Consumer Behaviour - Mc Donalds (English)

1. Identify and analyse relevant aspects of culture that may impact on consumer’s behaviour with regards to choosing and purchasing McDonald’s in your selected country.

Consumer behaviour can be defined as the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups in a society make a selection, purchase, consume, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. (Solomon et al, 2010).

There are more than 150 different definitions of culture by different authors (Hosftede, Linton, Malinowsky, Child and Kieser, Goodenough, etc). Culture can be defined as the sum of beliefs (mental and verbal processes), values (indicators used to serve as guides) and customs (behaviours culturally approved in specific situations). The main characteristics of Culture are: that it is learned (not innate to us), is transmitted from one generation to the next, is interrelated and shared by a group of individuals and defines boundaries between different groups.

As part of a culture we also have to consider Myths (shared fears or stories of a culture). Culture affects the way individuals consume or decide to purchase (holidays, eating, grooming, and gift-giving and recreational activities). Products can be sacred or profane. Even though culture is strongly in the mind of the individual it can change and exchange characteristics between groups over time (Cultural Relativism). This is what companies such as McDonalds has achieved by offering a global and highly standardized product.

According to Gert Hosfstede (1976, 2001) and based on his studies, societies can be compared in terms of four dimensions. Hosfstede also compared different countries based on these four dimensions and the results of this survey are presented in appendix 2 and are referred to throughout this first part of this project.

Power distance:

All societies are unequal because individuals have different physical and intellectual capacities that make them grow in power and wealth in a different way. The tolerance to this inequality can be high or low and determines and affects the ways individuals behave in different situations. Countries with high power distance are Guatemala, Philippines and Venezuela. Low power distance countries are Norway, Sweden and Austria. [(Hofstede 2001) mentioned by Usunier et al 2005].

Individualism/Collectivism:

This is the relationship between individuals showing whether the individual lives in very close familiar groups, or they have to look for other members or depend on them. Highly individualistic countries are Sweden and the US.

Bagozzi (2000) also suggests that marketers should consider the groups the individual belongs to, since they have a very strong impact on his/her decisions. In countries like China the decision is made according to family decisions and the impact that the decision may have on one's image socially. This also determines the use of available income. [(Bagozzi and Lee 2000) mentioned by Usunier et al 2005]

Masculinity/Femininity:

A society can be influenced by values defined typically as masculine or feminine. In masculine societies dominant values are earning money, the pursuit of personal achievement, showing off possessions and caring little about others. (High Masulitnity countries: Japan, UK and US)

Uncertainty avoidance (UA):

The way people in society deal with the uncertainty of what the future will be also affects their behaviour - for instance, if they feel threatened by uncertain, ambiguous or not clearly defined situations. It deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it indicates to what extent individuals feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. This approach is interesting because it affects the ways people spend. In a society with high uncertainty avoidance individuals tend to be more aggressive, work harder and accept criticism worse. Also in these countries, there are more laws and rules and there is less acceptance of different religions, ethnicities and there is a stronger desire of being accepted, being like the others. This reflects in the ways people dress and for example in Spain people tend to dress homogeneously. Countries showing high uncertainty avoidance are Greece, Guatemala and Spain. Low UA countries are the States, India and Austria.

Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by setting strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many other culture and religions to coexist with theirs. People are not expected by their environment to express emotions.

Other cultural dimensions that we might consider from Schwartz perspective. [(Schwartz 1994, 1999, mentioned by Usunier et al 2005]. These ones overlap and are related to Hofstede’s, emphasizing some aspects of them:

Spain is high on Conservatism (to what extend individuals value the maintenance of status quo, the property and traditional order), Autonomy (Intellectual autonomy is about pursuing own ideas and independent direction. Affective autonomy is about pursuing affectively positive experiences), Hierarchy, Egalitarianism (the welfare of others), Mastery (self assertion),Harmony (emphasizes preserving the world as it is)

Spain being a conservative society, people will tend to be ideologists; this means that the way they think and make decisions is based on a range of options that are available and problems will be approached in a broad way. Unlike pragmatic societies (UK, US) they won’t make a decision based on real world situations one by one. Spaniards therefore tend not to be down to earth and will not take decisions one by one, they’ll start with a generalist approach to the subject. [(Glenn 1981, Triandis 1983 mentioned by Usunier et al 2005]

Keeping in mind Galtung’s Empirical Reality versus Potential Reality theory about intellectual styles, [(Galtung 1981) mentioned by Usunier et al 2005] we can argue that, as an ideologist society, Spain will put theoretical arguments at the centre of their intellectual process and data, unlike to the Teutonic intellectual style, which mainly constitutes of supporting

...