M CULTURE

3
O
D AND
U SUBCULTURE
L
E

Introduction
Culture is an important factor in determining consumer behavior. It
explains why some products sell well in certain regions or among specific
groups, but not as well elsewhere. Besides purchasing decisions, culture also
affects how consumers use the products they buy and how they dispose of
them. Product use helps marketers position their products differently in each
market, while the culture's effects on product disposal can lead governments
to adopt more effective recycling and waste reduction strategies.
Consumers can examine how members of other cultures use the same
products, or fulfill the same needs with different products, as a way to find
more efficient, cost-effective options in the marketplace.

Learning Outcomes
In this section we will learn about the relationship between Culture,
Subcultures, and marketing and ways in which cultural concepts influence
consumption.
Upon completing this section students should:
1. Define the terms “culture” and “subculture”.
2. Discuss the key characteristics of culture and discuss ways in which it
is learned and shared.
 3. Explain the meaning of cultural appropriation and provide examples of
how marketers have appropriated cultural aspects to pursue
marketing goals.
4. Explain the complexities around categorizing gender and ethnic
subcultures and how marketers can avoid perpetuating
stereotypes in marketing activities.

Learning Content
Culture Explained
Exploring the Culture
Culture Origins
Culture as a Learning Process
Cultural Gatekeepers
Cultural Orientations
Acculturation, Assimilation, and Multiculturalism
Subculture
Race & Ethnicity as Subcultures
Gender as Subculture
Age Subculture

Culture is the sum of learned beliefs, values, and customs that regulate
the behavior of members of a particular society. Beliefs and values are guides
of behavior and customs are acceptable ways of behaving.

A belief is an opinion that reflects a person’s particular knowledge and

assessment of an issue. 

Values are general statements that guide behavior and influence beliefs

and attitudes. A value system helps people choose between alternatives in
everyday life. 

Customs are overt modes of behavior that constitute culturally approved

ways of behaving in specific situations. Customs vary among countries,
regions, and even families. In North America, it is a custom to tip on a
restaurant bill – usually 15-20% of the bill. In Europe, less of a tip is expected
and in some cases, none at all.

At the time of writing, the Coronavirus and Covid19 has spread

worldwide causing a global pandemic. Social distancing – aka physical
distancing – measures are in place in nearly every community, city, and
country around the world. While we physically distance ourselves from
friends, family, neighbours, and strangers on the street and in grocery
stores, we have to wonder how certain customs will change as a result
of the pandemic? Infectious disease experts, including Dr. Anthony
Fauci, Direct of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
in the United States, say we should never return to the custom of
“shaking hands” with others. In an interview for The Journal (2020),
Fauci said, “[w]hen you gradually come back, you don’t jump into it with
both feet. You say, what are the things you could still do and still
approach normal? One of them is absolute compulsive hand washing.
The other is you don’t ever shake anybody’s hands.”

Dominant cultural values are referred to as core values; they tend to

affect and reflect the core character of a particular society. Core values are
slow and difficult to change. Consequently, marketing communication
strategies must accurately portray and reflect these values.

It is worth noting that for marketers anywhere in the world, it is essential to

develop a strong understanding of the local culture and its accompanying
beliefs, values, and customs. Culture is how people make sense of their
society, its institutions, and social order. Culture frames how and what people
communicate, how they express what is proper and improper, what is
desirable and detestable. Without an understanding of culture, marketers are
not really even speaking the right language to the consumers they want to
target. Even if the words, grammar, and pronunciation are correct, the
meaning will be off.

Just as culture can be seen in dress and food, it can also be seen in morality,
identity, and gender roles. People from around the world differ in their views of
premarital sex, religious tolerance, respect for elders, and even the importance they
place on having fun. Similarly, many behaviors that may seem innate are actually
products of culture. Approaches to punishment, for example, often depend
on cultural norms for their effectiveness. In the United States, people who ride public
transportation without buying a ticket face the possibility of being fined. By contrast,
in some other societies, people caught dodging the fare are socially shamed by
having their photos posted publicly. The reason this campaign of “name and shame”
might work in one society but not in another is that members of different cultures
differ in how comfortable they are with being singled out for attention. This strategy
is less effective for people who are not as sensitive to the threat of public shaming.

