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M31

Behaviour

Consumer

Critically discuss the role of culture in


forming Consumer-Brand
Relationships. Critically analyse using
example/s from industry

Name: Maham Taseer Qureshi


SD: 5955945
Word Count: 2576

Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Abstract
This study discusses culture, brand personalities, consumer brand
relationship and explains how consumer brand relationship are influenced
by cultures from across the world. At present its important for the
companies to understand the sensitivity of how important it is to
understand the culture of the market they are entering or operating in.
culture consists of norms beliefs values and principles of a particular
society which is important to the consumers who belong to that society.
Their culture also has an impact on the choices they make and decisions
they take, thus it is important for the companies to adapt and change
their brand according to the market they want to operate in.

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................2

Introduction.................................................................................................4

Importance of Culture in Consumer Behaviour...........................................6

Importance of Brand Personality and Consumer Brand Relationship..........7

Role of culture in forming Consumer Brand Relationship............................9

Conclusion.................................................................................................12

Bibliography..............................................................................................13

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Introduction
This study talks about important concepts of marketing such as culture,
brand and consumer brand relationship. Furthermore it discusses how
culture plays its role in forming a relation between a consumer and brand.

Culture assists people in defining themselves, conforming to the shared


values of the society and in contributing to the society. Therefore Culture
is a combination of roles, norms, beliefs, customs, rituals, behaviours and
artifacts common to all the members living in a society. Society is defined
by sociologists as interaction of people in a way to share a common
philosophy (Harcourt, 2009).

Branding literature defines brand as organisation or products name, logo


or trademark. Brands are universal as they touch everyones life in one
way or the other. Branding has become an important topic in marketing
due to the modern trend of consumption of brands and conspicuous
consumption (Maurya, 2012).

American Marketing Association (AMA)

defines brand as: A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or


combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller or group of seller and differentiate them from those of competition
(Quelhas, 2014, p. 3).

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


Consumer Brand Relationship fundamentally means the relationship that a
consumer have with a brand. At present consumers humanize brands in
their mind and this results in them developing a relationship with the
brand.

Today consumers relationship with brands is like their relation

with people and is no different to them. There are some brands that a
consumer cares about, others exist in their lives only because they need
them and then there are few brands consumer falls in love with. This
recent trend in marketing has encouraged the marketers to study and
understand the difference between the relationships a consumer has with
different brands (Mulvey, 2012).

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Importance of Culture in Consumer Behaviour


Cultural values affect almost everything in life. They consist of behaviour
patterns that are common to all members of a particular group or society.
The values tend to affect consumer behaviour as well as influence the
choices when making a purchase. An individuals cultural values are
influenced by societal culture, regional sub culture and family values.
Moreover, an individual experiences benefits and restrictions from its
culture from the beginning of its existence and these restrictions and
benefits have major influence on consumers purchase decisions (Nayeem,
2012).

(Reyhan, 2011) And his colleagues in their study point out that the reality
is very different to what the marketers believed before that consumers
would increasingly resemble each other and make similar choices while
making a purchase. Therefore companies today have to overcome huge
economic and social boundaries in order to operate in international
market understanding cultures, traditional beliefs, habits and customs of
different countries. At present, the world is getting smaller and is looked
at as a global village where many different cultures are blending in
together. However, when looked closely, every culture is different from
one another. Therefore companies in the modern time have to adjust to
the culture they are entering in.

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


For example, Mc Donalds which is one of the biggest fast food chain
has its strategy Think Global, Act Local. As it is operating in different
parts of the world Mc Donalds think globally as a company but acts locally
when operating in a specific region or a market and customizes its
products and marketing strategies according to the local community. At a
global level McDonalds offers Mc Chicken Burger in all its market and sells
it globally however it also introduces different other products based on the
market its operating in such as: Mc Aloo Tikki in India for the people who
are vegetarian, Beef Burgers in Pakistan based on the choices of people
living there and Mc Arabia in Middle East giving it an Arabic touch for the
taste of people living in that region (Vignali, 2001).

