This document discusses cross-cultural consumer behavior and the globalization of consumption. It addresses several topics: 1) How culture influences consumer behavior through values, institutions, social conventions and customs. This affects loyalty, risk perception and decision making. 2) The convergence and divergence of global consumption patterns at both the macro level of industries and demographics, and the micro level of individual consumption. 3) The emergence of standardized global consumer products and culture through McDonaldization, but also the persistence of local habits and culture-bound products.

1. Multicultural Marketing
2nd Session
Cross culture consumer behavior & Local Consumer and
Globalization of Consumption

2. Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior
 Universal or Specific Consumers?
 Culture and Consumer behavior
 Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow)
 Culture Based Values
 Institutions, social conventions, habits, and customs
 The Influence of Culture on selected aspects of
consumer behavior
 Loyalty
 Consumer Involvement
 Perceived risk
 Marketing as an exchange of “Meanings”

3. Is consumer behavior universal or specific
to its group
• One view is that all consumers can be approached as being similar
• Everyone gets hungry, they sleep, eat breakfast… etc
• 2nd perspective is that all consumers have adapted foreign traits
• McDonalds in Kuwait, Japan
• 3rd is that consumers (a) of a certain ethnicity have modified consumption patterns
in those countries (b) and some ethnic products have reached world class status
by being adopted in most countries
• Asian cuisines (Sushi)
• The 4th is the opposite of Global Perspective
Marketing is a process involving communication and exchange: consumers buy
meanings as well as objects.

4. Hierarchy of Needs
Self • Rank order?
actualization • Criteria for satisfaction?
• Needs vs. Desires
• Economic influences?
Esteem
Social
Safety
Physiological

5. Culture and Consumer Behavior
 Hierarchy of needs is not true in every culture
 In some economies, people focus more on basic survival
needs
 Hindu culture encourage the need for self actualization without
materialistic desires
 Individualism and Collectivism
 Does an individual makes his own decision or is he/she
influenced socially (shared / social intentions)
 Korean students have lunch together or go to the same college
abroad. (Obligation to belong to a certain group)
 Asian families restrict autonomous behavior amongst their
children
 Independent / Interdependence
 Be Yourself (More western culture based value)
 Affect on marketing studies – Impulse buying, consumption
patterns, emotional appeal.

6. Culture and Consumer Behavior
 Institutions: The State, the Church and Trade
Unions
 French Catholic hierarchy has generally opposes to
Sunday trading.
 German trade unions oppose an extension of
opening hours.
 Stores at 2 p.m. on Saturdays
 Closed on Sundays.
 The result is that many German consumers must shop
quickly on Saturday mornings.
 Catalogue-based mail order and online shopping are good
substitutes
 As a result, mail order sales are highly developed in
Germany such as Neckermann, Bertelsmann and Quelle.

7. Culture and Consumer Behavior
 Social conventions, habits and customs:
 Other products are in a sense institution dependent,
whatever their mode of distribution or consumption:
 Marriage-related goods such as a wedding dress or the
products featured on wedding lists, or many kinds of traditional
gift that are offered for specific occasions
 Eating habits
 „Food is both substance and symbol; providing both physical
nourishment and a key form of communication that carries
many kinds of meanings.‟
 Cultural variations, in addition to the social interpretation of
eating habits, include the following:
1. The number of meals consumed each day.
2. The standard duration of a meal, and the positionof meals in the daily
schedule.

8. Café au lait and ‘Slow Food’

9. Influence of Culture on aspects of CB
 Psychological Process
 Motivation
 to own, buy, spend, consume, show, share, give?
 Perception
 Perception of shapes, colours and space? (Red is lucky in
Chinese)
 Learning and Memory
 Familiarity with product classes?
 Attitude
 Resistance to change (Resistance to FAST FOOD in France)
 Decision Making
 Individual or social influences
 Loyalty
 Value of certainty?
 Consumer Complaint
 Perceptions of quality?

10. Influence of Culture on aspects of CB
 Loyalty
 USA – Value Opportunity
 Assumed disloyal
 Enjoy change more than stability
 Price competition
 Asian – Value Certainty
 High level of single brand dominance
 Rely on information from reference groups – WOM is important
 Follow group consensus until proved wrong

11. Influence of Culture on aspects of CB
 Consumer Involvement
 Higher in Asians with regard to purchasing for social and
symbolic values (buying a car)
 Low in Asians if product is for private use (Price and
Quality)
 Perceived Risk
 Can be separated to financial, physical, social risk … etc
 Buying a car where road safety is not an issue (Physical risk)
petrol is cheap (financial risk) but if the car breaks down on the
highway and there is no mechanic available (reliability risk)

12. Marketing as an Exchange of Meanings
 Consumers buy meanings and marketers
communicate meanings through products and
advertisements.
 Many of the meanings in M.Exc are culture based
 Therefore in the process of exchange through buyer–
seller relations, marketing communications or product
consumption, interpretations are made spontaneously,
 The Role of Emotions in Japanese marketing
 Affect on sales team regarding compensation
 In Japan, the husband is supposed to hand all his income over
to his wife. If he doesn‟t, he is criticized by people around him.

13. Class Group Assignment
Please write on an A4 sheet of paper.
Write all group member names clearly.
Write the title as Assignment no. 1
All write down the question which is below
Why can 'word-of-mouth communication' among
people be considered as a fairly robust consumer
behavior concept cross-culturally?