1. Exploring Culture
Like the words “happiness” and “intelligence,” the word “culture” can be tricky
to define. Culture is a word that suggests social patterns of shared meaning.
In essence, it is a collective understanding of the way the world works, shared
by members of a group and passed down from one generation to the next.
For example, members of the Yanomamö tribe, in South America, share a
cultural understanding of the world that includes the idea that there are four
parallel levels to reality that include an abandoned level, and earthly level and
heavenly and hell-like levels. Similarly, members of surfing culture understand
their athletic pastime as being worthwhile and governed by formal rules of
etiquette known only to insiders.

There are several features of culture that are central to understanding the
uniqueness and diversity of the human mind:

1. Versatility: Culture can change and adapt. Someone from the state of
Orissa, in India, for example, may have multiple identities. She might
see herself as Oriya when at home and speaking her native language.
At other times, such as during the national cricket match against
Pakistan, she might consider herself Indian. This is known as
situational identity.
2. Sharing: Culture is the product of people sharing with one another.
Humans cooperate and share knowledge and skills with other
members of their networks. The ways they share, and the content of
what they share, helps make up culture. Older adults, for instance,
remember a time when long-distance friendships were maintained
through letters that arrived in the mail every few months.
Contemporary youth culture accomplishes the same goal through
the use of instant text messages on smart phones.
3. Accumulation: Cultural knowledge is cumulative. That is, information is
stored.” This means that a culture’s collective learning grows across
generations. We understand more about the world today than we did
200 years ago, but that doesn’t mean the culture from long ago has
been erased by the new. For instance, members of the Haida
culture—a First Nations people in British Columbia, Canada—profit
from both ancient and modern experiences. They might employ
4. traditional fishing practices and wisdom stories while also using
modern technologies and services.
5. Patterns: There are systematic and predictable ways of behavior or
thinking across members of a culture. Patterns emerge from adapting,
sharing, and storing cultural information. Patterns can be both similar
and different across cultures. For example, in both Canada and India it
is considered polite to bring a small gift to a host’s home. In Canada, it
In India, by contrast, it is more common to bring sweets, and often
the gift is set aside to be opened later.

Understanding the changing nature of culture is the first step toward

appreciating how it helps people. The concept of cultural intelligence is the
ability to understand why members of other cultures act in the ways they do.
Rather than dismissing foreign behaviors as weird, inferior, or immoral, people
high in cultural intelligence can appreciate differences even if they do not
necessarily share another culture’s views or adopt its ways of doing things.

