Where Does The Word Culture come from?

Culture consists of all learned, normative behavior patterns – that is, all shared
ways or patterns of thinking and feeling as well as doing.

Culture is like the air we breathe. It is so obvious that we cannot escape from it.
It pervades our lives so much that we cannot actively feel its impact. It affects
every sphere of our lives very secretly but strongly, so frequently that we do not
have the opportunity to even think of its (cultural) impact.

Its impact is like the secret chemical that turns a caterpillar into a butterfly
with all the beauty that was the caterpillar’s potential.

The word ‘culture’ comes from the Latin word ‘cultura,’ related to cult or worship.
In its broadest sense, the term refers to the result of human interaction.

Society’s culture comprises the shared values, understandings, assumptions, and

goals learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of society, and
passed on to succeeding generations.

Sometimes an individual is described as highly cultured, meaning that the person in

question has certain features, such as his/her speech, manner, and taste for
literature, music, or painting, which distinguish him from others.

Culture, in this sense, refers to certain personal characteristics of an

individual.

However, this is not the sense in which the word culture is used and understood in
social sciences.

Sometimes culture is used in popular discourse to refer to a celebration or an

evening of entertainment, as when one speaks of a ‘cultural show.’ Culture is
identified with aesthetics or the fine arts, such as dance, music, or drama.

This is also different from the technical meaning of the word culture.

Culture is used in a special sense in anthropology and sociology. It refers to the

sum of human beings’ lifeways, behavior, beliefs, feelings, and thoughts; it
connotes everything they acquire as social beings. Culture has been defined in
several ways.

There is no consensus among sociologists and anthropologists regarding the

definition of culture.

Some writers add to these definitions some of the important” other capabilities and
habits,” such as language and the techniques for making and using tools.

Meaning of Culture
Culture is a comprehensive and encompassing term that includes what we have learned
about our history, values, morals, customs, art, and habits.

Culture is the complex of values, ideas, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols
created by people to shape human behavior and the artifacts of that behavior as
they are transmitted from one generation to the next.

The above definition highlights three important attributes of an individual’s

culture.

First, it is ‘created by people,’ evolving due to human activities, and passed on

to the succeeding generations.
Second, the impact of cultural influence is both intangible and tangible. People’s
basic attitudes and values directly result from their cultural environment. Beliefs
in freedom of speech and choice, heterosexuality, and God are products of human
action.

Additionally, people leave physical evidence of their culture through art and
craftwork, buildings, furniture, laws, and food.

Third, the cultural environment evolves, and it most often evolves over lengthy
periods. Changes in women’s roles in the home and business and the outward desire
for leisure time have come about quite slowly. Other changes, however, occur more
quickly. Clothing styles, for example, come and go rather hastily.

It is the human-made part of the environment, the total way of life of a people,
and the social legacy that the individual acquires from his group. The culture into
which we are born provides many ready-made solutions to problems growing out of the
geographic, biological, and social environment in which we live.

Definition of Culture
Beliefs in freedom of speech and choice and God are products of human action.
Additionally, people leave physical evidence of their culture through art and
craftwork, buildings, furniture, laws, and food.

Culture may also be defined in other ways.

Culture has been defined in some ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared
behavior of a community of interacting human beings.

British anthropologist Edward Taylor states, “Culture is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as. a member of society”.

According to Phatak, Bhagat, and Kashlak, “Culture is a concept that has been used
in several social science disciplines to explain variations in human thought
processes in different parts of the world.” ‘

According to J.P. Lederach, “Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by
a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the
social realities around them.”

According to R. Linton, “A culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and

results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the
members of a particular society.”

According to G. Hofstede, “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which

distinguishes the members of one category of people from another.”

According to H.T. Mazumdar, “Culture is the total of human achievements, material

and non-material, capable of transmission, sociologically, i.e., by tradition and
communication, vertically as well as horizontally.”

According to Philip Kotler, “Culture is the set of basic values, perceptions wants,
behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important
institutions.”

According to Warren J. Keegan, “Culture includes both conscious and unconscious

values, ideas, attitudes and symbols that shape human behavior and that are
transmitted from one generation to the next.”
Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive
constructs, and affective understanding learned through socialization. These shared
patterns identify the members of a culture group while distinguishing those of
another group.

