The Study of Subculture and Consumer Behavior: An Example of Taiwanese University Students Consumption Culture

Dr. Lieh-Ching Chang, Hsuan Chuang University, Taiwan ABSTRACT The culture represents living style, which came into being after adjustments to the environment, people, and things through generations. The effect of culture on peoples life is so great that it will even affect the motives and choices when consuming or shopping. Therefore, when a new product is introduced from overseas, it will usually make small adjustments after considering the local culture. Therefore, it will become harmonious to the existing society, and easier to be accepted and self-identified by local consumers. However, as people are living in an international and multicultural society, the forming of various subcultures is inevitable. In Taiwan, with an affluent economy and popularized education, young people have more chance and capability to come into contact with different products. Especially in Taiwan, university students are mostly unusually lucky persons and have independent consumption capability. It cannot be neglected that the effects of high-potential subculture groups on consumption activities are more valuable research subjects. Issues such as which factors of social culture and subculture have affected the consumption behavior of university students, as well as the consumption pattern and trend, will be explored and discussed in this essay. We hope it will inspire the industry, which focuses on selling products to young consumer groups. LITERATURE REVIEW I. The Connotation of Culture Otts (1989) defined culture as All technologies, beliefs, knowledge and fruits that people share and transfer to next generations. English anthropologist Taylor (1958) believed that culture was everything that an individual learns in society. It is a combination of knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and customs. According to literature studied by Kroeber and Kluck (1952), during the 80 years from 1871 to 1951, the definitions of culture had been as many as 164 kinds. Since the culture transferred meaning in the 19th century, the definitions by scholars of all schools were more than 300 kinds. We summarized the important ones in Table 1-1
Scholar Taylor (1987) Hofestede (1980) Table 1-1 Definition of Culture Argument Culture is a complex universe, including knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any capabilities and habits a member of society can obtain. 1. Culture is the whole thing demonstrated by peoples souls in a certain society 2. Culture is a collective plan to distinguish group members and people from other places. The group may be country, profession, or business forms. As a collection of thoughts, culture is used to distinguish different group of people. When ones living style is different from others, he will be perceived as coming from another culture. Culture is the common behaviors and the results of the behaviors in a certain society. Those behaviors and results would mutually transmit and save. Behaviors include the actions of the body and psychological attitudes, beliefs, values, knowledge, and social organizations & languages. The methods to transfer culture include imitation and formal education. From the perspective of sociology, culture is social heritage, including all knowledge, life skills, languages, social systems, morals, beliefs, customs, values, etc. Culture is a set of fixed life patterns derived by a group when adapting to an environment

Adler (1983) Pai Tsung-Chieh (1981)

Chang Pao-Hua (1987) Chen Chi Lu (1994)

From the above table, we can see that the forming of culture was the result of human beings survival and adaptation to environment. Culture includes two levels: material and non-material. Culture can be learned and shared. It is the social heritage and life regulator. It continues to grow and change. Every field of human life is related to it. An individuals personality, the expression of ones opinions (including exhibition of emotions), thinking modes, and methods to solve problems are all included in culture. In short, culture is the sum of the spirit treasury created by human beings, and the generic term of all life demonstrated by society.

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II.

The Effects of Culture on Consumption Culture is one of the main factors to determine behavior (Jen, 1990). The same as the physical environment, it is one of the two main external factors that shape human behavior. The two external factors (culture and physical environment) and two internal factors (physiological and psychological factors) interact and form the basic factors to determine human behavior. Therefore, we can not view people behavior simply as a function of humans. Humans and their environments have always acted simultaneously. Behavior is the result of this interaction ( See Figure 1-2).

Physical Environment

Physiological Environment

External factors

People

Internal factors

Cultural Environment Human Scenario

Psychological Environment

Behavior

Data Source: Jen Ying, Culture and self: perspectives of easterners and westerners, first edition, Taipei, Yuen-Liu Press Co., Ltd, 1990, Page 284

On consumer behavior, Keillor et al. (1996) pointed out that culture can affect consumer behavior, and then decide the marketing activities of enterprises. Whats more, those marketing activities will have large impacts on the original culture. Kotler (1999, 186) thought that a consumer decision is profoundly affected by factors such as the consumers culture, society, individual, and psychology. Among those factors, culture exerted the most extensive and profound influence on consumer behavior. Culture also includes three parts, namely culture, subculture, and social class. Culture is the most basic deciding factor of human desire and behavior. Everyone is included in many smaller subculture groups, which provide a clearer sense of identification and social process. Basically, subculture can be divided into four types: nationality groups, religious groups, racial groups, and geographical regions. Many subcultures can form some important market segments, and provide the decision reference on product designs and marketing campaigns for marketing personnel to serve the demands of consumers. III. The Meaning and Nature of Subculture In many researches, subculture is often expressed with synonyms such as subunits, subgroups, split cultures, cultures within cultures, cultural pluralism theories, and multi-cultures. The word subculture seems to be used rarely, because previous studies believed that one form of organization only has one sole Institute for Information Industry, Taiwan culture. However, in one organization, there could be numerous cultures, which would form potential conflicting systems in the common culture (Martin & Siehl, 1983; Trice, 1993).

