Values and Culture

The Value Concept

• A value is defined by Rokeach as an enduring belief that one mode of conduct or end-state of existence is referable to an opposing mode of conduct or end-state of existence.

• A value system is a learned organization of principles and rules to help one choose between alternatives, resolve conflicts, and make decisions.

• Values are taught at an early age and in an absolute manner. They describe what people in general think the world ought to be in an absolute way: freedom, peace.

• Values can serve as standards that guide our choices, beliefs, attitudes, and actions.

Culture

• It is the underlying value framework that guides an individual’s behavior.

• This is the glue that binds group together. It is what defines a human community.

• It is reflected in an individual’s perceptions of observed events, in personal interactions, and in the selection of appropriate responses in social situations.

• It manifests itself in learned behavior as individuals grow up and gradually come to understand what their culture demands of them.

Cultural Universals

• Although people are not the same, some Western marketing and advertising professionals tend to perceive them to be the same.

• In particular, Western brand managers – because they are used to defining brands in abstract terms, like happiness or love. But what makes people happy or how they express love varies not only by individual but even more by culture.

Selective Perception

• Perception is the process by which each individual selects, organizes, and evaluates stimuli from the external environment to provide meaningful experiences for him or herself.

• Selective perception means that people focus on certain features of their environment to the exclusion of others. This phenomenon plays a role in the discussion of an emerging global culture.

• Usually, the examples and illustrations accompanying the discourse are a few dominant global brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

Stereotyping

• This means mentally placing people in categories.

• Stereotypes can be functional or dysfunctional.

• It is dysfunctional if we use it to judge individuals incorrectly, seeing them only as part of a group.

• An example of a functional stereotype is that the Germans are punctual, which is correct. On average, they are more punctual than many other people.

• An example of dysfunctional stereotype is the British saying that the French are dirty and ludicrously obsessed with their culture or the French saying that the British are cold, uncultivated, hypocritical and unreliable.

• Advertising depends on the use of effective stereotypes because it must attract attention and create instant recognition.

• Advertising simplifies reality and thus has to use stereotypes.

Manifestations of Culture

Symbols

• Words, gestures, pictures, or objects that carry a particular meaning recognized only by those who share a culture.

• Words of a language, particular kind of jargon, dress, hairstyles, flags, status symbols, and brands belong in this category.

Heroes

• persons – alive or dead, real or imaginary – who possess characteristics that are highly prized in a society and who thus serve as role models for behavior.

• Even fantasy or cartoon figures can serve as cultural heroes.

• The Cory tribute watch project was initiated by Swatch Philippines, led by Gift Gate president and Cory supporter Virgie Ramos.

• Ramos owns the rights to distribute Swatch watches in the Philippines.

• The idea was immediately approved by the Swatch Group based in Switzerland, who recognized Aquino as an international icon and a so-called “mother of democracy.”

• There are only 801 sets of Cory Aquino tribute watches in the world. They cost P8,100 for each set.

• The numbers 8 and 1 stand for August 1, the day when Cory died of colon cancer. Original Swatch watches usually cost around P3,000 to P7,000.

• The Cory Swatch set includes 2 watches, one of which is tagged with a serial number, encased in a picture book called “A Woman Dressed in Sunshine” written by Makati City Rep. Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin, who served as Cory Aquino’s presidential spokesman and speechwriter.

• At the back of the book is a stylized copy of a letter written by one of the country’s richest businessmen, Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala, the day after the former president died.

• The two watches vary in design. One has a lemon yellow watch face with a steel watch dial, while the other has a black watch face printed with a yellow sun.

• Both, however, have yellow and black straps printed with a shower of yellow ribbons and the faces of Ninoy and Cory Aquino.

• The watch straps also bear the words “Ipagpapatuloy Ko!” in bold black letters.

The Hello Kitty trademark has spread globally; Sanrio earned over $1 billion annually in sales outside of Japan, as of 2003. Although mainly aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range goes all the way from purses, stickers and pen sets to toasters, televisions, clothing, massagers, and computer equipment. It has a cult-like following among adults as well, especially in Asia, where Hello Kitty adorns cars, purses, jewelry and many other high-end consumer products. Several Hello Kitty TV series, targeted towards young children, have also been produced.

The character's first

appearance on an item, a

vinyl coin purse, was

introduced in Japan in 1974

and brought to the United

States in 1976. The

character is a staple of the

kawaii segment of Japanese

popular culture.

Rituals

• Collective activities considered socially essential within a culture. They are carried out for their own sake.

