I am sure many people understand the importance cultural diversity. Different cultures are shaped based on factors like religions, nationalities, geographical locations, races, castes and so on. Culture has a dramastic influence on they way we life, the way we think, and the way we act. therefore, when it comes to marketing issues, culture is a critical and sometimes the most decisive element of consumer behaviors. It helps us better explain why people choose/not choose a particular product or serivice at a particular time and location.
for example, most asian people use chopsticks to eat, whearas most western people use folks&knives to eat. Nevertheless, Idian people eat with bare hands. This is cultural difference, so, if one had an idea selling chopsticks to India, the market of a population of 1 billion seems tempting, but everyone knows the idea won’t work because the cultural difference is so obvious, and it’s decisive on the success of the business idea. Same thing happened in history where the British tried to sell night attires to Chinese and dreamed that the 400mil Chinese market might keep the spinning machines in U.K. running 24/7 before the outbreak of the Opium War. It turned out a failure because there is no such a concept of wearing nightclothing in Chinese culture at that time.
When we take a close look at the consumer purchase decision process, we will discover that culture may affect every step of the model. firstly, culture affects demand, which the examples above has clearly demostrated. Secondly, it affects the way do info research and also how we evaluate the alternatives. For example, when it rains in Vancouver, international students from China would like to use umbrellas because they are used to heavy rain in China ,while locals would generally prefer to wear water-proof hoodies.
In addiction, according to a blog post of Mr.Tej Kohli”What affects consumer behavior“(http://www.tej-kohli.com/tej-kohli-blog/2010/08/03/what-affects-consumer-behavior-by-tej-kohli/), under the culture diversity, people’s consumer behaviors are also affected by the social class of that particular culture, which is determined by factors like income, education and occupations. Thus, if we were to target a particular group of consumer,i.e. students in Japan, celebrities in NYC, we shall study what their culture is and how it affects their buying activities. rather than simply applying the general customer bahavior models of the society these group of people belong to