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CHAPTER 14: CULTURE
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
When students finish this chapter they should understand why:
1. A culture is a society’s personality.
2. We distinguish between high culture and low culture.
3. Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times marketing
messages convey these values to members of the culture.
4. Many of our consumption activities—including holiday observances, grooming, and
gift-giving—relate to rituals.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Many people and organizations play a role in the fashion system that creates and
communicates symbolic meaning to consumers.
8. Fashion follows cycles and reflects cultural dynamics.
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.
10. Products that succeed in one culture may fail in another if marketers fail to understand
the differences among consumers in each place.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
A culture is a society’s personality.
A society’s culture includes its values, ethics, and the material objects its members produce. It is
the accumulation of shared meanings and traditions among members of a society. We describe a
culture in terms of ecology (the way people adapt to their habitat), its social structure, and its
ideology (including moral and aesthetic principles).
We distinguish between high culture and low culture.
Social scientists distinguish between high (or elite) forms and low (or popular) forms of culture.
Products of popular culture tend to follow a cultural formula and contain predictable
components. However, these distinctions blur in modern society as marketers increasingly
incorporate imagery from “high art” to sell everyday products.
Myths are stories that express a culture’s values, and in modern times marketing messages
convey these values to members of the culture.
Myths are stories with symbolic elements that express the shared ideals of a culture. Many myths
involve a binary opposition, defining values in terms of what they are and what they are not (e.g.,
nature versus technology). Advertising, movies, and other media transmit modern myths.
Many of our consumption activities—including holiday observances, grooming, and gift-giving
—relate to rituals.
A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that we repeat
periodically. Ritual is related to many consumption activities that occur in popular culture. These
include holiday observances, gift-giving, and grooming. A rite of passage is a special kind of
ritual that marks the transition from one role to another. These passages typically entail the need
to acquire ritual artifacts to facilitate the transition. Modern rites of passage include graduations,
fraternity initiations, weddings, debutante balls, and funerals.
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.
We divide consumer activities into sacred and profane domains. Sacred phenomena are “set
apart” from everyday activities or products. Sacralization occurs when we set apart everyday
people, events, or objects from the ordinary. Objectification occurs when we ascribe sacred
qualities to products or items that sacred people once owned. Desacralization occurs when
formerly sacred objects or activities become part of the everyday, as when companies reproduce
“one-of-a-kind” works of art in large quantities.
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.
Diffusion of innovations refers to the process whereby a new product, service, or idea spreads
through a population. Innovators and early adopters are quick to adopt new products, and
laggards are very slow. A consumer’s decision to adopt a new product depends of his or her
personal characteristics as well as on characteristics of the innovation itself. We are more likely
to adopt a new product if it demands relatively little behavioral change, is easy to understand,
and provides a relative advantage compared to existing products.
Many people and organizations play a role in the fashion system that creates and communicates
symbolic meanings to consumers.
The fashion system includes everyone involved in creating and transferring symbolic meanings.
Many different products express common cultural categories (e.g., gender distinctions). Many
people tend to adopt a new style simultaneously in a process of collective selection. According to
meme theory, ideas spread through a population in a geometric progression much as a virus
infects many people until it reaches epidemic proportions. Other perspectives on motivations for
adopting new styles include psychological, economic, and sociological models of fashion.
Fashion follows cycles and reflects cultural dynamics.
Fashion follows cycles that resemble the product life cycle. We distinguish the two extremes of
fashion adoption, classics and fads, in terms of the length of this cycle.
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.
The United States is a net exporter of popular culture. Consumers around the world eagerly adopt
American products, especially entertainment vehicles and items they link to an American
lifestyle (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes, Levi’s jeans). Despite the continuing “Americanization” of
world culture, some people resist globalization because they fear it will dilute their own local
cultures. In other cases, they practice creolization as they integrate these products with existing
cultural practices.
Products that succeed in one culture may fail in another if marketers fail to understand the
differences among consumers in each place.
