The fundamental aim of this essay is to, show understanding of the influence of culture on retailing. In the essay the power of culture and how this power affects retailing will be explored. I am going to illuminate the meaning of culture in our modern life and discuss and explain the influence of cultural factors that can be put forward for shopping. I will look on how culture linked with retailing, how our society has changed and how these changes influenced on consumers, and how retailers should react.
There are many different definitions of culture, however the Harrison’s definition (1992, pp. -10) uses an operational definition of culture as group or national value systems, attitudes, religious and other institutions, intellectual achievement, artistic expression, daily behaviour customs, lifestyle, and many other circumstances. ”The definition of retailing by Newman and Cullen (2002, p. 12) “is the set of activities that markets products or services to final consumers for their own personal or household use. It does this by organizing their availability on a relatively large scale and supplying them to consumers on a relatively small scale. Culture and retailing are closely linked with each other.
Culture includes absolutely everything that surrounding us and that is inside us; such as our beliefs, views, opinions, our behaviour and lifestyle. We are influence on culture and culture in one’s turn influence on us. Each of us play many completely different roles and one of these key roles is as a consumer. I know some people who have never been in theatre, they have never seen ballet or opera, and however I do not know anybody who has never buy something. “Shopping is important, and it is underestimated.It’s one of the most common things we do, and it dominates our lives.
Almost everything in life requires shopping. When it comes shopping, everyone can participate. Shopping is the most common shared experience- everyone does it and everyone talks about it. ”(Pooler, 2003, p. 4) Shopping became an integral part of our life and part of our culture in recent years.
“Shopping is culture. It is solemn rite, a ceremonial act that is an integral part of every person’s life. There are unwritten rules of shopping, customs of shopping, and conventions to be followed.There are many interesting things to learn by studying our own day-to-day culture and shopping is one of the primary parts of it. Shopping is an almost invisible element of our daily culture that is central to our lives. ” (Pooler, 2003, p.
5) In the last thirty years our life has changed, it has become much faster; new technologies, increasing working hours and income, working women are just a part of factors that affected us as consumers. “Changes in our natural and social environment are constantly affecting what consumers want and how retailers can provide them with their requirements.Retailers are interested in these changes because they affect how much people want to buy and the costs of providing customers with the products and services that they want. ”(Newman and Cullen;2002, p. 33).
Consumers and retailers depend on each other and if culture affected consumers, retailers must correctly react on these changes in order to be successful. The two main questions for retailers are; “Why consumers shop and what they want? ” and “How we can respond? ”To answer on these questions is necessary understand why consumer behaviour has changed and which factors affected this.Newman and Cullen, (2002) highlighted the following changes which can affect consumers, such as demographic, technological, economic, social, political and cultural changes. One of the most significant changes is technological changes. The Internet provides a great opportunity of increased choice.
It is now possible to buy online absolutely everything; grocery, books, clothes, toys, cars, insurance and many more. Consumers use online stores instead of high street stores, is in part due to the convenience it offers, however the research evidence and data is yet unclear.One reason for buying online is convenience, consumers can buy online 24 hours a day, seven days per week, it saves our time and money, they do not need travel to store, spend money on petrol and car park and sometimes it saves our nerves too, Internet sites provide more detailed information about the products. Consumers can quite easily to compare up to 15 products at one time, that saves us from incompetent shop-assistants. Even if customers do not buy from the Internet, it helps them with their decision-making process.
The last five years, before buying something, I am usually checking in the Internet the price, features and description of the product which I wish to buy, I compare at least five similar products, and when I know definitely what I want to buy, I am looking where this item is cheaper, than with ready decision I am going to the chosen store to buy desired product. Another good point of new technologies is cheap technical equipments, for example thirteen years ago I bought my first mobile, it was impossible expensive and I paid it by monthly instalments.I knew that if I bought so expensive thing I will keep it for many years but today I change mobiles sometimes few times a year and if it is breakdown I never repair it, I just buy new one because it is became really cheap. Exactly the same situation happens with all technical equipments, such us TV, wash machines, microwaves, laptops, etc. Another significant change is economic changes. ”Economic changes, such as the long-term increases in real income.
