It is known as the technological and economic aspects of the society. Cultures which obtain high technology levels are expected to have more experienced individuals in operating machines, and positive attitudes toward purchasing such machines, therefore, operating a washing machine will not be difficult. Whereas individuals in low-technology cultures will not obtain such experience and may have negative attitudes toward the new machines. For marketers, trying to sell such products in high-tech cultures can be much easier than promoting them to low-technology cultures. The economic situation may have a strong influence on purchasing products and services in the society (Chee and Harris 1998).
4.3.8 Myths
Mentioned previously, myths are stories that contain symbolic elements expressing the shared emotions and ideas of a culture so understanding the cultural myths is important to marketers who can take advantages of local myths to build their marketing and promotion strategies (Solomon et al., 1999).
4.3.9 Rituals
According to Rook (1985), rituals are sets of symbolic behaviours occurring in a fixed succession that tend to be repeated periodically. They derive their strength from their social environment and the psychological and emotional stimulation of the individuals in that society (Kertzer, 1988).
Discussing rituals, Tetreault and Kleine (1990) provide a wider perspective by describing rituals as the socially standardized activity succession which is designed to transmit social and moral order. Rituals' meanings are conveyed through the use of symbolic or metaphorical (objects, language, actors, and behaviours) that are arranged into a structured and dramatic complex which is repeated over time.
For marketers, rituals are very important because they involve fixed consumption behaviours that marketers can exploit (Hawkins et al., 2001). Researchers have distinguished between three types of rituals. There are: personal routine rituals, the social rituals and the sacred rituals. The following paragraphs explain each type.
The Personal Routine Rituals involve a series of behaviours that become part of the behavioural style. Individuals shape their lives through various personal routines, which are individually adapted versions of the social rituals, but some are quite idiosyncratic and limited to an individual or a relationship (Miner, 1956).
Social Rituals according to Garfinkle (1967) are "socially (made behaviours) that are constrained by the social role and context". Individuals tend to follow their social rituals and believe they are obligatory. They use the language of rituals "for everyday life as an effective way to get people to understand the often invisible role of (ritualized behaviour) in shaping social interactions of everyday life that participants may (experience) as spontaneous" (Garfinkle, 1967). The way people greet each other in different occasions and the way they celebrate different occasions such as birthdays, the New Year, and marriages are examples of social rituals (Rook, 1985).
The third type of rituals is the Sacred Rituals. Differentiating "between social rituals and sacred rituals (is difficult) since they differ only in the degree of self-awareness and salience. (Sacred rituals are self-conscious ceremonies, whereas public rituals serve to (establish) and (shape) important ties of individuals to political and social communities, institutions and leaders, (while religious rituals serve to link participants to inspiring events realms). There is a basic similarity (between) religious congregations and the body
politic (that) both (recognize the power) of a transcendent authority over the individual"
(Durkheim, 1915).
Lastly, rituals are not steady they may change out of fade, and as time passes new rituals may also emerge suddenly replacing other existing rituals (Rook, 1985).
Shared Characteristics of Culture
Some experts such as Dr. Singh (2004) state that analysing culture can be based on the perceptual, behavioural and symbolic levels. When considering the intra-personal world of cognitive structures and the extra-personal world of objects, some examples of the cultural variables that had been suggested at these levels of analysis become evident. These examples include the language translatability since language structures the way we think about or conceptualize something, and it structures colour perceptions and colour categories, and the ecological perceptual which means the styles-perception of geometric shapes, open spaces, and depth. Other examples include the field independence which reflects the ability to see objects separately from the context leading to cross-cultural differences in visual input processing, codes of Society which includes systems into which signs of the society are organized as the aesthetic codes, codes of conduct, and non-verbal codes. There is also the metonyms-linguistic which imply the structures that make a part standing for the whole Myths-myths stimulating us to construct the rest of the chain of concepts that constitute the myth, and the colour-cultures which ascribe symbolic meanings to different colours. Other variables may also include socio-culturally determined symbols, more taboos, rules, rituals, ceremonies and different forms of semiotic structure.
Similarly, Schiffman and Kanuk (1994) listed several characteristics of culture. The culture is an invisible, which means that it is ingrained inside humans and has a strong influence on their behaviour. Being exposed to other cultures having different characteristics, humans start to feel the influence of their own culture. Solomon, Bamossy and Askegaard (2000) go further by describing culture as a concept like a fish immersed in water.
Actually, we do not appreciate the power of our culture until we encounter a different environment. Furthermore, culture satisfies the needs of society by providing order and
guidance in problem-solving also it provides solutions for several questions that arise in a moment, for example what to eat? Where to eat and how to eat? What should we serve to the guests? All the aforementioned are questions that are answered according to our cultural beliefs and values. Unlike the biological characteristics (e.g. sex, skin and hair colour), culture is learned from the surrounding social environment. The way we learn culture can be formal as when adults teach their kids how to behave, informal through imitating others or technical where teachers instruct children in an educational environment. For more explanation, when a girl learns formally from her mother when she is told what is right and what is wrong, or told what to do and what not to do. But when she learns how to cook by watching her parents while they are cooking that is informal, and when she learns ballet dancing from her ballet instructor that would be through a technical way.
Culture is about sharing those values, beliefs, experiences, group customs and norms that must be shared by all in order to be considered as cultural characteristics. Language, media, family, education and religious institutes play a great role in sharing and transferring cultural characteristics between individuals. Adding to that, culture is characterized as dynamic: culture is not rigid; it evolves with time in order to provide the best for the individuals in the society such as the increasing number of working women around the world which presents a physical evidence of cultural change.