Culture: Societies Personality PDF

**Culture-** societies personality  Acquired and learned  Learned through example  Culture tells you "when you cross the line" and consequences  **Functional Areas of Culture (3)** 1. ***[Ecology: ]*** - Resources: Resources - Technology - Use of space - Cleanliness - Attitude t...

**Culture-** societies personality  Acquired and learned  Learned through example  Culture tells you "when you cross the line" and consequences  **Functional Areas of Culture (3)** 1. ***[Ecology: ]*** - Resources: Resources - Technology - Use of space - Cleanliness - Attitude toward nature - Ex: **Canada** lagged in conservation efforts- been some improvement  - Headed to 60% experiencing water insecurity by 2040  - Toronto bylaw: 2010 roof over 200 m needed rooftop that was green- good for community, water resource, carbon  - East coast: "primo" for green hydro - Ex: **Germany** solar panels are mandatory on new builds in many states (2022)  - Food service: 4% of food waste problem, we are 14% - \- Video:  - \- south korea technology  - \- Gov invested into internet infrastructure  - \- cultural places - starfield library  - \-  GMO:  - \- edited vs gmo  - \- Green Belt Protection - \-  North americans cleanliness obsession  - \- Attitude Towards Nature: - -toronto june 28 2023- worst air quality in the world  - Pandemic Fear:  - WFH  - Streaming - netflix, crave, etc  - LFH  - Mental health climate  - Shopping- online  2. ***[Social Structure: ]*** - Politics:  - US: biggest trading party- their politics affect us  - Domestic arrangements:  - Multi-generational households are most pop and increasing  - Indigenous, mediterranean, indian, ect cultures show more value to olders than north americans  3. ***[Ideology ]*** - Culture, customs, common way of thinking  - Guides our judgement  - Tells us right vs wrong, ugly beautiful, etc  - Ex: color of products (red is seen as good fortune in china)  - Cultural gestures  - How we eat and when we eat - **Major Dimensions of cultural Variance: ** 1. ***[Power distance:]*** - Low PD: loose hierarchy "classless" - High PD: rigid hierarchy, status, class distinctions  - Asks for to form relationships in high PD  - Ex: cast system (india), brazil "country of haves and have nots" 2. ***[Uncertainty Avoidance ]*** -  How much ambiguity is tolerated and how to manage it  - Low UA: change, risk taking, problem solving, secular - High UA: tradition, security, fatalism, religious 3. ** *[Femininity vs Masculinity:]*** - Low M: egalitarian, less strongly enforced, behavior codes - High M: Women at home, men at work, women, other-oriented, men self-oriented  - Ex: afghanistan  - This is the only scale where US and Canada have notable differences  4. ***Collectivism vs [individualism:]*** - Low I: interdependent, cooperative, uniformity, abstinence, postponed pleasures  - High I: independent, competitive, diversity, gratification, immediate pleasure - **Self reference criterion;** expect to have the same culture everywhere, unconscious reference to one\'s own cultural values  - RITUALS  - **[Creation and Diffusion of Culture\*]** - **Cultural Selection:** Gradual process in which consumption possibilities acquire symbolic meaning and are adopted by consumers - The symbol pool contains many possibilities -- relatively few of these make it all the way to end users - \- Lots of possibilities but very few make it to the consumer  - **TERMS: ** - Creative subsystem: artists, scientists , inventors... the idea guys - Managerial subsystem: businesses and others that make the ideas reality or manage them "marketing majors" - Communications subsystem: advisors, media, marketing  - Formal gatekeepers: regulatory bodies, reviewers, professional association  - Informal gatekeepers: friends, family, style, or opinion leaders - **Marketing\'s Influence: ** - Never used to fit in the creative subsystem but are starting to  - Marketers are engaging more directly than ever before in the creative subsystem - Aesthetic market research - (e.g. theatre tests for plots, endings) - Reality engineering - Use popular culture elements to create a - physical or viewed environment - Product placement - Brands paying to be featured in movies, TV - and other content -  **Reality Engineering:** - Examples: Epcot centre, west edmonton mall, harry potter world, indoor skiing dubai  - **Product Placement: ** - First product placement ; ET - reese\'s pieces (sales went up 66%) - Gaming  - **Diffusion of Innovations** - Level of innovation will affect how much new learning and different behaviour is required  - Continuous (low)  - Dynamically continuous (moderate)  - Discontinuous (high)  - Ex: instapastapot, internet of things, tesla - think of pros and cons  - **Discontinuous Innovation: ** - Loblaws with autonomous vehicles  - A diagram of a child\'s adoption Description automatically generated - **Factors Influencing Adoption** - Relative advantage: something that makes the innovation better than existing products or not? - Relative disadvantage: something that means the innovation doesn\'t compare as well - Compatibility: fits with existing lifestyle and attitudes or not ? - Complexity - Attributes: Easy or hard to understand? - Usability: Easy or hard to use the innovation? - Decision-making situation: Easy or complicated? -  Trialability: Is it easy to try (e.g., a lower price, trial period or samples, low commitment, or just generally lower risk) or not? - Observability: Is it publicly visible or not? - Marketing effort: Has the firm spent on advertising, promotion, public relations\...or not? - **Fads:  ** - True fad: 1 year or less b(toy, tv,dance, ex:pet rock) - Cyclical