Thought of the Day

Live everyday as if it were your

last day, and then someday you
will be right.
 Culture
• Sum total of learned beliefs, values and
traditions that serve to direct the behavior
of a member of a particular society.
 Beliefs
• A descriptive thought that a person holds
about something.
 Values
• Relatively permanent desires of behavior
that seem to be good in themselves.
– Relatively few
– Serve as guide for behavior
– Enduring
– Widely accepted
– Not tied to specific situation
 Characteristics of Culture
• The invisible hand of culture
• Culture satisfies needs
• Culture is learned
• Culture is shared
• Culture is dynamic
 Measuring Culture
• Content analysis
• Consumer fieldwork
• Value measurement survey
• Yankelovich monitor
 American Core Cultural Values
• Achievement and success
• Activity
• Efficiency and practicality
• Progress
• Material comfort
• Individualism
• Freedom
• Youthfulness
• Fitness and health
 Indian Core Cultural Values
• Respect for elders and teachers.
• Serving parents
• Money secondary to relations (like friends)
• Not loosing virginity before marriage
• No divorce
• Faithfulness (to spouse, friends, country
etc.)
 Subculture
• A distinct cultural group that exists as an
identifiable segment within a larger
society.
• Social class
• Nationality as subculture
• Religion
• Region
• Race
• Age
• Gender
• Occupation
 Social class
• Division of a society into a hierarchy of
different classes in a way that members of
other classes have less or more status.
• Social class is hierarchical
• Social class and market segmentation
• Social class and behavioral factors
• Serve as frame of reference
 Social class categories
• Two class categories

– Blue collar and white collar

– Lower and upper

 Three class category
• Blue collar
• Grey collar
• White collar

• Lower
• Middle
• Upper
 Five category
• Lower Lower
• Upper lower
• Lower Middle
• Upper middle
• Lower upper
• Upper upper
 Seven category
• Lower Lower
• Upper lower
• Lower Middle
• Middle middle
• Upper middle
• Lower upper
• Upper upper
 Measurement of social class
• Subjective measures
• Reputational measures
• Objective measures
– Single variable indexes
• Occupation
• Education
• Income
• Other variables
• Composite variable indexes
– Indexes of status characteristics
– Socioeconomic status scores
Life style profiles of social classes
 The upper upper class
• Well established families
• Serve as trustees of local colleges and schools
• Prominent physicians and lawyers
• Heads or owners of well established firms
• Accustomed to wealth
 The lower upper class
• Not quite accepted by the upper crust
• Represent “new money”
• Successful business executives
• Conspicuous users of their new wealth
 Upper middle class
• Neither very high status nor unusual wealth
• Career oriented
• Young successful professionals, managers and
business owners
• Have a keen interest in obtaining better things in
life
• Very children oriented
• Their homes serve as symbol of achievement
 Lower middle class
• Non-managerial white collar workers or
highly paid blue collar workers
• Want to achieve respectability
• Want their children to be well behaved
• Religious, take part in worships
• Avoid highly stylish clothing
• Buy “do it yourself” products
 Upper lower class
• Blue collar
• Strive for security
• Want children to behave properly
• Interested in items that enhance their
leisure time
• Husband dominated families
• Males are sports fans and heavy smokers
and drinkers
 Lower lower class
• Poorly educated and unskilled laborers
• Often out of work
• Children are poorly treated
• Tend to live a day to day existence
 The affluent consumer
• Media exposure
• Segmenting affluent consumer
 Implications of social class
• Clothing, fashion and shopping
• The pursuit of leisure
• Saving, spending and credit
• Social class and communication
Thank you.