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Economics and Management Notes Marketing Notes

Culture Notes

Updated Culture Notes

Marketing Notes

Marketing

Approximately 38 pages

For each of the 7 topics I studied, I've included my finals revision notes (except Fair Trade and Services, which I did not revise but have included the full set of essay notes for). The notes are very concise (3-4 pages), with each subheading indicating a line of argument that could be taken in an essay on the topic (based on the exam questions that have come up over the last 6 or 7 years - the notes could be used to answer any of these well), and then bulletpointing how the argument could be la...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Marketing Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Culture

Hofstede: culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of another. Learned not inherited.

In markets – affected prosperity and conditions

  • Platteau – the market mechanism can only function effectively if it is embedded into an appropriate social structure and set of values – the market therefore must be based on and influenced by culture.

  • Dickson – cultural history has a big impact on which countries are rich/poor today:

    • Christianity and property rights of merchants in the West allowed novelty and innovation to spread fast.

    • Islamic culture/China closed in on itself, shunned innovations.

  • And markets across the world have come to emphasise different aspects over time (Smart):

    • Western market focused on economic efficiency through self interested individuals.

    • But in Japan/South Korea markets built around the need for individuals to identify with a group.

    • And in HK/Taiwan built on network relationships between business associates based on trust and obligations (alliances/cooperative subcontracts).

    • Social economies like these disregarded in the West as being utopian/unrealistic – howevs not only feasible but may be the reason E Asia caught up with the West.

    • Practical route to economic efficiency varies according to local conditions, need to understand social relations/cultural values to contruct efficient firms.

  • Is ‘the market’ becoming global due to super innovations like the internet? Super innovations increase the speed, efficiency and effectiveness of transmission of new ideas and technology between cultures.

  • Changes in attitutudes towards foreign products? Will we start learning a new global culture?

In consumption

  • Belk – our consumption choices define and express our lifestyles and social identities when we are faced with multiple social roles in large scale urban environments – all acts of purchase or consumption are decisions not only about how to act but who to be (Miller).

  • Aspects of themselves people want to express depends on culture:

    • Millan et al – huge differences for preferences in clothing, the meanings these expressed and brand loyalties across Eastern European cultures, simply because these cultures were different themselves.

  • And how you express those traits depends on the culture you live in:

    • Status consumption: Veblen goods – consuming ostensibly expensive products and services are an indicator of societal position and so serve as a pecuniary symbol. ‘Ostensibly expensive goods’ are culturally defined Ustuner and Holt – in LEDCs there is a demand for Western goods as status symbols. Western lifestyle is a myth constructed within the discourse of the LEDC (eg exaggerated performative conception of...

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