Chapter 15

Cultural Influences
on Consumer Behavior

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR, 9e
Michael R. Solomon

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Chapter Objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should
understand why:
• A culture is a society’s personality; it shapes
our identities as individuals.
• Myths are stories that express a culture’s
values, and in modern times marketing
messages convey these values.

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Chapter Objectives (continued)
• Many of our consumption activities including
holiday observances, grooming, and gift
giving are rituals.
• We describe products as either sacred or
profane, and it’s not unusual for some
products to move back and forth between the
two categories.

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What is Culture?
• Culture is the accumulation of shared
meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions
• Culture is a society’s personality

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Discussion
• If your culture were a person, how would you
describe its personality traits?
• Now, select another culture you’re familiar
with. How would those personality traits
differ from your own?

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Understanding Culture
• Products can reflect underlying cultural
processes of a particular period:
• The TV dinner for the United States
• Cosmetics made of natural materials
without animal testing
• Pastel carrying cases for condoms

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Functional Areas in a Cultural System

Ecology

Social structure

Ideology

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Cultural Dimensions

Power Way members perceive differences in power

Distance when they form interpersonal relationships

Uncertainty Degree to which people feel threatened by

Avoidance ambiguous situations

Masculine
versus Degree to which sex roles are clearly delineated
Feminine

Individualism
Extent to which culture values the welfare of the
versus individual versus that of the group
Collectivism
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Norms in Culture
• Enacted norms are specifically chosen
• Crescive norms are discovered as we
interact
• Customs: norms handed down from the
past that control basic behavior
• Mores: custom with a strong moral
overtone
• Conventions: norms regarding the
conduct of everyday life

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Discussion
• When you go out on a first date, identify the
set of crescive norms that are operating.
• Describe specific behaviors each person
performs that make it clear he or she is on a
first date.
• What products and services are affected by
these norms?

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Cultural Stories
• Every culture develops
stories and ceremonies that
help members make sense
of the world
• Lucky rabbit’s foot
• Lucky numbers (e.g., 7)
• Magic remedies

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Myths
• Myths are stories with symbolic elements
that represent the shared emotions/ideals of
a culture
• Story characteristics
• Conflict between opposing forces
• Outcome is moral guide for people
• Myth reduces anxiety by providing
guidelines

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Functions of Myths

Metaphysical Help explain origins of existence

Emphasize that all components of the

Cosmological
universe are part of a single picture

Maintain social order by authorizing a

Sociological social code to be followed by members of a
culture

Psychological Provide models for personal conduct

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Myths Abound in Modern Popular Culture
• Myths are often found in comic books,
movies, holidays, and commercials
• Monomyths: a myth that is common to many
cultures (e.g., Spiderman and Superman)
• Many movies/commercials present
characters and plot structures that follow
mythic patterns
• Gone With the Wind
• E.T.: The Extraterrestrial
• Star Trek
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Rituals
• Rituals are sets of multiple,
symbolic behaviors that
occur in a fixed sequence
and that tend to be repeated
periodically
• Many consumer activities
are ritualistic
• Trips to Starbucks
• Sunday brunch

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Rituals and Brands
• Fortress brands are those that have become
embedded in our ceremonies
• Consider these rituals:
• Getting ready for bed
• Checking e-mail
• Shaving
• Putting on makeup
• Do you use the same brands every time you
perform the ritual?

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Table 15.1 Types of Ritual Experience

Primary Behavior Ritual Type Examples

Source
Cosmology Religious Baptism, meditation
Cultural Values Rites of passage Graduation, holidays, Super
Cultural Bowl
Group Learning Civic Parades, elections
Group Fraternity initiation, office
luncheons
Family Mealtimes, bedtimes, Christmas
Individual Aims and Personal Grooming, household rituals
Emotions

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Ritual Artifacts
• Weddings
• Birthdays
• Graduations
• Ball games
• Awards ceremonies
• Holidays

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Specific Ritual Types
• Grooming rituals
• Gift-giving rituals
• Holiday rituals
• Rites of passage

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Grooming Rituals
• Transition from private to public self
• Transition from work self to leisure self
• Natural state to social world

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Gift-Giving Rituals
• Consumers procure the perfect object,
meticulously remove the price tag, carefully
wrap it, then deliver it to recipient
• Gift giving is a form of:
• Economic exchange
• Symbolic exchange
• Social expression
• Every culture prescribes certain occasions
and ceremonies for giving gifts

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Stages of the Gift-Giving Ritual
• Gestation: giver is motivated by an event to
procure a gift
• Structural event: prescribed by culture
(e.g., Christmas)
• Emergent event: more personal
• Presentation: process of gift exchange when
recipient responds to gift and donor
evaluates response
• Reformulation: giver and receiver adjust the
bond between them
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Holiday Rituals
• Holidays are based on a myth with a
character at center of story
• Christmas
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Marketers find ways to encourage gift giving
• Secretaries’ Day and Grandparents’ Day
• Retailers elevate minor holidays to major
ones to provide merchandising opportunities
• Cinco de Mayo
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Rites of Passage
• Rites of passage: special times marked by a
change in social status

Separation

Liminality

Aggregation

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Discussion
• Describe the three stages of the rite of
passage associated with graduating from
college.
• “Fraternity hazing is just a natural rite of
passage that should not be prohibited by
universities.” Do you agree?

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Sacred and Profane Consumption
• Sacred consumption:
involves objects and events
that are set apart from
normal activities that are
treated with respect or awe
• Profane consumption:
involves consumer objects
and events that are ordinary
and not special

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Sacralization
• Sacralization occurs when ordinary objects,
events, and even people take on sacred
meaning
• Objectification occurs when we attribute
sacred qualities to mundane items, through
processes like contamination
• Collecting is the systematic acquisition of a
particular object or set of objects

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Domains of Sacred Consumption
• Sacred places: religious/mystical and
country heritage, such as Stonehenge,
Mecca, Ground Zero in New York City
• Sacred people: celebrities, royalty
• Sacred events: athletic events, religious
ceremonies

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Sacred Souvenir Icons
• Local products (e.g., regional wine)
• Pictorial images (e.g., postcards, photos)
• ‘Piece of the rock’ (e.g., seashells)
• Literal representations (e.g., mini icons)
• Markers (e.g., logo-oriented t-shirts)

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Desacralization
• Desacralization: when a sacred item/symbol
is removed from its special place or is
duplicated in mass quantities (becomes
profane)
• Souvenir reproductions (Statue of Liberty)
• Religion has somewhat become desacralized
• Fashion jewelry
• Christmas and Ramadan as secular,
materialistic occasions

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Chapter Summary
• A culture is a society’s personality.
• Myths are stories that express a culture’s
values.
• Many of our consumption activities include
rituals associated with holidays, grooming,
rites of passage, and other events.
• Products may be sacred or profane and
some may shift between the two categories.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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