The Creation and Diffusion of Global Consumers

Chapter 17
The Creation and Diffusion of

Global Consumers
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR, 8e
Michael Solomon
Chapter Objectives
When you finish this chapter you should understand
why:
Styles act as a mirror to reflect underlying cultural
conditions.
We distinguish between high and low culture.
Many modern marketers are reality engineers.
New products, services, and ideas spread through a
population. Different types of people are more or
less likely to adopt them.
Many people and organizations play a role in the
fashion system that creates and communicates
symbolic meaning to consumers.
Prentice-Hall, cr 2009
17-2
Chapter Objectives (cont.)
Fashions follow cycles.
Products that succeed in one culture may fail in
another if marketers fail to understand the
differences among consumers in each place.
Western (and particularly American) culture has a
huge impact around the world, though people in
other countries dont necessarily ascribe the same
meanings to products as we do.
17-3
The Creation of Culture
Influence of inner-city teens
Hip-hop/black urban culture
Outsider heroes, anti-oppression messages, and
alienation of blacks
Flavor on the streets
17-4
The Movement of Meaning
Figure 17.1 17-5

Cultural Selection
Characteristics of fashion/popular culture:
Reflection of fundamental societal trends
Style begins as risky by small group, then spreads
as others become aware/confident
Styles as interplay between deliberate inventions
and ordinary consumers who modify styles to suit
needs
Cultural products travel widely
Influential media people decide which will succeed
Most styles eventually wear out
17-6
Culture Production Process (CPS)
CPS: set of individuals and
organizations responsible for
creating and marketing a
cultural product
Three major CPS subsystems
Creative subsystem
Managerial subsystem
Communications subsystem
Figure 17.2 17-7

Cultural Gatekeepers
Cultural gatekeepers: are responsible to filtering the
overflow of information and materials intended for
customers
Tastemakers who influence products consumers
get to consider
Throughput sector
Movie, restaurant, and car reviewers
Interior designers
Disc jockeys
Retail buyers
Magazine editors
17-8
High Art versus Low Art
High and low culture blend together today in
interesting ways
Costco now stocks fine art (Picasso, Chagall)
We appreciate advertising as an art form
The arts are big businessmarketers often
incorporate high art to promote products
17-9
Discussion
Creative directors in advertising agencies sometimes
view their advertising creations as art rather than a
craft. Their clientsthe actual marketersusually
view it as a craft.
Which should it be? Why?
What kind of conflict might arise between these two
differing opinions?
17-10
Cultural Formula
Cultural formulae: certain roles and props often
occur consistently
Mass culture churns out products for a mass
market
Aiming to please average taste of
undifferentiated audience
Certain roles/props often occur consistently
Recycling of images
Creative subsystem members reach back
through time for inspiration (remix the past)
17-11
Discussion
Can you identify a cultural formula at work in
romance or action movies?
Do you see parallels among the roles different
characters play (e.g., the hero, the evildoer, the
temptress, etc.)?
17-12
Reality Engineering
Many consumer environments have
images/characters spawned by marketing
campaigns or are retreads
Marketers use pop culture as promotional vehicles
New vintage (e.g., used jeans)
Elements used are both sensory and spatial
17-13
Examples of Reality Engineering
Reality engineering: marketers appropriate elements of
popular culture and convert them for use as
promotional vehicles
Japanese alibi buddy service
Ricks Caf in Casablanca
Coyote Ugly bars
Seinfelds Soup Nazi
Nissans brief in-person live commercials
17-14
Reality Engineering (cont.)
Cultivation hypothesis: the medias ability to distort
consumers perceptions of reality
Heavy TV viewers overestimate how wealthy
people are and likelihood that they will be victims
of a violent crime
Media also exaggerates frequency of behaviors
such as drinking or smoking
17-15
Product Placement
Insertion of specific products
and use of brand names in
movie/TV scripts
Desperate Housewives ad
on drycleaners bags
Is the line between
advertising and
programming becoming too
fuzzy?
Directors incorporate
branded props for realism
Product placement can aid in
consumer decision making
17-16
Advergaming
Gamers have become a more sophisticated lot and
are now more representative of the general
population
Advergaming: online games are merging with
interactive advertisements that let companies target
specific types of consumers
Advertisers can get viewers attention for a much
longer time in video games
Can tailor games and products to user profiles
Format gives advertisers great flexibility
Can track usage and conduct market research
17-17
The Diffusion of Innovations
Innovation: any product that consumers perceive to
be new
New manufacturing technique
New product variation
New way to deliver product
New way to package product
Diffusion of innovation
Successful innovations spread through the
population at various rates
17-18
Types of Adopters
Figure 17.3 17-19