2. Culture’s Origins

It’s important to understand that culture is learned. People aren’t born using

chopsticks or being good at soccer simply because they have a genetic
predisposition for it. They learn to excel at these activities because they are
born in countries like Argentina, where playing soccer is an important part of
daily life, or in countries like Taiwan, where chopsticks are the primary eating
utensils. So, how are such cultural behaviors learned? It turns out that cultural
skills and knowledge are learned in much the same way a person might learn
to do algebra or knit. They are acquired through a combination of explicit
teaching and implicit learning—by observing and copying.
Cultural teaching can take many forms. It begins with parents and caregivers,
because they are the primary influence on young children. Caregivers teach
kids, both directly and by example, about how to behave and how the world
works. They encourage children to be polite, reminding them, for instance, to
say “Thank you.” They teach kids how to dress in a way that is appropriate for
the culture. They introduce children to religious beliefs and the rituals that go
with them. They even teach children how to think and feel! Adult men, for
example, often exhibit a certain set of emotional expressions—such as being
tough and not crying—that provides a model of masculinity for their children.
This is why we see different ways of expressing the same emotions in
different parts of the world.
In some societies, it is considered appropriate to conceal anger. Instead of
expressing their feelings outright, people purse their lips, furrow their brows,
and say little. In other cultures, however, it is appropriate to express anger. In
these places, people are more likely to bare their teeth, furrow their brows,
point or gesture, and yell (Matsumoto, Yoo, & Chung, 2010). Such patterns of
behavior are learned. Often, adults are not even aware that they are, in
essence, teaching psychology—because the lessons are happening through
observational learning.
Let’s consider a single example of a way you behave that is learned, which
might surprise you. All people gesture when they speak. We use our hands in
fluid or choppy motions—to point things out, or to pantomime actions in
stories. Consider how you might throw your hands up and exclaim, “I have no
idea!” or how you might motion to a friend that it’s time to go. Even people
who are born blind use hand gestures when they speak, so to some degree
this is a universal behavior, meaning all people naturally do it. However, social
researchers have discovered that culture influences how a person gestures.
Italians, for example, live in a society full of gestures. In fact, they use about
250 of them (Poggi, 2002)! Some are easy to understand, such as a hand
against the belly, indicating hunger. Others, however, are more difficult. For
example, pinching the thumb and index finger together and drawing a line
backwards at face level means “perfect,” while knocking a fist on the side of
one’s head means “stubborn.”

Culture: A Learning Process

Understanding of culture as a learned pattern of views and behaviors is
interesting for several reasons. First, it highlights the ways groups can come
into conflict with one another. Members of different cultures simply learn
different ways of behaving. Modern youth culture, for instance, interacts with
technologies such as smart phones using a different set of rules than people
who are in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Older adults might find texting in the middle
of a face-to-face conversation rude while younger people often do not.
These differences can sometimes become politicized and a source of
tension between groups. One example of this is Muslim women who wear
a hijab, or head scarf. Non-Muslims do not follow this practice, so occasional
misunderstandings arise about the appropriateness of the tradition. Second,
understanding that culture is learned is important because it means that
people can adopt an appreciation of patterns of behavior that are different
than their own. For example, non-Muslims might find it helpful to learn about
the hijab. Where did this tradition come from? What does it mean and what
are various Muslim opinions about wearing one?
Finally, understanding that culture is learned can be helpful in developing
self-awareness. For instance, people from the United States might not even
be aware of the fact that their attitudes about public nudity are influenced by
their cultural learning. While women often go topless on beaches in Europe
and women living a traditional tribal existence in places like the South Pacific
also go topless, it is illegal for women in some of the United States to do so.
These cultural norms for modesty—reflected in government laws and
policies– also enter the discourse on social issues such as the
appropriateness of breast-feeding in public. Understanding that your
preferences are—in many cases—the products of cultural learning might
empower you to revise them if doing so will lead to a better life for you or
others.
 

