Consumer Acculturation and Implications for Brand Preferences

This research investigates whether established theories of acculturation are applicable to British Indians and what impact acculturation has on their consumer behaviour. After classifying British Indians according to the acculturation framework devised by Berry (1980), the chapter considers whether membership of these acculturation categories has a bearing on British Indians' consumer behaviour, as indicated by their brand preferences for a range of host and ethnic products and services. The findings reveal that separated consumers prefer ethnic brands more than host brands, assimilated consumers prefer host brands more than ethnic brands and integrated consumers have brand preferences falling between these two. Acculturation category thus has POTENTIAL for use as a segmentation variable. Demographic factors have also been shown to influence patterns of acculturation (Berry 1997). This study therefore also examines the relationships between different acculturation categories, demographic variables and preferences for a range of ethnic and host brands. Overall, this research provides some interesting insights about buying preferences of Indian diaspora (a developing country) in the UK and is particularly relevant from an International marketing perspective.