Importance of Brand Personality and Consumer Brand


Relationship
Brand personality is an important concept for understanding the
relationship of consumers and brands in the modern era today. (Kang,
2013) And his peer explains in his study that brand personality is a
prerequisite for consumer brand relationship and that it is a direct result of
a firms communication about its brand. There are human characteristics
in brands due to which consumer today humanize them in their minds and
this helps the brand to play a fundamental role in consumers lives. They
further explain that brand personality has five dimensions; (1) Sincerity,
which is represented by characteristics such as honesty, real and down to
earth. (2) Excitement, which is represented by characteristics such as
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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


creative,

imaginary

and

contemporary

(3)

Competence

which

is

represented by characteristics such as secure, intelligent and confident


(4) Sophistication which is represented by characteristics such as
charming, upper class and glamourous and (5) Ruggedness which is
represented by characteristics such as tough, masculine and outdoorsy.

According to (Matzler, et al., 2011) today consumers do not buy products


only because of their functional attributes rather they are now understood
more than their utilitarian benefit and they are bought because of the
symbol they are and social meaning that they carry. The researches have
shown that the consumers buy products because of the meaning
associated to it and they want to be associated with the same meaning.
Certain products available in the market are only bought because of the
status or symbol they behold and consumers express their personality
through them.

For Example weight watchers, an important brand for consumers who


are conscious about their weight does not sell weight loss solutions only,
rather it is selling empathy and empowerment. It shows strong and bold
brand personality in its advertisement by using dominant colours; black
white, red and grey and the celebrity uses role strong word such as
Believe (Anon., 2012).

The success of a brand is based on unique brand personalities as


consumers develop strong brand connection once they have perceived the
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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


brand personality. Thus brand personality should be created in a way that
it is consistent and stays long-term. Also brand personalities should meet
customers

requirements

and

they

should

be

different

from

the

competitive brands. The customers should be able to relate to the brand


and its personality in order to develop a connection. Brands may be
treated as human beings by consumers because they have their own
human like personalities. To increase brand loyalty and maintain a strong
consumer brand relationship it is important for the consumers to not only
relate to the brand personality but also associate their own personality
traits with the personality of the brand (Lin, 2010).

Role of culture in forming Consumer Brand Relationship


Consumer behaviour is shaped by culture as an individuals values,
beliefs, norms and principals have an impact on their behaviour. Thus
consumer brand relationship is influenced by the cultures (Sen, et al.,
2014).

Another study explains two brand positioning strategies; Global Consumer


Culture Positioning (GCCP) and Local Consumer Culture Positioning (LCCP).
GCCP is defined as One that identifies the brand as a symbol of a given
global culture (Gammoh, et al., 2011, p. 49) while LCCP is defined as A
strategy that associates the brand with local cultural meanings, reflected
the local cultures norms and identities, is portrayed as consumed by local

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


people in the national culture, and/or is depicted as locally produced for
local people (Gammoh, et al., 2011, p. 49).

For example English language is the main language used in the


international business, the internet and mass media. Advertisements use
English language to convey modernism and internationalism to the
consumers today. Thus English, because it is used globally carries GCCP
Identity. Another example, spokesperson such as Michael Jordon
who is known worldwide and is a part of global culture provides a brand a
global image. On the other hand a locally known Indian spokesperson,
in a local ad promoting a product such as curry powder will convey a local
image when aired in India (Gammoh, et al., 2011).

(Herbig, 2000) In his study agrees with the above concept and explains
that in order to win brand loyalty from multi-cultural consumers
advertisers should customize and tailor the brands image to reflect
individual cultures. Creating or maintaining a global brand is directly
dependent on the contemporary status of the brand. It is sometimes
difficult to implement a single global brand name if the company has used
a different brand name in different countries for the same product. In
addition to this a single global brand name is discouraged when the same
product is adjusted to the local tastes and cultures of the different
countries.

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


For example Mitsubishi originally launched a line of car named as
Pajero 4WD. However when this line was launched in Spain the company
changed the brand name to Montero as it faced difficulties with its
existing brand name because Pajero in Spanish is a crude slang word
(Jung, 2014).

Rexona deodorant is another brand which is a Unilever product and is


sold in different countries with different brand names. It is sold as Sure in
Ireland and UK, Rexena in Japan, Degree in Canada and USA and by the
name of Shield in South Africa. However what is common among all these
is the sign of Tick (Nwobodo, 2014).

