Culture

‘














Culture is a prism through which people view products and try to make sense of their own and other people’s consumer behavior’. (Solomon 2006)

Culture is made up of three components:

Beliefs – our mental and verbal verbal processes which reflect our knowledge and assessment of products and services. Example Nokia user friendly.

Values- - indicators consumers use as guides for what is appropriate behavior, they tend to be relatively enduring and stable over time and widely accepted by members of a particular market. For example avoiding unnecessary spending.

Customs: - overt modes of behavior that constitute culturally approved or acceptable ways of behaving in specific situations for example giving gifts on Christmas.

Culture is extremely important in everything we do, especially within the marketing industry as it is something they have to take into account when advertising anything. Marketing teacher (2008) states










All these components have an influence a person' s culture. It mainly helps marketers understand and asses their targeted cultural market in order to market products to them.

Language - this component relates to the balance between the verbal and non verbal communication.

Religion - Marketeers need to ensure that any products or services they are trying to sell is not offensive to any religion. This includes marketing promotion and branding.

Values & Attitudes - Obviously, values and attitudes change depending on nations. For example if the company are intending to globalise themselves, they will need to make sure that they have a good understanding of the new local community to ensure the products fits in with their local attitudes.

Education - For example, in countries with low literacy levels, advertisers would avoid communications which depended upon written copy, and would favor radio advertising with an audio message or visual media such as billboards.