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Chapter 14:Culture
Learning Objective:
14.1 A culture is a society’s personality.
14.2 Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times marketing messages convey these values to members of the culture.
14.3 Many of our consumption activities – including holiday observances, grooming, and gift giving – relate to rituals.
14.4 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.
14.5 New products, services, and ideas spread through a population over time. Different types of people are more or less likely to adopt them during this diffusion process.
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Objective 1:
A culture is a society’s personality.
• We simply can’t understand consumption unless we understand its cultural context.• Culture is like a lens through which people view products.
Culture:
• Culture is a society’s personality. It is the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions among members of a society or organization.
• Includes both abstract ideas (such as values and ethics) and material objects and services (like cars, clothing, food, and art)
• Our culture determines the overall priorities we attach to different activities and products.
• Consumers are more likely to want products that resonate with a culture’s priorities• The TV dinner for the United States
• Reflected change in the US family structure• Cosmetics made of natural materials without animal testing
• Reflected consumers’ concern about pollution, waste and animal rights
• The relationship between CB and culture is a 2-way street.• Products that get accepted provide a window into the dominant cultural ideals of the
period
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Cultural System: Functional Areas
• Refers to the way a system adapts to its habitat.• The technology a culture uses to obtain and distribute resources shapes its ecology
Ecology
• Refers to the way people maintain an orderly social life. • This includes the domestic and political groups that dominate the culture
Social
• Refers to the mental characteristics of people and the way they relate to their environment and social groups
• This relates to the idea of a common worldview, i.e., sharing common ideas about principles of order and fairness.
• Members of a culture also share a set of moral and aesthetic principles, known as ethos.
Ideology
• Culture is not static. • It continually evolves as old ideas are merged with new ones.
The Movement of Meaning:
Advertising and fashion industry play a key role in imbuing functional products with symbolic qualities
Culture determines our values and meanings
Meanings reside in everyday products
The products impart their meanings to us as we use these to express our identities
Consumers associate the values and meanings with their identity
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Culture Production Process :
• At any point in time, we might have just a small fraction of the total set of possibilities.
• When we select certain alternatives over others our choice is only the culmination of a complex filtration process that resembles a funnel.
• Possibilities compete for adoption but then most drop out as they make their way down the path from conception to consumption.
• This winnowing process is called cultural selection.
• We don’t form our tastes and preferences in vacuum. • Mass media; those around us• Options constantly evolve around and change• A clothing style or type of cuisine that is “hot” one
year may be “out” the next.
Culture Production Process :
The “Rachel” Haircut
Fashion trend from Winter 2019 – Neon turtlenecks
Fashion trend from Winter 2021 – Head to toe denim
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Culture Production Process :
A culture production system is the set of individuals and organizations that create and market a cultural product.
It has three major subsystems:
• Creative: generates new symbols and products (e.g., singer/artist)
• Managerial: selects, makes, produces, and manages the distribution of new symbols and products (e.g., a company the distributes the album).
• Communications: gives meaning to the new product and provide it with a symbolic set of attributes (e.g., advertising agencies that promote the artists music).
• The cultural gatekeepers filter the overflow of information as it travels down the funnel (e.g., reviewers, and critics).
Objective 2:
Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times marketing messages convey these values to members of the culture.
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Myths:
• Myths are stories with symbolic elements that represent the shared emotions/ideals of a culture.
• They often focus on some kind of conflict between two opposing forces and their outcomes serves as a moral guide for listeners.
• A myth reduces anxiety because it provides consumers with guidelines about their world.
• Marketers tend to use these mythical symbolism and imageries in their messages – brand logos, commercials, etc.
Myths: Brand Logos and their mythological origins
The swoosh concept is derived from the wing of the Greek goddess of victory.
Dove is the symbol of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love.
Top 10 Popular Logo Symbols And Their Shocking Mythological Stories
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Myths: Functions in the culture
Functions
Cosmological
Sociological
Psychological
MetaphysicalHelp explain origins of existence
Emphasize that all components of the universe are part of a single picture
Maintain social order by authorizing a social code to be followed by members of a culture
Provide models for personal conduct
• Myths serves four interrelated functions in a culture.
Myths: Modern Popular Culture
• Myths are often found in comic books, movies, holidays, and commercials
• People create their own consumer fairy tales where they tell stories that include magical agents, donors, and helpers to overcome villains and obstacles as they seek goods and services in their quest for happy endings.
• Marketers help us live out these fairy tales. • E.g., Popularity of elaborate Disney weddings.
• Monomyths: a myth that is common to many cultures• Fictional figures embody properties fundamental to every culture• E.g., Superman
• Many movies/commercials present characters and plot structures that follow mythic patterns
• E.T. represents a familiar myth of messianic visitation.
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Objective 3:
• Many of our consumption activities- including holiday observances, grooming, and gift-giving- relate to rituals.
