Subculture is a distinct cultural group that exists as an identifiable segment within a larger, more complex society.
Importance:
Subcultural analysis enables the marketers to focus on sizable and natural market segments.
Subculture is the relevant unit of analysis for market research. Categories of subculture:
Categories examples Nationality Indian, American
Religion Hindu, Muslim
Geographic region Northeast, Midwest
Age senior citizen, teenager
Gender male, female
Occupation engineer, doctor Social class lower, middle, upper Nationality subculture:
Nationality is an important subcultural reference that guides in what customer value and what they buy.
Hispanic subculture:
Traditional Characteristics of the Hispanic American Market: Prefer well-known brands.
Buy brands perceived to be more prestigious. Are fashion conscious.
Historically prefer to shop at smaller personal stores. Buy brands advertised by their ethnic-group stores. Tend not to be impulsive buyers
.
Increasingly clipping and using cents-off coupons. Likely to buy what their parent brought.
Prefer fresh to frozen or prepared items. Religious Subcultures
200+ organized religious groups in the U.S. Primary organized faiths include:
Protestant denominations Roman Catholicism Judaism
Consumers purchase decision are influenced by their religious identity.
Consumer Behavior is directly affected by religion in terms of products that are symbolically and ritualistically associated with the celebration of religious holidays.
Eg: Christmas has become a gift-purchasing season of the year. Geographic and Regional subculture:
Individuals have the sense of regional identification and they use this identification to as a way of describing others.
Many regional differences exist in consumption behavior Westerners have a mug of black coffee
Easterners have a cup of coffee with milk and sugar White bread is preferred in the South and Midwest
Rye and whole wheat are preferred on the East and West coasts. Racial subculture:
African-American Consumer
Purchasing power estimated at $572 billion They are brand loyal.
Prefer high fashions and name brands “as a signal of their success”. Asian-American Consumers
Currently about 12 million in size Estimated at 13 million in 2005 Gain of 54% since 1990
Age subculture:
Four groups under this are: Generation Y Generation X Baby boomers Older consumers Generation Y:
Born between 1977 and 1994;
Also called echo boomers and millennium generation 3 Subsegments of Gen Y:
Gen Y Adults(age 19-24) Gen Y Teens(age 13-18)
Gen Y Tweens or kids(age 8-12) Appealing to generation Y:
Shifts from TV viewing to using internet so they prefer internet shopping. Less likely to read newspaper.
Not trust the stores their parents shop in.
Generation X:
Generation X:
Born between 1965 and 1979;
Post baby boomer segment (also referred to as Xers or busters). They work to live.
Job satisfaction is important than salary.. Expect work-life flexibility.
Appealing to generation X:
Puchase product with good brand name.
This group choose to be with their own rights so marketers focus on fashion, music and language.
Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers :
Individuals born between 1946 and 1964 (approximately 45% of the adult population).
The largest age category alive today
Include a small subsegment of trend setting consumers (yuppies) who influence consumer tastes of other age segments.
They are motivated consumers.
They enjoying buying for themselves and for their homes. Seniors:
Generally older consumers.
Consist of subcultures, including the 50-plus market and the “elderly consumers” market.
Three Senior Subsegments •The Young-Old (65-74) •The Old (75-84)
•The Old-Old (85 and older) Gender as a subculture:
Gender roles and consumer behaviour:
Masculine traits: aggressiveness and competitiveness.
Feminine traits: neatness, tactfulness, gentleness and talkativeness. Working woman:
Segmentation issues:
Four Segments of women are: Stay-at-Home Housewives Plan-to-Work Housewives Just-a-Job Working Women Career-Oriented Working Women Shopping pattern:
Working women spend less time in shopping. They brand and store loyal.
They shop during evenings ad week-ends. CROSS CULTURAL CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Imperative to be multinational:
All major companies market their products beyond their original home country. The vocabulary of marketing denotes the term as glocal.
EU-European Union forms a single market and used euro as a common currency. NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement consist of United states,
Canada and Mexico and provide free market access to more than 400 million consumers.
Reason for being multinational: Opportunity for future growth.
Acquiring exposure to other cultures:
Some consumers get exposure to other culture by their own initiatives like travel, working in foreign, etc.
Consumers taste different culture from contact with foreign movie.
Consumers taste different culture by buying unfamiliar or different product. Marketers bring new products, services, practices or ideas for international marketing and it gives cultural transfer.
Country-of-origin effects:
Consumers make purchase decision in considering country of origin of their choice.
Eg: consumers associate France with Wine, Fashion clothing and perfume, Germany with cars and machinery.
Some consumers restrict buying product from other countries due to animosity. Eg: Many Chinese consumers consider Sony high-end and high-quality, but may refuse to buy due to animosity toward Japan
High-animosity consumers own fewer Japanese products than low-animosity consumers
Cross cultural consumer analysis:
It is defined as the effort to determine to what extend the consumers of two or more nations are similar or different.
Issues in Cross-Cultural Consumer Analysis Similarities and Differences Among People
Time Effects
The Growing Global Middle Class Acculturation
Research Techniques
Similarities and Differences Among People:
Cross-cultural consumers analysis is used to determine how consumers of two or more societies are similar or different.
This analysis helps the marketer to device appropriate individualized strategies to reach consumers in specific foreign market.
Eg: IKEA furniture company offers 14 localized websites describing the product in the localized language.
The Growing Global Middle Class:
Growing middle class in developing countries is a attractive phenomenon to the global marketers.
Middle class consumers have more discretionary(or spending) income which makes the marketers to target the middle class segment.
Regulation in different countries may preclude the use of some marketing practices.
Eg: Germany advertising rule do not permit comparative advertisement. Acculturation:
Acculturation is the learning of a new “foreign” culture .
Marketers should learn the culture of other countries where they want to sell their product.
Cross-cultural acculturation is a dual process for marketers:
Marketers must be sensitive to the prevailing attitudes, behaviors and values to appropriately position and market their product.
To gain acceptance of their product in the foreign nation, marketers should develop a strategy that encourage members of that society to change their attitude and alter their behaviour.
Applying research techniques:
Since there are many research issues exist in cross-cultural analysis marketers should use the research service facility available in the foreign nation to evaluate their potential maket.
Research Issues in cross-cultural analysis:( (slide) Alternative multinational strategies:
Global Vs local
Favoring a “World Brand” Adaptive Global Marketing
Framework for Assessing Multinational Strategies Global
Local Mixed Global Vs local:
World markets are becoming more similar so the challenges for the marketers are: Whether to use shared needs and values as a segmentation strategy.
Whether to use national borders as a segmentation strategy. Favoring a “World Brand”:
Some firms have created world brand product that are manufactured, packed and positioned in exactly the same way regardless of the country in which they are sold but the advertisement is in the specific target language.
Eg: P&G ‘s global brands are: Pantene, oil of Olay, etc. Adaptive Global Marketing:
Some firm’s marketing strategy adapts their advertisement messages to the specific values of particular cultures.
Eg: McDonald’s, Reebok and Levi’s.
Framework for Assessing Multinational Strategies:
Marketing Mistakes: A Failure to Understand Differences