In real terms the average person in Britain is about 80 per cent better off than a similar person would have been a generation ago.However, people spend their money in different ways as they become better off, and this creates different opportunities for retailers. ” (Newman and Cullen, 2002, p. 36) From my own experience I know, that when we have limited incomes we buy only absolutely necessary things, such as the basic products or emergency repairs and instead of spending money we try to save something on the ”rainy day”. However, when people’s incomes are increased they are looking were to spend these money and how to do that better.Consumers start looking for the best service and the best quality, sometimes they buy absolutely unnecessary things.
For example, it is very common when parents buy toys for children just to reward they good behaviour or to compensate insufficient attention to them. With increasing of income consumers become more dependent on retailers. For example, few times per year Clinique has promotion, buy two or more Clinique products and get your gift; gifts usually included few promotional size items, such as 15ml cream, small lip gloss, 15ml foundation cream and cosmetic bag.I know very well that I do not need at all that lip gloss, because I never use red colour, I do not need that cream because it is not for my skin type, and that cosmetic bag I could buy in any other store for just five pounds. However, every time when I see this promotion I buy one extra product, which cost about thirty- forty pounds and which really I do not need, from Clinique just to get my “free gift”. I mentioned that another women buy the same to me these “free gifts” and the same to me they fill quite happy.
Political changes are playing important role in society and culture us well. The establishing of European Union and developing of a single market are very important factors in changing consumers’ and shopping culture. Free movement of people, capital and goods, between 27 European Union members made the most developed European countries, such as German, England, Ireland, Italy and France multinational. This is why for retailers now it is very important to understand another countries culture us well.
First of all, immigrants looking for a familiar food; clothes, cars, technical equipments are the same or very similar in all countries, however food is different in different countries. Food is the first thing that immigrants missing about and that they try to find in another country. The most successful retailers try to perceive their multinational consumers needs and preferences, for example Tesco have a quite wide range of Polish, Slovakian, African, Greek, Indian and Pakistani food. I found that British consumers buy multinational food us well, as they are interested in something new.Social changes are another very significant factor in changing consumer behaviour. Research shows that the role of woman in our society is really changed in the last thirty years and these changes involved the majority of countries in the world.
“Social changes, such as the increase in young women in full-time employment. This has led to significant changes in attitudes to the home and leisure that have affected spending on clothing and recreational products. ” (Newman and Cullen, 2002, p. 6) Women became more independent than before, they can spend they own money how they want and were they want. (Newman and Cullen, 2002) mentioned that “As women have increased their working hours, their partners have not reduced their working hours to compensate. Women still do most of the meal preparation, cleaning and washing.
Retailers have had to respond to this change by providing products and services that save time and reduce household work. For example, supermarkets have increased the shelf space dedicated to ready-to-eat meals and in-store restaurant facilities. My family knows that not by hearsay, as my husband working full-time and I am working and studying, and we have three years old daughter, so we are extremely busy and when I am especially tired to preparing meal, we use restaurant facilities in Tesco. My family does that only few times in month but I know that other families every time use ready meals or frozen food.
“There is increased pressure on family households to save on domestic time through more sharing of their other leisure activities.It has also encouraged families to combine activities such as shopping with other family leisure activities. ” (Newman and Cullen, 2002, p. 46). It is about my family too.
As we are very busy and we don’t have enough time to spend together, we usually doing shopping together and we use only large hypermarkets or shopping centres, such as Tesco Extra and White Rose Centre where we can buy absolutely everything, from food to clothes and technical equipments, at one time.By this system live many families in UK and retailers react on this situation by opening new shopping centres, designer outlets and etc. Shopping centres are becoming giant entertainment centre, almost to the point that their traditional retail occupants seem like an afterthought. Shopping centres have tried to gain loyalty of shoppers by appealing to their social motives as well as providing access to desired goods. Shopping centres and individual stores have to create environments that stimulate people and allow them to shop and be entertained at the same time. ” (Solomon et al, 2006, p.
320) Demography is another very important factor which retailers should take into account.As mentioned Solomon et al (2006), the “baby boomers” are the key factor of the most cultural and economic changes, as they have power in numbers. “The baby boomers, people aged 35 to 54, are a unique group. They grew up in a world where they indulged by their parents at every opportunity- their parents were anxious that they have a better life than their own- and so they are the first generation to be raised with everything they could possibly want in life. The boomers want everything, and they want it now.
