Socio-cultural Environment:Cultural environment consists of institutions and
other forces that affect a society’s basic values, perceptions, and behaviors
-Cultural factors strongly affect how people think and how they consume. So,
marketers are keenly interested in the cultural forces.
-Factors which influence values and norms/codes of societies, do also
influence purchase decisions
-The cultural environment consists of institutions and other forces that affect
a society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors. People
grow up in a particular society that shapes their basic beliefs and values.
They absorb a worldview that defines their relationships with others. The
following cultural characteristics can affect marketing decision making.
Core beliefs and values: People in a given society hold many beliefs and
values. Their core beliefs and values have a high degree of persistence. For
example, most Americans believe in individual freedom, hard work, getting
married, and achievement and success. These beliefs shape more specific
attitudes and behaviors found in everyday life. Core beliefs and values are
passed on from parents to children and are reinforced by schools,
churches, business, and government.
Secondary beliefs and values: are more open to change include people’s
views of themselves, others, organization, society, nature, and the universe.
Believing in marriage is a core belief; believing that people should get married
early in life is a secondary belief. Marketers have some chance of changing
secondary values but little chance of changing core values. For example,
family-planning marketers could argue more effectively that people should get
married later than not getting married at all.
Shifts in Secondary Cultural Values
People’s view of themselves
-People vary in their emphasis on serving themselves versus serving
others
People’s view of others
-More “cocooning” – staying home, home cooked meals
People’s view of organizations
-Decline of loyalty toward companies
People’s view of society
-Patriots defend it
-Reformers want to change it
-Malcontents want to leave it
-Shifts in Secondary Cultural Values
People’s view of nature
-Some feel ruled by it
-Some feel in harmony with it
-Some seek to master it