According to Kroeber, “the mass of the learned and transmitted motor reactions,
habits, techniques, ideas, and values – and the behavior they include – is what
constitutes culture. It is all those things about men that are more than just
biological or organic, and that are also more than merely psychological.”

These ready-made solutions are provided in the form of cultural patterns relating
to the ideology, role definitions, and socialization procedures of the society in
which we live.

These cultural patterns are transmitted to individuals through such social

institutions as the family, educational institutions, religious institutions, and
social classes, using languages, parents’ attitudes and behavior, and reading.

As a result, the cultural patterns that consumers learn to influence their ideas
and values, the roles they play, how they carry those roles out, and how their
needs and desires are handled.

E. B. Taylor defined culture as that complex whole, including knowledge, belief,

art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
a member of society.

Culture is thus composed of people’s common habits and patterns of living in daily
activities and common interests in entertainment, sports, news, and even
advertising.

Culture is a comprehensive concept that includes almost everything that influences

an individual’s thought processes and behaviors. Culture does not include inherited
responses and predispositions. Rather it is acquired. One more thing should also be
borne in mind about culture.

In modern complex societies, culture seldom provides detailed prescriptions for

appropriate behavior.

Rather, it supplies boundaries within which most individuals think and act. You
should also remember that the nature of cultural influences is such that we are
seldom aware of them. An individual behaves, thinks, and feels like other members
of the same culture because it seems natural.

The concept of culture has been debated in anthropological literature for at least
two centuries and has acquired almost as many definitions as those trying to define
it.

According to Singer, recent definitions of culture have grown progressively more

formal and abstract. Culture has often been loosely defined as behavior observed
through social relations and material artifacts.

Although these may provide some raw data for a construct of culture, they are not
the constituents of culture. In a deeper anthropological sense, culture includes
patterns, norms, rules, and standards that find expression in behavior, social
relations, and artifacts.

These are the constituents of culture. Singer’s definition revealed this

development: ‘Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for
behavior, acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievement of human groups including their embodiments in artifacts.

The essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived

and selected) ideas, especially their attached values. Thus, according to the above
definition, culture is the conditioning elements of behavior and its products.

Referring to Ralph Linton, Berkman, and Gilson, in their book ‘Consumer Behavior –
Concepts and Strategies,’ defined culture as ‘patterns of learned behavior held in
common and transmitted by the members of any given society.’

Thus, culture consists of those behaviors of a society that are well-established

and accepted by the members of that society. These patterns are followed by the
majority.

For example, most Bengali women wear ‘sharee,’ an established pattern of behavior
in this culture. There are exceptions to this pattern as well.

For example, some women may wear T-shirts and trousers, but this is not a pattern
since it is not found in the majority’s behavior. Let us now explain this
definition at some length.

Characteristics of Culture
All organizations have a culture because they are embedded in specific societal
cultures and are part of them. Some values create a dominant culture in
organizations that help guide employees’ day-to-day behavior.

There is also evidence that these dominant cultures can positively impact desirable
outcomes, such as successfully conducting mergers and acquisitions, supporting
product innovation processes, and helping firms cope with rapid economic and
technological change.

To be successful in a particular culture, a marketer must understand the culture’s

characteristics. Some of the characteristics were discussed earlier while
explaining different definitions of culture. Here we shall highlight those and
others not mentioned earlier. The characteristics may be named:

Culture is a Learned Behavior

Not all behavior is learned, but most of it is learned; combing one’s hair,
standing in line, telling jokes, criticizing the President, and going to the movie
all constitute behaviors that had to be learned.

Sometimes the terms conscious learning and unconscious learning are used to
distinguish the learning.

Some behavior is obvious. People can be seen going to football games, eating with
forks, or driving automobiles. Such behavior is called “overt” behavior. Other
behavior is less visible.

A culture that it (culture) is learned rather than programmed genetically.

As an individual grows in a particular environment, he learns about different

aspects of culture through interacting with other society members.

One learns cultural values, norms, beliefs, etc., formally, informally, or

technically.

Formal learning occurs when senior members teach different cultural aspects to
juniors; informal learning occurs as a result of the child’s imitation of behaviors
of others such as elder brothers, sisters, parents, or heroes and heroines as well
as celebrities; technical learning occurs as a result of formal education received
from different institutions.

These three types of learning affect our consumption behaviors, which marketers
should take into active consideration in their planning and should try to reinforce
them.

