1HAPPY HOUR
THE CONSUMPTION OF
CULTURE
(MY SCENE)
KULTSUMPTION
 Mktg2112 : Week 12:
 Next week: Revision & Practice
Exam
21. Better understand Sport, Waste reduction, and Halloween…..culture
2. Promote the understanding of consumer culture,
A. Cultural systems,
B. Theories, that can evolve with time, new studies and new technology
C. key terms & some applications
3. How consumer culture is acquired and shared
4. Consumption practices and how they are influenced by cultural contexts,
and why marketers need to use culturally specific marketing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Conceptual Map of Chapter 14
Consumer
Behaviour
Myths & Rituals
Sacred & Profane
Consumption
Popular Culture &
Innovation
Culture
Consumer
BehaviourCultural Systems
Understanding the Culture of Consumption = Kultsumption
Culture = As discussed…..The accumulation of shared meanings, rituals,
norms and traditions among the members of an organisation or society.
• A society’s personality.
Other definitions
 “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by (wo) man as a member of society.”(Tylor, 1970)
 “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or
category of people from another.” (Hofstede, 2016)
Consumption choices cannot be understood without cultural context. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
A consumer’s culture determines the priorities consumers attach to activities and products.
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Cultural System
Culture is not static. Culture continually evolves.
A cultural system has three functional areas:
1. Ecology
2. Social Structure
3. Ideology.
Key concepts:
 Values are general ideas about good and bad goals. From these flow norms.
 Co-optation: Process by which outsiders transform the meanings of cultural products.
 Cultural Selection: Process by which many possibilities compete for adoption and are steadily
winnowed out as they make their way down the path from conception to consumption.
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Understanding Kultsumption Concepts
Norms – rules dictating what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable.
Sometimes explained in elaborate terms: consumption norms draw on cosmologies that integrate
ethical ideas of good life and justice as well as pragmatic beliefs concerning how the world is
Enacted norms – norms explicitly decided on.
• e.g. green lights mean ‘go’.
Crescive norms – norms embedded in a culture e.g.:
• Custom – a norm handed down from the past that controls basic behaviours. Norms of little moral
significance such as dress-code; table-manners; timeliness, gift-giving eg., taking a bottle of wine to a
dinner party
• More (‘mor-ay’) – Norms of moral significance of social life, which range from attracting mild social
disapproval to serious retribution. In many countries, a couple living together before marriage is not
approved of or a couple kissing or cuddling in public
• Conventions – norms regarding the conduct of everyday life.
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Copyright © 2023 Pearson Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
9780655703419/Solomon/Consumer Behaviour, 5e
Figure 14.1
The movement of meaning
Source: Based on G McCracken, ‘Culture and consumption: A theoretical account of the structure and movement of the cultural
meaning of consumer goods’, Journal of Consumer Research, 1986, 13: 71–84.
Social Norms Applied (and Plastic avoidance)
 Consider the Theory of Normative Social Behaviour (TNSB) paper you were asked to read by Borg, Curtis and
Lindsay (2020)
 What does this argue?
 Social Norms are not static….they evolve and marketers can influence them.
 Requires long-term, larger scale attitudinal and behavioural change….
 Kinda like what TPC and attitudinal models are saying?
 Social norms are more influential in context with groups, rather than individuals (but need to take
care in terms of having people closely identify with this behaviour)
 Nudge techniques, such as having to ask for bags/straws works
 Social messaging: avoiding plastics is more common and normal, not just by others…
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Sport is an example of a community built on consumption (could be “the game they Play in
heaven (rugby), cricket, almost any media content can become a form of Kultsumption).
Depiction of really strong brands, tribal communities
- How are they formed
- Can we do the same to save the planet?
Cultural Production Process
Culture Production Systems (CPS):
The set of individuals and organisations responsible for
creating and marketing a cultural product.
Please: Read this page and watch the video. (https://www.planplusonline.com/building-culture-productivity/)
Did your group work like this?
Components of a CPS:
1. Creative Subsystem (e.g. Beyoncé)
2. Managerial Subsystem (e.g. Columbia Records)
3. Communications Subsystem (e.g. ad agency)
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PART 2: MYTHS,
RITUALS, RITES,
VALUES,
AND OTHER STUFF.
Myths
Superstition – An irrational behaviour conducted with a belief that such an action or
belief, affects the outcome
Myth: A story containing symbolic elements that represent the shared emotions and
ideals of a culture.
Functions and structures of myth
The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog (Note: This links to Monty Python and the Grail.
Apologies)
1. Metaphysical (help explains the origins of existence
2. Cosmological (emphasis that all components of the universe are part of a single picture)
3. Sociological (establish a social code to maintain order)
4. Psychological.(establish models for personal conduct)
Many myths involve two opposing sides – binary opposition.
