SUBCULTURE IN BANGLADESH AND its IMPORTANCE IN MARKETING.

1.0 INTRODUCTION Culture is an extremely broad and encompassing term. It includes what we have learned, our history, values, morals, customs, art, and habit. Marketing takes place within a given culture. Marketers should know that experience, history, values, morals, customs, art, habit, etc. vary within a given culture requiring different marketing programs. Not everyone in the same country or society shares the same behavioral pattern of the dominant or main culture. It clearly indicates that there are subcultures, such as those of northerners, southerners, city-dwellers, the poor, teen agers, elderly, religious groups and so on. The identification of a subculture may provide a firm with a segment of a market that it can develop. For example, products have been developed in great quantity for the teenage subculture, and advertising has been directed to these consumers. Each subculture, like a larger culture, has distinctive values, beliefs, and attitudes that the marketer must understand if he is effectively to exploit them. It is not always easy to identify differences among subcultures. It is easy to develop mistaken stereotyped notions about subcultures due to the lack of proper knowledge on subcultures. Marketers are interested in identifying any subculture as a potential market for their products. 1. Origin of the Report Dr. Md. Ashraful Islam Chowdhury, Professor, of Dhaka University, authorized this report in oral, as part of the course curriculum of Consumer Behavior (M-602). This is an individual assignment, which was assigned after a series of class lectures and presentations by the professor.

1.2 Problem and purpose 1.2.1 Problem Statement To analyze the existing subculture in Bangladesh and take appropriate marketing strategy to reach them. 1.2.2 Objectives of the study Understand the subculture context of Bangladesh Identify different types of subcultures Know how different subcultures affect buying behavior Explain Bangladeshi subculture for marketing decision making. 1.3 A Preview of the Presentation To give an overview the report begins with a definition and explain what subculture is, then what are the subcultural groups prevailing in Bangladesh their characteristics , consumption pattern and the effective way to reach this subcultural group through marketing strategy.

DEFINING SUBCULTURE
Subculture is a part of the culture containing the important features of the main culture. In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. If a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture. As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majorities, "which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a 'subculture' which actively sought a minority style. And interpreted it in accordance with subversive values". In his 1979 book Subculture the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige argued that a subculture is subversion to normalcy. Hebdige argued that subcultures bring together likeminded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity. According to the definition of science dictionary - A group within a society that has its own shared set of customs, attitudes, and values, often accompanied by jargon or slang. A subculture can be organized around a common activity, occupation, age, status, ethnic background, race, religion, or any other unifying social condition, but the term is often used to describe deviant groups, such as thieves and drug users. As there can be broad differences between the cultures of various societies, there can also be differences within the same culture. Every culture, therefore, contains subcultures, defined as groups that share the values and artifacts of the larger society, but also have distinctive practices, preferences, and beliefs. Businessmen living in the old part of Dhaka, cinema artists, and people living in the urban slums are all examples of subcultures. Islam is the dominant religion in the culture of Bangladesh; sunni, shiaa and Baahaai, for example, may be viewed as subcultures within the larger Muslim culture here in Bangladesh.