Essay Example on Exploring Subcultures: Different Beliefs and Traditions in a Liberal Society

Subculture can be defined as a unique group of people derived from a larger group in society, creating new ways of life and maintaining the ays as their acquired culture. Subcultures are, therefore, a smaller group of people created from one society. Members in a subculture share the same customs, values, and beliefs which could vary from the broader community they were born. One liberal society can have different subcultures possessing different beliefs and traditions. An example of a subculture is the Hispanic American and African subcultures, which share the broader dominant culture of American society (Choong et al., 2019). Every subculture includes different cultural practices that comprise what people learn: habits, art, customs, morals, values, history, and what they learn. Therefore, to successfully market any product or service, a company must understand the culture of each subcultural group. Marketing needs to be carried out in context with the subculture's beliefs and customs. Every company requires knowing that the ideas, norms, and customs vary from one culture to another.

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There are a different set of subcultures, including city-dwellers, elderly, poor, religious groups, and teenagers. A company should identify a subculture's nature and create marketing strategies that fit the given group of people. Ever market behaviour is either positively or negatively affected by subculture. If a product conflicts with subculture beliefs and norms, it is likely to have poor results within a given subculture (Choong et al., 2019). On the other hand, if a product goes hand in hand with the subculture's values, beliefs, and norms, it is most likely to have good results (Mokhlis, 2020). For example, operating a pork business within a subculture that consists of Muslims, the company will not perform well since it conflicts with the beliefs of the subculture.

Their culture mostly influences a consumer's behaviour. For a company to succeed in an international market, it must identify the cultural beliefs of the target market to develop marketing strategies that fit the cultural activities of the subcultural group. Marketing aspects in subcultural groups include identifying with the people and making sure the product does not go against the group's culture. Also, ensuring that the subcultural group identifies with the product (Losonci et al., 2017). Creating a connection between the subcultural group and the product creates a higher chance of the product's success. For example, Netflix offers services to people in multiple languages such as English and Spanish. The company makes sure that the target markets have access to the service according to their best-understood language. Therefore, Netflix is most likely to have more success since it identifies with its consumer's language.

The advantages of a company having the following cultural practices within the various subcultural groups include a high success rate. If a company has successfully introduced its product to a new culture and the consumers identify with the product, therefore the product gets a more elevated chance of growth and success. Another advantage includes grating a company an opportunity to expand its services to international markets. For example, Netflix has been able to extend its services to different continents in the world by offering its services according to the languages each target group speaks and understands. The advantages that a company faces due to cultural differences include losses. When a company introduces its services or products to a culture that does not identify with the product, significant losses are most likely to occur (Ramya & Ali, 2016). A company may not recover the production cost of the product if there is low customer reception. Another disadvantage caused by cultural differences is the lack of understanding. A company may not completely understand the different cultures, which could lead to challenges in setting up a marketing strategy that identifies with the cultural or subcultural groups.

There are different religious practices in different subcultures. One high culture may have various religious traditions, such as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Indians. Different aspects can influence a person's way of life, including political, social, and economic aspects. However, a person's religious beliefs broadly impact their way of life, which could vary from one subculture to another (Agarwala et al., 2019). For example, one religion may limit someone from taking alcohol, while another religion may not prohibit alcohol intake. In the case where religion may prevent one from taking alcohol, a company dealing with alcohol production may experience poor marketing and poor sales as compared to the same company operating within a religion that does not prohibit the intake of alcohol. Marketing of a product is influenced by religious practices of one subculture to another; therefore, a company should consider marketing its products to a religion that does not prohibit the manufacturing of a product. In the case of Netflix, religious practices may not significantly impact its success rate since its services are fit for consumers with different religious beliefs.

A geographical subculture highly consists of a group of people from one dominant culture, located at a single geographical location. Some of the factors contributing to geographic subcultures include both urban and rural settings. In an urban environment, a subculture can consist of people living within a well off an estate or people living in an impoverished background. Rural areas include numerous geographic subcultures with different groups of people either living along the hills or by the lake or others living close to a forest or rivers. The subcultures formed by people's geographical settings significantly impact the success rate of different products (Alfinito et al., 2019). For example, a company manufacturing warm cloths can be substantially affected in a geographical subculture that is located by the beach. In the same case, if a company is making swimwear that may be significantly influenced by a geographical subculture situated within a cold area. Therefore, companies need to ensure that their product's marketing is only directed to the most suitable geographic subculture to acquire a higher success rate compared to marketing a product within the wrong geographic subculture. In the case of Netflix, geographic subculture may affect the services the company offers. If the company does marketing within a geographic subculture that consist of poor people, the company may have a lower success rate since most of the poor communities may not have access to electricity or possess a television or a smartphone. Given the nature of the service, Netflix is more likely to have a higher success rate within geographic subcultures that consist of well off people.

Conclusion

Subcultures being unique groups of people from a sizeable dominant culture, possess different ways of doing things. The different beliefs of various subcultures may impact the market behaviour of different products. Each subculture's way of life may be either favourable or unfavourable of a product in the market. A company requires to learn the diverse beliefs and ways of life of a subculture before introducing their product to make sure the product identifies with the targeted consumers. Geographic subcultures also impact the success rate of a product due to the location of the target consumers. Introducing a product to a geographic subculture that does not necessarily need the product or a group that may not afford it could contribute to poor results towards a company.

References

Agarwala, R., Mishra, P., & Singh, R. (2019). Religiosity and consumer behavior: A summarizing review. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 16(1), 32-54.

Alfinito, S., Assumpção, M., Torres, C. V., & Aragão, B. S. (2019). Is geographic segmentation suitable for marketing studies? An investigation applied to Brazil. REMark, 18(2), 243.

Choong, K., Drennan, J., Weeks, C. S., & Weber, I. (2019). Reaching subculture markets: The cryptic marketing approach. Journal of Marketing Communications, 1-16.

Losonci, D., Kása, R., Demeter, K., Heidrich, B., & Jenei, I. (2017). The impact of shop floor culture and subculture on lean production practices. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Mokhlis, S. (2020). Consumer religiosity and shopping behavior in Malaysia. Malaysian Management Journal, 11(1&2), 87-101.

Ramya, N., & Ali, M. (2016). Factors affecting consumer buying behavior. International journal of applied research, 2(10), 76-80.