Adopting Innovations
Adoption of innovations
resembles consumer
decision-making sequence
Individualistic consumers are
more innovative than
collective consumers
Likelihood of adopting
innovations categories
Innovators and early
adopters
Laggards
Late adopters (mainstream)
17-20
Adopting Innovations (cont.)
Innovators
Tend to be category-specific
Tend to favor taking risks
Higher educational/income levels
Socially active
Lead users
Early adopters
Concern for social acceptance (expressive
products)
Involved in product category and value fashion
Tend to field-test style changes
17-21
Behavioral Demands of Innovations
Three major types of innovations (amount of
disruption/change they bring to our lives):
Continuous innovation
Evolutionary rather than revolutionary
Dynamically continuous innovation
More pronounced change to existing product
Discontinuous innovation
Creates major changes in the way we live
17-22
Prerequisites for Successful Adoption
Innovation should be compatible with
Compatibility consumers lifestyles
People are more likely to adopt an innovation if

Trialability they can experiment with it prior to purchase
A product that is easy to understand will be

Complexity chosen over competitors
Innovations that are easily observable are more

Observability likely to spread
Relative Product should offer relative advantage over

Advantage other alternatives
17-23
The Fashion System
Fashion system: all those people and organizations
involved in creating symbolic meanings and
transferring these meanings to cultural goods
Fashion affects all types of cultural phenomena
(music, art, architecture, science)
Fashion as code/language for meanings
Fashion is context-dependent/undercoded
Fashion versus a fashion versus in fashion
17-24
Cultural Categories
Cultural categories: basic ways we characterize the
world reflects the meaning we impart to products
Culture makes distinctions between different times,
leisure and work, and gender
Dominant aspects/themes of culture are reflected in
design/marketing of items
Costumes of politicians, rock/movie stars
1950s/60s: space-age mastery
Fashion colors for each season
17-25
Cultural Categories (cont.)
Creative subsystems attempt to anticipate the tastes
of the buying public
Collective selection: symbolic alternatives are
chosen over others
Western Look
New Wave
Nouvelle Cuisine
17-26
Behavioral Science Perspectives on
Fashion
Psychological models of
fashion
Conformity, variety seeking,
attraction, etc.
Shifting erogenous zones
and fitness premium
Economic models of fashion
Supply and demand
Parody display, prestige-
exclusivity effect, and snob
effect
17-27
Fashion (cont.)
Sociological models of fashion
Collective selection model (hip-hop and Goth)
Trickle-down theory
Mass fashion has replaced elite fashion
Trickle-across effect
Current fashions trickle up from lower classes
17-28
Fashion (cont.)
A medical model of fashion
Meme theory
Memes that survive are distinctive and
memorable
Tipping point
Cycles of fashion adoption
Cabbage Patch dolls
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
17-29
Normal Fashion Cycle
Fashions tend to flow in a predictable sequence
Figure 17.4 17-30

Fashion Life Cycles (cont.)
Fashion acceptance cycle (using music as example):
Introduction stage: small number of music
innovators hear a song
Acceptance stage: song enjoys increased visibility
Regression stage: song reaches stage of social
saturation as it becomes overplayed
Classic: fashion with an extremely long acceptance
cycle
Fad: short-lived fashion
17-31
Comparison of Acceptance of Fads,
Fashions, and Classics
Figure 17.5 17-32

Discussion
Boots with six-inch heels are a fashion rage among
young Japanese women. They are willing to risk
twisted ankles, broken bones, bruised faces, and
other dangers associated with the platform shoes.
What is and what should be the role of fashion in our
society? How important is it for people to be in
style? What are the pros and cons of keeping up
with the latest fashions? Do you believe that we are
at the mercy of designers?
17-33
Fad or Trend?
Chryslers PT Cruiser and retro
cars: a fad or a trend?
Guidelines for long-term trends:
Fits with basic lifestyle
changes
A real benefit should be
evident
Can be personalized
Not a side effect or a carryover
effect
Important market segments
adopt change
17-34
Behavior of Fads
Figure 17.6 17-35

