Culture is a very important aspect to understand the behavior of a consumer. It signifies the set of values of a particular community. An individual decides to behave in a certain manner because of his culture. He gets all these values from his parents and family. Every individual has different sets of values as compared to others, what they see from their childhood when they start practicing those habits, they become their culture.
Culture does vary from individual to individual, region to region, and country to country, so the marketer needs to pay a lot of attention in analyzing the culture of various regions and groups. Throughout the process, the consumer is under influence of his culture as his friends, family, society, and his prestige influence him.
For a marketer, it is very crucial to take all these things into consideration while analyzing or observing a consumer’s behavior as they play a vital role in his behavior, perception and expectations For example, if we observe the taste and preferences, people in southern India prefers rice to roti whereas north Indian people prefer roti than rice.
Social Classes :
The social groups or membership groups to which an individual belongs are the social classes that influence him. In the social classes, we usually find people with similar values, lifestyle and behavior. Now a marketer or a researcher needs to pay attention here because generally the buying behavior of people in a particular social class to some extent is similar, though the level of influence may be low or high, he can tailor his marketing activities according to different social classes. Social perception is a very important attribute that influences the buying behavior of an individual.
Example − A person from a low-income group may focus on price while making the purchase while a person from a higher income group may consider the quality and uniqueness of the product.
Sometimes an individual also is influenced by a social group to which he does not belong, but wishes to get connected with others.
For example, in a college a student is in no need to buy a smart phone but purchases it to be part of that group and be accepted by them.
Marketers need to understand these situations well and plan their strategies accordingly for such social benefits. Individuals play various roles in the consumer buying process −
Initiator − Initiator is usually the person who comes up with an idea and suggests the purchase.
Influencer − He is the individual who actually pushes for the purchase. He highlights the benefits of the product. This individual can be from the family or friend or outside the group too.
Decision Maker − He is generally the person who takes the final decision or the final call after analyzing all the pros and cons of the product. He may not necessarily be the final buyer as may also take the decision on behalf of the consumer.
For example, a father might decide on buying a laptop for his son or a brother might decide on the best career option for his sister.
Buyer − Buyer is generally the end user or the final consumer who uses the product.
Rural India’s recently discovered predilection to enthusiastically consume everything from shampoo to motorcycles has been the subject of much discussion.
However the dominant view of the market is as seen through the product window (i.e. from the perspective of “how much of what is being bought”). To gain a better insight into the structure and drivers of consumer demand in Rural India, we need to also develop a view of the market by looking at it through the consumer or ‘people’ window (i.e. from the perspective of “how many of what kind of people are buying”).
We need to enlarge the discussion from ‘the market’ to also include ‘the consumers’; from not just what is being bought, but also who is buying; and from thinking ‘product segments’ to also thinking consumer segments. This article presents one vignette of the rural market based on data from the IRS 1998 study, conducted by the MRUC (Media Research Users Council), and ORG – MARG.
But first, a quick ‘context setting’ run through of what’s happening to rural demand for durables, as seen through the familiar product window. Data presented at seminars and conferences on this is all drawn from the NCAER study – by far the best data source in the country on macro market facts. It appears that NCAER, in its Indian Market Demographics report, 1998, has estimated that Rural India’s market for consumer durables as being worth around Rs. 4500 crores, with an average annual growth rate of around 8%.
They have introduced a very useful product segmentation of durables, where they have grouped durables into three price baskets – a sort of equivalent of the “premium, popular and low priced ” construct which we all instinctively use when thinking about packaged consumer goods brands.
Group I comprises a basket of basic low cost durables like watches, radios, irons, fans etc. Group II comprises higher order durables like black and white televisions, sewing machines, mixers and two-in-one music systems.
Group III comprises the high priced, high aspiration durables like colour TVs, refrigerators, motorised two wheelers and music systems – the litmus tests of whether Rural India is awakening to join the mainstream of New Indian Consumerism!
The first group is well penetrated, accounts for the lion’s share of rural durables demand, and is slow growing. The second is modestly penetrated, accounts for one fifth of the total value of rural durables demand and is growing at a healthy clip, while the last group is nascent but explosively growing. And that is the view from the product window.
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