Trends in middle class consumer spending in Western and Asia Pacific have powerful implications for how managers assess and interpret individual consumer behavior, aggregate them into market segments, and then, devise innovative visions and strategies. In short order, consumer behavior models the activities of how individuals in purchasing, using, and disposing goods and services, and how the consumer's emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behavior. Over the past few decades, marketing and psychological research assessing normative principles of consumer behavior has been done solely on Westerners; as we have seen, their psychological profiles differ from those of people from around the world. The baseline of normal behavior based on Western study is actually quite misleading, skeptics argue, because the psychology formed and behaviors encouraged in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) societies, such as United States, France, and Germany, meaningfully differ from those found in different contexts, such as China, Mexico, or India. For example, the majority of Western marketing, management, and journals report work assessing samples of US populations; for the record, U.S. citizens are 5% of the world's population. Similarly, 12% of people worldwide live in regions that fall into the WEIRD countries; however, 60–90% of psychology studies are performed on participants from WEIRD countries. Hence, there is a dubious basis for assuming the psychological processes that shape consumer behaviors in WEIRD societies are universal and can reliably generalize to the global population. Prompt | You are the Director of Global Marketing for a US based consumer goods company that competes with Procter & Gamble, Henkel, and Unilever. The CEO, citing the stunning rise of middle-class consumption in Asia, has announced plans to redirect the company’s activity from WEIRD societies, notably the USA and Western Europe, to emerging economies throughout Asia. The CEO questions the effectiveness of the company’s historic model consumer behavior and their expression in the company’s segmentation strategy. He asks you to identify assumptions / aspects of consumer behavior in WEIRD societies that you think must be revised, if not rejected, to better interpret consumer behavior in emerging economies. Please identify and explain 2 to 3 assumptions / aspects.
Trends in middle class consumer spending in Western and Asia Pacific have powerful implications for how managers assess and interpret individual
In short order, consumer behavior models the activities of how individuals in purchasing, using, and disposing goods and services, and how the consumer's emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behavior.
Over the past few decades, marketing and psychological research assessing normative principles of consumer behavior has been done solely on Westerners; as we have seen, their psychological profiles differ from those of people from around the world. The baseline of normal behavior based on Western study is actually quite misleading, skeptics argue, because the psychology formed and behaviors encouraged in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) societies, such as United States, France, and Germany, meaningfully differ from those found in different contexts, such as China, Mexico, or India.
For example, the majority of Western marketing, management, and journals report work assessing samples of US populations; for the record, U.S. citizens are 5% of the world's population. Similarly, 12% of people worldwide live in regions that fall into the WEIRD countries; however, 60–90% of psychology studies are performed on participants from WEIRD countries. Hence, there is a dubious basis for assuming the psychological processes that shape consumer behaviors in WEIRD societies are universal and can reliably generalize to the global population.
Prompt | You are the Director of Global Marketing for a US based consumer goods company that competes with Procter & Gamble, Henkel, and Unilever.
The CEO, citing the stunning rise of middle-class consumption in Asia, has announced plans to redirect the company’s activity from WEIRD societies, notably the USA and Western Europe, to emerging economies throughout Asia.
The CEO questions the effectiveness of the company’s historic model consumer behavior and their expression in the company’s segmentation strategy.
He asks you to identify assumptions / aspects of consumer behavior in WEIRD societies that you think must be revised, if not rejected, to better interpret consumer behavior in emerging economies.
Please identify and explain 2 to 3 assumptions / aspects.
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