No generation in history has been as indulged as much as the boomers when it comes to shopping.This is another reason why the new shopping has come to existence. ” (Pooler, 2003, p. 9) Now it is more understandable why shopping became so important in our life and of course we are as consumers changed the nature of shopping. Pooler (2003, p. 1) highlights the changing consumer and focus on shopping.
“There is a new mode of thought in the shopping environment. The new consumer is operating on a fresh plane of needs that is totally different from that used by his predecessors. The new consumer shops for reasons that seem strange and inexplicable from a conventional point of view.Modern shoppers buy things to reward themselves, to satisfy psychological needs, or to make themselves feel good.
Modern shoppers buy things because they are expensive. They buy things to make a statement, to show off their personality, or to boost their self-esteem. Buying an item because you have a real physical necessity for it, in the way that our parents used to shop, has become the least of the modern shopper’s concerns. ” In twenty first century for retailers it is really important to understand why consumers buy and which motivates them to make a decision.Understanding the decision-making process is very important for retailers, as it helps them manipulate by consumer behaviour and increase their revenues.
In 1943 Abraham Maslow in his work “A Theory of Human Motivation” presented the Hierarchy of Motivational needs. By this theory, consumer’s needs consist from five levels, the lowest level is physiological needs, then go safety needs, belongingness and ego-needs, the last level is self actualization needs. “Today we shop to self-actualize- to fulfil the highest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.The modern shopper can only be understood if he is viewed as a being that is shopping to fulfil emotional needs” (Pooler, 2003,p. 8).
I can add that consumers shop to self-actualize and to fulfil the ego-needs equally. “Shopping is a form of self-expression. People define themselves through their shopping. How they shop, where they shop, and what they buy serves the purpose of letting people express their desires, their needs, and their personalities.
” (Pooler, 2003, p. 3) Now we wish not just buy goods, we wish to buy desired, appropriate image.For instance, by buying a house, people do not buy just the roof over one’s head, they buy the belongingness to a particular social class, the respect or envy of their acquaintances and friends, and safety for them and their family. On consumers’ decision-making process influence many different factors, such as personal- demographic, economic and situational factors, social-family, group, class, culture, religion, and psychological-perception, motives, learning, attitudes and personality. In reality retailers provide to us the opportunity to identify ourselves by presentation of different brands.
Kotler et. Al (2006, p. 284) defines a brand as a “ name, term, symbol or design which is intended to signify the goods and services of one seller or groups of sellers and to differentiate them from the competitor. ” Particular stores will use the brand to present the image they require to attract specific segments of customers.
For example, if I buy at Flannels or Harvey Nichols, I wish to look like a woman with higher than average income from a middle or high social class. At the same time if I would buy clothes from JD Sport, people would see at me girl with low income from a lowest social class.The majority of people do not buy just clothes, jewelleries and accessories; they buy a brand, because the brand indicates who they are. There are many advantages and disadvantages of branding.
From one side, it is minimize the customer’s risk in purchasing and it is make their decision-making process easier and faster. For example, in Tesco have quite good range of coffee, some coffee packs are very expensive, some of them are really cheap, however many customers buy the expensive coffee, because of brand; they are aware to buy cheap product because they are not familiar with the brand and they are not sure in quality.From another side, customers became slaves of brands. Unfortunately sometimes customers pay just for a brand name, for example kids clothes with Disney logo and characters is much more expensive than exactly the same clothes but just with pretty picture, however usually kids do not want just a picture on their T-shirt, they want to have a T-shirt with their favourites Pinocchio or Mickey Mouse.
There are many different works which are dedicates to changes in the shopping culture and consumer decision-making process. However, we are still have limited understanding of how and why consumers shop, and which factors are influenced on consumer decision-making process. All that we can ascertain at this moment is that shopping became a part of modern society and our day-to-day culture. As the most aspects of our life have changed, our shopping culture has changed as well.People do not wish just to buy anymore, they wish to consume; they are not looking just for a shopping, they are looking for a shopping and leisure together. Consumers try to express themselves through the shopping.
People do not buy just goods anymore; they buy the desired image and retailers helps to them by providing different brands. Culture is quite difficult to describe, explain and perceive, however each retailer who wish be successful, must understand the importance of culture in retailing.
