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CHAPTER 13: SUBCULTURES
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
When students finish this chapter they should understand why:
1. Consumer identity derives from “we” as well as “I”.
2. Our memberships in ethnic, racial, and religious subcultures often guide our consumption
choices.
3. Marketers increasingly use religious and spiritual themes when they talk to consumers.
4. Our traditional notions about families are out dated.
5. We have many things in common with others because they are about the same age.
6. Teens are an important age segment for marketers.
7. Baby Boomers are the most economically powerful age segment.
8. Seniors are a more important market segment than many marketers realize.
9. Birds of a feather flock together in place-based subculures.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Consumer identity derives from “we” as well as “I”.
Microcultures are communities of consumers who participate in or otherwise identify with
specific art forms, popular culture movements, and hobbies.
Our memberships in ethnic, racial, and religious subcultures often guide our consumption
choices.
Consumers identify with many groups that share common characteristics and identities.
Subcultures are large groups that exist within a society, and membership in them often gives
marketers a valuable clue about individuals’ consumption decisions. A person’s ethnic origins,
racial identity, and religious background often are major components of his or her identity.
Marketers increasingly use religious and spiritual themes when they talk to consumers.
The quest for spirituality influences demand in product categories including books, music, and
cinema. Although the impact of religious identification on consumer behavior is not clear, some
differences among religious subcultures do emerge. Marketers need to consider the sensibilities
of believers carefully when they use religious symbolism to appeal to members of different
denominations.
Our traditional notions about families are outdated.
The number and type of U.S. households is changing in many ways, including delays in getting
married and having children, and in the composition of family households, which a single parent
increasingly heads. New perspectives on the family life cycle which focuses on how people’s
needs change as they move through different stages in their lives, are forcing marketers to more
seriously consider consumer segments such as gays and lesbian, divorced parents, and childless
couples when they develop targeting strategies.
We have many things in common with others because they are about the same age.
Consumers who grew up at the same time share many cultural memories because they belong to
a common age cohort, so they may respond well to marketers’ nostalgia appeals that remind
them of these experiences.
Teens are an important age segment for marketers.
Teenagers are in the middle of a transition from childhood to adulthood, and their self-concepts
tend to be unstable. They are receptive to products that help them to be accepted and to enable
them to assert their independence. Because many teens earn money but have few financial
obligations, they are a particularly important segment for many nonessential or expressive
products, ranging from chewing gum to clothing fashions and music. Because of changes in
family structure, many teens also are taking more responsibility for their families’ day-to-day
shopping. College students are an important but hard-to-reach market. In many cases, they live
alone for the first time, so they make important decisions about setting up a household. Tweens
are kids aged 8 to 14; they are influential purchasers of clothing, CDs, and other “feel-good”
products. Many young people belong to youth tribes that influence their lifestyles and product
preferences.
Baby Boomers are the most economically powerful age segment.
Baby boomers are the most powerful age segment because of their size and economic influence.
Boomers continue to affect demands for housing, childcare, automobiles, clothing, and many
other products.
Seniors are a more important market segment than many marketers realize.
As the population ages, the needs of older consumers will become increasingly important. Many
marketers ignore seniors because of the stereotype that they are too inactive and spend too little.
This stereotype is no longer accurate. Many older adults are healthy, vigorous, and interested in
new products and experiences—and they have the income to purchase them. Marketing appeals
to this age subculture should focus on consumers’ perceived ages, which tend to be more
youthful than their chronological ages. Marketers also should emphasize concrete benefits of
products because this group tends to be skeptical of vague, image-related promotions.
Birds of a feather flock together in place-based subcutures.
Geodemography refers to analytical techniques that combine data on consumer expenditures and
other socioeconomic factors such as geographic information about the areas in which people live,
in order to identify consumers who share common consumption patterns. Researchers base this
approach on the common assumption that “birds of a feather stick together.” Marketers can
increase the efficiency of their messages when they focus on the similarities among consumers
who choose to live in the same place.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Ethnic and Racial Subcultures
A. Subcultures
1. Consumers are defined by group memberships within the society-at-large. These
groups are known as subcultures, whose members share beliefs and common
experiences that set them apart from others.