Marketing Context
Myths and rituals are the stories and practices that define a culture.
A myth is a story with symbolic elements that represents a culture’s ideals.
Each culture creates its own stories to help its members understand the
world. Many companies (and perhaps most advertising agencies) are in a
sense in the myth business; they tell us stories that we collectively absorb.
Some marketers tell these stories more overtly than others: Disney stages
about two thousand Cinderella weddings every year; the princess bride wears
a tiara and rides to the park’s lakeside wedding pavilion in a horse-drawn
coach, complete with two footmen in gray wigs and gold lamé pants (Marr,
2007; Holson, 2003). And the Shrek movies remind us that even the ugliest
suitor can land the princess if his heart is in the right place.
A ritual is a set of multiple symbolic behaviors that occurs in a fixed sequence
and is repeated periodically (Rook, 1985). We all engage in private consumer
rituals, whether this involves grooming activities that we perform the same
way every morning or that obligatory trip to Starbucks on the way to school.
Gift-giving is also a type of ritual: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, house-
warmings, and even Valentine’s are examples of celebrations involving gift-
giving rituals. And as members of a culture we share public rituals such as
Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl, or even tuning in each week to vote
on American Idol. Advertisers often create messages that tie in to these myths
and rituals, such as selling HDTVs for the Super Bowl and Doritos to share
with your friends as you watch the game.
Beyond observational learning, cultures also use rituals to teach people
what is important. For example, young people who are interested in becoming
Buddhist monks often have to endure rituals that help them shed feelings of
“specialness” or superiority—feelings that run counter to Buddhist doctrine. To
do this, they might be required to wash their teacher’s feet, scrub toilets, or
perform other menial tasks. Similarly, many Jewish adolescents go through
the process of bar and bat mitzvah. This is a ceremonial reading from
scripture that requires the study of Hebrew and, when completed, signals that
the youth is ready for full participation in public worship.
Rites of Passage are a common type of ritual that often taken place to
mark a significant change or transition in a person’s life. These may occur to
mark happy occasions, such as graduations, weddings, or having children
and more sombre occasions such as the passing away of a loved one. The
rituals surrounding rites of passage differ from one culture to another and can
even be diverse within a culture. Marketers may position their products or
services as necessary components to accompany a rite of passage: be it a
young person’s “first shave”, a couple’s engagement announcement, or a
family’s first pet.

3. Cultural Gatekeepers
In 1960, journalist A. J. Liebling wryly observed that “freedom of the press is
guaranteed only to those who own one.” Although he may not have put it in
those terms, Liebling was talking about the role of gatekeepers in the media
industry, another way in which cultural values influence mass
communication. Gatekeepers are the people who help determine which
stories make it to the public, including reporters who decide what sources to
use, and editors who pick what gets published and which stories make it to
the front page. Media gatekeepers are part of culture and thus have their own
cultural values, whether consciously or unconsciously. In deciding what
counts as newsworthy, entertaining, or relevant, gatekeepers use their own
values to create and shape what gets presented to the wider public.
Conversely, gatekeepers may decide that some events are unimportant or
uninteresting to consumers. Those events may never reach the eyes or ears
of a larger public.
Consider the role of media gatekeepers and the power they possess over
what we watch on TV and which movies we see in the theatre. If gatekeepers
green light entertainment that perpetuates gender stereotypes in TV and the
white-washing of historical events in film, what effect does this have on our
collective understanding of culture?
Representation & Media Gatekeepers
In their article, “Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls’ interest
in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes”, Cheryan,
Master, and Meltzoff (2015) discuss how gatekeepers can have a profound
impact on representation. Despite having made significant inroads into many
traditionally male-dominated fields (e.g., biology, chemistry), women continue
to be underrepresented in computer science and engineering. Computer
science and engineering are stereotyped in modern American culture as
male-oriented fields that involve social isolation, an intense focus on
machinery, and inborn brilliance. These stereotypes are compatible with
qualities that are typically more valued in men than women in American
culture. As a result, when computer science and engineering stereotypes are
salient, girls report less interest in these fields than their male peers.
Popular movies and television shows like Real Genius, The Big Bang Theory,
and Silicon Valley depict computer scientists and engineers as mostly White
(and more recently Asian) males, socially unskilled, and singularly obsessed
with technology. Similarly, portrayals of technology companies in popular
newspapers and books often depict the “startup culture” that infuses some
technology and engineering jobs (e.g., Guo, 2014; Miller, 2014). This is
unfortunate because in reality such portrayals depict at best only a small
percentage of the jobs in computer science and engineering (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2014). Yet high-school students report that their ideas about what
scientists are like are influenced more by the media than by any other source
(Steinke et al., 2007). Even brief exposures to television portrayals can
influence attitudes toward the group portrayed (Weisbuch et al., 2009).
However, altering these stereotypes—by broadening the representation of the
people who do this work, the work itself, and the environments in which it
occurs—significantly increases girls’ sense of belonging and interest in the
field. Academic stereotypes thus serve as gatekeepers, driving girls away
from certain fields and constraining their learning opportunities and career
aspirations.

