1.....Cb Introduction C1 Spring 2022.Ppt

VaasaMBA INTRODUCTION TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR MKTG320 WHAT IS CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR? What is a consumer? What is a buyer? Is there a difference? What is behaviour? So what is the study of consumer behaviou[.]

INTRODUCTION TO

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

MKTG320

WHAT IS CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR?

https://digitalsynopsis.com/advertising/h onest-advertising-slogans/

• CONTRARY TO EXPECTATIONS, people have embraced

the internet and other new technologies to ENHANCE

THEIR CURRENT ACTIVITIES.

• The internet has NOT changed people It has reinforced existing habits that, instead of converging, tend to

diverge.

• Once basic expenses have been covered,

countries become similar in their penetration of goods, but what people DO with their

possessions does not converge

• This means that as national wealth converges

across countries, it’s ability to explain declines, and cultural variable can explain cross-country differences far, FAR better

• CULTURAL VALUES ARE AT THE ROOT of

consumer behavior Culture is pervasive in ALL ASPECTS OF CONSUMPTION and consumer

behavior and should be integrated into all

elements of consumer behavior theory.

• Therefore, one of the greatest myths of global marketing is of global consumers living in a

global village.

HOW THE MYTH EXISTS

 Because people adopt some consumption symbols from people in other parts of the world, the

assumption has been that other aspects of our

behavior will, likewise, change

 Examples:

 In particular, western international news journals

have made us believe that a homogenization process would work towards universal (American) values

 Also in academia, the belief is that convergence of technology, global media, increased trade and travel act to bring people together

• In business press “Globalization” is Americanization

• Globalization discourse dominated by Anglo-Saxon

authors who see their own country’s brands everywhere and think it makes people the same

Source: Newsweek

THE REALITY?

FEW PEOPLE watch international

(English language) TV regularly.

CNN has had to introduce national

GLOBAL YOUTH CULTURE

• Assael, 2004: Consumer behavior, a strategic

approach:

• Teens across the world

 Watch the same television shows and similar

commercials

 Develop the same consumption patterns

 Find being with friends and watching television to be the most enjoyable ways to spend time

• Travel and global communications have spurred the development of common norms and values

LEISURE ACTIVITIES YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPE

Source: Young Europeans, Eurobarometer, 2007

GLOBALISATION

The concept of GLOBALISATION is linked to the spread

of capitalism, western imperialism, and the

development of a global media system

This understanding, especially the idea of western

imperialism, has linked negative connotations to the term

The idea of CULTURAL IMPERIALISM, where everyone has the same things and shares the same culture

through their consumption, suggests consumers are passive and cannot resist effective marketing

techniques promotion a few American brands

Globalisation is largely visualized as Coca-Cola,

McDonalds and Nike and these brands are seen as the

‘symbols’ of globalisation and imperialism

IN FACT….

 Nestle, the Swiss food company, is the world’s most

foreign-oriented company: 87% of its assets, 98% of its sales, and 97% of its workers are outside its homeland.

 American’s Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, makers of the best KNOWN global brands, only ranked 31 st and 42 nd in the United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development index.

 HOWEVER, the SYMBOLS of global consumer culture are basically American symbols that in the United

States are viewed as local.

 The spread of the global SYMBOLS does not necessarily include HOMOGENEITY OF PEOPLE’S HABITS OR

SUMMARY OF THE GLOBALIZATION MYTHS IN

MARKETING…

needs and desires have homogenized

communities

across countries than to other people within countries

together

• Result:

• An ideal world versus the real world

• In Europe, in 2001, 44% of young people had not visited

another country, and 86% only one, for holidays

(Eurobarometer); 31% do not speak another language

• Only 0.4% of Europeans work in another EU state, 0.1%

work and live in another state ( 225,000 people ).

• People are not becoming the same Cultural values vary

across Europe and with increased wealth people’s values become even more manifest

• New technology doesn’t change people; it enhances current

behavior

• There are global products and brands , but there are no

global consumers

The CONVERGENCE that is found at a MACRO level

follows economic development

Once people have enough money to cover their basics they make consumption choices based on their

CULTURAL VALUES

So, the interesting question is… what do people do

with the incremental income, the money left after

essentials are covered?

A point of agreement is that people spend more as

they get richer….but consumption is a matter of habit.EXAMPLE: China It was expected that China would become more western and exhibit more western

values as it became more open….in fact, the Chinese are rediscovering Confucius, who provided moral

guidance to Chinese people for centuries The Chinese want to become modern, while retaining their core

values

PERCEPTIONS OF

GLOBALIZATION

• EU inhabitants view globalization as

positive, technological progress,

health, employment

• EU inhabitants view USA having too

much influence

• Developing economies: global

means new, modern, scientific

Wealth is not as useful as culture for understanding

people

Generally, the older the product category, the stronger the influence of culture (Eg, food)

With more income: Americans will buy more cars,

Dutch will buy more luxurious campervans, Spanish

will eat out more

What will the Emirati’s do? What do they do?????

