CULTURE is the ‘prism’ through which people view products and tryto make sense of their own and other people’s consumer behavior.

1. Consumer
Behavior culture,
Ethnic and
Subculture
Paramadina University
Corporate Communication
Nova Yashinta – Mahfud Achyar

2. Culture and Consumption
• CULTURE is the ‘prism’ through which
people view products and try to make
sense of their own and other people’s
consumer behavior.”
• CULTURE, a concept crucial to the
understanding of consumer behavior,
may be thought of as the collective
memory of a society.
• CULTURE is the accumulation of shared
meanings, rituals, norms and traditions
among the members of an organization or
society.
• Individual consumers and groups of
consumers are but part of culture, and
culture is the overall system within which
other systems are organized.

3. Consumer behavior and culture:
a two-way street
The relationship between consumer behavior and culture is a
two-way street. On the one hand, products and services that
resonate with the priorities of a culture at any given time have a
much better chance of being accepted by consumers.
For example, Cosmetics like those of The Body
Shop, made of natural materials and not tested
on animals, which reflected consumers’
apprehensions about pollution, waste and
animal rights

4. Aspects of culture
• Ecology - the way in which a
system is adapted to its
habitat.
• Social structure - the way in
which orderly social life is
maintained. family vs. the
extended family).
• Ideology - the mental
characteristics of a people and
the way in which they relate to
their environment and social
groups.

5. Rules for Behaviour
• A custom is a norm handed down from the past that controls
basic behaviors, suchbas division of labor in a household or
the practice of particular ceremonies.
• Mores are customs with a strong moral overtone. Mores
often involve a taboo, or forbidden behavior, such as
incest or cannibalism. Violation of mores often meets
with strong censure from other members of a society.
• Conventions are norms regarding the conduct of everyday
life. These rules deal with the subtleties of consumer
behavior, including the ‘correct’ way to furnish one’s
house, wear one’s clothes, host a dinner party, and so on.

6. Influence of culture
1) On Cultural value systems
– Ethics: good, moral, immoral
– Aesthetics: beautiful, ugly, pleasant, unpleasant.
– Doctrine: political, social, ideological.
2) Culture exist & reveals at different levels
– Supranational level: Reflects different dimensions of
multiple cultures/ different societies of Nations.
– National Level: Dimensions of cultures of country and
national characters.
– Group level: Held with in a country with various sub-
divisions of the society like family, reference groups,
& other closely held groups.

7. Sub-Culture & Consumer Identity
• Sub-culture is defined as a distinct cultural group that exists
as an identifiable segment within a larger, more complex
society. Ex: Nationality, Social class, Religion, Language,
Age, Gender.
• Ethnic and Racial Subcultures
– Ethnic Subculture: A self-perpetuating group of consumers who
are held together by common cultural or genetic ties, and is
identified both by its members and by others as being a
distinguishable category.
• Ethnicity and Marketing Strategies
– High-context Culture: Group members tend to be tightly knit, and
they are likely to infer meanings that go beyond the spoken word.

8. Ethnic & Moving Target
• De-ethnicization
– Refers to the process whereby a product
formerly associated with a specific ethnic group
is detached from its roots and marketed to
other subcultures.
• The “Big Three” American Subcultures
– African Americans
– Hispanic Americans
– Asian Americans

9. Racial & American subculture
• African Americans:
– 12.3 percent of the U.S. population (2000
Census)
– Differences between blacks and whites in
consumption are very subtle
• Hispanic Americans:
– “Hispanic” describes people of many
backgrounds
– 60 percent of Hispanic Americans are Mexican
– Puerto Ricans are the next biggest group at
10%

10. Racial & American subculture
• Chi:
– An invisible energy current that is believed to bring
good or bad luck
• Feng Shui:
– Translated literally as “the wind and the water”
• Fastest growing minority group in the U.S.
– The most affluent, best educated, and most likely to
hold technology jobs of any ethnic subculture
– Prosperous Asians tend to be very status conscious
Asian Americans

11. Religious subculture
• The rise of spirituality
– Explosion of religion/spirituality in pop culture
• Churches are adopting aggressive marketing
– Megachurches
• Religious themes can spill over into everyday
consumption
– “Cult products”
• Marketing opportunity among religious
subcultures

12. Religious subculture (2)
• There is an astonishing variety of flourishing new
religious movements ;
– Scientologists , Wicca , The Raelians , The Ahmadis ,
The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University ,
Cao Dai , Soka Gakkai International ,
The Toronto Blessing , Umbanda
The Impact of Religion on Consumption
• Religion is seen as a taboo subject to marketers
• Dietary and dress requirements create demand for certain products
• Religious subcultures affect personality, attitudes toward sexuality,
birthrates and household formation, income, and political attitudes
Old and New Religions

13. Age & consumer identity
• A consumer’s age exerts a significant influence on his/her identity
– We are more likely to have things in common and speak in a
common language with others of our own age
• Age cohort (“my generation”)
– Marketers target specific age cohorts
• Feelings of nostalgia
– Our possessions let us identify with others of a certain age or
life stage
The Youth Market
• “Teenager” and Seventeen magazine
– Generation X ext. Elvis , The Beatles
– Generation Y ext. Eminem , One Direction

14. Teen Values, Conflicts, and Desires
• Puberty / adolescence , is uncertainty, need to belong, finding
unique identity
– Choices of activities, friends, and clothes = social acceptance
– Advertising: group of “in” teens using product
• Teenagers express needs via product usage (e.g., smoking
cigarettes)
• Most important social issues for teens
– AIDS, race relations, child abuse, abortion, the environment,
additional family responsibilities
• Four basic teen conflicts
– Autonomy vs. belonging
– Rebellion vs. conformity
– Idealism vs. pragmatism
– Narcissism vs. intimacy

15. Teen Values, Conflicts, and Desires
Tweens
• Children aged 8 to 14
– Spend $14 billion a year on clothes, CDs, movies (“feel good” products)
– Exhibit characteristics of both children and adolescents
– Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen brand
– Victoria Secret’s Pink lingerie line for younger girls (“Team Pink”)
Getting to Know Gen Y
• “Echo Boomers” and “millennials” make up one-third of U.S. population
– Spend $170 billion a year
– First to grow up with computers in their homes, in hundred channel TV
– Multitaskers with cell phones, music downloads, IM on Internet
– Most diverse generation ever
– Most raised by single parent and/or working mother
• Gen Years value fitting in / teamwork
– Reject violence, tobacco, alcohol, teen pregnancy
– Trust government and parents

16. GENERATIONS “ X “
Baby Busters: “Generation X”
• Consumers born between 1966 and 1976
• Marketers initially thought that Gen Xers felt alienated, cynical,
and depressed
– But, “Today’s Gen Xer is both value-oriented and value-oriented”
– Desire stable families, save portion of income, and view home as
expression of individuality
Baby Boomers
• Consumer born between 1946 and 1965
• “Woodstock Generation” created revolution in style, politics, and
consumer attitudes
• Active and physically fit
• Currently in peak earning years
– “Feathering their nests”
– Food, apparel, and retirement programs
– “Midlife crisis” products (“reward cars”)
• Baby boomlet

17. The Gray Market
Perceived Age
Age is more a state of mind than of body
• Perceived age: how old a person feels as opposed to his or
her chronological age
– “Feel-age”
– “Look-age”
• The older we get, the younger we feel relative to actual age
• Autonomy: want to be self-sufficient
• Connectedness: value bonds with friends and family
• Altruism: want to give something back to the world

18. The Gray Market
Segmenting Seniors
• Segmented by:
– Specific ages (50s, 60s, 70s)
– Marital status
– Health and outlook on life
• Social aging theories: try to understand how society assigns people to
different roles across life span
Selling to Seniors
• Most older people lead more active, multidimensional lives than we assume
• Older consumers are finished with many financial obligations
– Most own their own homes
– Child-rearing costs are over
– “We’re Spending Our Children’s Inheritance”
• Marketers must provide more welcoming advertising for mature market
– Packaging sensitive to physical limitations

19. RESUME
• Members of a culture share a system of beliefs and practices, including
values. The process of learning the values of one’s culture is called
enculturation. Each culture can be described by a set of core values.
Values can be identified by several methods, though it is often difficult
to apply these results directly to marketing campaigns due to their
generality.
• Collecting is one of the most common ways of experiencing sacred
consumption in daily life. It is simultaneously one of the domains where
consumption and passions are most heavily intertwined.
• The importance of consumption for understanding social interactions is
now so big that we have begun to talk about our own societies as
consumer societies, indicating that consumption might well be the
single most important social activity.

20. Thanks & Regards