Culture is Abstract
Culture exists in the minds or habits of the members of society. Culture is the
shared ways of doing and thinking. There are degrees of visibility of cultural
behavior, ranging from persons’ regularized activities to their internal reasons
for so doing.

In other words, we cannot see culture as such; we can only see human behavior. This
behavior occurs in a regular, patterned fashion and is called culture.

Culture Includes Attitudes, Values, and Knowledge

There is a widespread error in the thinking of many people who tend to regard the
ideas, attitudes, and notions they have as “their own.”

It is easy to overestimate the uniqueness of one’s attitudes and ideas. When there
is an agreement with other people, it is largely Unnoticed, but when there is a
disagreement or difference, one is usually conscious of it.

Your differences, however, may also be cultural. For example, suppose you are a
Muslim, and the other person is a Christian.

Culture also Includes Material Objects.

Man’s behavior results in creating objects.

Men were behaving when they made these things. Making these objects required
numerous and various skills, which human beings gradually built up through the
ages. Man has invented something else, and so on.

Occasionally, one sees that man does not really “make” steel or a battleship.

All these things first existed in a “state of nature.”

The man merely modified their form and changed them from the state in which they
were to the state in which he now uses them. The chair was first a tree which man
surely did not make. But the chair is more than trees, and the jet airplane is more
than iron ore and so forth.

The Members of Society share a culture.

The patterns of learned behavior and behavior results are possessed not by one or a
few people but usually by a large proportion.

Thus, many millions share such behavior patterns as automobiles or the English
language. Persons may share some part of a culture unequally.

Sometimes people share different aspects of culture.

Culture is Super-Organic
Culture is sometimes called super organic. It implies that “culture” is somehow
superior to “nature.” The word super-organic is useful when it implies what may be
quite a different phenomenon from a cultural point of view.

For example, a tree means different things to the botanist who studies it, the
older woman who uses it for shade in the late summer afternoon, the farmer who
picks its fruit, the motorist who collides with it, and the young lovers who carve
their initials in its trunk.

The same physical objects and physical characteristics, in other words, may
constitute a variety of quite different cultural objects and cultural
characteristics.

Culture is Pervasive
Culture is pervasive; it touches every aspect of life. The pervasiveness of culture
is manifest in two ways.

First, culture provides an unquestioned context for individual actions and

responses. Cultural norms govern not only emotional actions but also relational
actions.

Second, culture pervades social activities and institutions.

Culture is a Way of Life

Culture simply means the “way of life” of a people or their “design for living.”
Kluckhohn and Kelly define it in his sense:” A culture is a historically derived
system of explicit and implicit designs for living, which tends to be shared by all
or specially designed members of a group.”

Explicit culture refers to similarities in words and actions which can be directly
observed.

For example, adolescent cultural behavior can be generalized from regularities in

dress, mannerisms, and conversation. Implicit culture exists in abstract forms,
which are not quite obvious.

Culture is Idealistic
Culture embodies the ideals and norms of a group. It is the sum total of a group’s
ideal patterns and norms of behavior. Culture consists of the intellectual,
artistic, and social ideals and institutions that the members of society profess
and strive to confirm.

Culture is Transmitted among Members of Society

Persons learn cultural ways from people.

Many of them are “handed down” by their elders, parents, teachers, and others.
Other cultural behaviors are “handed up” to elders. Some of the transmission of
culture is among contemporaries.

For example, the styles of dress, political views, and the use of recent labor-
saving devices. One does not acquire a behavior pattern spontaneously.

He learns it. That means that someone teaches him, and he learns. Much of the
learning process for the teacher and the learner is unconscious, unintentional, or
accidental.

Culture is Continually Changing

One fundamental and inescapable attribute (a special quality) of culture is the
fact of unending change.

Some societies sometimes change slowly, and hence in comparison to other societies,
seem not to be changing. But they are changing, even though not obviously so.

Language is the Chief Vehicle of Culture

Man lives not only in the present but also in the past and future.

He can do this because he possesses a language that transmits what was learned in
the past and enables him to transmit the accumulated wisdom to the next generation.

A specialized language pattern serves as a common bond to the members of a

particular group or subculture.

Although culture is transmitted in various ways, language is one of the most

important vehicles for perpetuating cultural patterns.

