Global Consumer Culture

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Global Consumer Culture

• Myths and Rituals

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Global Consumer Culture
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Culture is. . .
The accumulation of shared meanings, rituals,
norms, and other traditions among the members of
an organization or society
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Iceberg Concept of Culture
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Diffusion of Innovations
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Diffusion of Consumer Culture

• Culture tends to flow from stronger nations to
  weaker ones
• Coke Cola
• Disney World
• English

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Cultural differences
Cultural differences influence the way we, as
humans, see the world, interact in the
marketplace, and relate to one another.
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Functional Areas of a Cultural System
Aspects of Culture
Ecology
Social System
Ideology
World View
Ethos
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Cultural ECOLOGY
The way in which a system is adapted to its
habitat
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Cultural IDEOLOGY
The mental characteristics of a people and the
way in which they relate to their environment and
social groups Worldview members of a society
share certain ideas about principles or
order Ethos a set of moral and aesthetic
principles derived from the worldview
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Cultural SOCIAL SYSTEMS
The way in which orderly social life is
maintained. This includes the domestic and
political groups that are dominant within the
culture
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Cultural Variability
Hofstede's Typology
Dimensions of Variability
Individualism/ Collectivism
Power Distance
Uncertainty Avoidance
Masculinity/Femininity
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Cultural Variability (Hofstede's Typology)
Power Distance
Individualism/Collectivism
The extent to which the welfare of the individual
versus that of the group is valued
Level of social inequality and how willing
members of a society are to accept authority
Uncertainty Avoidance
Masculinity/Femininity
One sexs roles are considered superior to the
other sex
Degree to which people feel threatened by
ambiguous situations and have beliefs and
institutions that help them avoid uncertainty
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Values and Norms
Values are very general ideas about good and bad
goals Norms are rules dictating what is right
or wrong
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Enacted Norms
explicitly decided upon rules
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Crescive Norms
embedded in a culture and are discovered through
interactions with that culture

• Customs - norm handed down
• Mores - custom with strong moral overtone
• Conventions - norms regarding conduct of daily
  life

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Cultural Opposition
Subculture Relatively cohesive cultural system
that varies in form and substance from the
dominant culture
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Cultural Opposition
Counterculture Culturally homogenous group that
develops values and norms that differ from the
larger society because of their opposition to it
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Culture and Consumption

• Consumption choices cannot be understood without
  cultural context
• lens through which people view products
• Sensitivity comes through understanding
  underlying issues

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Consumption
People buy products not for what they do, but for
what they mean
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Culture and Consumption

• A consumers culture determines the priorities
  the consumer attaches to activities and products
• Will determine success or failure
• Product benefits must be consistent with culture

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Culture and Consumption

• A successfully designed new product will be a
  reflection of dominant cultural ideals of that
  period
• cars
• email
• ipods

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Sacred and Profane Consumption

• Sacred Consumption
• Involves objects and events that are set apart
  from normal activities and are treated with some
  degree of respect or awe
• Profane Consumption
• Involves consumer objects and events that are
  ordinary, everyday objects and events that do not
  share the specialness of sacred ones

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Sacred and Profane Consumption

• Sacralization
• Ordinary events or products are accorded special
  significance by culture
• Desacralization
• Sacred events or products are stripped of special
  status and/or reproduced in mass quantities

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Manifestations of Culture
Myths Rituals
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Myths
Stories containing symbolic elements that express
shared emotions and cultural values
URBAN LEGENDS
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Myths
Stories containing symbolic elements that express
shared emotions and cultural values

• Emphasize how things are interconnected
• Maintain social order by authorizing a social
  code
• Provide psychological models for individual
  behavior and identity

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Myths
URBAN LEGENDS

• Alligators in the sewer in NYC
• Bermuda Triangle
• Anonymous student blue books

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Modern Mythology

• Mythology of Excess
• Consumerism
• Consumption will make everyone happy
• Eternal Youth
• The search for the ideal self
• Global Village
• We can communicate with the world

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Rituals
A set of symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed
sequence Many rituals are at the heart of
consumers relationship with their favorite
products
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Rituals

• Activities that combine blueprints for action and
  understandings
• Repetitive behavioral sequences
• Organize peoples feelings
• Facilitate and simplify group communications
• Organize life experience and give it meaning

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Rituals

• Useful in handling situations involving risk,
  whether risk is social, emotional, or physical
• Marketing opportunity product positioning

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Rituals Goods
Indispensable to the meaning of the ritual
experience and are used to communicate symbolic
messages
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Ritual Artifacts
Many business owe their existence to customers
need for ritual artifacts such as birthday cakes,
diplomas, ceremonial wine, cigars, greeting
cards, etc . . .
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Categories of Consumer Rituals
Grooming rituals binary oppositions
private/public and work/leisure Rites of
passage separation/liminality/aggregation Liminali
ty of or reflecting to a transitional or initial
stage of a process Gift-giving purchase/present
ation/reformulation
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Ritual Photo Essay
Myths Rituals
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Your Consumption Rituals?
This morning What products did you use? Are
some of these brands that you regularly use? Are
some of these brands that you feel loyal to?
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Global Consumer Culture