14. Local Consumers &
The Globalization of Consumption
 Free Trade
 Diversity in Global Markets
 The Global Convergence of Consumption Patterns
 At the Macro Level
 At Micro Level
 Emergence of a Global Consumer Culture
 Standardized World Package
 McDonald-ization
 Local Products and Consumption Experience
 Culture Bound Products
 Habits and Shared Meaning
 Local Consumer Culture and Resistance to Change

15. Free Trade
 All countries benefit from exports and imports
 Cultural exchange usually happened through trade
 Industries can develop around a certain product (western
pharmaceuticals) giving rise to jobs
 Countries that import heavily are not at a
disadvantage
 They can charge on duties, taxes
 They can provide subsidies and levies for local importers
 Tax Free Economies
 Allow for market entry
 But marketers may face difficulties in entering a market
due to competition

16. Free Trade
 Pricing
 A commodity in one nation maybe a luxury item in another
nation
 Toyota Camry in India is a luxury but in Dubai (its considered a
Taxi)
 Standardization of products
 Voltage in USA is 110V but in other countries its 220V
 Halal (for Muslims) or Kosher (for Jews) products.
 Left hand drive Vs. Right hand drive (some people in the
world drive on the wrong side of the road)
 In Globalization, Diversity presents
 An opportunity to create a differentiation strategy,
 And to gain competitive advantage

17. Convergence of Consumption Patterns
 At the Macro Level
 Removing barriers to trade helps in globalization of
industries
 This leads to demographic convergence such as age,
income, household with consumptions
 Wine consumption has decreased and beer consumption has
increased in the south (in France, Greece, Italy,)
 The opposite pattern has evolved in the north of Europe (in
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany) leading to macro-level
convergence
 Beef consumption in Japan, traditionally a fish-eating country,
has developed considerably while there has been a rise in fish
consumption in traditionally meat eating countries.
 In this sense, globalization increases, not decreases,
diversity in everyone‟s experience.

18. Convergence of Consumption Patterns
 At the micro level, researches have found culture
influences consumption patterns
1. For product type durable, household and functional
products varied more by culture than non-durable,
sensory and personal products.
2. For product/service category, restaurants, air travel and
hair shampoo are more influenced by culture than beer,
jeans, going to the cinema, soft drinks and stereos.
3. For situational frequency, time of day, where consumers
shopped, the length of time and the reason varied by
culture for food, but not for clothing.
4. For reasons for purchase maintenance, enjoyment and
defense reasons differed by country.

19. Emergence of a Global Consumer Culture
 Standard world package
 A consumer culture guides people in defining their
aspirations towards a certain set of possessions.
 The standard US package of goods has developed into a
standard world package that includes a car and a home
with electric lighting, a refrigerator and a television.
 The same holds true for services, since the fast-food
restaurant has become part of the standard world
package.
 „Standard‟ has three meanings:
 (1) the same for everybody;
 (2) the same everywhere in the world;
 (3) the same for alltime. e.g., Coca Cola

20. Emergence of a Global Consumer Culture
 McDonald‟s (standardization) has led to globalization of
fast food through four points
1. Efficiency:
 The McDonaldized service offers the optimum method for
getting from one point (being hungry) to another (being fed).
2. Systematic quantification and calculation:
 McDonald‟s offers more „bang for the buck‟ and provides its
customers with „value‟ meals.
3. Predictability
 Whether in Chicago, Moscow or Tokyo, we find the same Big Mac
and French Fries. Consumers find great comfort in this
predictability which reduces perceived risk.
4. Control through use of technology
 Rules are fairly strict and automatic systems (e.g. soft drinks or
ice-cream dispensers) control the exact quantity, in line with point
2.
 This also facilitates predictability by reassuring customers about
the service to be obtained from McDonald‟s.

21. Local Products & Consumption Experience
 If consumer culture matters, then it is likely that consumers will
invest more meaning in products that are more bound to
cultural interpretation.
 The question is therefore: what is more culture-free and what more
culture-bound, in terms of product and service categories on the one
hand, and consumer behavior on the other?
 Culture Bound Products:
 Some aspects to examine are
 Rich (or poor) cultural context – Shopping, consuming, and
disposing
 Relationship to the physical environment – Climate, population,
agriculture
 Cultural or National identity – Use of local products and
craftsmanship (Italian suits, Egyptian cotton, French fashion
designers)
 Language - Songs, soap operas, films and novels. Ikea uses
pictures to avoid language barriers in its instruction manual

22. Local Products & Consumption Experience
 Habits and shared meanings
 Habits are ways of doing and behaving that have
been reinforced by authorization and gratification,
 Once the programming is forgotten they appear
legitimate.
 Examples
 Kaffeetrinken
 The special relationship of Germans to coffee & cakes (Kuchen) has
much to do with happy hours experienced since childhood when
people relax in a tight society with an internalized pressure for
conforming to rules.
 Drinking Beer
 Shape and size of beer glasses
 Flavor (bitterness, froth, bubbles, sweetness, alcohol levels)

23.  End of Lecture
 See you after two weeks
 baber_mirza@hotmail.com
 Groups to be formed in the next session.
 Final Group project to be given next week