Culture is Integrated
This is known as holism, or the interconnected parts of a culture.

All aspects of a culture are related to one another, and to truly understand a
culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few.

Culture is Shared
Cultural values, beliefs, norms, etc., are shared by most members of a given
culture because they gratify our needs. As the members of a society transmit them
to the next generation, they are practiced by the majority.

They are also taught to us by our educational and religious institutions.

Some exceptions may not share the core beliefs, values, and attitudes of their
culture, but the majority are highly likely to hold them. For example, most Muslim
males go to mosques on Fridays to say the ‘Jumma’ prayer, and it is considered a
social activity.

Culture Satisfies Needs

Individuals are having different types of needs. They need food, clothing, shelter,
medicine, love and belongingness, esteem and status, achievement, and several
physicals, social, and psychological needs. How these needs will be satisfied is
being determined by the culture.

For example, the hunger need is satisfied with different food items by people of
different cultures. In Bali, Indonesia, a man is likely to satisfy this need by
eating mango, whereas a Bangladeshi will take rice to meet this need.

By providing standards, culture dictates people about what to buy, when to buy, how
to buy, how to use and consume different products, and above everything else, what
lifestyle one should assume to satisfy his needs.

Culture is Dynamic
This simply means that cultures interact and change.

Because most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they exchange ideas and
symbols. All cultures change. Otherwise, they would have problems adapting to
changing environments.

And because cultures are integrated, the entire system must likely adjust if one
component in the system changes.

No culture is static. Cultural swings take place. As the environment is changing,

culture has to be changed to survive.

Therefore, culture is a dynamic concept rather than a static one. As cultural norms
change, they bring changes in our consumption and lifestyles. To be successful in
the dynamic culture, marketers should carefully and continuously monitor the
changes and modify their products accordingly for them (products) to be accepted by
the consumers.

Culture is Transmissive
Culture is transmissive as it is transmitted front one generation to another.

Language is the main vehicle of culture. Language in different forms makes it

possible for the present generation to understand the achievement of earlier
generations.

Transmission of culture may take place by imitation as well as by instruction.

Culture Varies from Society to Society

Every society has a culture of its own. It differs from society to society. The
culture of every society is unique to itself. Cultures are not uniform.

Cultural elements like customs, traditions, morals, values, and beliefs are not
uniform everywhere. Culture varies from time to time also.

Culture is Gratifying
Culture provides proper opportunities for the satisfaction of our needs and
desires.

Our needs, both biological and social, are fulfilled in cultural ways. Culture
determines and guides various activities of man. Thus, culture is defined as the
process through which human beings satisfy their wants.

So we can easily say that culture has various features that embody it in an
important position in organizations and other aspects.

Functions of Culture
We will review the functions that culture performs and assess whether culture can
be a liability for an organization. Culture performs some functions within an
organization.

First, it has a boundary-defining role; it creates distinctions between one

organization and another.
Second, it conveys a sense of identity for organization members.
Third, culture facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than
one’s individual self-interest.
Fourth, it enhances the stability of the social system. Culture is the social glue
that helps hold the organization together by providing appropriate standards for
what employees should say and do.
Finally, culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and
shapes employees’ attitudes and behavior. It is this last function that is of
particular interest to us.

The role of culture in influencing employee behavior appears to be increasingly

important in today’s workplace.

As organizations have widened spans of control, flattened structures have been

introduced, and teams reduced formalization and empowered employees. The shared
meaning provided by a strong culture ensures that everyone is pointed in the same
direction.

Importance of the Cultural Study

The influence of society’s religious, family, educational, and social system on
consumers’ behavior and their impacts on marketing comprise a company’s cultural
environment. It would be difficult to overlook the importance of culture as a
motivator of consumer behavior.

While it is easy to state the general significance of culture, it is more difficult

to define the term to receive general acceptance.

Consequently, it is hard to be precise about the impacts of culture on consumer

behavior. Cultural dimensions among countries vary even more than economic ones, so
it becomes difficult to find general patterns at best.

For example, even though Western European countries’ economic characteristics are
similar, their cultural dimensions make for very different eating habits.

Certainly, culture is the most pervasive external force on an individual’s

consumption behavior. How people work and play, what they eat, how they eat, how
and what they buy, and the cultural traditions and socially developed modes of
behavior are all affected.