2. Microcultures form around a strong shared identification with an activity or art form.
Discussion Opportunity—Have the class identify as many subcultures as possible. Which of
these match up with those in the text? Which go beyond the text?
3. One important subcultural difference is how abstract or literal the group is.
a. High-context cultures—group members are tight-knit, symbols and gestures carry
much weight, and they are sensitive to nuances in ads. Most minorities fall in this
category.
b. Low-context culture—group members are less sensitive to ethnicity. Most Anglos
are in this group.
Discussion Opportunity—Give an illustration of how membership in an ethnic subculture
predicts level and type of media exposure, food and apparel preferences, political behavior, and
leisure activities. Be specific in the illustrations.
B. Subculture Stereotypes
1. Ethnic identities often are significant components of a consumer’s self-concept.
2. An ethnic subculture consists of a self-perpetuating group of consumers who are
held together by common cultural and/or genetic ties and are identified both by its
members and by others as being a distinguishable category.
3. People’s racial and ethnic differences should be explicitly taken into account when
formulating marketing strategies.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What are some of the ways that members of ethnic and racial
minorities identify with and support each other? What implication does this have for marketers?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What are the good and bad points of adherence to ethnicity? Give
illustrations if possible. How should marketers deal with ethnicity?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Why would a multicultural household be an attractive target for
marketers? Explain your thoughts.
*****Use Figure 13.1 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Have students consider whether immigrants should be advertised to in
their own language or in English? Have different students defend their point of view.
C. Ethnicity and Acculturation Many subcultures have powerful stereotypes associated with
them. These stereotypes can be viewed positively or negatively.
1. Marketers have used ethnic symbolism in the past as shorthand to connote certain
product attributes. The images employed were often crude and unflattering.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenges Here *****
Discuss #1 and #8
Discussion Opportunity—Identify a specific ethnic or racial minority. Have the students make
a list of some of the negative stereotype descriptions that is associated with the group. In a
column next to the negative word, write a positive word that describes the same behavior or
characteristic. How might this analysis be useful to marketers? Note: This is a sensitive
discussion topic. It should be approached with caution and professionalism.
Discussion Opportunity—Even though this project may take some time, look through
contemporary magazines and find illustrations of what you perceive to be ethnic stereotyping
or insensitivity. Explain why you think your examples qualify.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What are some of the ethnic products (e.g., foods, clothes,
accessories, etc.) that have become part of the mainstream U.S. culture?
D. The Acculturation Process
1. Acculturation refers to the process of movement and adaptation to one country’s
cultural environment by a person from another country.
2. Individual differences, such as whether the person speaks English, influence how
rocky the adjustment will be.
3. Acculturation agents are people and institutions that teach the ways of a culture.
These agents may come from a culture of origin or from a culture of immigration.
4. Several processes affect how immigrants adapt to their new surroundings:
a. Movement – the factors that motivate people to uproot themselves from another
location and go to another.
b. Translation – different rules for operating in the environment
c. Adaptation – forming new consumption patterns
5. During the acculturation process, many immigrants undergo assimilation, where they
adopt products, habits, and values they identify with mainstream culture.
6. At the same time, there is an attempt at maintenance of practices they associate with
the culture of origin.
7. Some may resist acculturation and resent the process. Immigrants tend to exhibit
segregation in that they typically live and shop in places that are physically separate
from mainstream consumers.
8. The progressive learning model helps us to understand the acculturation process.
a. This perspective assumes that people gradually learn a new culture as they
increasingly are exposed to it.
b. We expect that when people acculturate they will mix the practices of their
original culture with those of their new or host culture.
c. Those who retain strong ethnic identification differ from their more assimilated
counterparts in these ways:
i. More negative attitude toward business
ii. Access more media in native language
iii. More brand loyal
iv. More likely to prefer brands with prestige labels
v. More likely to buy brands that specifically advertise to their ethnic group
d. When consumers transform objects and places into those that feel cozy, hospitable
and authentic this is called warming.
e. De-ethnicization refers to the process whereby a product formerly associated
with a specific ethnic group is detached from its roots and marketed to other
subcultures. For example, bagels—from the Jewish culture—which now can be
bought in a jalapeño version—Hispanic culture.
