Socio-ultural influence on the increase in consumerist behavior among Indians in U.S - Essay Example

Socio-Cultural influence on the increase in consumerist behavior among Indians in U.S. Introduction One of the most important after effects of globalisation is the influence it have caused to base the consumer choice on the materials being provided to them rather than understanding of their buying requirements. This is notwithstanding the ongoing debate on theoretical explanations given on the modern consumer behaviour (Merz et al. 2008). But from the experiences gained on the market behavior during the 21st century, the pervasive market performance has covered every material in the market place. This is obvious from the ways the brand building has been followed in various products like segregating the consumers considering their age and also their cultural influence. Exclusive adult product or products for curly haired are the symbols of such market delineation to enhance the consumer acceptability and thus leading to the burgeoning their business (Naim et al. 2008). At the same time the market based economy have failed to eliminate large number of beliefs and customs. The fears arising from the religious beliefs are never offset even by the well planned and creative intervention in the market (Slater, 1997). Also, the impact of the culture of the dictating the market principles has also not been fully justified. The dominant component among all the existing market forces in a typical scenario would probably be elite population whose options usually dominates the market. The majority of the mass are less influential in the market economics as they are found to undertake the actions that is most necessary for them as it would be highly fantasy for this group of the population in the regions to opt for any luxurious mode of lifestyles. Thus the basic understanding has been those who fail to get what they require embraces the scarcity while those who have the ability to procure all they need tend to move to the extend of highly disordered consumption styles.. Thus the evidence have been given to come to a conclusion on the effect of culture on the consumer behavior. Most of the studies or research have focussed on the effect of the consumer tendencies on a static population level. But the globalization which have resulted in the free transfer of commodities across different countries also have resulted in the large-scale manpower movements. Thus the effect of cultural impact this has created on the consumerist behavior is necessary. The study undertaken here is to understand how the change observed in the consumer pattern within a newly migrated or relocated group of people. The investigations would also include the factors that influence such group of people to change or withstand the change. Thus the study would give a new dimension to the research issues on the consumerist tendencies in the post-globalized period. Literature survey It is widely understood that the social stratification has been aggravated as a result of the strong hold of the capitalist social structure (Cohen and Roosevelt, 2002). The factors like negative consumerism emerging from the continuous denials of acquiring various products have lead to the re-look into various aspects of value based consumer theories (Feather stone, 2007). Thea earlier studies have shown that an inclination to well established brand names existed among all the young university students. A comparison mad across the Nokia and Siemens show that the enhanced credibility created to the consumers with the support of well-tailored campaigns and highly transparent knowledge sharing have helped Nokia to go far ahead of the rival Siemens (Anderman et al, 1999). In another situation, the business organization often identifies the most important cultural aspects of the target groups and hence plan their marketing programme accordingly. The consumer demarcation on these social dynamics have yielded good amount of success. Some of the well known cases are Volkswagen for the working woman, Saga Holidays for the young elderly, the Pink pound for gay men (Lee, 2000). The latest trends emphasizes that modern approaches would have to form very decisive strategies that make the consumers chose from the array of choices available before them though none yet understands why each consumer choose particular products or what makes them to choose one particular product (Bauman, 2005) Detailed research has been undertaken in details by Armould and Thompson to investigate the factors like, sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption (2005). The authors propose a theory called consumer culture theory (CCT) which aims to develop a well established theoretical information on the consumption and market place attitudes. Thus the CCT have helped to contribute to the consumer research by highlighting the cultural aspects on the cycle of consumption. Methodology The selection of an appropriate research tool to address the proposed research is the most vital step in any sociological investigation. This section gives adequate emphasis on the ability to understand the characteristics of the data and the techniques required to collect them. The primary objective of the data collection exercise is to generate adequate information to understand various aspects of consumer societies and the culture of consumerism prevailing in the western countries. The data collected for this exercise shall be broadly divided into two classes - primary and secondary information. The primary information refers to the direct information collected from the samples selected or chosen for the data collection process. This is mostly undertaken using either structured or unstructured interviews, focus group discussions and very close observations on the samples to understand their