ROLE OF FILIPINO CONSUMER CULTURE TO FILIPINO SELF & IDENTITY
By: Group 1
INTRODUCTION
With the advent of media and technology over the few recent decades, cultural exchange
and influence between people from around the world has never been so easier. And that, with
utmost certainty, also extends to the marketing side of things. Ever since the dawn of Filipino
civilization, we Filipinos, having established a wide network of connection with people of
different cultures coming from other neighboring countries, have been influenced by other
cultures in almost every aspect of our daily lives, and our role as an average consumer in the
marketplace, is no exception.
We, as Filipino consumers, tend to take into account our own material desires and
preferences that are usually influenced and affected by external factors, into making decision in
purchasing a product, may it be for personal or functional use. And those desires that we seek
in order to fulfill our quest for self-pleasure and gratification are usually shaped with our own
distinctive Filipino culture, and therefore, is usually connected with our personal identity, and
how we and other people around us see ourselves as an individual in every respect.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
We all have personal tastes, preferences and desires. May be it thru what kind of foods that
we eat, what type of clothing that we wear, what genre of music that we listen to, etc.- we have
the tendency to attach our personal desires that spring out from our inner selves that is always
on the never-ending search for fulfillment of our own personal wants, as what Abraham
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs seeks to imply. Human as we are, as what Freud had noted on his
philosophical concept of Psychoanalysis, we tend to incorporate into our behavior the
superficial and material desires that the Id tends to create. Given the nature of humans as
intelligent beings that possess a sense of materialism to a certain degree to, this alone can
significantly affect the way we think, the way we act, the way we visualize the world thru our
own perspective, and most importantly, the way we prefer certain things over another.
Filipinos are people that are mostly driven by influence. Being somewhat “xenophilic” due to
our past experiences being occupied by foreigners, as well as establishing trade with foreign
merchants for as long as our history books can recall, we have grown accustomed to foreign
ideas, foreign ideals, foreign, foreign lifestyles- in fact everything related with the word
“foreign” itself, we have taken these into acceptance and even implemented these foreign
concepts into our daily lives. Unlike other cultures, we have a mostly liberal mindset, always
open to things that are new and unfamiliar to us.
This study source was downloaded by 100000856107020 from CourseHero.com on 11-01-2022 01:05:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/50166908/ROLE-OF-FILIPINO-CONSUMER-CULTURE-TO-FILIPINO-SELF-IDENTITYdocx/
With the technological advances that we’ve had for the past 50 years, starting from the
innovations of the television, next to the rise of the Internet, and further incorporating these
even closer to our daily lives, when the likes of social medias like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram have exploded in popularity and accessibility with the help the ascent of mobile
devices like smartphones; we are more exposed to external influence more than ever
throughout the history of our Filipino civilization. And, along with these technological
advancements, the marketing industry has evolved along with it in order to keep up with the
oncoming demands that these technological advancements bring and further reach out to cater
to the needs and desires of the mass population in their role as consumers.
In this paper, we try to delve into the minds of the consumers, and, given the nature of the
subject as trying to understand the human self, we try to find external sources related to these
and conduct a couple of experiments in order to try to gain more ground into understanding
how the self, as malleable as it is, can be easily shaped by our own cultural background, and
several other factors (geographical, environmental, social, etc.), and come up with a few
theories on why this is such. This serves as an attempt on trying to gain a general understanding
on how the role of the Filipino Culture in general, practically nurtured by one’s needs for his/her
self and identity, can affect a Filipino as a consumer.
This study source was downloaded by 100000856107020 from CourseHero.com on 11-01-2022 01:05:06 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/50166908/ROLE-OF-FILIPINO-CONSUMER-CULTURE-TO-FILIPINO-SELF-IDENTITYdocx/
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)