Cultural Factors That Influence Consumer Behavior

There are various influencing factors to consumers in their purchase process. Four factors which influence consumer behaviour are cultural factors, social factors, personal factors and psychological factors. In cultural factors various sub factors are like culture and social environment, sub culture, social class and cultural trends. Social factors also influence consumer behavior significantly. They are reference groups, family and social roles and status.

1. When selecting a UPL the Commander must take into consideration which of the following qualifications? The commander appoints an officer or non-commisned officer ( e-5 r above) on orders as the UPL

Offer- An offer is a proposal involving one of the parties offering something of value to the other party in the agreement. Both parties are allowed to reject the offer. For example, buying a second-hand car, a person interested in buying the car makes an oral offer of $16,000.

Social factors refer in the trend of customer which keeps changing their trend, and what the trend of their purchase. For example nowadays due to people’s work, they are really busy so they often decide to buy already cooked food.

In my opinion, I feel that consumers can get too much of a product. American culture of consumerism appears to be quite addictive. Shopping can become a drug for some. For example, with every new clearance rack at any given department store or buying multiple items because you think there is a big savings when using coupons. Consumers become fueled with the need to fill a void within their daily lives. In recent years I have notice the change of coupon use compared to many years ago has become very addictive for some to the point that it is not saving money. Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself to be one who loves discounts and a good savings. I often hear people say you can never have too much of one product especially if you purchased it

Contextual – if you want to be a part of a group – if Im rich, I need to have a luxury car.

Social-cultural factors outlines the basic beliefs and values of consumers. It is the forces that influences an individual’s way of thinking, lifestyles and behaviors. Marketers must take into consideration the various characteristics of the consumers it is going to sell or target as this is vital in the development of marketing strategies, therefore, making the product or services appealing to customers. One important development is the changing and growth in racial and ethnicity, affecting the changes in culture as new values, ideas and attitudes are learned and shared by different social groups. Sociocultural factors can have an impact on marketing activities which are influenced by the improvements or advances in technology and the ability to instantly transfer ideas via the internet. There are also the advancement of connectivity through social media (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) and telecommunication (i.e., Skype or Viper Chat). In the past, none of these technologies existed, most communications were done via letter writing, telegram and not many had access to computers or the internet. In today’s society, with all these new technologies in our grasps, this gives the consumer the advantage to research about the product or services and comparing prices before buying. It also allows the consumer to buy with safety, security and control in mind. The marketing department of a company need to be aware of the current needs and wants of consumers in order to develop a

The visible act of purchasing a good or service is the result of a decision making process that is made by any consumer. This decision process refers to the stage that any buyer or consumer passes through so that they can make a choice of what product, good or service to buy (Poorsoltan 2012, p. 239). There are many factors that affect the decision making process. One of these factors is culture and it largely affects the purchase of luxury goods. The culture of most communities and societies differs from one nation to the next and from one region to another. Cross-cultural analysis indicates that the

The rise of brand culture has targeted and influenced the consumer’s thoughts and behavior while purchasing any kind of product in today’s market. There have been numerous studies that clarify how culture does influence the consumption of brands towards consumers. It’s evident that consumers who classify themselves as cultural are likely to be ‘ brand loyal’. By saying this the iPhone plays a strategic role in manipulating consumers into buying the brand. Consumers who love the company behind the iPhone ‘Apple’ have a strong bond with it as the phone itself offers Icloud, IOS, style, design and reliability that no other brand can provide them. That’s one significant reason why consumers purchase and stick to Apple’s products. Not only does it provide trust to its consumers but it also includes upgrading the phones to new versions over years. Once a customer sticks with Apple in general they tend to stay with them for a long time.

The progress of humanity and human beings can be attributed to one important factor and that is the strong capability of human beings to understand and adapt to cultural differences. Respecting cultural differences has brought the human beings close together and has tied them in a strong bond. The conquering of the cultural differences has also introduced us to a new terminology, global economy, which is a global system of production, distribution and consumption. The world has become a singular unit because the pace of economic development has accelerated due to an increase in marketing not only at a local level, but also at a global level. Global

Consumers make several buying decisions each and every day (Armstrong and Kotler, 2012). There is a strong academic interest in why consumers make such decisions and their buying behaviour (Armstrong and Kotler, 2012; Solomon et al, 2013; Shiffman et al, 2012). Shiffman et al (2012) defines consumer behaviour as ‘the behaviour that consumers display in the searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services.’ It is argued that consumers are strongly influenced by several factors when making a purchase; such as cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics these factors affect consumer behaviour as a whole (Armstrong and Kotler, 2012).

Conformity can be seen as one of the most apparent characters that exists in asian countries that are influenced by collectivism. Compared with western consumers, Chinese customers prefer to follow others’ choices or suggestions, especially famous stars’ styles. This is a kind of consumption idea that led by group guide or social pressure, which makes individuals tend to coincide with the majority. In this situation, many consumers tend to follow others instead of individual thinking when making decisions. Normally, it appears that consumers would tend to choose stores that attract more clients and select brands with high market share. For example, I found that in Dior Homme store, the star styles are mentioned frequently by Chinese buyers. Besides, some famous star style, like the tippet of Burberry are always out of stock thanks to Chinese purchase.

The definition of consumer buying behaviour is an individual and households who buy goods for personal consumption. There are four main influencers within the buying behavior of consumers which are the following personal, social, cultural and physiological. All these factors put together will determine whether the consumer purchases your product/service or which product/service is purchased.

Consumer behaviour is influenced by demographics and psychographics factors. Within the demographics factors are age, sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation, religion, while psychographics factors include individual’s motivation, attitude and beliefs among others. According to Macinnis and

The fourth stage consists of individual and environmental influences that affect all five stages of the decision process. Individual characteristics include motives, values, lifestyle, and personality; the social influences are culture, reference groups, and family. Situational influences, such as a consumer’s financial condition, also influence the decision process. (Engel, 1995)