Culture, a concept crucial to the understanding of consumer behaviour, may be
thought of as the collective memory of a society. Culture is the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions among the members of an organization or society. It is what defines a human community, its individuals, its social organizations, as
well as its economic and political systems. It includes both abstract ideas, such as values
and ethics, and the material objects and services, such as cars, clothing, food, art and
sports, that are produced or valued by a group of people. Thus, individual consumers
and groups of consumers are but part of culture, and culture is the overall system within
which other systems are organized. This is a relatively new idea. Until recently, many
researchers treated culture as a sort of variable that would explain differences in what
they saw as the central dimension in society: economic behaviour. However, in our postindustrial society it has become increasingly evident that the principles of economy are
themselves expressions of a specific kind of culture.