Corporate StrategyEssay title: Corporate StrategyChapter 4:Anthropology:According to the world book dictionary anthropology refers to the science of man, which deals with his physical characteristics, with the origin and development of races, and the cultures customs and beliefs of mankind. Anthropology has tended to concentrate on the over-all problems of mankind, particularly through the concept of culture.
Cultural factors appear to be the most influential factors affecting a consumer’s buying behaviour. The cultural factors are inclusive of culture, subculture and social class.
Culture:Culture as mentioned previously, exerts one of the most influential forces on the consumer’s buying behaviour. Values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours of the young growing children are developed though his/her family and other prominent institutions. Hence, growing children develop the culture of his/her ancestors. These values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours plays a very significant role in the buying process, as it determines what the consumer will or will not purchase. If the marketer understands the influence that culture has on the consumer he/she can facilitate these cultural factors when developing their product. This can also be helpful to the marketer when identifying his/her target market.
Subculture:Culture can be divided into several subcultures that serve to provide better identification as well as market segmentation. These subcultures include nationalities, racial groups, religions and geographic regions. By understanding these subcultures the marketer can segment the market so as to implement target groups. Target groups can help the marketer to pay individual attention to the particular needs and wants of each target group or segment, making it easier to satisfy those needs and wants.
Social Class:According to Kotler (2000) social classes are relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, which are hierarchically ordered and whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviour. Social stratification is an extremely essential determinant of the consumer’s buying behaviour. Social classes are mostly reflected by the consumer’s income level, however there are other indicators inclusively occupation, education and area of residence. Social class affects buyer behaviour as social classes show evident product and brand preferences in different areas such as clothing, automobiles, homes, and leisure activities. For example, the upper class family will prefer to dine in TGI Friday’s restaurant whereas the lower class family will prefer to dine in Kentucky Fried Chicken so as to facilitate his/her income level. When the marketer gains awareness of this he/she can develop different target markets for different products, hence maximising his/her time as well as effectively achieving his/her marketing objective.
Chapter 5:Economics:According to the World Book Dictionary economics can be defined as the science of how people produce goods and services, how they distribute them among themselves, and how they use them; political economy. Economics deals with the materials welfare of mankind and such problems as those of capital, labour, wages, prices, tariffs and taxes. Economics is basically the study of the economy or management. Economics is essentially integral in the understanding of consumer buying behaviour and the development of marketing. Since economics determines things such as prices, tariffs and taxes, it would affect consumer buying behaviour and automatically the development of marketing. By understanding the importance of economics in consumer’s buying behaviour, marketers can use it to their advantage when making pricing decisions so as to satisfy their customers at the lowest possible price, thus achieving effective results.
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A few years ago, I was working at a bank in France researching the future of Canada’s banking system after a year in the United States where we were talking about the financial stability of our economic system. I was surprised to learn that in 2012 there is still an outstanding banking system in the United States that has more than 80% unemployment. As usual, Canadians feel the need to look around for a place to live, and in this case they wanted to be part of one of Canada’s largest and most secure banks. They wanted to be part of Canada’s first ever global “online banking” service, an online company of international financial institutions that will be available for business, finance, education and public administration for over 10 years.
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Over the past few years, I’ve been learning how it is that so many Canadian businessmen, and in particular politicians are investing their political capital in free-market economics. They are investing in policies that are helping to stimulate the economy, like job creation, public investments that are helping businesses grow and save, that make the Canadian economy more vibrant, that improve the quality of education. They are investing in building community infrastructure that helps entrepreneurs grow the economy — that improve the economic outlook in the province that has the best job opportunity.
And they are doing it with many different degrees of skill. One of my most famous example is the role of economist John Maynard Keynes. After retiring as an independent economist and as the Treasury Board president, he was elected Governor of Ontario, where he was asked to lead the country for nearly a decade. The job he did there was to provide the financing of projects such as the Global Financial Stability Fund of Canada and the Canadian International Finance Corporation.
He did a great job as a leading economist for many years, and I was pleased because he was so knowledgeable and he’s so well respected and someone who really understands the economic process. Today in Canada, we have a government that cares about the well-being of Canadians and not about tax revenues.
My role in the country has always been to lead policies that have led to the prosperity Canadians have enjoyed in recent years — by creating jobs, by training people to find new jobs, by doing research and by keeping the government running. Those government roles, because of the influence of free-market thinking, are becoming more and more important now than they were in the past.
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Now, to answer the question, how do Canadians think of free-market economics? What would you make of free-market economists?
What is important for Canadians to realize is that our economic development is one of two fundamental factors in our prosperity. We are developing high technology and a better way of living, building a healthy society. But many factors go hand-in-hand — poverty, education levels, transportation, housing.
First, in other words, in our economic development we are spending on public services. Government spending generates a lot of economic growth. And that is a very good thing because that is what governments really want to do — get people to work. That’s what we do in order to keep our economy growing.
Second, in the world at large, economic growth leads to more and more poverty and inequality. That is what is missing from our democracy. In Canada, we put up barriers to making progress on the global stage that have been broken
Chapter 6:Geography:According to the World Book Dictionary geography refers to the study of the earth’s surface, climate, continents, countries, peoples, industries, and products. Geographical location is an exceptionally fundamental determinant of a consumer’s buying behaviour. Marketers need to understand the importance of geographical location as it aids them in product