INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Religion influence Consumer Behavior

“Human beings are not born with a set of behaviour, they have to learn it. What they learn
isdictated by the culture into which they are born or within which they grow up” – J
Bareham(1995)Culture makes us similar to some people but different to the vast majority.
Culturecompromises of many aspects such as Language, Politics, everyday food habits and
Religion.Religion can be defined as a subculture. A subculture is a group whose members
share beliefsand common experiences that set them apart from others. Our group
memberships help todefine us.Religion is an abstract concept. If we have to define the terms,
religion represents « a unifiedsystems of beliefs and practices relative to the sacred things,”
while religiosity is viewed as« the degree to which beliefs in specific religious values and
ideal are held and practiced byan individual”(Delener, 1990).Religion has received little
attention from consumer researchers. This is partly a result of aninitial assumption by a
smaller number of consumer writers who maintain that the religiousinfluences on
consumption process are indirect and that the topic of religion had no place intheories of
consumer behaviour. However Religion is an important cultural factor to study because it is
one of the most universal and influential social institutions that has significantinfluence on
people’s attitudes, values and behaviors at both the individual and societal levels.Religious
subcultures have an impact on consumer variables such as personality, attitudestoward
sexuality, birthrates and household formation, income and political attitudes.
Religious values provide the individual not only with a certain form of actsand spiritual
rituals but also with standards of behaviour and a generalworldview. Thus religion can form
the basis of how an individual choosesto lead his/her life.
Almost all religions have sets of laws that affect everyday purchasesand habits. Even if the
degree to which individual members adhere to the religiousconventions varies, the
preferences and tastes are shaped by the value giving rules andcustoms of their surrounding
religion. Here, religion refers to, not only a belief binding thespiritual nature of man to a
supernatural being, but mainly a sub-system of culture thatdetermine customs and norms of
the society.
.
If we have to give one example: food habits in relation to culture and religion are amongst
theoldest and deeply rooted aspects of a society with many variations worldwide. There
aremany similarities but yet many differences across all cultures and religions, for example
bothJews and Muslims must not eat Pork or consume Blood, but in contrast a Muslim may
eatshell-fish whereas a Jew cannot. In the Hindu religion a strict Caste system is followed
anddictates who a person can eat with, who prepares a persons food, what sort of food is
preparedfor someone and who food can be accepted from. However for Hindu followers
living in awestern society it is not always possible to adhere to. For example pre-packed food
or foodfrom a canteen/restaurant would not be able to be purchased as it might have been
prepared by someone of a lower caste. This is a good example of religion has to adapt to
allow for theculture one lives in relation to food intake.A study was also conducted by Bailey
and Sood (1993). They examined the effects of religious affiliation on consumer behavior of
six religious groups in Washington DC:Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Catholic and
Protestant. The results identified

HIGH CONTEXT CULTURE AND LOW :

Low-Context: Images, Text, and Telling it Like it is
Low-context marketing is what we’re used to as English speakers, so what you would
generally find effective and appealing in advertising is what this audience would like as well.
Low-context cultures are those that require that you tell it upfront – little is left up to the
context of the situation, the location, or the time.

Ambiguity is not tolerated, so clear and simple landing pages with a strong call to action are
necessary in order to retain your target audience.

Some countries that lean towards low-context are the United States, Australia,
Germany, and Switzerland.

Consider these preferences when building your ads:

More words
Clean
Straightforward
Strong call-to-action
Clear image of the product
Facebook ads are an example of simpler ads that are focused on what the ads is saying rather
than the picture in it. While flashier ads are considered more likely to get attention (and get
clicked on), many low-context people find these ads annoying. A balance has to be struck
between having an ad that draws attention to itself, yet not so much that people are repulsed
by it.

High-Context Marketing: Visuals, Sounds, and That Flashy Stuff You Find Annoying
When you’re planning on expanding beyond Anglo-English cultures, your advertising
strategy needs to change, lest you bore your target audience. High-context cultures are all
about the situation, and respond much better to ambiguity, especially if it has some flair to it.
Whereas low-context cultures prefer more words (to a certain extent), high-context cultures
prefer more images.

China, Japan, Turkey, and Mexico are some countries that lean towards high-context.

When building your ads, think about these features:

Colorful
Large pictures
Celebrity endorsements
More dramatic angles of product
In contrast, take a look at the ads on the front page of Weibo, which is considered China’s
version of Facebook. Not only is the page itself busier (and Weibo even has little one-eyed
mascots!), but the ads are larger and have much more movement to them. They are similar to
Myspace ads, but someone from China would be less likely to find these obtrusive.

How Companies Can Do It Right

Even companies that were once considered the prototype of standardization are taking these
ideas and changing their advertising strategy to match it. Some of the biggest companies even
change up their product lines to appeal to an international audience, and one of these is
McDonald’s. Consider their landing pages (in this example, the front page):

Chinese McDonalds: The natural center of the landing page is a giant image of a product.
There’s also a video playing on the page, with minimal text (most of which is accompanied
by an image)

United States McDonalds: The natural center of the page is text (It’s a fresh new world with
the Premium McWrap), with a smaller accompanying image of the product. There isn’t any
movement on this version of the landing page.

Both pages are advertising new McDonald’s products, but they are giving off very different
vibes that appeal to their core audience. There are always exceptions to this (check out low-
context Germany’s current McDonald’s page), but the layouts generally tend to fall along
these guidelines.
United States Only? You are Not Exempt
Although most people in the United States are considerably low-context, with the proportion
of minorities increasing in the US (especially high-context Spanish speakers), it’s necessary
to include high-context advertising strategies in your mix.

Additionally, the Southern United States tends to lean high-context, whereas the Northern
part of the country tends to be low-context. In order to effectively target these segments of
the population, it’s important to take the above guidelines into account.

The Case for Learning a Language

Just learning a few phrases in the language of your target audience can make all the
difference for your marketing strategy. Often, the culture influences the language, and vice
versa. For example, have you even thought of dropping the pronouns off of your sentences,
and saying “Ate the pie” instead of “I ate the pie” or “He ate the pie”? It sounds a little bit
strange for a low-context language, but for a language like Japanese or Spanish, it sounds
natural to say it that way as long as no clarification is needed.

Why is knowing this important for your advertising strategy? Creating an ad is more than just
translating the words into another language. Often, when directly translated, an ad will come
out sound unnatural, even if it is grammatically correct.

The most effective ad strategies are ones that best relate to the target audience’s wants and
needs, and knowing the language in conjunction with the culture is a great way to connect.
How context is used is only one facet of culture, but becoming aware of how it comes into
play can increase the effectiveness of your ads and landing pages in your advertising strategy.