Co-Learning: WHAT IS THE TOURISM’S BIGGEST DRAWCARD?
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Blair Witch Project’s marketing team went to huge
lengths to create the myth of Elly Kedward
Click here for an overview
Rituals
Rituals: A set of multiple, symbolic behaviours that occur in a fixed sequence
and that tend to be repeated periodically.
This campaign (below right) is built around making a product a ritual
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAQNjqhp0c8
• Rituals occur at a variety of levels.
• Ritual Artefacts: Items needed to perform rituals, such as birthday candles, specialised
food and greeting cards.
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Possible Exam QUESTION:
Describe rituals you follow when you visit a
shopping mall, movie theatre or restaurant.
Has that changed since you started Uni?
How could marketers capitalise on these rituals and changes?
Rituals
Grooming rituals: Sequences of behaviours that aid in the transition
from the private self to the public self or back again.
• Private/public and work/leisure.
Gift giving rituals: Consumers procure the perfect object, meticulously
remove the price tag and carefully wrap it, and deliver it to the recipient.
• Economic exchange: the giver transfers an item of value to a recipient, who in
turn is somehow obligated to reciprocate.
• Symbolic exchange: when a giver wants to acknowledge intangible support and
companionship.
Rituals
Stages of Gift Giving
1.Gestation: Giver is motivated by an event to procure a gift.
2.Presentation: The process of the gift exchange.
3.Reformulation: The bonds between the giver and receiver are
adjusted to reflect the new relationship that emerges after the
exchange is complete.
Reciprocity Norm – the feeling of obligation to return the gesture of
a gift with one of equal value.
Rituals
• Holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween and
ANZAC Day are filled with ritual artefacts.
• Increasing cast as a time for giving gifts.
• Businesses invent new occasions to
capitalise on the need for cards and other
ritual artefacts.
Source: Reproduced with permission of Woolworths
Limited
Valentine’s Day
Getting married
Going to the Footy
Christmas Gifts, Xmas trees, fairy
lights, prawns, roast turkey.
Beer, meat pies, chips,
Mexican waves
White gown, flowers, black
limousine, reception, tiered
cake, formal attire
Card, flowers, dinner, heart
shape balloons
A ritual is a type of symbolic activity consisting of a series of steps (multiple behaviours) occurring in
a fixed sequence & repeated over time. Typically formal & often scripted behaviour
LANGUAGE, SYMBOLS AND RITUALS
Rites of Passage
Special times marked by a change in social status.
Our lives are marked by stages. Rites of passage tell
us who we are and how we fit into the fabric of society.
Consumers’ Rites of Passage:
• Separation: individual is detached from their original group
or status.
• Liminality: person is between statuses.
• Aggregation: person re-enters society after the rite of
passage is complete.
• As an extreme example, illegal Gangs like bikers have rites of passage as well
• Maybe, also legit groups like HOGS
Death is the final rite of passage.
Source: Courtesy of Gunther Deichmann
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Sacred and Profane Consumption
Sacred Consumption:
• Involves objects and events that are ‘set apart’ from normal activities and are treated with some degree of respect or
awe.
Profane Consumption:
• Involves consumer objects and events that are ordinary, everyday objects and events that do not share the ‘specialness’
of sacred ones.
Sacralisation:
• Occurs when ordinary objects, events and even people take on sacred meaning to a culture or specific group within a
culture.
• Objectification: occurs when we attribute sacred qualities to mundane items.
• Collecting: the systematic acquisition of a particular object or set of objects.
• Hoarding: unsystematic collecting.
Desacralisation
• Occurs when a sacred item or symbol is removed from its special place or is duplicated in mass quantities,
becoming profane as a result
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Domains of Sacred Consumption
Sacred Places:
• ‘Set apart’ by a society because they have religious or
mystical significance or because they commemorate some
aspect of a country’s heritage.
• Contamination: Something sacred happened on that spot, so
the place itself takes on sacred qualities.
Sacred People: People who are idolised and set apart from the
masses.
Sacred Events: Consumer activities which take on a special
status.
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Some more Cultural Concepts
Cultural Sanctions: Refers to penalties associated with performing a culturally inconsistent
behavior.
 Taboos
̶ Norms that society holds so strongly that violating it results in extreme disgust. Sometimes
times the violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in that society. E.g., In some
cultures, living openly with a homosexual orientation is considered inappropriate.
 Law
̶ A law is a norm that is written down and enforced by an official law enforcement agency.
• Theory of Normative Social Behaviour: behaviours are influence by perceived descriptive norms,
moderated by perceived injunctive norms, outcome expectations*, group identity* and behavioural identity.
* Influenced by Bandura’s Social Learning theory (discussed later in the lubrication model)
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CULTURAL VALUES, NORMS, SANCTIONS AND CONSUMPTION PATTERNS
Figure 16.2 The interaction between values, norms, sanctions and consumption patterns, source Quester et al.,
(2014), p.529
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Relate the concepts to some of our theory;
think how it all works together for influence.
