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How Is Culture Learned?
How Is Culture Learned?
There are many ways in which reference groups and values are related. Utilitarian value Group membership becomes a means to a valued end state. Hedonic value is an end in and of itself.
Socialization involves learning through the observation and active processing of information about lived, everyday experience.
The sequence of socialization is: Social interaction ∞ modeling ∞ reinforcement.
Enculturation
Enculturation
Enculturation represents the way in which a person learns the native culture or the way in which a consumer learns and develops shared understandings of things with his or her family.
Acculturation
Acculturation
The process by which consumers come to learn a culture other than their natural, native culture is called acculturation. It is the culture to which one may adopt when exposed to a new set of CSVs.
Not all consumers introduced to a new culture acculturate.
Ethnic identification: Degree to which a consumer feels a sense of belonging to the culture of their ethnic origins. It makes consumers to feel close-minded about adopting products from a different culture.
Consumer ethnocentrism: Belief among consumers that their ethnic group and the products coming from their native land are superior to other ethnic groups and products.
Exhibit 9.6 illustrates the characteristics of fast and slow acculturation.
Quartet of Institutions
Quartet of Institutions
It is responsible for communicating the CSVs through both formal and informal processes from one generation to another.
The following four institutions comprise the quartet: family, school, church, and media.
Family, school, and church are the primary agents for acculturation and enculturation.
Media, a secondary agent, offers a channel through which consumers learn.
Consumers, particularly young, who spend a lot of time interacting with media ranging from radio to Facebook observe behaviors, receive information, exchange ideas, likes, and thoughts.
Exhibit 9.7 illustrates how these institutions shape a consumer's culture.
Modeling
Modeling
Modeling is a process of imitating another person's behavior.
It is a significant way that influences the acculturation or enculturation of consumers.
The noun "model" captures the essence of this concept. In the context of fashion, designers hope that consumers will model their fashion models for selecting the clothes.
Different ways of modeling facilitated by the quartet institutions are illustrated in the Exhibit 9.8.
Shaping
Shaping
Shaping is a socialization process by which consumer behaviors slowly adapt to a culture through a series of rewards and sanctions. The effectiveness of cultural shaping can be influenced by the CSV profile of a culture.
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