GLOBAL COMMUNITIES

This idea focuses on SIMILARITIES…the idea that an 18 year in Paris has more in common with an 18 year old

in New York than with their own parents

However, these people are only superficially alike

They may have the same type of phone or computer, but they may have bought it for different reasons and they use it in different ways and places (Eg, text,

phone, messaging)

These differences are related to culture

Young people use computers in different ways (Eg,

16% of respondents in Amsterdam said entertainment was their main reason for using technology, comparerd with 9% in Helsinki and London, and only 4% in Milan)

 Western magazines suggest that Asian teens, in the way they behave and dress themselves, increasingly resemble American and European teen and mistake it for western individualistic behavior – but this behavior

is not driven by individualistic values

 Young Asians may be typically western on the surface, but traditional values like hard work remain next to aspiration towards money and display of success via wearing branded goods

 Many westerns make a mistake when they think

Japanese are extreme based on their behavior

between ages 18 and 25, not realizing that these are the only ‘free’ years of a Japanese person’s life After they graduate they are very focused on work and

conform to typical Japanese behaviour

 Within cultures, segmentation is useful But between cultures, is it? Even business people reflect their

cultures – the French like having meetings at

restaurants, the Dutch prefer sandwiches in the office

TECHNOLOGY DOES NOT

UNIFY

• Technology and media bring together, they

don’t make us the same.

• Which technology people buy and how they

use it depend on the habits of the groups to which they belong, the environment in which they live and grow up: their culture.

• Differences in ownership and usage of

technology across nations Examples.

BEHAVIOUR VARIES BY NATIONAL

CULTURE

• The Dutch use MSN messenger more than in

any other country.

• 80% of Dutch households have Internet access

versus 44% of German households (2006).

• 83% of Dutch households have PC versus 57%

of Belgian households (2006).

• In 2006 Germany was one of the most mature

digital camera markets in Europe In 1996, 10

years earlier Germans bought the most analogue film per capita.

 The colder the climate, the more deep

freezers and ice cream consumed

 Mobile phone penetration highest where

most main telephone lines

CONVERGENCE-DIVERGENCE

• Human behavior stable

• New technology often new format of the old.

 Deep freezers, mobile phones

• Not necessarily driver of new behavior

• No evidence of convergence.

• Persistent variation of consumption &

consumer behavior across countries

• The older the product category the stronger

the influence of culture.

NEW MEDIA

• The internet amplifies and modifies existing patterns

of governmental conflict and cooperation.

• The internet is not a homogenizing factor, instead

demand is growing for local languages and advertising

as companies adjust websites to local particularities.

• The internet does not change people’s habits or

values, it confirms and enhances existing values,

habits and practices.

• Online sellers are not changing people’s preferences,

they are selling things that people already buy.

• People most easily navigate websites developed by

designers of own culture

• People fit new technology into their existing lifestyles,

like this…….

SATELLITE TV IN TRADITIONAL SETTING….

Mandawa, India, 2007

• At the root of much thinking about convergence is

‘universalistic’ thinking; often what is meant is

westernization, whereby ‘western’ usually means

American.

• It’s a conviction of “what is good for us is good for others”.

 Democracy, fast food, definitions

• This conviction is not just American, it is also shared by

northern Europeans.

• In contrast, most Asians are particularistic, and view their

culture as ‘unique’ and ‘incomprehensible’ to outsiders.

• Most global advertising agencies and multinational

corporations have Anglo-American management; They:

• View Europe or Asia as one market

• Assume U.S or British theories of consumer behavior are

valid elsewhere

• And ‘benchmark’ ‘other’ cultures – such as the UK being the model of ‘Europe’ (and ‘Saudi Arabia’ being the model

of ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslims’?)

FURTHER….

•Lack geographical or historical knowledge

•For example, the Netherlands and Belgium are

understood as ‘Benelux’, as they have a shared border and language In fact, no two European nations are

less similar in terms of values and behaviours

•Language: English is a first [380M] or second [240M] language across the world, but this doesn’t mean

adoption of western culture/the replacement of the

original or native culture – how could it?

•Literature, history and culture, and their links and

ramifications into the future

•For example, the invasion of Iraq by the British Both times in recent history

•Behaviour that is understandable in the context of

history is often interpreted as new by the historically ignorant

BRANDING AND

ADVERTISING – GLOBAL TO MULTI-LOCAL Standardisation of global branding and marketing

communication is wrong in principle and impossible in

practice.

 Global advertising can only be effective if there are

global consumers with universal values.

 As consumers’ values and behavior vary across

cultures, global standardized advertising is not equally

effective in all markets.

 Kevin Roberts, Saachi and Saachi:

“Anyone who wants to go global has to understand

the local – their own local and the locals of all

their customers People live in the local I’ve

never met a global consumer, I never expect to

We define ourselves by our differences

It’s called identity – self, family, nation” (2002).

GLOBAL BRANDING AND ADVERTISING

• Markets are people There may be global products, but

there are no global people There may be global brands, but there are no global motives for buying these brands There may be global markets, but most consumption patters are local.

• People live in the local

• Going global means understanding the local

• David Howes, sociologist-anthropologist:

“The assumption that goods like Coca-Cola, on

entering a culture, will retain and communicate the values they are accorded by their culture of origin

must be questioned

Often these goods are transformed in accordance with

the values of the receiving culture”.

• Understand consumers across cultures

Most trusted brands are local or national

For example: In 1996 the American retailer Wal-Mart set up efficient, clean supercenters in Indonesia, only

to find that Indonesians preferred Matahari, the

shabbier shop next door, which reminded shoppers of

a street market where they could haggle

Many international companies underestimate the

strength of local products in the markets they enter And they overestimate the vale of their reputations

 McDonalds is perhaps one of the most effective

brands in foreign markets

 They maintain brand image and consistent service, but offer a local touch in products and advertising

 NZ: ‘Kiwi’Burger; Maharaja Burger; Teriyaki Burger;

 In Japan, celebrities and used and cultural habits

followed Here is an ad for McDonalds, featuring Yuri Ebihara In Japanese, ebi means shrimp, and this ad

is for a local kind of fillet of fish: