Business Studies

Buyer and Consumer Topic 6 Q3 Explain the difference between enculturation and acculturation. Discuss how marketers use these concepts to sell their products. Provide specific examples to illustrate your ideas. In replies to peers, discuss whether you agree or disagree with the examples provided and include additional examples that support your ideas.

ANSWER

Enculturation and Acculturation

Acculturation is the act of changing a cultural belief or understanding together with a custom of an individual’s own culture by incorporating another culture’s traits. On the other hand, enculturation implements the values, norms, regulations, and other aspects of a culture to be part of a given society. Another difference is that enculturation is the first introduction of a person to the culture, frequently occurring after birth. In contrast, acculturation makes one familiar with the existing cultures. Marketers use these two concepts to produce and sell their items across various cultures (Slater & Demangeot, 2021). Acculturation will create a different lifestyle pattern centered on a customer’s perception of their ethnic identity. Still, a person will prefer a particular brand as a way of expressing their consumer behavior. These preferences are hindered by the reference groups to which they belong and the degree to which a person is acculturated.

In recent years, marketers and other companies have acknowledged the significance of focusing their goods and services towards diverse ethnic groups. Internationally, religious groups and other cultures have started changing the landscape of marketers. For example, the increasing migration of people within Europe has offered American marketers the potential to penetrate these emerging market segments (Das & Jebarajakirthy, 2020). Marketers are bicultural mediators who should accommodate the cultural interest of their customers and work to change their consumption patterns to bring them closer to their ethics and national market customs. Marketers’ engagement with cultural aspects of society creates changes to their companies, marketplace, and customers. They will have to produce their items to match that of a particular ethnic society or group.

References

Das, M., & Jebarajakirthy, C. (2020). Impact of acculturation to western culture (AWC) on western fashion luxury consumption among Gen-Y consumers in the Asia-Pacific region. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 56, 102179.

Slater, S., & Demangeot, C. (2021). Marketer acculturation to diversity needs: The case of modest fashion across two multicultural contexts. Journal of Business Research, 134, 702-715.