examples of cultural factors affecting consumer behaviour

1. Cultural Factors:
 Cultural factors comprise of set of values and ideologies of a particular community or
group of individuals.
 In simpler words, culture is nothing but values of an individual. What an individual
learns from his parents and relatives as a child becomes his culture.
Consumer behaviour:
Consumer behaviour deals with the study of buying behaviour of consumers. Consumer
behaviour helps us understand why and why not an individual purchases goods and
services from the market.
Why understanding consumer behaviour is important?
The goal to study customer behaviour is to improve the conversion and retention rate of
customers. The conversion rate is increased in several ways like improving product quality, by-
product promotion, or better customer experience.
Exactly what to do in order to improve customer conversion and retention rate? That could be found
out by customer behaviour analysis.
This analysis might also bring a complete shift in the marketing strategy. The ultimate goal is to serve
customers’ needs and wants.
Revanth

2. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT FOR MARKETERS TO UNDERSTAND THE CULTURAL IMPACT ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR?
➡ BECAUSE CULTURE SATISFY NEEDS of the people within a society. It offers
order, direction and guidance in all phases of human problem solving.
e.g.: culture provides standards and rules about when to eat, what to eat for breakfast,
lunch and dinner.
➡BECAUSE CULTURE IS LEARNED
BECAUSE OF ACCULTURATION
Acculturation is an important concept for marketers who plan to sell their
products in foreign or multinational markets. Marketers must study the specific
cultures of their potential target markets.
➡ WHEN USING LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS
To communicate effectively with their audiences, marketers must use
appropriate symbols to convey desired products images or characteristics.
WHEN FACILITATING RITUALS

3. Example 1 :- In India, people still value joint family system and family ties. Children in
India are conditioned to stay with their parents till they get married as compared to
foreign countries where children are more independent and leave their parents once
they start earning and living for themselves.
Cultural factors have a significant effect on an individual’s buying decision. Every
individual has different sets of habits, beliefs and principles which he/she develops from
his family status and background. What they see from their childhood becomes their
culture.
Example regarding family:-
When we were kids our parents have taken to store for shopping or else we have seen
products used at our homes. As we all know something which is recommended or used
by someone you trust you will have trust on that product as well.
Hence, Family or close group plays a significant role in shaping the person’s buying
behaviour of a person.
Example 2:- Another best example of cultural factors affecting the consumer behaviour
is MCDONALDS. The same MCDONALDS has different type of burgers in USA, UK and
india. I am sure it will be different in china as well. If MCDONALDS had kept the same
taste in all these countries, It would have failed to expand beyond US borders.
Krishna Kanth

4. Example 3:-
• India’s culture says that we need to wear traditional attire on marriages and this is what
we have been following since years.
•People in north india prefers bread over rice which is a favourite with people in south india
and east india.
•A hindu bride wears red, maroon or a bright color lehenga or sareee whereas a christian
bride wears a white gown on her wedding day. It is against hindu culture to wear white on
auspicious occassions, muslims on the other hand prefer to wear green on important
occassions.
1.Culture: The culture refers to the beliefs, customs, rituals and practice that a
particular group of people follows. As a child grows, he inculcates the buying and
decision-making patterns through his family and the key institutions. The culture
varies from region to region and even from country to country. Such as the sale of
“sarees” and “Lungis” is more in South than the North India. Therefore, the marketer
should carefully study all the different cultures and frame the marketing strategies
accordingly.

5. Akram:
Subculture
Within a cultural group, there exists many subcultures. These subcultural
groups share the same set of beliefs and values. Subcultures can consist of
people from different religion, caste, geographies and nationalities. These
subcultures by itself form a customer segment.
The different sub-cultures forms several market segments whose
needs can be carefully studied by the marketer, and the strategic
marketing decisions can be taken accordingly. Such as the needs of
the people living in metro cities and the ones living in B-grade cities
must be identified before the launch of the marketing campaign.

6. Social Class:
Each and every society across the globe
has the form of social class. The social
class is not just determined by the
income, but also other factors such as
the occupation, family background,
education and residence location.
Social class is important to predict the
consumer behavior.
We often assume 3 general categories
among social classes:
Lower class
Middle class
Upper class
The consumers belonging to these
classes possess different buying
behaviors. Such as an individual
belonging to the upper class buy
those products or services that
advocate his status while the lower
class people buy those products
which satisfy their basic needs.

7. Conclusion:
The influence of culture on consumer behaviour is prefound and if
misunderstood or taken lightly then the product might fail in the new
cultural market. As businesses are expanding, they are entering wider
territories and in many cases, businesses are operating in more then one
country.