Because a consumer’s culture exerts such a big influence on his or her lifestyle choices,
marketers must learn as much as possible about differences in cultural norms and preferences
when they do business in more than one country. One important issue is the extent to which we
need to tailor our marketing strategies to each culture. Followers of an etic perspective believe
that people in many cultures appreciate the same universal messages. Believers in an emic
perspective argue that individual cultures are too unique to permit such standardization;
marketers must instead adapt their approaches to local values and practices. Attempts at global
marketing have met with mixed success. In many cases this approach is more likely to work if
the messages appeal to basic values or if the target markets consist of consumers who are
internationally rather than locally oriented.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Culture
A. Cultural Systems
Culture is a society’s personality. It includes both abstract ideas, such as values and
ethics, and material objects and services.
Discussion Opportunity—Explain why culture is the “lens” through which people view products.
1. When consumers encounter another culture, they may notice they take for granted
many of the assumptions they make about clothes, food, and interactions, resulting in
culture shock.
2. A consumer’s culture determines the overall priorities he or she attaches to different
activities and products.
3. Consumers embrace products and services that resonate with a culture’s priorities.
Understanding which products is accepted provide knowledge about dominant
cultural ideals.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students how each of the following have affected the American
culture: automobiles, microwaves, snowboards, computers, pocket pagers, the pill, leisure time,
personal data assistants, Napster, and the Internet? What do you think came first—the attitude
or the product?
4. Culture is not static. It is continually evolving, synthesizing old ideas with new ones.
5. A cultural system consists of three functional ideas:
a. Ecology—the way a system adapts to its habitat.
b. Social structure—the way in which orderly social life is maintained.
c. Ideology—the way in which people relate to their environment and social groups.
This revolves around the belief that members of a society possess a common
worldview (they share certain ideas about principles of order and fairness). They
also share an ethos (a set of moral and aesthetic principles).
Discussion Opportunity—State what you think the U.S. culture would have to say about the
culture’s role in a worldview. State five ethos (principles) that we share.
II. The Yin and Yang of Marketing and Culture
As cultural products spread, outsiders can transform the original message through the
cooptation process. Figure 14.1 illustrates this process.
*****Use Figure 14.1 Here*****
A. Cultural Movement
Cultural selection involves a winnowing-down of options as shown in Figure 14.2.
*****Use Figure 14.2 Here*****
1. Characteristics of fashion and popular culture include:
a. Styles reflect more fundamental societal trends (politics and social conditions)
b. A style begins as a unique statement by a small group and spreads
c. Styles originate as interplay between deliberate inventions from designers and
businesspeople and spontaneous actions by consumers.
d. Cultural products travel widely.
e. Influential people in the media play a significant role in deciding which will
succeed.
f. Most styles wear out and people look for new ways to express themselves.
g. When a style becomes obsolete, others replace it.
2. The set of individuals and organizations responsible for creating and marketing a
cultural product is a culture production system (CPS). The nature of these systems
helps to determine the types of products that eventually emerge from them.
a. Factors such as the number and diversity of competing systems and the amount of
innovation versus conformity that is encouraged are important.
b. A culture production system has three major subsystems:
1) Creative subsystem—responsible for generating new symbols and/or
products.
2) Managerial subsystem—responsible for selecting, making tangible, mass
producing, and managing the distribution of new symbols and/or products.
3) Communications subsystem—responsible for giving meaning to the new
product and providing it with a symbolic set of attributes that are
communicated to consumers.
Discussion Opportunity—Think of an example of a culture production system and identify the
members of the system for a popular custom or trend that affects college students.
3. Many judges or “tastemakers” influence the products that are eventually offered to
consumers. These cultural gatekeepers are responsible for filtering the overflow of
information and materials intended for consumers (collectively, this is known as the
throughput sector).
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Who do you know that might be classified as a cultural
gatekeeper? Explain.
B. High and Low Culture
Culture production systems create many diverse products, but some basic distinctions can
be offered regarding their characteristics. An art product is viewed primarily as an
object of aesthetic contemplation without any functional value; it is original, subtle, and
valuable. A craft product is admired because of the beauty with which it performs some
function (such as a ceramic ashtray); it tends to follow a rapid production formula.
C. Cultural Formulae
Cultural formulae use familiar roles and props to please the average taste of an
undifferentiated audience/mass market. Members of the creative subsystem rely on these
formulae and recycle images.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Can any cultural formulae be applied to college life? Explain.