4. Cultural Orientations
 Traditionally, social psychologists have thought about how patterns of
behavior have an overarching effect on populations’ attitudes. Harry Triandis,
a cross-cultural psychologist, has studied culture in terms
of individualism and collectivism. Triandis became interested in culture
because of his unique upbringing. Born in Greece, he was raised under both
the German and Italian occupations during World War II. The Italian soldiers
broadcast classical music in the town square and built a swimming pool for
the townspeople. Interacting with these foreigners—even though they were an
occupying army—sparked Triandis’ curiosity about other cultures. He realized
that he would have to learn English if he wanted to pursue academic study
outside of Greece and so he practiced with the only local who knew the
language: a mentally ill 70 year old who was incarcerated for life at the local
hospital. He went on to spend decades studying the ways people in different
cultures define themselves (Triandis, 2008).
So, what exactly were these two patterns of culture Triandis focused on:
individualism and collectivism? Individualists, such as most people born and
raised in Australia or the United States, define themselves as individuals.
They seek personal freedom and prefer to voice their own opinions and make
their own decisions. By contrast, collectivists—such as most people born and
raised in Korea or in Taiwan— are more likely to emphasize their
connectedness to others. They are more likely to sacrifice their personal
preferences if those preferences come in conflict with the preferences of the
larger group (Triandis, 1995).
Both individualism and collectivism can further be divided
into vertical and horizontal dimensions (Triandis, 1995). Essentially, these
dimensions describe social status among members of a society. People in
vertical societies differ in status, with some people being more highly
respected or having more privileges, while in horizontal societies people are
relatively equal in status and privileges. These dimensions are, of course,
simplifications.
Neither individualism nor collectivism is the “correct way to live.” Rather, they
are two separate patterns with slightly different emphases. People from
individualistic societies often have more social freedoms, while collectivistic
societies often have better social safety nets.
 Individualist and collectivist cultures

5. Acculturation, Assimilation, and Multiculturalism

There is tremendous ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity throughout

the United States, largely resulting from a long history and ongoing
identification as a “nation of immigrants” that attracted millions of newcomers
from every continent. Still, elected officials and residents ardently disagree
about how the United States should approach this diversity and incorporate
immigrant, ethnic, and cultural minority groups into the larger framework of
American society. The fundamental question is whether cultural minority
groups should be encouraged to forego their ethnic and cultural identities
and acculturate to the values, traditions, and customs of mainstream culture
or should be allowed and encouraged to retain key elements of their identities
and heritages. This is a highly emotional question. Matters of cultural identity
are often deeply personal and associated with strongly held beliefs about the
defining features of their countries’ national identities. Over the past 400
years, three distinct social philosophies have developed from efforts to
promote national unity and tranquility in societies that have experienced large-
scale immigration: assimilation, multiculturalism, and amalgamation.
Assimilation encourages and may even demand that members of ethnic and
immigrant minority groups abandon their native customs, traditions,
languages, and identities as quickly as possible and adopt those of
mainstream society—“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Advocates of
assimilation generally view a strong sense of national unity based on a shared
linguistic and cultural heritage as the best way to promote a strong national
identity and avoid ethnic conflict. They point, for example, to ethnic warfare
and genocide in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s and to
recent independence movements by French Canadians in Quebec and in
Scotland as evidence of negative consequences of groups retaining a strong
sense of loyalty and identification with their ethnic or linguistic communities.
The “English as the Official Language” movement in the United States is
another example. People are concerned that U.S. unity is weakened by
immigrants who do not learn to speak English. In recent years, the U.S.
Census Bureau has identified more than 300 languages spoken in the United
States. In 2010, more than 60 million people representing 21 percent of the
total U.S. population spoke a language other than English at home and 38
million of those people spoke Spanish.
In marketing, when a product becomes removed or disassociated with its
original ethnic group, we call this process de-ethnicization. These items
become absorbed by a mainstream or dominant culture, much in the way
bagels, pasta, and yoga have. While sacralization describes the process of
everyday objects, people, or events developing sacred status (the locks of
hair from my baby’s first haircut, the ticket stub from the first concert I
attended, and my grandmother’s Scrabble board are all
sacred), desacralization describes the opposite of that.  We see the erasure of
sacred symbolism, or the desacralization of objects, people, or events, occur
when sacred items become absorbed and commercialized in pop culture and
the greater consumer culture. Consider the over-hyped consumerism
surrounding Halloween and Christmas. I once went to a (fabulous) brewery in
the town Haarlem (The Netherlands) that used to be a former church! The
term we apply to consumer objects and events  are ordinary and absent of
any sacred meaning or association is profane. Profane consumption takes
place when I renew my gym membership or attend a webinar.
Multiculturalism takes a different view of assimilation, arguing that ethnic and
cultural diversity is a positive quality that enriches a society and encouraging
respect for cultural differences. The basic belief behind multiculturalism is that
group differences, in and of themselves, do not spark tension, and society
should promote tolerance for differences rather than urging members of
immigrant, ethnic, and cultural minority groups to shed their customs and
identities. Vivid examples of multiculturalism can be seen in major cities
across the United States, such as New York, where ethnic neighborhoods
such as Chinatown and Little Italy border one another, and Los Angeles,
which features many diverse neighborhoods, including Little Tokyo,
Koreatown, Filipinotown, Little Armenia, and Little Ethiopia. The ultimate
objective of multiculturalism is to promote peaceful coexistence while allowing
each ethnic community to preserve its unique heritage and identity.
Multiculturalism is the official governmental policy of Canada; it was codified
in 1988 under the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which declares that
“multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society
and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to
preserve, enhance, and share their cultural heritage.”