fad: 1 year or less at each spike (toy ou novelty) - Fad-to-franchise: 1-5 years  - Generational fad: 1 year or less at each spike  - **Fashion Origins and Diffusion ** - **Economics:** supply and demand  - **Sociology:** trickle theories  - **Medicine:** memes or tipping points  - **Trickle theory:** ex: kate middleton (buy what she buys) - resistance: Despite Western influence, local cultures often are resilient: "americanization" - **\*Canadian Identity, Racial and Ethnic Subcultures:** british and french our two largest subs - What is canada video:  - Molson brand = canadian\ **Reaching French Canadians: ** - More attention paid to advertising - aesthetics although not necessarily different product choices - Strict protection of French language in all forms of Quebec communication with 90 cities and towns having the right to offer services in both official languages; without this bilingual designation, French must be used -  **Reaching other subcultures ** - Must consider the level of acculturation - Assimilation -- adopt practices of mainstream culture - Maintenance -- maintain practices of birth culture - Resistance -- actively resist ideas of new culture - Segregation -- tend to live, shop and worship in an area that is identified with their own ethnicity - **Regional Subcultures** - Regional and ethnic subcultures overlap to some extent - Atlantic Canada - Quebec - Ontario - Prairies - West Coast - The North - **[Income and social class]** - **Canadian Personal Debt to Income Ratio** - In June 2023, Statistics Canada announced that household debt as a proportion of household disposable income for 1st quarter 2023 had - increased to \$1.84.5 from \$1.81.7 in 4th quarter 2022 - Question: what do you do when it comes to mortgage renewal  - 60% of polled Canadians said they were cutting back on extras like entertainment as well as essentials like groceries - Massive increase in use of foodbanks- 1 in 5 people in hamilton go hungry  - **Consumer Social Class:** - Social class incorporates income but is more complex and also considers: - Rank, position, social standing - Lifestyle - Occupational prestige - Where you live - **Measuring Social Class** -  Sometimes difficult to assess because of: - Status inconsistency - Class mobility - Subjectivity in measurement - Individual aspirations - **Social Class, Income and Purchasing:** - Income tends to be a better predictor than social class when purchases are "big-ticket" but not status related - Social class is a better predictor when purchases involve visibility and status, even when they are not costly - A combination of social class and income works best to predict expensive high-status purchases - We often make choices in order to indicate our current or aspiration class - We also often make a point of avoiding purchases that would indicate a lower class - Walmart- associated with lower class  - **Targeting the Affluent** - Old or new money? - Secure in status or needing to prove - Something?- associated with "flex culture"  - **Targeting the Poor** - Do you see ethical problems in how basics are made available to low-income consumers in Hamilton? - Groceries? - Big-box stores? - How could this be improved? - Who is responsible? - Geographic mapping- identify "food deserts" where there isn\'t access in hamilton to food stores. Often end up buying from convenience stores (high prices).  - Ex: McQuesten (hamilton- turned school into urban farm) - **[Age Avenue ]** - **Age Subcultures: Topics** - Defining age cohorts - Today's children - Conflicted teen years - Gen Z: 1995-2005 - Gen Y: 1972 to 1992 - Generation X: 1960-1979 - Baby Boomers: 1947-1966 - Grey Market: Before 1947 - **Why Age as a Subculture?** - Cohort: a consumer group of similar ages that have gone through and are going through the same cultural, social, and historical experiences - My generation - Can lead to nostalgia for certain values and symbols - **Today\'s children:** - KGOY -- Kids grow older younger - New segmentation schemes - 0-2 the new preschool - 3-5 new kids - 6-9 continuing kids - 10-14 tweens - Are over-programmed, time- pressured, multi-taskers - Often have to take care of themselves - Come from smaller families than previous generations - Have lots of everyday fears - Very brand aware - Influenced by media - Even if not from an ethnic subculture, very familiar with other ethnicities - Very computer savvy - Exert considerable influence on household decisions - **The Conflicted Teen Years** - Be me, but fit in with friends - Rebel against parents and figures in authority, but conform to peer group - Youthful idealism versus parental pragmatism (hypocrisy) - It's all about me versus connecting with others - Growing political awareness - Everyday and larger fears - Very brand conscious but also cynical - about ads and marketers - Lots of disposable income - Seek self-expressive products - Spend lots of time connecting in - virtual worlds - Influence family consumption and - are responsible for many - purchasing decisions - Ex: covid: changing teen experiences - **Gen Z** -  Never known a world without Internet - StatsCan says born between 1995 and 2005 - Less easily reached by traditional media - Students are good prospects for place-based campaigns, campus media, sampling programs, social media - Lock in brand preferences -. - **Gen Y- millennials ** - Born 1972 to 1992 - Weak job prospects - High housing costs - Lots of student debt - **Generation X: 1960-1979 = generation debt ** - 1\. 1960-1966 subset of baby-boomers - First generation since post-war to be less well off than parents - Slow career starts, "McJobs" - 2\. 