The Creation and Diffusion of Global Consumer Culture

1. Chapter 17The Creation and DiffusionOf Global Consumer Culture By Michael R. Solomon Consumer Behavior Buying, Having, and Being Sixth Edition

2. Opening Vignette: Alexandra • What does Chloe mean when she says that the Capri pants are “tight”? • What makes the clothing they are buying seem tight? • Why does Alexandra want to give her classmates in Kansas the impression that she is “fresh off the streets of New York City”? • Why does Alexandra feel like she would fit in with the “sistahs” in the Bronx?

3. The Creation of Culture • Co-optation: • Process by which outsiders transform the meanings of cultural products • Cultural Selection: • Process by which many possibilities compete for adoption, and these are steadily winnowed out as they make their way down the path from conception to consumption • Culture Production Systems (CPS): • The set of individuals and organizations responsible for creating and marketing a cultural product

4. The Movement of Meaning Figure 17.1

5. The Culture Production Process Figure 17.2

6. Obsolescence • As this AT&T ad demonstrates, many products and styles are destined to become obsolete.

7. Vibe

8. Cultural Specialists

9. Components of a CPS • Components of a CPS • (1) Creative Subsystem (e.g. Eminem) • (2) Managerial Subsystem (e.g. Interscope) • (3) Communications Subsystem (e.g. Ad and publicity agencies) • Cultural Gatekeepers • Responsible for filtering the overflow of information and materials intended for consumers. • Throughput sector: Set of agents which serve as gatekeepers

10. High Art and Popular Culture • As this British ad illustrates, high art merges with popular culture in interesting ways.

11. Discussion Question • Tommy Hilfiger clothing originally targeted a preppie audience as is indicated in the ad on the left. However, Hilfiger now pursues the hip-hop crowd as well. • How does a company successfully change its product image to target other cultures? Can you think of other products that have pulled this off?

12. High Culture and Popular Culture • Arts and Crafts: • Art Product: Viewed primarily as an object of aesthetic contemplation without any functional value. • Craft Product: Admired because of the beauty with which it performs some function. • High Art Versus Low Art • Cultural Formulae: • When certain roles and props often occur consistently. • Aesthetic Market Research

13. Recycled Imagery • This perfume ad recycles imagery from pulp romance novels.

14. Reality Engineering • Reality Engineering: • Occurs as marketers appropriate elements of popular culture and convert them for use as promotional vehicles. • Cultivation Hypothesis: The media’s ability to distort consumers’ perceptions of reality. • Product Placement: • Refers to the insertion of specific products and the use of brand names in movie and TV scripts. • Advergaming: • Where online games merge with interactive advertisements that let companies target specific types of consumers.

15. Rolling Stone

16. The Diffusion of Innovations • Innovation: • Any product or service that consumers perceive to be new. • Diffusion of Innovations: • Refers to the process whereby a new product, service, or idea spreads through a population.

17. VIDEO: Nike • Nike emphasizes the importance of innovation throughout its organization. Click image to play video.

18. Adopting Innovations • Laggards: • People who are slow to pick up new products. • Late Adopters: • Consumers interested in new things, but do not want them to be too new. They deliberately wait to adopt an innovation. • Innovators: • The brave souls who are always on the lookout for novel developments and will be the first to try a new offering. • Early Adopters: • Share many of the same characteristics as innovators, but an important difference is their degree of concern for social acceptance, especially with regard to expressive products.

19. Types of Adopters Figure 17.3

20. A Laggard

21. Behavioral Demands of Innovations • Continuous Innovation: • Refers to a modification of an existing product. • Dynamically Continuous Innovation: • A more pronounced change in an existing product. • Discontinuous Innovation: • Creates major changes in the way we live.

22. Prerequisites for Successful Adoption • Compatibility: • Innovation is compatible with the consumer’s lifestyle • Trialability: • People are more likely to adopt a product they can experiment with first • Complexity: • The product should be low in complexity • Observability: • Easily observable innovations are more likely to spread • Relative Advantage: • Should offer relative advantage over other alternatives

23. The Fashion System • Fashion System • Consists of all those people and organizations involved in creating symbolic meaning and transferring these meanings to cultural goods. • Context-dependent: Different consumers can interpret the same item differently. • Undercoded: There is no one precise meaning, but rather plenty of room for interpretation among perceivers. • Fashion • The process of social diffusion by which a new style is adopted by some group(s) of consumers.