III. Cultural Stories and Ceremonies
A. Every culture develops stories and ceremonies that help its members to make sense of the
world.
B. A myth is a story with symbolic elements that represents a culture’s ideals. The story
focuses on a conflict between two opposing forces and its outcome is a moral guide.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to share their favorite myth. Have them explain how it is
used.
1. Myths serve four interrelated functions in culture:
a. Metaphysical—they help explain the origins of existence.
b. Cosmological—all components are part of a single picture.
c. Sociological—establish a social code to maintain order.
d. Psychological—establish models for personal conduct.
Discussion Opportunity—Think of myths that seem to fall into the categories (functions)
mentioned in the chapter (i.e., metaphysical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological).
How can these be tied (if they can) to purchasing?
2. Myths can be analyzed by examining their underlying structures.
a. It has been noted that many stories involve binary opposition, where two
opposing ends of some dimension are represented. Characters or products are
often characterized as to what they “are not” rather than what they “are.”
b. Conflict is often resolved by a mediating figure (animals are often given human
characteristics to bridge the gap between humanity and nature).
3. Comic books, movies, holidays and commercials embody cultural myths.
a. Some people create their own consumer fairy tales (stories that include magical
agents, donors and helpers to overcome obstacles to happy endings).
b. A myth common to many cultures is a monomyth—a hero emerges from the
everyday world and often has super powers (e.g., comic book heroes).
c. Examples of mythic movies include Gone with the Wind, E.T.: The
Extraterrestrial, and Star Trek.
Discussion Opportunity—Have the class explain common myths from their cultures. How do
these myths affect their purchase decisions or life?
Discussion Opportunity—Bring in an advertisement that you believe uses a myth to sell its
products or services.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What movies do you think are mythical in nature and have
changed our culture? What is the most recent mythical movie in your opinion? Why has it
achieved this status?
C. Rituals
A ritual is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that
tend to be repeated periodically.
1. BBDO labeled brands that we use to perform rituals fortress brands because once
they become embedded in our ceremonies, we are unlikely to replace them.
2. Many businesses owe their livelihoods to their ability to supply ritual artifacts, or
items used in the performance of rituals, to consumers.
3. Virtually all consumers practice private grooming rituals, or ceremonies that help us
transition from our private self to our public self or back again.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What is your morning ritual? What products do you need to
support it? What are your primary rituals while at school? Is it interesting to think how all of
these rituals will change in a few years when you enter the workplace full-time (and learn new
rituals)?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What ritual from college, your workplace, or your family do you
find to be the most fulfilling? Irritating? Explain and describe.
4. In a gift-giving ritual, we procure the perfect object, remove the price tag, wrap and
deliver the object.
a. There is a gift-giving norm of reciprocity.
b. Gift giving is a form of economic exchange in which the giver transfers and item
of value to a recipient, who must reciprocate.
c. Gift giving also involves a symbolic exchange.
d. Gift giving ritual proceeds in three distinct stages:
i. Gestation – giver procures an item to mark an event (structural/ prescribed by
culture or emergent/personal and idiosyncratic).
ii. Presentation – process of gift exchange, recipient response and donor
evaluation of the response.
iii. Reformulation – giver and receiver redefine the bond between them to reflect
their new relationship after the exchange. This may trigger a negative
evaluation if the gift is inadequate due to a violation of the reciprocity norm,
which obliges people to return the gesture of a gift with one of equal value.
e. Giving is a moral imperative in Japanese culture (giri); each individual has
well-defined people with him s/he shares reciprocal gift-giving obligations
(kosai).
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What differences are there when you purchase something for
someone else versus when you purchase something for yourself?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: How do marketers use gift giving to stimulate purchasing? What
new occasions have recently been invented for doing this?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Did you ever receive a present that you did not think was good
enough or was too good? How did you respond? Have you ever given a gift where the recipient’s
response made you wish you had not bought the gift? How did this affect your purchases in the
future?
5. Holidays are filled with rituals unique to those occasions that often commemorate a
cultural myth. Some of the most ritualistic ones are noted:
a. Christmas
b. Halloween
c. Valentine’s Day
d. Thanksgiving
