Cultural values and social influences
Individual and family decisions are affected by individual and social values. Values are centrally held enduring beliefs which guide actions and judgements in specific situations and in more general circumstances as people orient themselves in their environment (Rokeach 1973, p. 160). There are many types of values; people possess moral values, express political values and satisfy utility values which are often mixed together. The significance of values is determined by their function in understanding how the individual, groups and organizations in society adapt and behave.
Values in society are beliefs about desirable behaviours that transcend specific situations to guide behaviour and are ranked by their relative importance (Schwartz and Bilsky 1987). Values are also drawn into use when interaction between the individual and the group arises. These are the formal characteristics of values and their meaningful content may be defined as the cognitive representation of universal human requirements (Grunert and Juhl 1991). These requirements refer to biological needs and wants such as food and shelter, personal interactions in families and groups, esteem and social or institutional requirements, welfare and survival of the group (Maslow 1959; Rokeach 1973).
Culture influences buying behaviour in a number of ways. Culture is a complex mixture of ideas, attitudes and images created by people in society to shape human behaviour. Culture comprises numerous elements which affect marketing and consumer buying behaviour: language, education, religion, values and attitudes, organization, technology and material culture and the political and legal environment. Social characteristics involving group norms and role behaviour, reference groups, social class and the family are important considerations in this respect. The norms of a society influence the type of products and services members of that society purchase. Role behaviour in society depends on social norms which regulate relations among individuals and so provide a guide to social behaviour; compliance with norms is rewarded while non-compliance is punished.
Seemingly a powerful social influence is the reference group; real or imagined people with whom individuals compare themselves or to whom they ascribe a set of standards for the purpose of modelling their own behaviour. The degree of reference group influence tends to vary by product and service type. Reference groups consist of people with whom the individual compares his or her own behaviour. Stereotyping and image are usually involved. Reference group influence is thought to vary by product and by brand and to be stronger for some products and brands than others.
Perhaps the strongest social influence on individual buying behaviour is the role of the family. In examining this influence from the point of view of buying behaviour, it is necessary to decide who influences the buying decision, who makes it, who purchases and who uses it. The family is considered as a major source of influence in the buying process. Adults and children display varying degrees of influence in household purchases. Shared and joint decisions are now more common for a greater range of products and services than was the case traditionally. With increased informality in lifestyles the source and importance of the influence vary.
Path from beliefs to preferences
Beliefs and attitudes are personal influences which affect buying behaviour. Beliefs may be based on direct use of the product or brand or what has been gleaned about it from advertising and word of mouth. Attitudes, on the other hand, are feelings of like or dislike towards a product or service. Beliefs are thought to help form attitudes. The combination of beliefs and attitudes towards a product or service determines the extent to which buyers like the product or service as a whole.
Perception is the process by which people receive, interpret and recall information from the world about them. Perceptions are most powerful influencing factors in buying behaviour as they are shaped by the physical characteristics of the stimuli, the relation of the stimuli to their surroundings and condition within the individual. The scope for advertising, product and package design in this context is obvious.
Perceptions are thought to influence behaviour, especially preferences. While perceptions refer to an individual's judgements concerning the similarities and differences among a set of products or brands, preferences refer to a ranking of these products or brands regarding the extent to which they meet customer requirements as indicated by distance from some ideal preference point.
So far we have discussed buyer dispositions. Preferences, for example, must be converted into behaviour such as a purchase. This involves motivation. A motive is a stimulated need which an individual seeks to satisfy, e.g. hunger, thirst, security or esteem. A need must be aroused before it can serve as a motive. It is possible to have latent needs which do not influence behaviour until they become stimulated. The source of this stimulation may be from within the individual, e.g. hunger, or external, e.g. an advertisement for a Big Mac meal. Satisfaction of basic needs permits higher level needs to emerge. Needs which dominate at any time are dependent on the extent of satisfaction achieved for the more basic needs. In countries suffering chronic food shortages and hunger, higher level needs may be sacrificed. In more affluent societies the needs for affiliation, prestige and self-fulfilment tend to dominate buyer behaviour.
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