How does culture affect consumer behavior?

cultural differences that exist across countries, marketers are also increasingly recognizing the importance of cultural differences within a society. Subcultures are distinctive groups within a society that share common meanings. Subcultures can often be identified based on demographic characteristics, such as geographic location (e.g., the southern United States), ethnicity (e.g., Hispanic Americans), or age (e.g., baby-boomers). Polaroid's I-Zone camera is targeted in the United States to appeal to the teenage http://www.answers.com/topic/subculture. Subcultures can also be identified based on common lifestyles. For example, a strong subculture exists around Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the Harley Owner's Group (HOG). Members of this group share a core cultural value of personal freedom, which is exemplified in both the experience of using the product (taking to the open road) and in the company's marketing strategy (e.g., the open-winged insignia [Schouten and Alexander, 1995]). Importantly, identification of lifestyle subcultures, and the corresponding development of an inventory of shared meanings, is typically more difficult than the development of such understanding of subcultures based on observable demographic characteristics.