Culture and Consumption: Russian Perspective

Culture and Consumption: Russian Perspective

Nowadays all around the world and in all areas of business and entrepreneurship we are experiencing the Globalization. The globalization is a broad term, which refers to enormous list of activities. "[T]he inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before . . . . the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world."1 The boundaries between the nations are seemed to be more and more fuzzy. Companies are going global inviting people to become a part of the global society - to eat the same food, to drink the same "Coke", to wear the same "Nike" and to listen to Britney Spears. We are now "Internationalized", we are sharing a lot of common activities and beliefs that are spreading through the television and the World Wide Web. I will leave the discussion of positive and negative effects of globalization to scholars and scientist. Some of them look on that phenomena in a very pessimistic light, some are defending the positive effects on the community. 2 For the multinational companies, or companies that is going global, that is not a crucial question, but the matter of fact. From the business standpoint the question is how to treat those worldwide markets, what strategy to use, and how to find an approach for that "internationalized" mass. Should the companies use the same marketing strategies in different countries or even the same products all over the world without any differentiation, or it is necessary to take to the account the differences between the nations?

Nowadays more and more businesses decided to mix those two separate approaches, which is called "glocalizaton". According to some sources, "glocalization seeks uniformity, especially in the elements that are strategic such as positioning where the tactical approaches are localized."3 To put it simply, it is a "think global, act local" methodology.

When firms are going abroad the managers take to consideration many factors, among them are: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal, and, of course, cultural aspects of the foreign country. To my mind, all that factors are based on one huge platform - the mentality of the nation. That has a strong connection to the cultural component of the environment. All the other factors such as political, economic, etc. are established according to the nation mentality, and mentality is highly correlated with the culture. That's why the understanding of the basic cultural differences in consumption might be crucial for the success in growing the business abroad.

A useful definition of culture is: "The body of learned beliefs, tradition, principles and guides for behavior that are commonly shared among members of a particular group. Culture serves as a road map for both perceiving and interacting with the world."4 In my opinion, that definition reflects the most important elements of the culture, so we can take a closer look to all of them and analyze the influence of each of them to the consumption.

From the consumer behavior studies it is known that consumption is also a process that consists of few steps: 1. Need 2.Want 3.Exchange 4.Costs and benefits 5.Reaction 6.Value5. At each step we also can see the influence of the cultural differences. At the beginning of the process, at the point when the need is recognized, it seems to be that all the humans have the same set of needs such as Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs.6 Indeed, needs are common all around the world and are derived from the human nature. However, the way human beings fulfill those needs mostly depends on their culture and mentality. For example, even with the most basic need - food - we can see a big difference in the way how people eat all around the world. MacDonald's is successfully using these differences to catch as many customers as possible in foreign countries by adding to the standard menu some specific items like special national salads in Russia, Greek Mac in Greece, Maharaja-Mac in India. The traditions in food consumption are also a big issue to consider. In Russia, for instance, The New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday. And, according to the tradition, people are moving from place to place to visit friends and families. The most interesting fact is that the tables during all night have to be full with all kinds of food cooked by the host. However, it is not a regular dinner; there are certain items like "Olivye salad", caviar and tangerines that are necessities on the New Year's table and associated primarily with that particular holiday. People start cooking two days in advance before the 31th of December to be able to serve all the guests! More than that, the amount of money that Russians spend on the food during the New Year's Eve is tremendous. Even poor families that cannot afford a good living at all would cut their budgets in order to celebrate the New Year with the table full of expensive meals. That behavior comes from the cultural belief "The way you greet the New Year is the Way the New Year will treat you". So, in Russia the food consumption during the end of the December and the beginning of January rises incredibly due to the tradition and beliefs. Knowing that, supermarkets are opened 24 hours and making enormous profits by increasing the prices.

Many global companies that noticed Russian New Year's madness are using it successfully to increase their sales or in the advertising campaigns. For example, Coca-Cola had a goal to be associated with the New Year in order to become the most popular soft drink in Russia. Their marketing efforts to achieve that image are worth to be mentioned. Absolutely