Question

Cultural Influences on Consumer Behaviour - Chapter(s) 3 Discuss the elements of culture that influence buyer behaviour and give a personal example of how each has influenced a purchase decision you or your family made. When you have posted your reply, comment on a minimum of two of your classmates postings. (This Discussion Question's value is 10 Marks)

Answer 1

Cultural factors exert a broad and deep influence on consumer behavior. Marketers need to understand the role played by the buyer’s culture, subculture, and social class. Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behavior. Human behavior is largely learned. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors from his or her family and other important institutions. Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures make up important market segments, and marketers often design products and marketing programs tailored to their needs. Examples of three such important subculture groups are Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American consumers. Social classes are society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors.