACTION
• All consumers are simultaneously members of more
than one sub cultural segment this can be viewed as
sub cultural interaction.
• Marketers should strive to understand how multiple
sub cultural memberships interact to influence target
consumers relevant consumption behavior.
• Promotional strategy should not be limited to a single
sub cultural membership

53. CROSS CULTURE INFLUENCE
• A Broad groups of consumers having different values
that distinguish them from society as a whole.
Cross Culture Marketing- defined as "the effort to
determine to what extent the consumers of two or
more nations are similar or different. This will
facilitate marketers to understand the psychological,
social and cultural aspects of foreign consumers they
wish to target, so as to design effective marketing
strategies for each of the specific national markets
involved."

54. PROBLEMS IN CROSS CULTURAL
MARKETING
Problems related to product selection: The marketer
going for cross cultural marketing has to select the market
not on the basis of age or income, but by using the real
motivating factors that prompt them to accept or reject
products.
Problems related to promotion/marketing
communication
Problems related to pricing: The marketer has to adjust
his pricing policies according to the local economic
conditions and customs.
Problems related to selection of distribution channels

55. CROSS-CULTURAL CONSUMER
ANALYSIS
Cross-cultural consumer analysis can be defined-
as the effort to determine to what extent the
consumers of two or more nations are similar or
different.
Such analysis can provide marketers with an
understanding of the psychological, social, and
cultural characteristics of the foreign consumers
they wish to target, so that they can design
effective marketing strategies for the specific
national..