KULTSUMPTION
PART 3: BRINGING IT
TOGETHER!
MKTG2112 : WEEK 13 S2 2020
Bringing it together…….
 The GOLDEN ARROW
 An interesting global perspective (10 min)
 Now a movement
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Figure 16.2 The interaction between values, norms, sanctions and
consumption patterns, source Quester et al., (2014), p.529
Wonder….is this consistent with TNSB?
Does it use similar theory in practice?
How may a contemporary culture
develop & the evolution of theory? The
Australian drinking culture or is it a myth?
The Social Lubrication Model
Developing the Social Lubrication Model for Insights into
Neophyte Drinking
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A THEORETICAL MODEL FOR INFLUENCING CULTURE
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Based on Bandura’s Social
Learning Theory
Remember the Bobo doll e.g.
ALCOHOL AS A RITE OF PASSAGE
 Gennep's (1960/orig. 1908) three principle phases in rites of passage, the young are separated
from their past life, go through a stage of transition between their past and future lives, and are
eventually reincorporated
 The child's transition into adulthood in our society generally lacks any formal initiation rite.
 Unlike societies in which adolescents develop new identities by emulating the actions of adults
within their communities, western youth may have difficulty finding a preordained place in society.
Thus our culture provides adolescents with a long period of emphasis on self-definition, with
expectations of "open choice" and the possibility of social mobility.
 In the absence of initiation rites, consumption habits take on a greater role in distinguishing the
pre-adult from the adult (death punctuates our life and is our final passage). So called,
achievement through consumption.
 However, when formal initiation rites exist, consumption behaviors may play a less important role.
References based on: Ozanne, Julie L. (1992) ,"The Role of Consumption and Disposition During Classic Rites of Passage: the Journey of Birth, Initiation, and Death", in NA - Advances in
Consumer Research Volume 19, eds. John F. Sherry, Jr. and Brian Sternthal, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 396-403. http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-
conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7327
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FERMENTATION: PRELIMINARY RESULTS
• Ninety-four per cent of participants used Facebook to discuss alcohol
consumption.
• Of these 36% discussed alcohol consumption as their only form of hedonic type
consumption (evoking emotive, fantasy and multi-sensory aspects)
• while 58% discussed alcohol consumption in addition to several other forms of
hedonic consumption (e.g. music, travel, sports and fashion).
• Skip through the FB slides – not examinable, but an illustration.
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DECANTING: NATURE OF COMMUNITY INFLUENCE
• initiators (communications posted > communications received),
• followers (communications posted < communications received)
• drivers (4:1 communications posted to received)
• passengers’ (1:4 ratio of communications posted to received). commenter
(more than half of their communications were in the form of comments)
0 20 40 60 80 100
Initiator (18%)
Follower (28%)
Driver (4%)
Passenger (5%) Male Female
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DECANTING: WHAT ARE THEY CONSUMING
0 50 100 150 200
Only Alcohol…
Alcohol and…
No Alcohol (6%)
Male Female
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Music (11%)
Sports (8%)
Rugby (6%)
Gym Culture (4%)
Socialising (3%)
Art (2%) Male Female
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DECANTING: MOTIVATIONS
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Reason to Drink (12%)
Types of Alcohol (11.5%)
Whilst Drinking or Intoxicated (11%)
Morning After (11%)
Self Depicted Heavy Drinker (10.5%)
Planning a Drinking Session (10.5%)
Re-living Intoxicated Experiences (10%)
Alco-bullying (6.5%)
Persuasion Drinking (5%)
Glorification of Intoxication (4%)
Drugs (4%)
Don't Remember (4%)
Alcohol as an Excuse (2.5%)
Intoxication is the Goal (1%)
Male Female
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THE HYPOTHESIZED LUBRICATION MODEL
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INTOXICATED YET? DRIVE YOU TO DRINK?
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LAST DRINKS
• Young adults portray themselves as someone who stays out drinking very late at night and is
thus firmly situated within their social system….young adult drinkers.
• Role of modelling from?
• Updated support for theories suggesting that broader social systems are more influential on a
consumer’s behaviour than their own personal choices.
• Young adult Facebook users are concerned with how their peers see them in regard to their
involvement in the drinking social system
• strong potential for beer marketers for branding strategies: reflects poor present understanding
of marketing & social marketing strategies
• Co-Learning: DISCUSS: What is the current practice of drinking while attending university? What
are your opinions and perceptions of the role of drinking in the university experience? Is it
ritualistic? If so, how do marketers capitalise on this ritual? If a university really wanted to
discourage drinking, what would be the best way to do this culturally?
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CONCLUSIONS
& QUESTIONS
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