Subcultures

A subculture is a group of people who share a set of secondary values,

such as environmentalists. Many factors can place an individual in one or
several subcultures. Five of the most important factors that create subcultures
are:

● Material culture – People with similar income may create a subculture.

The poor, the affluent, and the white-collar middle class are examples
of material subcultures.
● Social institutions – Those who participate in a social institution may
form a subculture. Examples include participation in marriage,
parenthood, a retirement community, or the army.
● Belief systems – People with shared beliefs may create a subculture,
such as a religious group or political party. For example, traditional
Amish do not use electricity and automobiles.
● Aesthetics – Artistic people often form a subculture of their own
associated with their common interests, such as art, music, dance,
drama, and folklore.
● Language – People with similar dialects, accents, and vocabulary can
form a subculture. Southerners and northerners are two traditional
categories in the US.

Adjusting to cultural differences is perhaps the most difficult task facing

marketers who operate in other countries. Before entering a foreign market, a
company must decide to what extent it is willing to customize its marketing
efforts to accommodate each foreign market.

Types of Subcultures

Subcultures, such as college students, can develop in response to people’s

interests, similarities, and behaviors that allow marketing professionals to
design specific products for them. You have probably heard of the hip-hop
subculture, people who in engage in extreme types of sports such as
helicopter skiing or people who play the fantasy game Dungeons and
Dragons.

1. Race & Ethnicity as Subcultures

When subcultures are discussed in the context of race, ethnicity, and gender,
it’s important to first understand these concepts clearly.

The terms race and ethnicity are similar and there is a degree of overlap
between them. The average person frequently uses the terms “race” and
“ethnicity” interchangeably as synonyms and anthropologists also recognize
that race and ethnicity are overlapping concepts. Both race and ethnic identity
draw on an identification with others based on common ancestry and shared
cultural traits. A race is a social construction that defines groups of humans
based on arbitrary physical and/or biological traits that are believed to
distinguish them from other humans. An ethnic group, on the other hand,
claims a distinct identity based on cultural characteristics and a shared
ancestry that are believed to give its members a unique sense of peoplehood
or heritage. The cultural characteristics used to define ethnic groups vary;
they include specific languages spoken, religions practiced, and distinct
patterns of dress, diet, customs, holidays, and other markers of distinction. In
some societies, ethnic groups are geographically concentrated in particular
regions, as with the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq and the Basques in northern
Spain.