In a developed organization, group members would try to find people of similar self-identification, attitudes, communication methods, shared values, shared experiences, personal characteristics, social and economical statuses, and educational backgrounds, and gather them together. This was the so-called small group or sub-group. When these sub-groups were formed for some time, then they would have a history different from the large group, and develop a set of culture belonging to themselves. This was called subculture in comparison with organizational culture in general (Schein, 1985). Subculture has the same happenings of the main culture, but

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different settings in ideology and culture form (Trice & Beyer 1992). Every company has its own individual system that each is respectively responsible for. Under the guidance of corporation culture, each could exert his own independent nature, principles, standards, and opinions to finish their functional jobs. Here, so-called nature, principles, standards, and opinions, were the subculture in the organization. (Cheng, 1991). Organization subculture is a group, and the knowledge, behavior, and culture forms could make it quite a different group in the organization (Trice, 1993). The forming of subcultures originated from different interactions (Trice, 1993). Organization members utilized interactions to disperse individual experiences. Through the interactions of the group, different peoples experience and individual characteristics were combined. During the combination process, individuals would seek someone highly matched to himself in order to form a subgroup or small group together. Schein (1985) believed the subgroup could form a common history through a certain time development, by sharing experiences, attitudes, communication methods, and individual personalities, and, in doing so, give birth to subculture. Subcultures form in non-systematic groups, such as parties and allies, or systematic groups, such as departments and management levels. To define those groups, there were subjective standards such as gender, age, race, education background, life background, and social and economical status, and objective standards such as attitude, perception, ideology, interest, hobby, and individual characteristic, or working standards such as different working content, department, product, market, technology, and function. The organizational member can seek highly similar or highly complementary members to form a closer group based on those subjective, objective, or working standards. Therefore, those deciding standards could affect the forming of the group. Trice (1993) believed that cohesion could tell the strength of subculture. There are three factors of cohesion: different interaction methods, shared experience, and similar personal characteristics. Van Mannen & Barley (1981) believed subculture had six characteristics in functionality: 1. similar perception, 2. participating in the group, 3. abnormal emotional demands, 4. favorable self- and social image, 5. extension of daily life, and 6. sense of national superiority. In a highly developed multi-culture, the partial reason for subculture to exist is that the background and functionality of members were different (Schein, 1985). Therefore, subculture is a part of society. With self-identification, some people share criteria, values, beliefs, and attitudes that are obviously different from the larger society Sung1997. Subculture is a set of special values formed by the sub-society or subgroup members in a large social group. These characteristics form a set of values, attitudes, and social forms different from the larger society. These characteristics are different from the mainstream culture of the larger society (He, 1985). In any society, the generation of subculture is a common phenomenon. The reason is that different classes, professions, religions, races, regions, genders, social groups, parties, and ages would have different modes of culture interaction between groups, and naturally form their own partisan culture characteristics (Sung, 1997). The Connotation of the Subcultures of University Students and Effects on Consumption Behavior A complex social culture has not only its common parts, but also different subcultures. Members of different groups in society all have their unique behavior forms and values, relating to the general culture of society but with their own characteristics. For example, young peoples groups and religious groups all have their own subculture. Students all formed unique values and behavior forms when university became a complex formal organization.. During the process of seeking collective entity, they formed a subculture (He,1985; Lin,1991). Therefore the students on university campuses are facing the same adaptive problems, such as curriculum, peer relationship, student-teacher relationship, and demands of self-identification. Through the normal organization of the school (such as school administration, curriculum, and school rules) and the non-formal organizations (such as interaction between peer groups) are generated collective reaction methods, and therefore have a set of special values, attitudes, and living methods, which are called university students subculture (He, 1985 ; Chien, 1991). In short, after students enter the large social system of the university and interact with the teachers and peers in the universities, they develop common value standards and life forms of the university student group. This is the so-called student subculture. The subculture of university students is developed from the interaction between students and peer groups, and it is a behavior mode influencing and binding the exhibition of external activities and internal ideology, and is shared by all students. The purposes are to confirm the self-value of university students and to establish the identification to school and society through the establishment of good student culture. IV.