Mr Clean household is a Procter and gamble cleaning product sold in


different countries under different brand names. It is known as Don Limpo
in Spain, Mister Proper in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Middle
East, Hungry, Russia and Ukraine. Mr Clean is also known as Maestro
Limpio, Mastro Lindo, Meister Proper, Maneer Proper, Pan Proper, Monsieur
Net and Monseiur Propre in other parts of the world (Santoso, 2007).

Burger King when decided to enter into Australian market realised that
the name Burger King has already been taken and trade marked by a
local take away fast food shop. The parent company after going through
different names decided to name the brand as Hungry Jack. It was
named after Jack Cowman, the businessman who launched the brand in
Australia (David, 2013).
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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

As every culture have different beliefs and values it is important for the
companies to also consider this whilst they are advertising because
consumers from different backgrounds will interpret them differently. Thus
(Schiffman, 2002) discusses about rhetorical theory in his study and
suggests that an advertisement is designed keeping in mind how the
viewers of the ad will react. The creative advertising team, in terms of
common experience and shared cultural knowledge must relate to the
viewers. In order to measure difference between various cultures
dependence on the understanding of the local advertisers may lead to
inaccurate and wrong information regarding the suitability of multinational
advertising companies.

(Botelho, 2010) And his colleague investigates in their study the


relationship of national culture with consumers decision making style and
explains that decision making process of a consumer while making a
purchase is affected by cultural differences. In their study they have used
Hofstedes culture dimensions on consumers. they continue to explain
that due to globalisation the world may have become a global village but
people from around the world from different nations have their own
unique habits, tastes, values, norms and beliefs rooted in their national
cultures and thus in them. They identified that countrys culture play a
vital role in underlying systematic differences in how consumers behave
while they shop.

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Conclusion
Globalisations has made everyone come close and the world is getting
smaller and is known as a global village sharing a global culture. However,
it consists of different sub cultures as countries and regions are different
in terms of their beliefs, values and practices. Culture influences
behaviours of consumers and thus consumers perceptions and decision
making process varies across the world. It is important for the companies
to consider this when creating or position their brand so that they can
offer customized and tailored to products to every country based on their
needs, requirements, choices or tastes. Brands are sometimes required to
use different brand names of the same product in different markets.
Companies should also be careful whilst advertising and promoting their
products because they have to change how they market their brand in
different countries.

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Bibliography
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Botelho, C. L. a. D., 2010. How Does National Culture Impact on
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Styles? A Cross Cultural Study in Brazil, the United States and Japan,
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Gammoh, B., Koh, A. & Okoroafo, S., 2011. Consumer Culture Brand
Positioning Strategies:
An Experimental Investigation. Journol of Product and Brand
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Herbig, F. P. a. P., 2000. "The multicultural context of brand loyalty".
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Jung, N., 2014. languageconnection. [Online]
Available at: http://www.languageconnections.com/wp1/funnyslogans-from-around-the-world/

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship

Kang, H. J. a. M. S., 2013. The Effect of Brand Peronality on Brand


relationship, Attitude and
Purchase Intention with a Focus on Brand Community. Marketing
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Lin, L.-Y., 2010. ),"The relationship of consumer personality trait, brand
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Maurya, U. K., 2012. What is Brand? A Perspective on Brand Meaning.


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Nwobodo, B., 2014. bizwatchnigeria. [Online]

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Culture and Consumer Brand Relationship


Available at: http://bizwatchnigeria.ng/rexona-unilever-effectivelypull-one/
Quelhas, U. R. a. P., 2014. An Analysis of Brand Relationship with the
Perspective of
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Reyhan, D. Y. a. C. M. a. O., 2011. The Impact of Cultural Factors on the
Consumer Buying
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Santoso, A., 2007. neatorama. [Online]


Available at: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/09/15/the-manynames-of-mr-clean/
Schiffman, M. C. a. L., 2002. Implicit meaning in visual print
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Sen, H., Birgelen, M. v., Bloemer, J. & Jong, E. d., 2014. Consumer-brand
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