Even a slight change in them can significantly alter how and what people buy.

For example, in the US, in the early 1980s, some religious groups began a movement
to boycott products promoted on certain highly popular but “immoral” (sex-oriented)
Consumer Behavior Television shows.

Over 6000 churches joined the movement, and some companies agreed to cease their
advertising on those shows.

Marketing executives must consider the importance of the cultural setting in which
consumer behavior occurs. The attitudes people possess, the values they hold dear,
the lifestyles they enjoy, and the interpersonal behavioral patterns they adopt are
the outcomes of the cultural setting.

These forces affect the marketplace by influencing other external forces. They
undoubtedly have a bearing on government standards, the state of the economy, and
the intensity of competition and technological development.

You should remember that cultures vary from country to country, so consumption
patterns among people vary.

Failure to carefully consider cultural differences is often responsible for

monumental marketing failures. In fact, it has been convincingly argued that the
root cause of most international business problems is the selfreference criteria,
i.e., the unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values.

Marketing across cultural boundaries is a challenging and difficult task. You know
that consumer behavior always occurs within a specific environment, and an
individual’s culture provides the most general environment in which his consumption
behavior occurs.

Cultural influences broadly affect buying behavior because they permeate our daily
lives. Our culture determines what we wear and eat and where we reside and travel.
It broadly affects how we buy and use products and influences our satisfaction with
them.

For example, in our urban culture, time scarcity increases because of the number of
females working. Because of the current emphasis we place on physical and mental
self-development. Many people shop and buy time-saving products, such as instant
noodles, to cope with time scarcity.

Culture, to some degree, determines how products are purchased and used, which
affects the development, promotion, distribution, and pricing of products.

From the premise given above, it is now quite evident that studying the market’s
culture where you operate or plan to operate is vital for your success and even
existence.

Understanding culture is important to you as a marketing manager because it always

provides approved specific goal objects for any generalized human want.

3 Components Of Culture
If you study a modern or backward culture, you will identify three important
components of it. 3 components of culture are;

cognitive component,
material component, and
normative component.
In other words, the culture of a particular society is composed of three distinct
elements or components. Let us now have a brief discussion on them:

Cognitive Component
The basic component of any culture is one relating to people’s knowledge about the
universe’s creation and existence. This aspect is based on either people’s
observations or on certain factual evidence that they have.

An individual of a backward culture believes in gods, superstitions, and other

objects as a part of their cognitive aspect. But, in a technologically advanced
society, the cognitive aspect is based on scientific experiments and their
applications.

The cognitive component of an advanced society’s culture is quite distinct from

that of a primitive one because of the refinement of knowledge through systematic
testing and observation.

Material Component
Another important component of any given culture is the material feature of
society. It consists of all the tangible things that human beings make, use, and
give value to. The material component varies from culture to culture as the
cognitive component.

It is based on the technological state that society has achieved and understood,
looking at society’s artifacts. The artifacts include the type of housing where
people live, the furniture they use, and other material goods they possess.

Since it is tied to the level of technological advancement of society, the material

features of cultures are very diverse as technological achievements vary.

Cognitive Component
The other important component of a culture is the cognitive component. The
cognitive component is composed of society’s values and norms, which guide and
regulate behavior.

In other words, it consists of the values, beliefs, and rules by which society
directs people’s interactions. Understanding culture means understanding its
values.

Values are shared standards of acceptable and unacceptable, good and bad, desirable
and undesirable. Values are abstract, very general concepts that are expressed by
norms.
Norms are rules and guidelines that set forth proper attitudes and behaviors for
specific situations.

For example, in South Asian countries, the culture places a high value on religious
training; therefore, our norms specify formal religious education for every child
up to a certain age. Mass religious education norms create a need for religious
teachers, books, and other related materials.

Among the values the culture holds, some are core or central values, while others
are peripheral values. Core values are the deeply held enduring beliefs that guide
our actions, judgments, and specific behaviors, supporting our efforts to realize
important aims.

Although not as deeply embedded or fundamental as central values, our peripheral

values reflect our central ones. You may value regular exercise and a low-salt,
low-cholesterol diet if you value your health. You may also abstain from smoking
cigarettes and drinking alcoholic beverages.

Marketers should give a deep look at each of the three components of culture
discussed above as they determine the consumption of goods and services by people
of a particular culture to a great extent. Failure to understand them may become a
grave concern for marketers.