Rituals:• Rituals are sets of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that
tend to be repeated periodically.
• Many contemporary consumer activities are ritualistic.• Trips to Starbucks; Sunday brunch; Tuesday Movies• When individuals consume products (e.g., chocolates) as part of a ritual, they tend to
enjoy them more than if there is no context.
• Many businesses supply ritual artifacts to consumers, i.e., items one needs to perform rituals, such as wedding cake, birthday candles, greeting cards, etc.
• Consumers often follow a ritual script to identify the artifacts they need, the sequence in which they should use them, and who should use them.
• Common Rituals –• Grooming – help us transition from our private self to our public self• Gift-giving – symbolically change a commercial good to a unique good• Holiday – Thanksgiving, Christmas• Rites of passage – Graduation, Wedding
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Rituals: in Commercials
Objective 4:
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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Sacred and Profane Consumption:
Sacred
• Involves objects and events that are set apart from normal activities that are treated with respect or awe (not related to religious)
• E.g., Graduation robe, Prom dress, Wedding cake, heirlooms
Profane
• Involves consumer objects and events that are ordinary and everyday
• Not special• E.g., Every day work
clothes, Lunch in the cafeteria
Sacralization:• Sacralization occurs when ordinary objects, events and people take on a sacred meaning.
• E.g., events like Super Bowl; people such as Beyoncé
• 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
• Objectification occurs when we attribute sacred qualities to mundane items (e.g., shoes, sofa, ring etc.) • This process occurs via contamination whereby objects we associate with sacred events or people become scared in
their own right.
• Tourism is an example of a sacred experience. • The desire of travelers to capture these sacred experiences in objects is the basis for the souvenir industry. • In addition to personal mementos, there are several common types of 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)
Orange couch from ‘Friends’ on a world tour
Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC maintains a display of ruby slippers
from Wizard of Oz
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Desacralization:
• Desacralization – removal of a sacred item or symbol from its special place or duplicate it in mass quantities so that it loses its “specialness” and becomes profane.
• Reproduction of sacred monuments like Eiffel Tower• Reproduction of artworks like Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David • Printing of sacred symbols like country flags on T-shirts
Objective 5:
New products, services, and ideas spread through a population over time. Different types of people are more or less likely to adopt them during this
diffusion process.
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The Diffusion of Innovations:
Innovation: any product or service that consumers perceive to be new• New manufacturing technique (the ability to design your own running
shoe at nike.com)• New product variation (Uber; Blue Apron)• New way to deliver product (GrubHub, Postmates)• New way to package product (Campbell’s soup in microwaveable bowl)
Diffusion of innovation: the process whereby a new product, service, or idea spreads through a population
• Successful innovations spread through the population at various rates
The Diffusion of Innovations:
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Types of Adopters:
Innovators are always on the lookout for novel
products or services and who are first to try
something new
Early adopters are similar toinnovators but they are
different in their degree of concern for social acceptance.
Laggards are very slow
The early majority and late adopters are in the middle
Behavioral Demands of Innovations:• Innovations are categorized by the degree to which they demand adopters to change their behavior.
• Technology Acceptance Model (TAM): widely used approach to predicting whether people will adopt a new form of technology or information system – The likelihood of change/ acceptance is based on two factors:
1. the perceived usefulness of the new option2. its perceived ease of use.
• Three major types of innovations based on the amount of disruption or change they bring to people’s lives.
• Continuous innovation‒ Evolutionary rather than revolutionary‒ A modification of an existing product (such as when Levi’s promotes a new cut of jeans). ‒ The company makes a small change to an existing product. Most product innovations are of this type. ‒ When a consumer adopts this kind of new product, she only must make minor changes in her habits.
• Dynamically continuous innovation‒ More pronounced change to existing product‒ Present new way to use an existing product‒ Consumers must alter our habits to use it.
• Discontinuous innovation‒ Creates major changes in the way we live‒ Major inventions such as the airplane, the car, the computer, and the television all changed modern lifestyles
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Prerequisites for Successful Adoption:
Compatibility• Innovation should be compatible with consumers’ lifestylesTrialability• People are more likely to adopt an innovation if they can experiment with it
prior to purchaseComplexity• A product that is easy to understand will be chosen over competitorsObservability• Innovations that are easily observable are more likely to spreadRelative Advantage• Product should offer relative advantage over other alternatives
Look Through on your Own
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Chapter Objective:
14.7 Many people and organizations play a role in the fashion system that creates and communicates symbolic meanings to consumers.
14.8 Fashions follow cycles and reflect cultural dynamics.
14.9 Western (and particularly U.S.) culture has a huge impact around the world, although people in other countries don’t necessarily ascribe the same meanings to products as we do.
14.10 Products that succeed in one culture may fail in another if marketers fail to understand the differences among consumers in each place.
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