Chapter 11: Introduction to
Environment
Environment
• Refers to all physical and social characteristics of
a consumer’s external world.
– physical objects
– spatial relationships (location of stores/products)
– social objects (who matters/what they think and do)
• What matters is the “perceived” or “functional”
environment.
• Macro and Micro environment
Macro Social Environment
• Indirect social interactions between large groups
of people such as:
– culture
– sub-culture
– social class
• Useful for market segmentation
Micro Social Environment
• Direct interactions among smaller groups of
people such as:
– family
– reference group
• Often has strong influence on knowledge and
feelings about products, stores, ads, and
consumption behaviors.
– Family and reference group are influenced by macro
factors such as culture, sub-culture.
Flows of Influence in Social Environment
Culture
Subculture
Social Class
Organizations
Reference Groups
Individual consumers
Family
Media
Physical Environment
• Spatial
– products, brands, ads, cities, stores etc.
• Non-Spatial
– intangibles such as temperature, humidity, noise, time
etc.
Situations
• It is difficult to analyze the environment factors
that influence affect/cognition/behavior.
• It is easier to analyze the influence of environment
in “situations” defined as sequence of goaldirected behaviors, affective and cognitive
responses that take place in an environment.
– e.g., going to the mall to look for a CD is a “shopping
situation”, and having lunch with a friend is a
“consumption situation”.
Situations (continued)
• Vary in complexity
– number of physical/social environment
– number of goals
– number of affective/cognitive/behavioral responses
• Many situations are recurring, such as grocery
shopping situations.
• Marketers help consumers by creating goals,
evaluative criteria etc.
Types of Situations
• Information Acquisition
– how consumers engage in info contact
– how you communicate info to consumers
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Shopping - store/product contact
Purchasing
Consumption
Disposition
Chapter 12: Cultural and CrossCultural Influences
Culture
• Meanings shared by people in a social group.
– Levels of Analysis:
• society, sub-cultures, and social class
• market segments, individual customers (especially in business
to business marketing and personal selling.
– Shared meanings
– Created by people
– Constantly changing
Two Approaches to Understanding
Cultural Influences
• Examine its “content”
– includes characteristic behaviors, norms, goals, values,
traditions, customs etc.
• Examine its “structure”
– how content is generated and distributed in the culture,
i.e., the “structure” of culture.
Measuring Cultural Content
• Content Analysis:
– examine objects produced by the culture such as arts,
advertisements, comic books, literature, movies,
products etc.
• Ethnographic Fieldwork:
– observe consumers’ emotional, cognitive and
behavioral responses in ordinary lives and interpret
meanings.
• Measure Values (Rokeach, VALS) and Core
Values
Some Core American Values
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Achievement and success
Activity
Efficiency
Progress
Material comfort
Individualism
Freedom
External conformity or Need to fit in.
Humanitarianism
Youthfulness
Fitness and Health
Culture as a Process
• Examines how cultural meanings are moved from
different aspects of the society.
• Assumes that cultural meanings reside in:
– the social and physical environment
– products and services
– individual consumers
• Marketing strategies move meanings from
environment to products and consumption rituals
move meanings from products to consumers.
A Model of the Cultural Process
Cultural meaning in social and
physical environment
Marketing
strategies
Fashion
systems
Other
institutions
Cultural meaning in products and services
Consumption Rituals
Consumption meanings generated by consumers
Social interactions
Intentional actions
Role of Marketing Strategies
• Advertising uses symbols (slice of life from smalltown America) to transfer meanings from the
society to products (Chevrolet, the Heartbeat of
America).
– symbols are words, objects, events, images that “stand
for something” and widely accepted by the members of
the culture.
• Price may signify status
• Product design (the PT Cruiser from Chrysler)
Products Acquire Cultural Meanings
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Virginia Slims, Camel
Marlboro Man
Coca-Cola
Apple
Mercedes-Benz
J.C.Penney Vs. Wal-Mart Vs. Nordstrom or Saks
Moving Meanings from Product to
Consumer: Rituals
• Symbolic actions performed by consumers to
create, affirm, evoke, or revise cultural meanings
– Acquisition rituals
– Possession rituals including product nurturing and
personalizing rituals
– Exchange rituals
– Grooming rituals
– Divestment rituals