• Ways of greeting, paying respect to others, and social and religious ceremonies are examples.

• Brands are part of a ritual, and advertising helps make the ritual.

• Manufacturers use and create rituals around their products to differentiate them from competitive products.

• Advertising displays the rituals around products and brands; it reflects how people behave and interact, how they are dressed, their language, their eating habits, and how their houses look.

The beer brand Corona Extra distinguishes itself from others by the suggestion that it should be consumed by drinking from the bottle after having pushed a piece of lime into the long neck of the bottle.

Values

• At the core of culture lie values.

• A so-called global culture

refers to the expressions of culture, the symbols, converging eating habits, and global heroes.

Signs, Symbols, and Body Language

• An icon bears a resemblance to its object.

• An index is a sign with a direct existential connection with its object (i.e. smoke is an index of fire)

• A symbol is a sign whose connection with its object is a matter of convention, agreement, or rule.

• Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols, is in many countries an integral part of advertising theory, although used more in some countries like France than in others.

Color, letters, signs, and numbers can have a particularly strong cultural meaning.

Gestures may have a positive meaning in one culture and can be embarrassing to members of another culture.

Putting your feet up on

the desk may

demonstrate relaxation

in the US but showing

the soles of your shoes

or feet is offensive in

many parts of the world.

Showing your tongue to other people in Europe is a sign of contempt, but for children, it is a sign of challenging other children. In Asia, it is impolite, even for children. For the Maoris in New Zealand, it is a sign of great respect.

• Proxemics is the study of people’s use of space as a cultural artifact. It deals with the degree to which people want to be close to other people or to touch others. It is an aspect of body language and an expression of culture.

• Use of space in countries around the Mediterranean can be seen in the crowded trains, buses, sidewalks, and cafes. These culture s are characterized by high sensory involvement, expressed in the way they eat, entertain, and crowd together in cafes. Isolating oneself is seen as an insult to others.

Four areas that Americans intuitively respect and use to define personal territory:

• Public Space ranges from about 12 to 25 feet and is the distance maintained between the audience and a speaker giving an address.

• Social Space ranges from 4 to 10 feet and is used for communication among business associates, strangers using public areas (such as in a retail setting).

• Personal Space ranges from 2 to 4 feet and is used among friends and family members, and to separate people waiting in lines. Not surprisingly, this is also the distance assumed in certain retail setting where a greater degree of intimacy is to be conveyed (e.g. a lingerie store).

• Intimate Space ranges out to one foot and involves the possibility of (and sometimes probability of) touching. This is reserved for people with whom we are very close or for secretive actions such as whispering.

Imagery and Music

• Imagery is based on pictorial conventions. It is the use of pictures, symbols, or metaphors as a way of conveying meaning.

• There are significant cross-cultural differences in pictorial perception and the construction of pictures.

• Metaphors, in particular, represent cultural artifacts.

Infonet

LG, International

• Music is another aspect of culture. Although many types of music have proved able to travel, cultures tend to have their own rhythm.

K-P

op in t

he P

hili

ppin

es

All the way from South Korea, Korean Popular Music or

more commonly known as K-Pop started subsisting in

the Philippines since the rise of Asianovelas in the country.

The wide popularity of this music genre is most oftentimes

attributed to the rise of Hallyu or Korean Wave in different

parts of the world such as the US, Europe, Australia, Japan,

China, Taiwan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand,

and other parts of Asia. From random music videos of not-

so-famous artists on local music channels, K-Pop in the

Philippines has evolved to the virtual world of the Internet

where a multitude of Filipino fan groups devoted to specific

Korean artists started growing. Today, even if K-Pop still has

not hit the airwaves of the local FM and TV stations as hard

as how the Taiwanese Pop did in 2003, it is hoped for,

especially by its fans, that their favorite Korean artists will be

able to steal the Philippine limelight in the very near future.

Thinking Patterns and Intellectual Styles

• There is no single way of logical thinking.

• North Americans are structural and analytical, Europeans are dialectic (process of abolishing differences of opinion), Japanese have a holistic pattern recognition approach which involves recognizing the feeling of the overall situation before looking at the details

• How people learn influences their thinking and response. Western learning methods are largely based on critical thinking and analysis. Asian learning systems are based more on memorizing.

• Different cultures teach different ways of gathering and weighing evidence, of presenting viewpoints and reaching conclusions.

Language

• There are 2 ways of looking at the language-culture relationship: Language influences culture, or language is an expression of culture.