1967-1979 - Affected by economic downturn of early 90s but better positioned for upturn than earlier cohort - **Baby Boomers: 1947-1966** - Post-war babies born into optimism and prosperity, the first "teens" - Higher standard of living than parents  - Sheer numbers (approximately 30%) meant and still mean large effects on culture - Went through 60s and 70s counterculture - **Boomers Went Mainstream** - Spent on housing, cars, entertainment, clothing, lifestyle - Smaller and later families, two parents working outside the home, indulged children - Particular nostalgia for products from youth and childhood - Depending on their age, many Boomers are now grandparent - **The Grey Market: Born before 1947** - More active, independent and physically fit than previous generations - Beneficiaries of medical innovations - Many are highly involved with grandchildren - Dedicated volunteers and donors - Fewer financial responsibilities - Dementia  - **[Group Influence and Social Media]** - **Consumption Subcultures** - A distinct sub-group of society that *[self-selects]* on the basis of a shared commitment to a particular product class, brand or consumption activity. They have three distinct sets of - Characteristics:  - **1. Identifiable, often hierarchical social structure. For example:** - Level of "fandom" or engagement - Novice to expert status - Subsets of fan types - Organized groups form around the subculture -- online and offline - **2. A set of shared beliefs or values** - Members are attracted to the subculture because it expresses - or is compatible with their beliefs and values - The subculture has strong effects on their lifestyle and possessions - ** 3. The subculture has unique jargon, rituals and symbols** - Language, sayings, expressions - Participation rituals, celebrations - Products, models, logos, colors, clothing, symbols, characters, etc. - These might not be understood by people outside the subculture - Three basic types: - Information:  - people in the reference group act as a basic source of information; provide actual facts as well as more subtle cues about reality. - Identification - when you have internalized the group's belief structure and respond in an almost taken-for-granted way. - That's just how it's done in your group. - Normative -  you make conscious choices to think and behave in a particular way because you are seeking approval or avoiding punishment. - Important: A reference group can have more than one type of power and exert more than one type of influence. - **What is the Power Base?** - Information, expert, legitimate power: who has the facts, special knowledge, or accreditation? - Referent power: who do I admire, think like, imitate, identify with? - Reward and coercive power: who can make me do things I may not usually do so that I will gain approval or avoid punishment -  - **WEEK 4: Group Influence and Social Media Part 2** -  ***[Opinion leaders]*** and word of mouth communication - Factors affecting strength of reference group influence - Other group effects on behavior -  You also could be describing the influence of a person who is an  opinion leader rather than a whole group - Opinion leaders are knowledgeable personal sources that people take seriously - **Characteristics of opinion leaders:** - Have information, expert, and legitimate power - Even more influential if they have referent power (someone like you or someone you aspire to be like) - Often are innovators or early adopters - Probably no such thing as a "generalized" opinion leader - Usually opinion leaders are involved in and focused on certain types of product categories - **Market mavens** -  Market mavens are the "go-to" people for the product or service  - Very well-informed - Will initiate conversations about products and also respond to questions - ** Purchase pals** - Accompany others on shopping trips - Provide expertise and social support - ** Surrogate consumers** - People who are hired for their advice and labor - Chef, planners , handyman, nanny, etc - **Identifying Opinion Leaders** - Ask consumers- are you one - Use key information people who can identify opinion leaders for you  - Identify official sources through various media - micro influencers- cheap and more trusted/more brand engagement  - **Word of Mouth** - Consumer to consumer (C2C) communication - Positive, negative, or neutral - Can be actual conversation, written word, photographs or just observation - Face-to-face not necessary - **When is Reference Group Influence Strong?** - The amount of reference group influence that will be exerted depends on three types of factors: - 1\. Product (or outcome) - 2\. Group / Culture - 3\. Individual  - ***[1. Product (or Outcome)]***Factors - Product use is visible (public use versus private use) - The product is more of a luxury and less of a necessity - The product is relevant to the group's function - They value it - It helps them to participate in their subculture - ***[2. Group / Cultural Factors]*** - The group is powerful - The culture (or subculture) encourages conformity - The culture (or subculture) discourages or even fears deviance - ***[3. Individual Factors]*** - The individual is committed to the group - The individual is generally more susceptible - Possible sex / gender differences (women can be more susceptible) - The individual lacks confidence in the particular decision-making situation - *** Other Group Effects on Behavior*** - De-individuation - There's safety in numbers - The group takes over in packs or mobs - \- Group think - \- Pluralistic ignorance and bystander apathy - \- Asch phenomenon  \- famous experiment, the line length test- conformity- don\'t   want to "rock the boat