Page 168 - DMGT506_CONSUMER_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 12: Sub-culture and Cross-cultural Consumer Behaviour

In India, Diwali is an appropriate gift-giving occasion to government, banking and corporate Notes
executives. In Arab countries, gifts should be given in the presence of others, while in China,
gifts should be presented in private.

Etiquette

Etiquette is the generally accepted way of behaving in social situations. Most Western cultures
view noisy eating and belching as unacceptable social behaviour. Eating meals using fingers
and not the knife and fork is a common behaviour in India. In most Western cultures using
fingers instead of knife and fork is considered obnoxious. American males habitually sit
cross-legged while showing soles in front is considered quite insulting in many Eastern cultures.
Normal voice pitch and gestures differ across cultures.

Case Study IKEA's Promotions in China

KEA is well known for not encouraging personal selling in general. It would like the
customers to make their own choices. If more information needed, customers can refer
Ito the labels attached to the products first. If that is not enough, they can also go and
ask IKEA's staff. It is hard to say which appeals to Chinese customers more, with shop
assistants following around or wandering around and looking for information by oneself.
Some opine that it is more about individual preference than shared cultural characteristic
among Chinese people.
However, cultural considerations shown in the other promotion tools are not hard to
account for. First of all, advertising is proved to be a very effective way. IKEA Shanghai
advertises on the local new papers or on TV of its upcoming sales and other activities.
Internet is another source if customers actively search for IKEA. Apart from the selection
of media, timing is another concern, such as IKEA's promotion for Chinese New Year
series mentioned in its product policy. On the occasion of IKEA.
Shanghai's 8th anniversary in April 2006, IKEA decided to offer free delivery for purchase
over 3,000 RMB during April. It may be obvious but still worth mentioning that all
advertising has to be done in Chinese. Language cannot be equated with culture but there
are empirical relations between the two. Cultural relevance in promotion ensures that
messages are sent to target customers effectively.
Putting a local face in an advertisement is useful to get customers' attention. Hence,
characters in IKEA's commercials are mostly Chinese trying to show that IKEA is suitable
for a Chinese home. The aim of advertising is often to inform the customers of sales
promotion, which provides short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a
product services. It plays the most important role in the total promotion mix. IKEA.
The IKEA catalogue is almost equated with THE IKEA tool of marketing. This method of
direct marketing is under experiment in China. As mentioned earlier as part of IKEA's
pricing strategy and being cost oriented, IKEA Shanghai started distributing thin booklets
5 times a year instead of its traditional thick catalogue in 2006. Another advantage of
issuing cheaper promotion material in China is more potential customers can be reached
without increasing the overall costs. There is one interesting detail in the booklets that Ian
Duffy, the leader of IKEA in China, addresses himself with his Chinese name ( Du Fuyan).
One may argue it is not important if Chinese customers remember IKEA's leader's name.
However, when Chinese customers open an IKEA catalogue, the name Du Fuyan certainly
Contd...

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