Many individuals view their ethnicity as an important element of their personal

and social identity. Numerous psychological, social, and familial factors play a
role in ethnicity, and ethnic identity is most accurately understood as a range
or continuum populated by people at every point. One’s sense of ethnicity can
also fluctuate across time. Children of Korean immigrants living in an
overwhelmingly white town, for example, may choose to self-identify simply as
“American” during their middle school and high school years to fit in with their
classmates and then choose to self-identify as “Korean,” “Korean American,”
or “Asian American” in college or later in life as their social settings change or
from a desire to connect more strongly with their family history and heritage.
Do you consider your ethnicity an important part of your identity? Why do you
feel the way you do?
A few traditions, such as favorite family recipes or distinct customs associated
with the celebration of a holiday, that originated in their homelands may be
retained by family members across generations, reinforcing a sense of ethnic
heritage and identity today. More recent immigrants are likely to retain more of
the language and cultural traditions of their countries of origin. Non-European
immigrants groups from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the
Caribbean also experience significant linguistic and cultural losses over
generations, but may also continue to self-identify with their ethnic
backgrounds if they do not feel fully incorporated into U.S, society because
they “stick out” physically from Euro-American society and experience
prejudice and discrimination. Psychological, sociological, and anthropological
studies have indicated that retaining a strong sense of ethnic pride and
identification is common among ethnic minorities in the United States and
other nations as a means of coping with and overcoming societal bigotry.

2. Gender as a Subculture

We now understand that cultures, not nature, create the gender ideologies
that go along with being born male or female and the ideologies vary widely,
cross-culturally. What is considered “man’s work” in some societies, such as
carrying heavy loads, or farming, can be “woman’s work” in others. What is
“masculine” and “feminine” varies: pink and blue, for example, are culturally
invented gender-color linkages, and skirts and “make-up” can be worn by
men, indeed by “warriors.”

One’s biologic sex is a different phenomenon than one’s gender, which is

socially and historically constructed. Gender is a set of culturally invented
expectations and therefore constitutes a role one assumes, learns, and
performs, more or less consciously. It is an “identity” one can in theory
choose, at least in some societies, although there is tremendous pressure, as
in the United States, to conform to the gender role and identity linked to your
biologic sex. This is a profound transformation in how we think about both
gender and sexuality. The reality of human biology is that males and females
are shockingly similar. There is arguably more variability within than between
each gender, especially taking into account the enormous variability in human
physical traits among human populations globally. Much of what has been
defined as “biological” is actually cultural, so the possibilities for
transformation and change are nearly endless! That can be liberating,
especially when we are young and want to create identities that fit our
particular configuration of abilities and preferences. It can also be upsetting to
people who have deeply internalized and who want to maintain the old gender
ideology.

Masculinity studies goes beyond men and their roles to explore the relational
aspects of gender. One focus is the enculturation processes through which
boys learn about and learn to perform “manhood.” Many U.S. studies (and
 several excellent videos, such as Tough Guise by Jackson Katz), have
examined the role of popular culture in teaching boys our culture’s key
concepts of masculinity, such as being “tough” and “strong,” and shown how
this “tough guise” stance affects men’s relationships with women, with other
men, and with societal institutions, reinforcing a culture of violent masculinity.
Sociologist Michael Kimmel has further suggested that boys are taught that
they live in a “perilous world” he terms “Guyland.”

4.Age Subcultures

Think about your most recent family gathering. Were your grandparents
there? Maybe your parents, nieces, or uncles? What did conversations
around the dinner table sound like? Sometimes family reunions are
accompanied by a lot of drama and differing opinions. While some differences
may be caused by opposing beliefs, other differences may be something a
little less obvious. Generational differences can include lifestyle differences,
motivational differences, etc. Although you may view these differences as
quirky things your Aunt Susie or Grandma Betty say or do, there may actually
be reasons they act a certain way. Understanding generational differences
may help to shed some light on why your family acts the way they do. For
marketers, learning about generational differences provides helpful insight
how to market to different age subcultures. This can be extremely beneficial in
creating marketing campaigns, promotions, products, and services.

