International Consumer Learning Is Different in Different Cultures

In Chap. 12, a very strong point was made about consumer involvement. This particular force must be joined with the learning process. After all, if consumers are not learning about the company, the brand, and the product (or series), they are not likely to buy whatever the international company is offering. Both involvement and learning are the key final stages of purchase behavior. The two factors, or forces as I referred to them in my earlier book (Samli 1995), basically form the final phase of purchase behavior. All of the other factors, discussed in this book, i.e., culture screen, need hierarchy, social class, personal and interpersonal influences, diffusion processes, and country-of-origin effects—among a few others—typically make their mark in building the purchase behavior. They are partial builders and partial modifiers. They condition the individual to perform the all-important final purchase act. This purchase act is sealed, however, only when the individual becomes involved and learns. Involvement is already discussed in Chap. 12; the present chapter deals with the final act of total purchasing behavior, which is learning. As is discussed in this chapter, this activity must be carefully explored, since learning is different in different cultures to begin with. However, purchase-leading learning has even more different and important connotations. International marketing cannot be successful without understanding how the consumer is likely to learn about the product or service in question.