1. CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR:
APPLICATIONS FOR MARKETING
AND COMMUNICATIONS
A Perspective for
A Common Platform
Compiled and Proposed by
Rahim Jabbar
28th May 2003
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2. Points of discussions
• Culture : concept boundary and the elements
• Three Layers of Culture
• Foundations of Culture
• Culture : three silent languages of culture
• Human Behavior
– Overt and Covert Behavior
– Values
– Beliefs
– Determinants of human behavior
• Cultural Basis of Human Behavior
• Cultural Basis of Social Interactions
• Consumption as a Cultural Phenomenon:
• Consumption Ritual
• Brands as carriers of meanings
• Brands as cult objects
• Link between the consumers and their brands
• Cultural-based Brand Development Process
• Marketing as a Social and Cultural “Engineering”
Process : A view from the Hinterland
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3. CULTURE:
Concept boundary and the elements
Symbolic aspects:
•Systems of distinctions
(classification, histories,
knowledge coded in symbolic
ideas or beliefs)
•Culture is the way in which a group of people ( a community or society or any
autonomous group) solve problems and reconcile dilemmas that incorporate
individual and collective responses to environmental conditions. As such,
contents of a culture is continually subjected to historical and evolutionary
forces and processes.
•Contents of a culture is accumulation of symbolic (a. o. scientific, artistic),
behavioral (including social) , and physical characteristics of that specific
group of people. Culture is perpetuated through inter-generational
communication of information other than genetic/biological information. As
such, culture comprises the heritage of that community.
Behavioral aspects: Physical aspects:
•Distinctive forms of behavior •Material artifacts
(songs, rituals, institutions, (tools, weapons, buildings,
organizational forms) Works of art)
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Source: Analyzed from the Encyclopedia of Sociology, Michael Mann (1994) & Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

4. CULTURE:
Three Layers of Culture ( Trompenaars & Hampden)
ARTIFACTS
(External/Explicit)
NORMS
(“Right” v.s. “Wrong”
Basic Assumptions
about Human Existence:
PERSPECTIVES
AND
WORLDVIEWS
(Core/Implicit)
VALUES
(“Good” v.s. “Bad”
PRODUCTS
(External/Explicit)
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5. CULTURE : THE FOUNDATIONS
•Morality
•Work
•Leisure
Logic & General
Religion attitudes
•Property
Philosophy •Crime
•Authority
•Government
Maintained through •Human rights &
privileges
•Places of
residence
Perspectives &
World Views
Influence
Spiritual
practices
Medium
Of Expressions Modes of •Division of labor
•Age roles
Social •Family organizations
interaction •Child rearing practices
•Social status
•Degree of formality
•Gender roles
Language Visual Arts Music •Manners
•Verbal communications
•Non-verbal communications
Recorded in
Literature
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Source: Analyzed from the Encyclopedia of Sociology, Michael Mann (1994) & Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

6. CULTURE:
Three Silent Languages of Culture (Stuart Hall)
Time
Mono-chronic Poly-chronic
•Linear •Simultaneous occurrence of many things
•Tangible •A great involvement with people
•Divisible
•Events are scheduled one item at a time. Schedule takes
precedence over interpersonal relationship
Context
(Refers to the amount of information that a person can comfortably manage in social interactions)
High Low
•Background information is implicit •Background information must be made explicit in an
•People send more information implicitly interaction
•People usually have a wider network •People verbalize much more on background information
•People tend to stay well informed on many subjects •People tend not to be well informed on subjects outside of
their interest
Space
(The invisible boundary around an individual that is considered “personal”. This sense of personal space can include
an area, or objects, that have come to be considered as that individual’s “territory”. This sense of personal space can
be perceived not only visually, but by the ears, thermals space by the skin, kinesthetic space by muscles, etc.)
Wide Narrow
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7. HUMAN BEHAVIOR
OVERT BEHAVIOUR:
•External/observable/visible
acts/actions/behavior
COVERT BEHAVIOUR:
• Internal dispositions:
1. Values & Norms
2. Beliefs
3. Attitudes
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Source: Analyzed from the Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

8. COVERT BEHAVIOR:
VALUES
Values are general central
principles concerning the patterns
of behavior within a particular
culture or society which its
members hold in high regards.
Around those values, individual
and social goals can be integrated.
Values are transmitted and adopted
through socialization process.
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Source: Analyzed from the Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

9. COVERT BEHAVIOR:
BELIEFS
Beliefs are emotional acceptance of
some proposition, statement, or
doctrines. Beliefs are learned
expectations about the values of
people, events and objects in the
environment and the roles they
play with respect to one’s behavior.
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Source: Analyzed from the Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

10. DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR:
VALUES, BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES
Actions
“Conative component”
(disposition for action)
“Evaluative component”
(positive or negative)
Attitudes The Self
“Cognitive component”
(Consciously held beliefs)
Beliefs “Affective
component”
(Emotional
Tone or feeling)
Emotional acceptance
Of values
Values
Emotion
& Norms
Instigating Physiological Cognitive Motivational
stimuli correlates appraisal properties
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Source: Analyzed from the Encyclopedia of Sociology, Michael Mann (1994) & Dictionary of Psychology, Arthur Reber (1995)

11. CULTURAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOR
S
H
The Society/ A The Individual/
Community R Person
E
D
Actions
Perspectives & Attitudes
World Views
Values
Beliefs
Social & Norms
Practices
CULTURE BEHAVIOR
Socialization process
Internalization process
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12. CULTURAL BASIS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION
CULTURAL VALUES & NORMS
SENDER/ Intended Shared
RECEIVER/
Attributed
INITIATOR meanings meanings meanings PARTNER
Clifford Geertz:
“Culture is the means by which people communicate, perpetuate and
develop their knowledge and attitude about life. Culture is the fabric
of meanings, in terms of which human beings interpret their experiences
and guide their actions .
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Source: Analyzed from the Interpretation of Culture, Clifford Geertz (1993 )

13. CONSUMPTION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON :
Consumption Rituals
Parts of
Products/ Cultural Symbolic
Consumption
Services Myths & Meanings
Rituals
Social & Social &
Consumption Social
Cultural cultural
Rituals interaction of
Exchange stability
individuals
processes
Ritual : the performance - by one or more persons –
of actions designed to express some range of
BRANDS meanings. The actions are permeated by symbolic
content and are highly constrained by the character
As the Exchange of that content.
Carriers of Of meanings
Meanings
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14. CONSUMPTION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON :
Brands as carriers of meanings
Symbol: indirect representation of something
intended to signify ideas or principles
beyond that specific action, event, device,
or utterance. The ideas or principles
Presentation represented as such are meanings of
& communications: the symbol.
•Design
•Color Symbols Meanings
•Shape
•Tone
•Style
•Ambience
•Goals achieved
•Objectives reached
BRANDS VALUES •Demands fulfilled
•Requirements satisfied
Interaction
Delivery of
Product/ Between
Functional
service Product/ Service
benefits
functionality and the
Consumers
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15. CONSUMPTION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON :
Brands as Cult Objects
Tribe: Traditionally meant to be a group connected Note: Cult object has got the “social bonding
through descent from a common ancestor, power”
organized around an ascribed status due to “experience sharing and “exchanges
structure. In this case brand users are of meanings” , amongst the “tribe members”
likened as tribe, since they are connected through the cult object.
through a common cult object, “the brand”
Tribe
member
“Social bonding” “Social bonding”
Sharing
BRAND Sharing
Tribe Sharing Tribe
As Cult
member Object member
“Social bonding” Sharing
“Social bonding”
Tribe
member
Cult : a loosely constructed type “faith organization”
with an amorphous sets of beliefs and rituals.
In this case, consumers of a brand Note: each period in the history of society displays certain
are likened as followers of certain “faith” constellation of cult objects that coalesced around the
since they have certain beliefs about rise of certain segments in the society (like Yuppies
their brands (i.e. emotional acceptance in early 1990’s and Net Generation in late 1990’s
of certain values attached to the brand)
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16. CONSUMPTION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON :
Link between the consumers and their brands
Layers of Consumer Layers of the Brand
Consciousness
Socio-cultural link
Socio-cultural layer: Symbols:
Values Meanings
Functional link
Rational layer Identity/Character
Emotional
Personality
Core
Psychological
bonding
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Source: The first two layers are adapted from Heylen et.al. (JRMS, Viol 37 No.1), the third layer is added by the writer

17. CONSUMPTION AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON :
Cultural-based Brand Development Process
*) Meanings may include gender, status, age, lifestyle, etc.
**) Symbolic elements may include objects, persons, contexts and motifs
Symbolic elements **)
Creative selection &
to communicate the meanings
Development:
(e.g. something exclusive, only
(the way, the feel, the mood, etc)
for a happy few)
Product, Packaging &
Cultural meanings*)
Campaign communication
available in the society
(color coding, verbal/visual cues, etc)
(e.g. Respectability is a valid goal in life”)
at a Price
Secondary meaning transfer****)
The product become the locus Primary meaning transfer***):
of selected meanings, (e.g.” BMW is the status symbol
and the consumers use the product a successful Yuppie”)
to create notions of self and
the world
***)Transfer of meanings from to total stimuli to the product/brand
(e.g.:” With my BMW, I belong to the Yuppie Club” through repeated associative process
“My BM is my status. It is me” ) ****) Transfer of meanings from the product to the users/consumers.
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18. MARKETING AS SOCIO-CULTURAL ENGINEERING PROCESS :
A view from the hinterland
The
BRAND
In Se mu
An rate
te t li
g of
st
d
i
Individual
Individual specificity
specificity
A particular
To consume A particular
Socio-cultural
Socio-cultural
Being certain PRODUCT Transformed millieu
millieu
‘ENGINEERED” and into The universal
The universal to choose a human
human nature
nature specific BRAND
CONSUMERS
Human
beings
Rahim Jabbar/1989 18