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(i)

Value Taiwan scholar Li (1984) also pointed out the ideologies of young peoples subculture were rejection to formalism, being unsatisfied with mechanical lives, protests to material commercialism, and having a tendency towards self-expansion. From the values and attitudes of Chinese and Western universities, we can see that values and attitudes decide the characteristics of subculture. Therefore, in researching the subculture of university students, we cannot neglect this factor. Li, Chang, and Cheng (1994) pointed out several definitions of value in a report named Research on university values:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Value is everything one emphasizes or expects. Value is a thing to make people behave to its direction, and being willing to continue or increase to process it. Value is any needed object (thing). Value is the standards affecting human beings choices on their desired actions. Value is the final state to guide human beings to reach what they desire, or objectives to guide human social behavior to become commonly reasonable. 6. Value is a persons life structure, also the core attitudes and emotions that rank individual favors. 7. Value is the psychological activity the moment we experience on what should be. 8. Value is the things, quality, or conditions that satisfy the motivation. 9. Value exists on goodness and is of cognizable and desirable quality. 10. Value is beliefs based on advantages and disadvantages, and attitudes supporting or opposing something or some phenomenon.

(ii)

Relationship of peers: The extent that university students are affected by peers is more profound than before. Affected by industrial society, compared with students of the previous generations, university students are affected by peers more. The good or bad subcultures received by the university will not only affect their academic achievements, but also their personality achievements, and realization of the whole university education objective. Therefore, more emphasis should be laid on it. As shown in Figure 1-3, during the process of student socialization, peer groups are a more important unit. Three units, including family, school, and peer groups, form the important forces in subculture. After high school, the affecting force of peer group gradually becomes the most important key power Lin,1977. In recent years, most social scholars realized the socialization function of peer groups, and gradually viewed students subculture as individual socialization processesChung,1982. Peer groups of same value orientations also develop subcultures that reflect its value and attitudes. If the rules of school and the subculture of students were compatible, it would facilitate the students socialization process through education in school. If the subcultures preferred by students were seriously opposite to the school rules, then subcultures would have a negative reference function.

The age of university students in the career development process belongs to the late stage of young people and the initial stage of adults (about from 17 to 25). According to the psychological social development theory of foreign scholar Erikson, the young people stage is the delay period of psychological society. The main tasks of young people were to overcome the identity diffusion on values because of enormous changes of society environment and realize the objective of Ego Identity. Therefore, Seeking Identification would be the most obvious characteristic. From many characteristic researches of foreign countries, factors affecting one peoples value judgment include gender, age, education degree, and social and economical environment. When university students are making value judgments, they are also affected by factors such as parents and peers, consideration on principles and scenarios, and cognition conflicts. The concepts and attitudes of university students can be divided into main culture and counter culture. The value of traditional main culture is instrumental orientation, which emphasizes achievement, capability, cognition, reasonable thinking, and group economical benefits. On the contrary, the young peoples counter culture emphasizes expressive orientation, including six values such as love, peace, equity, democracy, freedom, and individuality, and emotional experiences, such as sexual relationship, religion, music, and the arts (Liu, 2001). With the change of time and development of society and the economy, peoples values also changed from internal, spiritual, and ideal orientation to external, material, and actual orientation. Especially, the changes in the younger generations values make the phenomenon more obvious (Hsueh, 1994).

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The following figure 1-3 is the model of subculture and consumption relationship of university students:

Culture
Culture Subculture Social Class Peer group

Subculture
School Family

Individual
Age and life cycle stage Peer group Economic states Life attitudes Personality and value

Subculture Consumption Motive

Peer comparison Peer recognition Social study Belief and attitude University Students Consumption Group

Figure 1-3 The model of subculture and consumption relationship of university students Data sources: modified from Kotler, Philip, Swee Hoon Ang, Siew Leong, and Chin Tiong Tan, Marketing Management, 2th ed., Singapore: Prentice-Hall (Singapore) Pte Ltd. 1999. p.85

In the forms of student behavior, from the behavior perspective, university students subcultures are demonstrated in the following items (Liu, 2001):
1. 2. 3. 4. Students words and clothes: Language and clothes are the most important tool that young people have discovered and express themselves with, also being an important method of revolting or rejecting adult standards and values and being recognized by peer groups. Fashion: An important characteristic of student life is to pursue faction, to do something unconventional or unorthodox, not to stick to forms. It is easy and at will. Music and Dance: Music and dance are the most favorite external behavior method to express their thoughts, and the core of university subculture. Consumption Behavior: To buy the same structure and fashionable products among peers to demonstrate the characteristic of the subculture group.

