Exam 9: Consumer Culture

WALMART SCENARIO Walmart is the largest retailer in the world with more than 4,000 stores located in 14 countries outside the United States. The corporation has learned, sometimes the hard way, that the Walmart business model cannot be applied to every country it enters due to cultural differences. For example, the retailer ran into difficulties in many European countries because stores are not open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, like Walmart Supercenters in the United States. When negotiating the purchase of Trust-Mart stores in China, the company had to develop "enduring" relationships with executives before even discussing business opportunities. Making inroads into the Chinese market was particularly difficult for Walmart. Chinese customers generally believe in the superiority of home-made products to foreign ones. Establishing trust with these customers was difficult as Chinese customers don't warm up easily to foreign brands and view them with suspicion. Most of the customers perceived a price-risk relationship rather than a price-quality relationship while making purchasing decisions. Even within China, the cultural diversity was immense. Standard Chinese was spoken differently in different parts of the country. Keeping this diversity in mind, Walmart varied its marketing mixes based on local tastes, cultures, and economic conditions. -Refer to Walmart Scenario.Chinese customers generally believe in the superiority of home-made products to foreign ones.This is an example of consumer _____.

People who are highly ethnocentric believe that consumers should be more global in their purchasing activities and buy products from different countries.

Which of the following represents how disparate one nation is from another in terms of their CSVs?

The specific expectations that are associated with each type of person are referred to as _____ expectations.

Countries with relatively high cultural distance scores are more similar and tend to value the same types of consumption experiences.

In the Chinese calendar,2012 is the year of the Dragon.Chinese consumers are purchasing various consumer products adorned with dragon motifs as they believe that it will bring good luck and prosperity.According to the CSV dimension,cultures in which superstitions and myths are given high value tend to be high in _____.

The extent to which scarcity drives actual purchase intentions is more pronounced among cultures high in uncertainty avoidance.

WALMART SCENARIO Walmart is the largest retailer in the world with more than 4,000 stores located in 14 countries outside the United States. The corporation has learned, sometimes the hard way, that the Walmart business model cannot be applied to every country it enters due to cultural differences. For example, the retailer ran into difficulties in many European countries because stores are not open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, like Walmart Supercenters in the United States. When negotiating the purchase of Trust-Mart stores in China, the company had to develop "enduring" relationships with executives before even discussing business opportunities. Making inroads into the Chinese market was particularly difficult for Walmart. Chinese customers generally believe in the superiority of home-made products to foreign ones. Establishing trust with these customers was difficult as Chinese customers don't warm up easily to foreign brands and view them with suspicion. Most of the customers perceived a price-risk relationship rather than a price-quality relationship while making purchasing decisions. Even within China, the cultural diversity was immense. Standard Chinese was spoken differently in different parts of the country. Keeping this diversity in mind, Walmart varied its marketing mixes based on local tastes, cultures, and economic conditions. -Refer to Walmart Scenario.Establishing trust in the customers is very important in China as they don't warm up easily to foreign brands and view them with suspicion.This suspicion forms a part of the consumer _____ in China.

Jane lives in a place where an individual is primarily identified as belonging to a "particular family." Jane lives in a highly individualistic society.

An acquired taste for flavors,considered "unpalatable" in some cultures,is made possible through habituation.

In Dave's home country,most restaurants and public places have separate seating arrangements to segregate customers based on to their "status and position" in society.According to the CSV dimension,this is an example of a nation high in _____.

MNC SCENARIO Mr. Adam Smith works as a senior executive for Corebiz Corp., a multinational company with subsidiaries in many Asian countries. The firm believes in a marketing strategy that strongly resonates the essence of the local culture in its implementation. The company relocates Mr. Smith to Beijing to handle their operations in China. A few months into his stay, Mr. Smith begins to learn the ways of life and appropriate behavior in China. When Mr. Smith was invited for tea by his colleagues, he observed people around him and learned the right way to tap his finger and fold a napkin. He also learned that the Chinese revere their elders and treat them with respect. Even when there is no kinship involved, an older person should never be addressed with his/her name. Any show of disrespect, especially "name calling," is shunned upon by society; and the person found doing so, risks being ridiculed by everyone. Though these learnings can sometimes be inconvenient for Mr. Smith owing to the vast cultural difference between the United States and China, Mr. Smith thinks that it is worth all the trouble. -Refer to MNC Scenario.A few months into his stay,Mr.Smith begins to learn the ways of life and appropriate behavior in China.This learning is referred to as _____.

How is culture learned? List the quartet of institutions responsible for communicating CSVs and discuss which one or ones had the greatest influence on your learning of your native culture and/or a new culture.

Maria is educating her children on culture-appropriate manners of addressing adults as "sir" or "ma'am." These accepted ways of addressing people represents _____.

Metric equivalence is necessary to draw basic comparisons about consumers from different countries concerning important consumer relationships.

_____ represent a commonly agreed upon consensus about the most preferable ways of living within a society.

MNC SCENARIO Mr. Adam Smith works as a senior executive for Corebiz Corp., a multinational company with subsidiaries in many Asian countries. The firm believes in a marketing strategy that strongly resonates the essence of the local culture in its implementation. The company relocates Mr. Smith to Beijing to handle their operations in China. A few months into his stay, Mr. Smith begins to learn the ways of life and appropriate behavior in China. When Mr. Smith was invited for tea by his colleagues, he observed people around him and learned the right way to tap his finger and fold a napkin. He also learned that the Chinese revere their elders and treat them with respect. Even when there is no kinship involved, an older person should never be addressed with his/her name. Any show of disrespect, especially "name calling," is shunned upon by society; and the person found doing so, risks being ridiculed by everyone. Though these learnings can sometimes be inconvenient for Mr. Smith owing to the vast cultural difference between the United States and China, Mr. Smith thinks that it is worth all the trouble. -Refer to MNC Scenario.In China,any show of disrespect,especially "name calling," is shunned upon by society and the person found doing so,risks being ridiculed by everyone.This is an example of cultural _____.

WALMART SCENARIO Walmart is the largest retailer in the world with more than 4,000 stores located in 14 countries outside the United States. The corporation has learned, sometimes the hard way, that the Walmart business model cannot be applied to every country it enters due to cultural differences. For example, the retailer ran into difficulties in many European countries because stores are not open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, like Walmart Supercenters in the United States. When negotiating the purchase of Trust-Mart stores in China, the company had to develop "enduring" relationships with executives before even discussing business opportunities. Making inroads into the Chinese market was particularly difficult for Walmart. Chinese customers generally believe in the superiority of home-made products to foreign ones. Establishing trust with these customers was difficult as Chinese customers don't warm up easily to foreign brands and view them with suspicion. Most of the customers perceived a price-risk relationship rather than a price-quality relationship while making purchasing decisions. Even within China, the cultural diversity was immense. Standard Chinese was spoken differently in different parts of the country. Keeping this diversity in mind, Walmart varied its marketing mixes based on local tastes, cultures, and economic conditions. -Refer to Walmart Scenario.The corporation has learned,sometimes the hard way,that the Walmart business model cannot be applied to every country it enters due to cultural differences.For example,while negotiating the purchase of Trust-Mart stores in China,the company had to develop "enduring" relationships with executives before even discussing business opportunities and most Chinese customers perceived a price-risk relationship rather than a price-quality relationship while making purchasing decisions.Which of the following best describes such differences?

The CSV profile of a culture can influence the effectiveness of cultural shaping.

When marketers promote their products in foreign markets,translation of advertisements alone is sufficient to guarantee effective communication with the consumers.