3 Aspects of Culture
If we explain the above definition, we can identify three aspects of a given
culture;

culture is a pattern of behavior,

culture is learned, and
culture is transmitted from one generation to the next.
Culture is a Pattern of Behavior
Culture refers basically to the style of behavior. This style is found to be
present in the behaviors of the majority of people living in a particular culture.

This pattern varies from culture to culture, and as a result, consumptions vary
among countries. The pattern of behavior you will see in South-Asian culture will
definitely not be seen in other cultures. The behavior established by culture is
found to be practiced by the majority as it satisfies their needs.

Someone not following the established pattern of behavior is likely to be condemned

by others in society. Since the majority follows the same style of behavior in a
particular culture, it becomes a pattern.

To be successful, marketers must find out the patterns of behavior and design their
marketing strategies accordingly to be successful in a culture.

Culture is Learned
The second important aspect relating to culture is that we learn it through
experiences and interactions.

The aspects of culture are not found in an individual right from his birth. He
rather learns those from others in society as he follows, observes, and interacts
with them. Since experiences vary among people of different societies, they learn
different things resulting in differences among cultures.

For example, a South-Asian child grows up in a European country among Europeans and
will definitely not learn South-Asian cultural aspects but the European cultural
aspects, influencing his behavior.
It clearly indicates that culture is learned, not present from birth, which is why
people of different cultures see the same object or situation differently.

The reason is that their learning differs. For example, wearing mini-skirts by
females is seen negatively in South Asia, whereas it is seen positively in Western
countries. Since people of two different cultures learn differently, they are
likely to view the same object differently.

People learn about their cultures from their parents and different social
organizations and groups. This will be discussed later.

Culture is Transmitted from One Generation to the Next.

We have in our culture in terms of values, ideas, attitudes, symbols, artifacts, or
other, and we are likely to conform to those.

We follow the patterns of our cultures and teach them to the next generation to
guide them. This process of transmitting the cultural elements from one generation
to the next is known as ‘Enculturation”.

Thus, cultural elements do not persist in one generation but are transmitted to the
next generation and survive the entire life span of an individual. That is why a
lot of similarities in behaviors are found between people of two different
generations.

Cultural Symbolism
A symbol may be defined as the sign or representation of something moral or
intellectual by the images or properties of natural things, such as “the lion is
the symbol of courage.” It may also be defined as a figure or character standing
for a letter or word. Symbols make people different from other animals because
people create and use symbols, unlike other animals.

Obviously, marketers need to be aware of the symbolic nature of their products and
packaging. Though one naturally wants to avoid unintended symbolic messages,
symbolism can enhance product appeal if used correctly.

For example, several brands of cosmetics for young women are packaged in
cylindrical containers, which are obviously phallic symbols.

But the question arises, “How do you know the meanings of symbols used by people?”
To find the answer, you should first know the types of symbols used by people and,
second, discover their inherent meanings as they are used.

Different studies on cultures have identified two types of symbols used by people
to communicate among themselves. They are:

Referential symbols.
Expressive symbols.
Referential symbols are those that mean or indicate specific objects. For example,
the word “pen” means an item used for writing purposes. It is easy for marketers to
understand the meaning of referential symbols, and as a result, they do not face
many problems with regard to referential symbols.

Expressive symbols are those that may carry different meanings for people of
different cultures.

They need to be interpreted within the particular cultural context since they carry
connotative or implied meanings. People of different cultures may interpret the
meaning of the same expressive symbol differently.
Thus, their meanings are not limited.

For instance, an expressive symbol, such as a thumbs-up gesture, may signify

appreciation to an American, whereas the same symbol may carry a negative
connotation to a Bangladeshi. Marketers, therefore, face a lot of problems with
regard to expressive symbols.

Misinterpretation of an expressive symbol may cause a monumental loss to a

marketer. For example, if a US citizen finds a baby wearing a blue outfit, he would
most likely assume the child is male. The same assumption may not be true in other
parts of the world. In Holland, for example, blue connotes femininity.

There could be many other examples of different interpretations of the same symbol
by people of different cultures.

Red is considered an unlucky sign in Chad, Nigeria, and Germany. The same color is
considered positive in Denmark, Romania, and Argentina. Yellow flowers are signs of
death in Mexico and infidelity in France. The number seven is considered unlucky in
Singapore, Kenya, and Ghana.

On the other hand, it is considered a lucky number in India, Morocco, Nicaragua,

and here in Bangladesh. A triangle is a negative sign in Hong Kong, Korea, and
Taiwan but a positive in Colombia.

Failure to recognize the meaning assigned to a symbol can cause serious problems.

For example, a leading US golf ball manufacturer was initially disappointed in its
attempts to penetrate the Japanese market. Its mistake was packaging its golf balls
in sets of four, which is a symbol of death in Japan.

Another manufacturer of water recreation products suffered heavy losses in Malaysia

because the company’s predominant color, green, was associated with the jungle and
illness in Malaysia.

Since the meaning of symbols varies from culture to culture, marketers must take
them into active consideration when doing business in other cultures.

Useful Concepts of Cultural Analysis

Cultural dimensions among countries vary even more than economic dimensions, so it
becomes difficult, at best, to find general patterns.

Analyzing a total, the unified cultural system means identifying its values and
norms, observing how these normative aspects are translated into the group and
individual behavior, and examining the material aspects of the culture.

The symbols people use to communicate, how they view other cultures, and the
changes that occur vary greatly among cultures. Marketers should have a sound idea
of these three aspects – cultural symbolism, cultural relativism, and cultural
change – to take appropriate marketing action.

Failure to consider the above aspects carefully may cause irrecoverable loss and
even the firm’s demise. The connotations associated with body motions, greetings,
colors, numbers, shapes, sizes, and above everything else, symbols vary
considerably across cultures.

A few examples are shown in the table next page. Marketers may identify these
variables through several techniques, one of which is a ‘participant-observer’
technique developed by Malinowski.
Here, the observer enters a culture, observes people, asks questions, and
identifies different aspects of it (culture).

Anthropology, you know, contributes to an understanding of the cultural setting in

which purchase behaviors take place. Several anthropological studies were
undertaken to identify different aspects of cultures that are to do with consumer
behavior.

Quite a few concepts were identified from these studies, of which three notably
influence consumer behavior.

They are: ‘cultural symbolism,’ ‘cultural relativism,’ and ‘cultural change.’ We

shall now discuss them in turn in the following sections:

Cultural Influences on Consumption

The culture into which consumers are born provides many readymade solutions to
problems growing out of the geographic, biological, and social environment in which
they live.

These ready-made solutions are provided in cultural patterns relating to ideology,

role definitions, and socialization procedures of the society in which they live.

These cultural patterns are transmitted to individuals through social institutions

such as ly, educational institutions, religious institutions, social and language
attitudes, behavior, and public school instructions.

As a result, the cultural patterns that consumers learn to influence their ideas
and values, their roles, how they carry those roles out, and how their needs and
desires are handled.

Culture provides patterns that guide individuals in the satisfaction of their

biological needs.

Thus, the child learns the diet pattern of his culture, modesty, hygiene of
elimination, proper conduct of sexual affairs, and propriety patterns in a dress.
The requirement for food, for example, is met in every society.

However, the specific foods that his culture determines an individual regards as
acceptable. For instance, the Chinese dislike milk and milk products, while dairy
products are an important part of the English diet.

Cultural patterns are how people satisfy their needs and create desires that
influence their buying behavior.

For example, the learned desires of certain consumers for cigarettes may be just as
compelling as their food requirements.

So, too, the desire for a late-model television set, which may be learned from
culture, may occupy a high position in the list of products a newly married couple
wants.

Cultural Relativism
Another important concept revealed from anthropological studies regarding culture
is ‘ethnocentrism’, which gave birth to the concept of cultural relativism. One of
the basic human tendencies is to consider their cultures as superior to others.

This tendency is found to be present both in advanced and technologically backward

countries. In an eastern country, people ourselves as friendly, warm, and
hospitable.
According to us, Western people are heartless. Again, Westerners consider us dirty
and backward.

We conclude this way because we measure other cultures by our own cultural context.
This tendency to view and judge other cultures by the standards and context of
one’s own culture is known as ‘ethnocentrism.’

If an individual views other cultures based on this concept, he will always think
that the way he does things is right and standard, whereas the way people of other
cultures do things and behave is either substandard or wrong.

If a marketer adopts his marketing strategies for other cultures guided by the
concept of ethnocentrism, his chances of becoming successful there are slim.

