Energy Drink Consumption Features Among Cultures (Research Paper Sample)

Energy Drink Consumption Features Among Cultures
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Introduction
Consumer behaviour is basically the study of how individuals, organizations, or groups choose, secure, and dispose certain products, services, ideas, or experiences in order to satisfy their own needs. This aspect actually blends elements from sociology, psychology, social anthropology, and economics in ascertaining the conceptual phenomenon surrounding buyer’s decision making processes. Therefore, this writing seeks to establish the energy drink consumption features among cultures.
Global Energy Drinks by Region


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Report on the Global Energy Drink Consumption indicates that West Europe, Asia, and North America are the main energy drink consumption areas across the world, accounting for about 80% of the entire global energy drinks. However, North America stands tall among all regions, having an average consumption rate of over 36%. The second region is Asian Pacific accounting for 22%, while Western Europe comes third with about 17% of the global consumption. In 2011, a total of 4.8 million litres of energy drinks were consumed across the world. However, Zenith estimates that by 2016, the global consumption of energy drinks will have escalated by about 35% to approximately 6.5 billion litres.
Energy Drink Consumption Cultural Features
In recent times, consumer behavior has become very much heterogeneous due to the existing cultural differences within different regions in the world (Neelankavil & Rai, 2009). As consumer incomes increasingly converge across nations, value differences manifestation become significantly stronger. Therefore, national values considerably determine the cultural values of a given place alongside the consumer behavior.
It is evident that, retailing strategies in one nation cannot be passed on to other nations without clear and concise adaptation. In order to clearly ascertain consumer behaviors across cultures, Hofstede’s theory of culture is usually applied to expose various distinctive aspects (Allhoff, Parker, Austin, & Schoenholt, 2011). In this paper, an amalgamation of both Hofstede’s theory and the Theoretical Consumer Behavior has been adopted to establish the conceptual phenomenon surrounding the consumption of energy drinks across cultures.
Theoretical Consumer Behavior Point of View
Perception
Perception is the construction of reality in one’s brain with regard to the information received from the senses (Maisto, Galizio, & Connors, 2011). In actual fact, all senses have a lucid responsibility in determining the awareness of a particular product or aspect.
Most regions in West Europe, Asia, and North America, are sport oriented regions. The increased consumption of energy drinks in highly attributed to a significant perception among most citizens that these drinks considerably empower someone in sports through provision of energy.
The consumption of energy drinks among Africans is the least due to the fact that most Africans perceive that energy drinks belong to the same category as other alcoholic drugs. There is little awareness in the region pertaining to the exclusivity of energy drinks from other alcoholic drinks.
Religion
Religion is in basic terms a well structured collection of cultural systems, beliefs, and world views relating humanity to a given order of existence. Different religions have different belies governing their existence and therefore they largely dictate the kind of lifestyle that their members out to adopt (Ward & Robertson, 1973).
In Europe, Asia, and America, most religions do not disregard the consumption of energy drinks. That is the main reason as to why consumption in these areas is on the high. However, in Africa the consumption is relatively low since provisions of most religions discredit the use of energy drinks due to the notion that energy drinks belong to the same class with alcoholic drinks.
Foundations
The foundation of a given culture also regulates the consumer trends to a higher extent (Deaton, & Muellbauer, 1994). It is evident from previous studies that, the foundation of most American, Asian, and European countries focuses on sports and other energy demanding activities. It is upon this rationale that most countries in these regions consume energy drinks highly in order to gain lost energy.
New Products and Innovations
New products and innovations significantly determine the extent of consumer innovativeness among different cultures. Products with higher degrees of innovations often meet an awesome reception from the market.
Energy drinks from Australasia, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa often experience low consumer innovativeness. As a result, consumption in these areas is relatively lower as exposed in the global consumption statistics.
Nevertheless, energy drinks from Asia Pacific, West Europe, and North America often expose higher consumer innovativeness. For that reason, consumption of these drinks is considerably higher.
Hofstede’s Cultural Model of Consumer Behavior
The difference in consumer behavior for energy drinks can also be explained in terms of Hofstede’s Model of National Culture. This theory consists of five main cultural dimensions which entail comprehending cultural behaviors in order to ascertain consumer trends across the globe. The five dimensions include; Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity versus Femininity, Long versus Short-term Orientation, and Collectivism versus Individualism.
Collectivistic versus Individualistic
The key issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of autonomy in a given society of cultural setting. It is largely built on the terms ‘I’ and ‘We’. Findings reveal that the cultural setting in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe is individualistic in nature. This implies that the decision to purchase energy drinks solely depends on one’s perception and preferences. Since individuals already know the benefits of energy drinks in these regions, their consumption is significantly higher than any other regions.
In Latin America, Middle East, and most especially Africa, the cultural setting is collectivistic in nature. This means that for one to purchase energy drink the influence of another person must have played a very great part. Since energy drinks have not met a significant market reception in these regions, the collectivistic nature significantly makes the product not to be adopted easily.
Masculinity versus Femininity
Hofstede asserts that this dimension is based on what motivates individuals, liking what you do (feminine) or wanting to be the best (masculine). Masculinity (high score) implies a society driven by achievement, competition and success while femininity (low score) implies a culture where principal values in society entail quality of life and caring for others (Hoyer, & MacInnis, 2008). Based on Masculinity or Femininity, it can be observed that most North American, European, and Asia Pacific nations have high Masculinity. This means that competition in the global front is very high and thus consumption of energy drinks is high. However in Latin America, and Middle East, the cultural setting is largely feminine therefore consumption of energy drinks is relatively lower.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index
It refers to a measure of the degree with which member of a particular culture feel threatened by unknown or ambiguous situations, and thus developed beliefs and institutions, which tend to avoid these situations (Ahlstrom and Bruton 2010; Piepenburg 2011). Since most energy drinks are produced in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the uncertainty avoidance index for these products is low. However, in Latin America, Middle East, and Africa, the uncertainty avoidance index for energy drinks is very high implying that the adoption of energy drinks by consumers is relatively lower.
Power Distance
Power/Distance is the level of inequality that is found among members in a given cultural setting. A higher PD score indicates that members of the society are in agreement with unequal share of power and that these individuals understand their cultural environment or society. On the Contrary, a lower PD critically signifies that power equally shared and effectively dispersed. In case of a higher PD the consumpti...