An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Product Evaluation from an Ethnic Subcultural Perspective

Safiek Mokhlis

doi:10.5539/ach.v4n2p69

Abstract

One of the most significant cultural manifestations in buyer behavior may be the way in which a product is evaluated as a function of its various attributes. People from different cultures have different experiences and value structures which may cause them to view products differently. This purpose of this study was to examine variation in product evaluation across three consumer ethnic subcultures in Malaysia: Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Mobile phone was chosen as the target product in this study. Exploratory factor analysis, comparison of means, and analysis of variance were employed to analyze the data collected through a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that image, reference group influence, media, and post-sale services best distinguish the three ethnic groups in their evaluation of mobile phone attributes. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.

Highlights

The globalization of the marketplace as well as changing ethnic structures of society, both within and across national boundaries, have prompted marketers to consider the development and implementation of marketing strategies targeted towards diverse ethnic groups (Pirez & Stanton, 2005)
This study was conducted to determine whether consumers of different ethnic subcultures differed in their ratings of the importance of a selected product attributes
Among the seven product attributes tested for mobile phone, four showed significant differences between the ratings of the different subcultural groups even after differences in gender across subcultural groups were statistically controlled: image, reference group influence, media influence, and post-sale service

Summary

Introduction

The globalization of the marketplace as well as changing ethnic structures of society, both within and across national boundaries, have prompted marketers to consider the development and implementation of marketing strategies targeted towards diverse ethnic groups (Pirez & Stanton, 2005). Paralleling the growing acknowledgement of cultural diversity and the potential of using ethnic subcultures as a segmenting variable within domestic economies, the past two decades or so have witnessed a heightened level of attention to the study of ethnicity by consumer researchers. Despite the attention this topic has received, most were done in the North American or European context.

Methods

Results

Conclusion