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Topic: Culture in Marketing Consumer Behavior (Must have access to database for bid to be accepted)

Thread: What is meant by the term ‘culture?’ What does the statement “culture sets boundaries on behaviors” mean? Cultural values can be classified as affecting one of the three types of relationships.

Described one of the three types of relationships.

• Cultural values are widely held beliefs that affirm what is desirable. These values affect behavior through norms, which specify an acceptable range of responses to specific situations. A useful approach to understanding cultural variations in behavior is to understand the values embraced by different cultures.**
• Other-oriented values reflect a society’s view of the appropriate relationships between individuals and groups within that society. These relationships have a major influence on marketing practice. For example, if the society values collective activity, consumers will look toward others for guidance in purchase decisions and will not respond favorably to promotional appeals to “be an individual.”
• Environment-oriented values prescribe a society’s relationship to its economic and technical as well as its physical environment. As a manager, you would develop a very different marketing program for a society that stressed a problem-solving, risk-taking, performance-oriented approach to its environment than you would for a fatalistic, security- and status-oriented society.
• Self-oriented values reflect the objectives and approaches to life that the individual members of society find desirable. Again, these values have strong implications for marketing management. For instance, the acceptance and use of credit is very much determined by a society’s position on the value of postponed versus immediate gratification.