Discussion Opportunity—Think of three de-ethnicization products that you may have
bought recently. How did you first hear about them? Do you think of them as being ethnic
in their nature?
E. The “Big Three” American Ethnic Subcultures
1. The Hispanic population is the largest ethnic subculture..
2. Asian Americans are part of the fastest-growing ethnic group.
Discussion Opportunity—Find magazine illustrations where the advertisement is specifically
directed toward the Hispanic consumer. Share your findings with the class.
Discussion Opportunity—What are some ways that marketers are trying to help Hispanic
consumers more easily assimilate into the mainstream U.S. culture? What are some ways
marketers are trying to keep the Hispanic subculture separate?
F. African Americans make up more than 13 percent o the U.S. population.
a. Marketers recognize the huge impact of this racial subculture and work hard to
identify products and services that will appeal to these consumers.
b. African American women rank skin as more important than hair, figure, makeup,
and clothes, as it represents a source of their heritage.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What other purchase differences have you noticed between
African American consumers and those of other groups in the United States? Examine
traditional African American magazines and their respective ads. What products seem to be
emphasized?
G. Hispanic describes people of many different backgrounds.
a. 60% of Hispanic-Americans are of Mexican descent; Puerto Ricans make up less
than 10% but are the second largest group.
b. The 2010 Census reported 50 million Hispanics or one in six US residents.
c. Demographically, two important characteristics of the Hispanic market are worth
noting.
i. It is a young market
ii. The Hispanic family is likely to live in large, traditional,
married-with-children families with lots of participation from
grandparents.
d. They tend to be community oriented and have high aspirations for children. They
more often live in large, traditional, married-with-children families.
Discussion Opportunity—What are some further research characteristics of the Hispanic
subculture that you have noticed? How might these be used by the marketer?
Discussion Opportunity—What should marketers emphasize when trying to appeal to the
Hispanic market? What should they avoid?
H. Many Hispanics don’t think of themselves as distinctly Latino or American, but
somewhere in the middle, or ambicultural. Although their numbers are relatively small,
Asian-Americans are the fastest growing, most affluent and best-educated minority group
in the United States.
a. Their medium income is 28 percent higher than the U.S. average and they are
more than twice as likely to have graduated from college.
b. They are active and impulsive buyers.
c. It is a culturally diverse group with different languages and dialects.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Why do you think Asian Americans put such an emphasis on
education? How can marketers capitalize on the high education level of Asian Americans?
d. They are status conscious, brand loyal and buy premium brands.
e. Asian Americans place great emphasis on family.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: How are the various Asian American groups different from each
other? What can marketers do to avoid embarrassment and costly cultural blunders in their
promotions?
Discussion Opportunity—The text indicates that the term Asian refers to 20 ethnic groups. Do
research to determine what these groups are. Comment on the diversity.
Discussion Opportunity—What should marketers emphasize when trying to appeal to the Asian
market? What should they avoid?
Discussion Opportunity—Research the Chinese belief of feng shui. What ramifications could this
have for marketers? Explain.
II. Religious Subcultures
A. How Religion Influences Consumption
1. Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in religion and spirituality.
2. Religious or spiritual messages can be used to describe brand communities or as a
foundation for non-religious organizations. For example, Weight Watchers and
Alcoholics Anonymous use a spiritual-therapeutic model.
3. Brand logos can serve the same function as a religious symbol for some people.
There is a negative relationship between brand reliance and religiosity.
B. Organized Religion and Consumption
1. Religion influences food purchases, attitudes toward sexuality, birthrates, household
formulation, income, and political attitudes.
2. Religious leaders can encourage consumption or, more importantly, discourage
consumption.
C. Born-Again Consumers
1. In the U.S., there are 400 megachurches, each which serves 2,000+ congregants per
week. Combined they have an annual income of $1.85 billion.
2. In the U.S., we trace most religious marketing activity to 72 million “born-again”
Christians. They follow literal interpretations of the Bible and acknowledge being
born again through belief in Jesus.
3. Several brands use faith-based marketing strategies
D. Islamic Marketing
1. Muslims will be more than one-quarter of the Earth’s population by 2030.
2. Halal food and other commodities, services, and activities may also appeal to
mainstream consumers.
