2.1/ Cultural factors

Cultural factors are the one that has the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behavior. When considering cultural factors, marketers need to understand the role played by the buyer’s culture, subculture, and social class.

2.1.1/Culture

Culture—The set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions.

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 the family and other important institutions. 

Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shifts in order to imagine new products that

might be wanted.

2.1.2/ Subculture

Each culture contains smaller subcultures or groups of people with shared value systems

Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions.

For example, Muslim people do not eat pig meat. Southern Vietnamese people and Northern Vietnamese people are different in the way they spend their money.

2.1.3/ Social class

Social classes are society’s relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests and behaviors.

Social class influences buying behavior in some ways. For example, people in upper class are usually willing to spend much money on luxury brands. 

2.2/ Social factors

A consumer’s behavior is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer’s small groups, family, and social roles and status.

2.2.1/ Groups

Groups can have some impacts on a person’s behavior.

Membership groups are groups that have a direct influence on a person’s

behavior and to which a person belongs.

Reference groups are groups that serve as direct (face-to-face) or indirect points of

comparison or reference in forming a person’s attitudes or behavior.

Marketers try to identify the reference groups of their target markets. Reference groups

influence a person in at least three ways. They introduce new behaviors and lifestyles to the person. They influence the person’s attitudes and self-concept because he or she wants to ‘fit in’. They also create pressures on the person to match himself or herself. As a result, the person’s product and brand choices are affected.

2.2.2/Family

Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior.

We can distinguish between two families in the buyer’s life. The buyer’s parents make up the family of orientation and the buyer’s spouse and children make up the family of procreation.The levels to which these two families influence a person’s behavior are different.

Although parents provide a person with an orientation towards religion, politics and economics, and a sense of personal ambition, self-worth and love; his spouse and children usually have more direct influence on his everyday buying behavior. This family is the most important consumer buying organization in society and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and relative influence of the husband, wife and children on the purchase of a large variety of products and services.

2.2.3/ Roles and status

A person belongs to many groups – family, clubs, organizations. The person’s position in

each group can be defined in terms of both role and status.

Role is the activities a person is expected to perform according to the people around him or her. For example, a man may hold the role of a manager in an organization but in his family, he holds the role of a father. Each of his roles will affect his buying behavior.

Status is the general esteem given to a role by society.People often

choose products that show their status in society. For example, the role of a manager has

more status in a society than the role of father.