Transferring Product Meanings to Other
Cultures
Innovations know no geographic boundaries
Costly consequences of ignoring cultural
sensitivities
1994: McDonalds reprinting Saudi Arabian flag on
disposable packaging/promotions
2002: McDonalds litigation settlement for
mislabeling French fries as being vegetarian
2002: McDonalds cancellation of McAfrika
2005: McDonalds Prosperity Burger
17-36
Adopt a Standardized Strategy
Starbucks standardized strategy worldwide
Critics: Starbucks obliterates local customs
Caf flaneurs and oppositional localists
Ethics perspective: develop one approach for multiple,
homogenized markets
Economies of scale benefit
Click for Starbucks.com
17-37
Adopt a Localized Strategy
Disney learned cultural lessons
Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland
Emic perspective: stress on variations across
cultures
Each country is unique and has a national
character
Strategy must be tailored to each specific
culture to make product acceptable to local
tastes
17-38
Cultural Differences Relevant to
Marketers
People around the world develop their own unique
preferences
Marketers must be aware of a cultures norms
regarding sensitive topics such as taboos and
sexuality
Language barrier and back-translation
Nothing sucks like an Electrolux
Fresca is Mexican slang for lesbian
17-39
Does Global Marketing Work?
In practice, a homogenous world culture has met
with mixed results
Consumers in different countries do not use
products the same way
Significant cultural differences can show up within
the same country
Coca-Cola has been successful in crafting a single,
international image
17-40
Does Global Marketing Work? (cont.)
Multicultural marketing efforts tend to succeed

more with two types of consumer segments:
Affluent global citizens exposed to ideas
around the world through travels, business
contacts, and media experiences
Young people influenced by MTV/other media
Click to view
Quicktime video on
Motorolas global
advertising
17-41
Does Global Marketing Work? (cont.)
Three dimensions of global brands:
Quality signal: if a company has global reach, it
must excel on quality
Global myth: brands are symbols of cultural
ideals
Social responsibility: companies are expected to
address social problems where they operate
17-42
Consumer Segments Who Evaluate
Global Brands
Global citizens: global Antiglobals: skeptical that
success of a company is a global companies deliver
signal of quality higher-quality products
Global dreamers: see global Global agnostics: dont base
brands as quality products purchase decisions on a
and readily buy them brands global attributes
Antiglobals,
Global
13%
Dreamers, 23%
Global
Agnostics, 9%
Global Citizens,
Prentice-Hall, cr 2009 55%
17-43
Id Like to Buy the World a Coke
Western lifestyles associated with modernization
and sophistication
U.S. television inspires knockoffs around the world
(e.g., The Apprentice)
Also, U.S. television hits often start out as imported
European concepts (e.g., Big Brother)
Middle East protested/boycotted American
companies and products after events of 9/11
Critics in other countries: Americanization of their
cultures = excessive materialism
Opposition to a global fast-food culture
17-44
Emerging Consumer Cultures in
Transitional Economies
Western decadence appears to be infectious in
foreign countries
Globalized consumption ethic
Ideal of material lifestyle and well-known brands
that symbolize prosperity
Rituals/product preferences in different cultures
become homogenized (e.g., Christmas in China)
Attaining consumer goods is not easy for those in
transitional economies
Loss of confidence/pride in local culture as well
as alienation, frustration, increase in stress
17-45
Emerging Consumer Cultures
in Transitional Economies (cont.)
Creolization: foreign influences integrate with local
meanings
Peruvian boys carry rocks painted like radios
Chivas Regal wrappers on drums in highland Papua
New Guinea
Japanese use Western words for anything new and
exciting
I feel Coke and sound special
17-46

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Chapter 17

The Creation and Diffusion of

Figure 17.1 17-5

Figure 17.2 17-7

Figure 17.3 17-19

People are more likely to adopt an innovation if

A product that is easy to understand will be

Innovations that are easily observable are more

Relative Product should offer relative advantage over

Figure 17.4 17-30

Figure 17.5 17-32

Figure 17.6 17-35

Click for Starbucks.com

Multicultural marketing efforts tend to succeed

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