There are four generations who are active in today’s consumer culture; Baby
Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y (or Millennials), and Generation Z.
Let’s break down each one and examine some similarities and differences,
keeping in mind, these are generalizations and there are exceptions within
each generation.

● Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964. The huge wave of baby
boomers began arriving in 1946, following World War II, and marketers have
been catering to them ever since. What are they like? Sociologists have
attributed to them such characteristics as “individuality, tolerance, and self-
absorption.” In the United States, there are seventy million of them, and as
they marched through life over the course of five decades, marketers crowded
the roadside to supply them with toys, clothes, cars, homes, and appliances—
whatever they needed at the time. They’re still a major marketing force, but
their needs have changed: they’re now the target market for Botox,
pharmaceutical products, knee surgery, financial investments, cruises,
vacation homes, and retirement communities. Baby Booms have a high
amount of disposable income, are affluent, and more “tech savvy” than
many might realize. For marketers, the most effective way to reach this
consumer subculture is through television advertisements, email marketing,
paid search, and Facebook advertisements.
● Generation X: born between 1965 and 1981. Because birth rates had
declined by the time the “Gen X” babies first arrived in 1965, this group had
just one decade to grow its numbers. Thus, it’s considerably smaller
(seventeen million) than the baby-boomer group, and it has also borne the
brunt of rising divorce rates and the arrival of AIDS. Experts say, however,
that they’re diverse, savvy, and pragmatic and point out that even though they
were once thought of as “slackers,” they actually tend to be self-reliant and
successful. At this point in their lives, most are at their peak earning power
and affluent enough to make marketers stand up and take notice.
● Generation Y (“Millennials”): born between 1982 and 1997. When they
became parents, baby boomers delivered a group to rival their own. Born
between 1976 and 2001, their sixty million children are sometimes called
“echo boomers” (because their population boom is a reverberation of the baby
boom). They’re still evolving, but they’ve already been assigned some
attributes: they’re committed to integrity and honesty, they’re family oriented
and close to parents, ethnically diverse and accepting of differences, upbeat
and optimistic about the future (although the troubled economy is lessening
their optimism), education focused, independent, and goal oriented. They also
seem to be coping fairly well: among today’s teens, arrests, drug use, drunk
driving, and school dropout rates are all down. Generation Ys are being
courted by carmakers. Global car manufacturers have launched a number of
2012 cars designed to cater to the members of Generation Y. Advertisers are
also busy trying to find innovative ways to reach this group, but they’re finding
that it’s not easy. Generation Ys grew up with computers and other modes of
high technology, and they’re used to doing several things at once—
simultaneously watching TV, texting, and playing games on the computer. As
a result, they’re quite adept at tuning out ads. Try to reach them through TV
ads and they’ll channel-surf right past them or hit their TiVo remotes. You
can’t get to them over the Internet because they know all about pop-up
blockers. In one desperate attempt to get their attention, an advertiser paid
college students fifty cents to view thirty-second ads on their computers.
Advertisers keep trying, because Generation Y is big enough to wreck a brand
by giving it a cold shoulder.
● Generation Z (“Digital Natives”): born between 1997 and
today. Generation Z has never known a world before technology. They have
grown up in an “always on” world where technology is readily available and
used on a regular basis. Technology has been utilized as a babysitter by
many parents of this generation and it is also present in the classroom. This
constant access to technology makes Generation Z extremely tech savvy but
has also changed behavior and lifestyle. Whether or not these behavioral and
lifestyle changes will carry on into their adulthood is yet to be determined.
Generation Z is starting to enter into the workforce with the oldest members
turning 22-years-old in 2019.