V. The Consumption Behavior and Consumption Culture of University Students The survey of Wu and Chen (1995) researched on the relationship between individual characteristics, life forms, recreation preference, and consumption behaviors of American, Japanese, and Korean university students. Through questionnaires, surveys, and life data analyses, they found that American students had high confidence and independence and were willing to take risks. Japanese students were more dependent, capricious, and suspicious. American students laid more emphasis on fashion, high-end brands, high price levels, and extraordinary products. Students of Mainland China and Japan paid more emphasis on economical and middle-low price product consumption. This research also showed that the more confident, extrovert, aspirant, and eager to pursuit high brand quality consumers were, the more time they spent on social, artful, and gambling entertainment activities. The more

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dependent, mature, steady, and economically consumptional the consumers were, the more time they spent on outdoors activities. From the above discussion, we learn that the individual life style is affected by the interaction of internal factors such as value and personality characteristics, and external factors such as society and culture, and also reflects on daily life activities. Therefore, from the above observation, Taiwanese students change in lifestyle will tend to change to focus more on material enjoyment with the fast development of the social economy (Liu, 2001). According to the student consumption behavior investigation through 1175 questionnaires from 14 universities of Taiwan by the Institute for Information Industry, 85% of the interviewed students believed university students had the intention of high consumption; 88% thought they liked to use famous brands in common. However, it was interesting that only 18% considered themselves belonging to the high consumption group, while most believed that they were not a member of the high consumption group. In fact, although there was a tendency towards high consumption, the actual members of high consumption were small. Also shown in the investigation, the percentage of mobile phone usage was increasing fast. 31% were using credit cards, with 82% using stamped cards less than NT$ 5000 and only 3% spent more than NT$ 10000. 57% of the students paid the card amount themselves, while 27% required others or parents to pay expenses. Although university students identify peers and love famous brands, they still spend their money reasonably. When shopping, they would consider based on their personal capability which should be purchased and which should not. Although commonwealth ads propagandize that as night falls, please go home, under the peer concepts of most young people, it does not matter whether social security is good or not. They only care about being happy with friends. They are also idolaters, and are willing to purchase relative commodities of idols. The computer is necessary for chatting on the Net, making friends, and doing homework. As young people are active and bold, the faction industry and service should be more realistic and closer to life. Therefore, stiff credits cannot attract the group, while Hello Kitty, Cool Pengius credit card, Sally Card, and Harly Card are popular. There will be more interesting things in the future. Because stamping cards are the basic consumption method, the usage of DM, postage, shopping on the Net, and pyramidal selling should be increased, and the future market perspective is worth expecting. CONCLUSION Culture can be viewed as the common value, living hobbies, and traditional standards of most people shared in a nation, and it also includes the concept of shopping. Therefore, when the consumer is shopping, the culture will have certain effects on opinions of many activities and products. Therefore, successful product marketing should combine the local culture with the marketing strategy. However, in the multicultural society of today, people edified by the same culture have differences on opinions of things, such as social class, race, age, and educational background. These kinds of opinions can be regarded as differences caused by subculture. As different subculture groups caused by race, region, age, and religion will have similar hobbies, subculture will usually often affect the values and life forms of the group, and then affect the shopping and consumption behaviors in the group. Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1990) mentioned that American commercial marketing people spent about 100 million US dollars for promotional advertisements in the consumption market of university students, while the purchase power of American college students was about 20 billion US dollars per year. In Taiwan, the popularization of high education and large increase in the number of university students makes the market become the focus of various businesses. As the age, educational background, life form, and information sources of Taiwanese university students are similar, they naturally form a subculture group. Especially, the environment of most students contact is nothing more than school, family, and peer group (see Figure 1-3). Therefore, the culture of the three environments definitely affects the living forms, personality, and values. In consumption motives, besides the necessary purchase for study, the comparison and identification of peers will become the strong motive of students. As the example of Peter&Olson (2001) told us, the peer groups of university students develop unique meaning and behavior standards for the clothing suitable for their appetites. For example, the question of which sports shoes, clothes, and pants are the most fashionable modes already has the same cognition and definite opinions in a peer group. The response of the cognition will directly affect the purchase and consumption behavior of the subculture group. Finally, from the

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research on Taiwanese university student behavior, we learn that the university student group is a subculture in society, which definitely has considerable effects on the behavior, cognition, emotional reaction, and purchase motive. Therefore, when enterprises research on consumer behavior, they should make different subculture analyses on the consumption levels of consumers to more profoundly and accurately understand its consumption motive and make an effective product marketing strategy. REFERENCES
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