CONTENTS OF THE PRESENTATION1. Socio-cultural environment2. Critical elements of socio-cultural environment in business

NOW, WHAT EXACTLY IS SOCIOCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Sociocultural Environment That part of the firm's external marketing environment in

which social or cultural changes (that is, changes to the value system of a society) act to affect the firm's marketing effort. The changing sociocultural environment may pose threats or present opportunities for the business.

Socio CulturalSociety

Culture

SOCIETYo Society or human society is the set of relations among people,

including their social status and roles. o A society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language or hierarchical organization.

CULTURE

Culture is the software of the mind- the social programming that

runs the way we think, act and perceive ourselves and others.

Culture is defined as a complex whole which consists of

customs, attitudes, beliefs and values of a society. The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

Culture is the total way of life of people

SOME CONCEPTS RELATED TO CULTURE ELEMENTS Knowledge and beliefs (Science, myth, metaphysics) Ideals (Right / Wrong) Preferences (Attractive/ Unattractive)

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations CULTURAL ADAPTATION Culture is learned by each person in the course of his development in the society.

CULTURAL CONFORMITY: It means following the culture blindly, doing what are predessors have been doing without even knowing the reason for it

For example:

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF SOCIOCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESSSocial Institutions & SystemsSocial Values & Movers Education & Culture Social Responsibility Others Caste System, Joint Family System, Patriarchal Family, Marriage, Religion

Customs & Superstitions, Traditions, Conventions,Manners, Attitudes

Attitude towards Education, Business Morality &Organisational Culture Business Ethics, Social Welfare Urbanisation, Education, Cross Cultural Issues, Language, Cultural Shock

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND SYSTEMSCASTES AND COMMUNITIES As we all know, Indian society, particularly the Hindu society, was

divided into four categories on the basis of caste. Economic pressures, spread of education, and other developments have been breaking down slowly class distinctions and social barriers.Industrialization has created new social and political functions and new occupations. Vaishyas, Brahmins, and other castes are no longer confined to their original roles.

FAMILY SYSTEM Earlier, Joint Family System was prevalent. Now, Nuclear family is being preferred.

The joint family is being split into smaller units of nuclear family. Now, the impacts for Marketers: Increasing demand for Flats, Vehicles, Consumer Goods. Increasing demand for catering services (packed lunches), baby sitters, creches.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS Religious beliefs, convictions, customs, rituals and festivals differ

from one group to another. Business firms can suffer heavy losses by ignoring religious sentiments of customers, employees and others. Religious groups exert considerable influence on activities of business groups. Thus, business must recognize and respect religious sentiments. Example, negative demand for beef products in India.

MARRIAGE Marriage is one of the basic elements of culture and peoples

attitude towards marriage influences culture a lot. Marriage is a social event that concerns the whole society. In India, marriages are a family affair. The marriage season is a big opportunity for business. For e.g. Jewellery, Kitchen ware, Honeymoon Package, Household Furniture, Vehicles etc have huge demand during the marriage season.

SOAIL VALUES AND MOVERSCUSTOMS & SUPERSTITIONS Many important business decisions in India are taken on the advise

of astrologers. (Location of business, time of launch, name of enterprise, brand name etc.) Example, Business firms do brisk business on festivals such as Deepavali, Christmas, Id, Guru Purab etc. No purchase of Iron & Steel goods by people on Saturday as it is considered inauspicious.

SUPERSTITIONS Barber Shops & Chicken Shops dont open on Tuesday due to

religious reasons. (Lord Hanumans Day) In most countries Sunday is a weekly holiday, but in Islamic countries Friday is treated as a weekly holiday. Even acceptable colors depend on the culture sometimes.

SINGH IS KINNG

The extra N in the word King in the title of movie Singh is Kinng was due to astrological & numerological reasons.

BALAJI TELEFILMS

Balaji Telefilms names all its serials starting with the letter K. For e.g. Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kasauti Zindagi Kay etc both which were superhit serials and a common topic of discussion among the households.

ATTITUDES Attitudes include things such as individual freedom, democracy, truth

and honesty, justice love and marriage to name a few. Attitude towards work is important as it determines motivation, morale, job satisfaction, productivity etc. All sorts of attitudes exist, but the positive aspect of Indian attitude is that generally, no worker or employee touches his/her tools of work, without closing his/her eyes for a few minutes and thanking the almighty for having bestowed his blessings in the form of work. Sincerity, hard work, loyalty and honesty are other aspects of the Indian work culture.

ETHICSo Ethics in business deals with the ethical path business firms

ought to adopt. o Jacques Cory, a noted business ethicist observes, companies should behave ethically and be profitable in parallel, and even if ethics diminishes the profitability of the company, they should still behave ethically. o Google Halts Censorship on Chinese Search o Google announces a new approach to China, indicating that Chinas behavior toward human rights activists and other efforts to further limit free speech on the web in China had led Google to stop censoring its search services on the Google.cn site and instead redirect traffic to its Hong Kongbased servers.