24. Cultural Categories • Cultural Categories: • Cultural distinctions that correspond to the way we characterize the world • Collective Selection: The process by which certain symbolic alternatives are chosen over others. • Behavioral Science Perspectives on Fashion • Major approaches: • Psychological Models of Fashion • Economic Models of Fashion • Sociological Models of Fashion

25. Instant Gratification of Needs • A cultural emphasis on science in the 1950s and 1960s affected product designs, as seen in the design of automobiles with large tail fins (to resemble rockets).

26. Economic Models of Fashion • Parody Display: • Where upscale consumers deliberately adopt formerly low-status or inexpensive products and stores. • Prestige-Exclusivity Effect: • When high prices still create high demand. • Snob Effect: • Where lower prices actually reduce demand.

27. Female Anatomy Throughout History • This ad for Maidenform illustrates that fashions have accentuated different parts of the female anatomy throughout history.

28. Sociological Models of Fashion • Trickle-Down Theory: • There are two conflicting forces that drive fashion change • First: Subordinate groups adopt the status symbols of the groups above them. • Second: Superordinate groups look at subordinate groups to make sure they are not imitated. • Mass Fashion: When media exposure permits many groups to become aware of a style at the same time. • Trickle-Across Effect: Fashions diffuse horizontally among members of the same social group. • Trickle-Up: Fashions that originate with the lower class first.

29. A “Medical” Model of Fashion • Meme Theory: • When an idea or product enters the consciousness of people over time • Tipping Point: • When a few people initially use a product, but change happens in a hurry when the process reaches the moment of critical mass.

30. Cycles of Fashion • Fashion Life Cycles • Fashion Acceptance Cycle • Introduction Stage • Acceptance Stage • Regression Stage • Classic: A fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle. • Fad: A very short-lived fashion.

31. A Normal Fashion Cycle Figure 17.4

32. Comparison of Acceptance Cycles Figure 17.5

33. The Behavior of Fads Figure 17.6

34. Cyclical Nature of Fashion • This Jim Beam ad illustrates the cyclical nature of fashion.

35. BadFads.com

36. Fad or Trend? • Does it fit with basic lifestyle changes? • What are the benefits? • Can it be personalized? • Is it a trend or a side effect? • What other changes have occurred in the market? • Carryover effects • Who has adopted the change?

37. Discussion Question • Fads such as tie dye clothing, bell bottoms, parachute pants, etc. have made many appearances on the market. • What distinguishes a fad from a trend? How can marketers prevent their product from just being a fad?

38. Transferring ProductMeanings to Other Cultures • Think Globally, Act Locally • Adopt a Standardized Strategy: • Etic Perspective: Focuses on commonalities across cultures. • Adopt a Localized Strategy: • Emic Perspective: Stresses variations across cultures. • National Character: A distinctive set of behavior and personality characteristics.

39. Globalization • We expect today’s technical products to satisfy our needs – instantly.

40. Emic Perspective • JCDecauz, a French advertising agency, specializes in “street furniture” like these kiosks, newsstands and public toilets. They represent an emic perspective because each is designed to reflect the local culture.

41. Cultural DifferencesRelevant to Marketers • Back Translation: • A different interpreter retranslates a translated ad back into its original language to catch errors. • Does Global Marketing Work? • The Diffusion of Consumer Culture • Culture tends to flow from stronger nations to weaker ones (wealthier, freer, & more advanced) • I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke…

42. Emerging Consumer Cultures in Transitional Economies • Globalized Consumption Ethic: • People worldwide begin to share the ideal of a material lifestyle and value brands that symbolize prosperity. • Transitional Economies: • Refers to a country that is struggling with the difficult adaptation from a controlled, centralized economy to a free-market system. • Creolization • Occurs when foreign influences are absorbed and integrated with local meaning.

43. World Advertising Appeals • Many advertising messages appeal to people the world over. This Australian ad for a Finnish product would appeal to sophisticated young people from many different cultures.