Cultural Influences of Consumer Behavior Essay examples

The data suggested in the cultural analysis includes information that helps the marketer make market-planning decisions. However, its application extends beyond product and market analysis to being an important source of

In today’s world of various products and services, businesses aim to excel and lead the competition by marketing the most number of consumers, which is a full time endeavor of business. To survive in the market, a firm or an organization has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer trends and tastes. Marketers need to understand consumer behavior because the decision-making process for consumers is anything but straight forward. Consumers’ behaviors and their purchasing patterns is a huge advantage to understanding the way customers think and the reason for their purchases. Therefore, the study of consumer behavior is important because it allows the

Figure 3: Lush label states "Fresh Handmade Cosmetics" and "Bring back 5 Pots and Get a Fresh Face Mask Free"

A consumer is any person that is involved in the process of consumption. They are identified according to the market type to which they belong, namely final and industrial consumers (Solomon, et al., 2013). Understanding the consumer behaviors will aid in appreciating the various market segments and developing strategies for effecting market penetration in these segments. It will also help in identifying market gaps and shape their needs and objectives so as to solve the day-to-day consumer’s concerns in purchase.

Based on the Model of Consumer Buying Behavior, culture is the most basic source of a consumer's wants and behavior. It lives at the foundation of a consumer's world view. Culture is mostly a learned behavior, being constructed by the society a consumer grows up in. That society "teaches" the consumer basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviors. What a consumer is "taught" can vary greatly in different parts of the world. Marketers need to remember that every group or society has a culture. Cultural influences can and will vary greatly from country to country, social group to social

Social-cultural factors outlines the basic beliefs and values of consumers. It is the forces that influences an individual’s way of thinking, lifestyles and behaviors. Marketers must take into consideration the various characteristics of the consumers it is going to sell or target as this is vital in the development of marketing strategies, therefore, making the product or services appealing to customers. One important development is the changing and growth in racial and ethnicity, affecting the changes in culture as new values, ideas and attitudes are learned and shared by different social groups. Sociocultural factors can have an impact on marketing activities which are influenced by the improvements or advances in technology and the ability to instantly transfer ideas via the internet. There are also the advancement of connectivity through social media (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) and telecommunication (i.e., Skype or Viper Chat). In the past, none of these technologies existed, most communications were done via letter writing, telegram and not many had access to computers or the internet. In today’s society, with all these new technologies in our grasps, this gives the consumer the advantage to research about the product or services and comparing prices before buying. It also allows the consumer to buy with safety, security and control in mind. The marketing department of a company need to be aware of the current needs and wants of consumers in order to develop a

Consumer behavior is dynamic. It involves thinking, feeling as well as actions of consumers, consumer groups and society. The study of consumer behavior looks at how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy it. It examines the buyer decision process, both individually and in groups. It also examines characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants and assess consumer influences (such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general). Ultimately, the focus is on the dynamic interaction of affect, cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings exchange aspects of their

Culture is the set of value and beliefs that a individual have depending on their society environment in which they have grown up. For example in some families wearing Salwar-Kamiz is the standard look but for some wearing short clothes is the fashion which depends on the culture in which they have grown. Child who look their parents to bargain while purchasing while in some case child don not bargain and consume directly as what they have seen from the elders. When comes to market internationally bigger problem arises because their culture is totally different from our. For example beef is not allowed in India but in middle east countries they have no issue. Culture can be differ from individual to individual, families to families, location to location, religion to religion. Marketers need to understand the differences in culture and need to target accordingly. They need to segment their target audiences as per culture, same culture group can be targeted in a better way. Different culture have different in goods choice. That is why McDonald have introduced rice bowl only for Indians which is not else where

In this assignment I will be analysing the following; a case study presented on how holiday decision making varies from the traditional problem-solving model of consumer decision making.

Commercial products of multinational companies are being marketed to people from different cultures owing to an increased growth in the world economy (Lin, 2012). Samli (1995) states that in most cases, consumer attitudes are largely driven by the framework of their culture. Mooji points out that global marketing strategies are not culture-free and should not be because its influence on consumer behavior is profound (1998, 2005) .In his article “The Globalization of Markets”, Levitt (1983) argued that customers can be persuaded by the same advertising appeals and values, irrespective of the culture they belong to.

Consumer behavior is a mix of economic, technological, political, cultural, demographic and natural factors as well as own characteristics which is reflected by attitude, motivation, perception, personality, knowledge and lifestyle. Only when marketers realize these factors and characteristics, they are able to understand consumer behavior. This has resulted in the classification of these behaviors under these categories – Economic, Social, Demographic, Geographic, Psychological, Product & Technology. (Vikram Shende, 2014)

Cultural influences are the most difficult and essential modifications confronting international marketers. Marketers are confronted with different attitudes, lifestyles, beliefs, languages 'all of which will affect the implementation of the marketing mix.

Engel (1986) define consumer behavior as "those acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts". The present paper is a reflective journal based in which three different marketing activities have been selected and analyzed from the perspective of their influence on consumer behavior.

Consumer purchase behavior is the sum total of a consumer's attitudes, preferences, intentions, and decisions regarding the consumer's behavior in the marketplace when purchasing a product or service. The study of consumer behavior draws upon social science disciplines of anthropology, psychology, sociology, and economics. Through this research, we will investigate the purchase behavior of Samsung users from the reasons that they purchase Samsung mobile phone.

Thus, the terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable. Characteristics of culture: Culture is narrow. It prescribes that kinds of behavior considered acceptable in the society. The prescriptive characteristic of culture simplifies a consumer's decision-making process by limiting product choices to those, which are socially acceptable. These same characteristics create problems for those products not in tune with the consumer's cultural beliefs. Culture is socially shared. Culture cannot exist by itself. Members of a society must share it. Thus acting to reinforce culture's perspective nature. Culture is learned. Culture is not inherited genetically; it must be learned and acquired. Socialization or enculturation occurs when a person absorbs or learns the culture in which he or she is raised. Culture facilitates communication. One useful function provided by culture is to facilitate communication. Culture usually imposes common habits of though and feeling among people. Thus, within a given group culture makes it easier for people to communicate with one another. But culture may also block communication across groups because of a lack of shared common culture values. This is one reason why a standardized advertisement may have difficulty communicating with consumers in foreign countries. How marketing efforts interact with a culture determines the success or failure of a