EDUCATION AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTUREEDUCATION A person is said to be literate if he/ she is 15 years and above and

can read and write Approximately 35% of illiterate world population is of India

In 2007, adult literacy rate is 66% from 12% in 1947 In 2009 Literacy rate for men was 76.9% for men and 54.5% for

women Kerala is the most literate state in India, with 90.86% literacy and

Bihar is the least literate state with 47% literacy. To promote Education Govt. launched Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to

provide free and compulsory education for age group 614 years, Mid Day Meal scheme etc.

EDUCATION Countries rich in educational facilities vastly attract high wage

industries. By investing in education, a country can attract Brain-Power Industries. Market Potential of a country depends on education. The level of literacy determines the nature of advertising, packaging, quality of marketing research and distribution system. Barack Obama has said in a recent address to the US Senate that, India is playing for the number one position. If they keep producing more engineers, doctors and scientists than us, we will not be number one for long.

WORK FORCE DIVERSITY When people from different cultures converge in a workplace,

Management will be required to manage diversity. Workforce diversity has important implications for Management practices. Managers will be required to shift their philosophy from treating everyone alike to recognising differences and responding to those differences in manners that will ensure employee retention and productivity.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

INTRODUCTIONCSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as that of the local community and society at large.

DEFINITIONWorld Business Council for Sustainable Development:

Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

WHICH AREAS ARE COVERED BY CSR?Responsibility towards Shareholders.Responsibility Towards Employee Responsibility Towards Consumer. Responsibility Towards Community Human Rights

CSR IN INDIANearly all leading corporates in India are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes .

The leading areas that corporations are working on are education, health, environment, livelihood promotion and women's empowerment. .

Microfinance, slum improvement and agricultural development issues are also gaining prominence as CSR activities.

Over 90% of all major organizations surveyed were involved in CSR initiatives.

The private sector is more involved in CSR activities than the public/ government sector.

Indian Companies implementing CSR

FACTS ON SOCIAL SECTOR DEVELOPMENTFiscal 2009-10 saw the strengthening of several public initiatives and programmes with a view to cushioning the impact of the global slowdown on the more vulnerable segments of the population in the country. While some of these programmes were a part of the ongoing interventions to give effect to a more inclusive development strategy. Thus emphasis in favour of higher allocation to social-sector development given in recent years continued to be reflected in the allocations under the Union Budget 2009-10.

The share of Central Government expenditure on social services including rural

development in total expenditure (Plan and non-Plan) increased to 19.46 per cent in 2009-10 from about 10.46 per cent in 2003-04

OTHERSLANGUAGE India is multi linguistic. (18 officially recognized languages and the census of India

identifies 1652 more.) Marketing plans become costlier and more complex due to this huge diversity. The advertising campaigns have to been launched in National as well as local languages. Pepsis come alive slogan was considered offensive in some places as to the locals it meant come out of the grave. Parker Pen Company faced similar problems as in some countries Ball Pen meant lie, Obscenity, fabrication, revolution etc. Reebok had to discontinue its INCUBUS brand as in medieval folklore, Incubus was a devil who terrorized women. Ford Motors truck named Fiera meant Ugly old women in Spanish. Segmentation can be done on the basis of linguistic groups.

CULTURAL SHOCK A move from one country to another may create certain amount of confusion, disorientation and emotional upheaval. This is called Cultural Shock. Organizations, particularly MNCs must be prepared to cope with the cultural shock.

Kirana Ki Dukan to Swanky Malls Earlier people used to go to Neighborhood Kirana Shops,

but now due to changing culture of working people, these shops have given way to Swanky Malls like Big Bazaar, Pantaloons etc. The people have become more brand conscious. Nowadays, people prefer more branded products over the local products even if they are more expensive.

KFCS FAILURE IN INDIA Reasons for Failure: KFC was banned in India in 1997 due to launching of Beefs products in India. Beef products in India are totally unacceptable by the people of India as Cow is a Holy Animal in Hindu Culture and it is worshipped. So, it hurt the religious sentiments of all the Hindu people in India and was subsequently banned by the Government.

KELLOGGS FAILURE IN INDIAReasons for Failure: The fact that the taste of its products did not suit Indian breakfast habits. The second mistake it made in the Indian market was its positioning front. Its advertisements and promotions focused initially on the health aspects of the product which was a fundamental departure from the successful fun and taste positioning adopted in the United States. High prices: At an average cost of Rs.21 per 100gm,Kellogg products were clearly priced way above the product of its main competitor , Mohun Cornflakes (Rs16.50 for 100gm).Another small-time brand, Champion was selling at prices almost half that of Kelloggs. This gave Kellogg a premium image and unattainable for the average Indian consumer.

CONCLUSIONo Socio- Cultural factors influence business and managerial decision

making to a large extent.o An organization which ignores these factors is moving towards its

own doom.o One cannot expect loyal customers until one conforms to their

social and cultural norms.

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