Chapter 17
The Creation and Diffusion
Of Global Consumer Culture
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
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”?
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
Obsolescence
• As this AT&T ad
demonstrates, many products and styles are destined to
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.
High Art and Popular Culture
• 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?
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.
Recycled Imagery
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
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,
VIDEO: Nike
• Nike emphasizes the importance of
innovation throughout its organization.
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:
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:
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:
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
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
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
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:
Female Anatomy Throughout History
• This ad for Maidenform illustrates that fashions have accentuated
different parts of the female anatomy
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
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
Cycles of Fashion
•
Fashion Life Cycles
– Fashion Acceptance Cycle
• Introduction Stage
• Acceptance Stage
• Regression Stage
– Classic: A fashion with an extremely long
acceptance cycle.
Cyclical Nature of Fashion
• This Jim Beam ad
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
• 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?
Transferring Product
Meanings 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
Globalization
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
Cultural Differences
Relevant 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)
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
World Advertising Appeals
• Many advertising messages appeal to people the world over. This Australian ad for a Finnish product would