The reason is that the way he will develop, price, distribute, and promote the
product will not match the standards of those other cultures.

From this experience, researchers have developed the concept of cultural

relativism. Under the cultural relativism concept, marketers view and judge other
cultures by the standards of those cultures, not by their (marketers) own cultural
standards.

Thus, cultural relativism is the elementary proposition of judging a particular

culture and the behavior of people of that culture in the social and cultural
context of the culture in question.

Marketers, if they want to be successful in other cultures, should study consumer

behavior following the concept of cultural relativism.

Subcultural Differences Affecting Marketing Decisions

Because of the important differences within any culture, marketers must be aware of
diverse subcultures -examining them individually and on their own terms. We know
that those identified with a subculture tend to think and act alike in certain
respects, which has important implications for their lifestyle.

Recognition of this has led to experimentation with market segmentation to develop

an effective marketing strategy adapted to market targets believed to have special
promise.

Marketers must recognize that even though their operations are confined to a
particular country, a division or district, or even to one city, subcultural
differences may dictate considerable variations in what, how, and when people buy.

To deal with these differences effectively, marketers may have to alter their
product, distribution systems, price, or promotion to satisfy members of particular
subcultures.

A particular subculture takes on marketing importance if it constitutes a

significant part of the population and specific purchasing patterns can be
identified.

Marketers should also keep in mind that, in reality, subculture is not a sufficient
basis for market segmentation. They need to be aware of how subcultural
characteristics influence buying behavior.

Moreover, they should also bear in mind that one subcultural background may
interact with other aspects, such as social class, personality, lifestyle, etc.,
during the buying decision process.
Marketers should be interested in subcultures to the extent that they can serve
their unique needs. Marketers should understand that if the subculture members, no
matter how distinct from the dominant culture, do not differ in their needs and
behaviors associated with a particular product area, the subculture does not
require recognition as a separate group.

Understanding subcultures helps marketers focus on sizeable and natural market

segments. Marketers should also keep in mind that, like culture, subcultures also
change.

Therefore, continuous monitoring of subcultural characteristics may help marketers

bring appropriate and timely marketing strategies to make them more market-
oriented.

Subcultural Differences Affecting Marketing Decisions

Because of the important differences within any culture, marketers must be aware of
diverse subcultures -examining them individually and on their own terms. We know
that those identified with a subculture tend to think and act alike in certain
respects, which has important implications for their lifestyle.

Recognition of this has led to experimentation with market segmentation to develop

an effective marketing strategy adapted to market targets believed to have special
promise.

Marketers must recognize that even though their operations are confined to a
particular country, a division or district, or even to one city, subcultural
differences may dictate considerable variations in what, how, and when people buy.

To deal with these differences effectively, marketers may have to alter their
product, distribution systems, price, or promotion to satisfy members of particular
subcultures.

A particular subculture takes on marketing importance if it constitutes a

significant part of the population and specific purchasing patterns can be
identified.

Marketers should also keep in mind that, in reality, subculture is not a sufficient
basis for market segmentation. They need to be aware of how subcultural
characteristics influence buying behavior.

Moreover, they should also bear in mind that one subcultural background may
interact with other aspects, such as social class, personality, lifestyle, etc.,
during the buying decision process.

Marketers should be interested in subcultures to the extent that they can serve
their unique needs. Marketers should understand that if the subculture members, no
matter how distinct from the dominant culture, do not differ in their needs and
behaviors associated with a particular product area, the subculture does not
require recognition as a separate group.

Understanding subcultures helps marketers focus on sizeable and natural market

segments. Marketers should also keep in mind that, like culture, subcultures also
change.

Therefore, continuous monitoring of subcultural characteristics may help marketers

bring appropriate and timely marketing strategies to make them more market-
oriented.
Conclusion: Understanding Culture is important
Culture is the human-made part of the human environment and is the sum of total
knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs, and other capabilities and habits
acquired by humans as members of society.

Culture is a comprehensive concept that includes almost everything around us and

influences an individual’s thought processes and behavior. It would be difficult
for a marketer to succeed if he overlooks culture’s importance as an indicator of
behavior.

So, it is a must for marketing executives, business executives, entrepreneurs, and

decision-makers to consider the importance of the cultural setting within which
consumer behavior occurs.

Thank you