attitudes towards consumerism. The samples for this exercise are selected randomly from the shop by observing and understanding their purchase patterns very closely. The outcome from such an exercises would result in huge volume of qualitative information on the consumer attitudes. The qualitative information would be of significant advantage to understand the situation, thoughts, opinions or circumstances (Remenyi et al, 2005 ; Creswell, 2003). The important aspects that were aimed in the discussion / interview process is their general attitude towards consumerist tendency. The sample population selected is requested to give detailed information on their reason for the selection of the particular retail shop for their shopping activity. Besides understanding their personal affinity, the information collected would also include the common factors that each one of consider as the paramount importance in enhancing the consumer behavior. And, the degree of variability across different age groups in the purchase pattern as well as the culture prevailing among them. The secondary information, on the other hand, is collected from the already published information by judiciously choosing the most relevant aspects from the available literature or documents. All the approaches adopted in the whole process must ensure the desired level of consistency in the information collected (Saunders et al, 2000). The important sources of information for this type of information are the annual reports of the retail unit, business magazines and journals etc. Results and discussion In addition to the extensive data collection activity, the research must also be able to judiciously interpret the survey information and adopt separate analysis - statistical and non-statistical techniques - to arrive at proper inferences. The statistical data would be analyzed through the help of SPSS software. The analysis results could be presented in the form of tables, graphs or charts. The graphical presentations in the form of charts would facilitate easy interpretations andpresentation of the results. The non-statistical data would be analyzed on the basis of knowledge and understanding of the researcher about the project and data collected. The extensive data obtained from the research need to be categorized based on the commonalities and then presented as a brief summary. Thus the final stage of the research involves preparing the data, finding concepts and themes and also figuring out the labels (Silverman, 2001). Only repeated reading and re-reading of the interview transcription could undertake the categorization of data into different aspects (Hatch, 2002). The advent of consumerism has touched newer heights of material consumption pattern with increasing inequality in buying trend across different sections in the society and also continues to grow at an alarming rate. Thus, this scenario marks the beginning of hedonistic consumerism. The increasing the level of consumption by inducing the wants rather than by the needs generated by the basic requirements has become the primary market force since the World war II. The necessary structural and cultural elements that could favor such type of situation have become the prime forces behind such developments. This aspect has been well understood from a brief case study undertaken by on local buying behavior on brand new vehicles and also on the FMCG retails sales shops. The study on the purchase pattern on the new automobiles has been seen on rise with the increased flow of the Indians to the Western regions. The improved life styles and also higher incomes available in the new place of work in United States gives them an opportunity to think for upwardly rising consumerism. Four of the six persons with whom the discussions were conducted revealed that more than the necessity it was the vanity that forced them to have the new release vehicles. Even though they were the first time owners they feel that owning such vehicles would help them to keep close affinity to the respected persons in their group ofinteraction. On exploring the factors that would have motivated them to achieve this position it was found that lot of favorable factors in the market help them to enjoy the high levels of consumerism. One important aspect was the easy access to credit facility. This have helped them to go in for the best available option when idea of buying a vehicles was generated in them. They were all aware about an established market for used car segment too existed in the region and buying a car from this segment would have easily satisfied all their essential mobility requirements. But with the availability of easy credits, the pay back which they would be able to meet at ease with their existing pay gave them an opportunity to look for higher value product though it made no difference to the lower value product in spite of all the benefits it might carry. The similar observation was also made on the FMCG sector too. A passive observation was made on the purchasing behavior of the different consumers in a few selected shops in the New Jersy. A clear distinction was observed across the people from different parts of the globe , and among the natives too the consumerist attitude had large degree of variation across the age group . Conclusion The study undertaken here clearly emphasizes the influence of external factors on the consumer trends among he Indian population, especially among the newer group than the old set of people. The importance of vanity in the buying tendency of the population, majority of them being an Indian, gave a good appreciation of the cultural and regional consumerist trends. Thus more than the individual need it helps to understand overall cultural impact and also tailoring the appropriate interventions. 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