The Castilian Consumer Behavior

Sergio Gago Huerta

IMBA2012 - Cross Cultural Consumer Behavior

The Spanish consumer behavior

Trying to speak about the Spanish market or Spanish consumer behavior is extremely difficult. For a country with over 45 million inhabitants shouldnt be as complicated, however given the difference among regions it becomes almost impossible to establish a unique Spanish culture. Contrary to the common belief of party and laziness, Spain is a conglomerate of different cultures mixed together with isolated behavior patterns. The country is divided in a mix of federal central system of 17 Autonomous regions. Most of these regions have their own history, culture and language (Catalan or Galician are just two examples of the more than 7 different languages 1 spoken in the country). Each individual region received different influences. For example Andaluca in the south was very influenced by the Arabs after their invasion, while the north regions kept their Iberian Vaccean roots. As a fact, the Basque language has still unknown root (That is, is the only language that doesnt evolve from Latin). Along the years, the Austrias and the Borbones, the two main Spanish monarchic families (Being the latter the current one), married sons and daughters playing a game of thrones unifying different territories into one single crown. After several trials it was not until the last century when the autonomous region model was developed with the goal of reducing economic and cultural differences among Spanish citizens. If we have to divide the country in four big subgroups or subcultures, we can estimate that they could be the following: In the first place we have the two big cities / capitals. Madrid and Barcelona. Some might want to add also some other big industrial centers such as Bilbao or Malaga. These cities are the definition of cosmopolitism: big urban centers (> 5M inhabitants) with a big percentage of immigrants, not only from outside but also from inside of Spain. Is in these cities where cultural barriers are diffused the most. They create their own consumer behavior, which is different from the original one. One example is the typical stereotype of Catalans being stingy, which is not a fact anymore given the high amount of non-original Catalans living in Barcelona. The lifestyle is busier, with longer commuting times, more stress and a usually

Figure 1 - Sub cultural groups differentiation in Spain

more career-centric life.

The southern cities and regions are known to be more laid back (the stereotype says lazy). It is here where the typical Spanish siesta takes place and where temperatures are closer to tropical ones. These regions are usually more agricultural oriented and they have much more influence from the Arabs. From a consumer behavior point of view they are more relaxed, take their time and still have time for a beer in the bar after work.
1

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=es 2

Arabs and Romans never conquered northern regions. Most of them still keep their culture and traditions and this is shown in a tough character and personality. The clearest case is in the Basque Country, known by their independence nationalistic movement and their language. Basque is one of the oldest languages in Europe and still has unknown origins2. Consumer trends in these regions are completely different from the ones in the south. Climate affects as well, with lots of rain and bad weather over the year. And finally we have the inner regions, such as the Castillas (Castilla and Leon and Castilla la Mancha) among others. These are traditionally rural and agricultural based areas that suffered from emigration during the last century. Usually are more conservative in culture, keeping many behavioral elements from traditional rules and religion. It is in this group where we locate Castilla as a focus consumer group, which is very different from the other three identified groups. This region is of special interest because Valladolid (capital of Castilla and Leon) has been traditionally a test market for Spanish companies (together with Zaragoza). The technique of the test market has been using these locations due to the toughness of the citizens; being said if you are able to sell in Valladolid, you can do it anywhere. Still there is something that might be common for all subgroups in Spain. If we see Hofstedes analysis we can see the following: The main characteristic is Uncertainty avoidance. In the last survey by the CIS (Spanish research Institute) on 2011, 75% of the population wanted to become a civil servant3. Which in the Spanish law means a job forever without chances of being fired or laid off. This Uncertainty avoidance gets even bigger in small conservative towns such as Valladolid, where the main idea is to grow up, study, get a job and a family, and die in the same place. The uncertainty avoidance can be seen as well in the amount of laws and systems in place.

Figure 2 - Hofstede's Analysis on Spain

On the other hand, the other shocking parameter is the long-term orientation. In the end we put the name to Fiesta, and Spaniards care (mostly in the southern segments) mostly about living the moment and enjoying what we have now. These two issues give us more similarities with South and Central American cultures than with other European ones

Valladolid as a test market for new entries

In the previous Hofstede analysis, we could see how Spain behaves in a more similar way to South American cultures than to other European ones. Obviously this is due to the historical relationship with them, however some Latin countries have increased their differences on those points (such as the masculinity, for example). Other countries with
2 3

Towards a history of the Basque Language Hualde, Akarra and Trask http://geert-hofstede.com/spain.html 3

more influence from the US in the last years have been developing different behaviors, but in general, the uncertainty avoidance prevails. The model, although is valid for the Castilla group, must be modified to increase even more the uncertainty avoidance, power distance and individualism. Also masculinity will decrease, as it is belief that is not important to compete as long as you secure enough for you and your family, and if possible, dont move too far away from your parents home. This is a typical result in small villages but applied to a city with almost 400.000 inhabitants4. Typically we see small towns and communities very collectivistic, and still Spain as a whole is quite collectivistic compared with other European neighbors. However the bigger is the city the more individualistic and family centric people becomes. Therefore for a test market, Individualistic behavior, short term oriented and with big uncertainty avoidance becomes a great trial and error field. Companies can deploy and try different approaches to products with a very good segmentation level in little time, in a very conservative place, where changes are difficult to occur. Then afterwards deploy a wide scale product launch with the learning from these regions. This makes very difficult to brands to market their products not only in a European level, but also within different regions in Spain. For example, the way to buy groceries is completely different in small towns where hypermarkets have a bigger market share, than bigger ones, where the convenience supermarket is more efficient. Also, the bigger the uncertainty avoidance is, the more difficult will be for a new entrant to get market share from the established competitor.

The roles of Castilians

We can analyze the specific role of a Castilian from three points of view: Consumer behavior, family orientation and work relationships (employee and employer):

Consumer behavior
As it has been said, Valladolid has been used extensively as a test market prior to introduction of new brands or products. It is a difficult market to penetrate where individualism, short termism and uncertainty avoidance merge together. This means that consumers will do the best thing for themselves or their family, will not take decisions that might be better for the future but for now (for example, changing the preferred supermarket, or buying a better car in fuel-efficiency), and will have big problems to leave the comfort zone of having a well known preferred product already (or any supplement). From a marketing perspective, changing the mind of a Castilian consumer is a very complicated job. The behavior in a supermarket we can see that categorization and the associative networks can be very different from the rest of the country (and therefore Europe). Concepts that in Barcelona could be associated with good things, in Valladolid can have
4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valladolid 4

an averse effect because the wrong relationship. For example, condoms can be associated with party, safe sex, fun, relationships, etc. While in Valladolid, for a big chunk of the population might lead to sex before marriage, easy girls, promiscuity, etc. Therefore even in the same country, we cant apply the same conceptual maps and links. Consumers will tend to buy the same products over and over, and dont change their decisions. Price can be an issue when difference is big enough, but overall people will try to buy in the same places the same products. One example is that the sustainability and organic trends are entering quite fast in Madrid and Barcelona, while in Valladolid there are almost not organic shops and not special places to buy them in hypermarkets, as demand is very low.

Family behavior
It is said that Valladolid is one of the most difficult places to flirt in the planet. Of course this is just an exaggeration of a cultural trend (of which TV advertisements have been made5), but the mix of values and beliefs leads to this. As a conservative region, with traditional family education it is still on many the search for the perfect partner, and the idealistic view of marriage and perfect family. Individualism comes to the extent of We as a family, where what matters is how far you are from you and your small group of friends. Typically a college graduate will try to stay in the city, even when employment is almost impossible. The graduate will emigrate to Madrid (just 2 hours away) instead Barcelona, and will go back to Valladolid every weekend, having typically no life in Madrid. When it comes to emigrate outside of Spain it is in these regions where it becomes more complicated and the avoidance is high. Part of this avoidance mixes with the community feeling, and a big force of what the others will say. These traditions, more common in communities where everybody knows everybody, also take place in the big capitals of the inner regions.

Employee / Employer relationship

The relationship between and employee and the employer is consistent with the other types of behaviors. The trend is to have just one job and try to stay on it for all your life until retirement. Recruiters see job jumping even every 3 or 5 years as somebody who doesnt know what he wants. Wandering off is not good seen, and family values are very much appreciated. Even though it is changing, society is still traditional and with this mix of individualistic and collectivistic. New tendencies like plain organization, assertive bosses, etc. are not the norm and usually what you can find is the traditional big boss dictatorship. At the same time people dont see that much career climbing as a goal, and they tend to get jobs where they just have to perform. Those who have bigger inspirations typically have to move somewhere else, or become entrepreneurs.

Mixta beer TV ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyXudjxVFP0 5

It is however interesting to see that Castilla (and the other inner regions) hold the lower entrepreneurship rate6. Which is consistent with the uncertainty avoidance. Also in the same report we find that 7 out of 10 entrepreneurs are man. It is still a very masculine society and mainly in these regions, coeducation is not 100% accomplished.

Conclusion
We can conclude that even though Hofstede gives us a very good picture on how Spanish behave and are influenced by their culture, different regions have extremely wide variance on those. The more cosmopolite a city is, the more the differences blur, but when we go to traditional environments we still have to deal with culture changes within the same country. Product consumption tends to converge, not only country wide, but European wide, but the way of market these products has to be different to ensure success. This has been extensively discussed by Marieke De Mooij in her article Convergence and divergence in consumer behavior: implications for global advertising. In the article, De Mooij states that whereas convergence is a myth can be proven for specific durable products, typically countries actually diverge on the use of those products. Hofstede explains this as we have seen, but the analysis stops at the country level. We would need an exhaustive analysis on the different regions of Spain to understand to what extent they vary from the mean. But it is clear that some regions can proof their distinctiveness useful for market tests for example. We see then, that the more remote an area is, the more extreme Hofstedes metrics appear. Further research could show whether or not in other countries the same effect happens.

Capital humano y emprendedores en Espaa (spanish) http://obrasocial.bancaja.es/publicaciones/publicaciones-ficha.aspx?id=122 6

Bibliography and Resources:

ALONSO, J. (1981): "Modelos Estocasticos de Eleccion de Marca: un Contraste de Utilidad para la Representacion del Comportamiento del Consumidor", ESIC-MARKET, 35 (May-August), 169-176. Gonzalez Roa, Calatrava (2008) Food Labeling Use and Differentiated Consumers Behavior: A Survey Analysis in Spanish Food Market. (http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/43541) De Mooij (2003) Convergence and divergence in consumer behavior: implications for global advertising. (http://mariekedemooij.com/articles/demooij_2003_int_journal_adv.pdf) Eurostat (2001) Consumers in Europe 19962000 Facts and Figures. The European Communities.