Celebrating cultural diversity in Marketing class

Posted on April 16, 2018

On 20 March 2018, the second-year Marketing Management students at UP celebrated Culture Day as part of their Consumer Behaviour module. For Culture Day, students were asked to dress in their cultural attire, bring any food items, or dance/sing to depict the diversity of culture in South Africa (and even abroad).
 
The theme of the Culture Day was ‘Understanding sub-cultural influences on consumer behaviour’.
 
There were many interesting contributions that captured the cultural nuances of different sub-cultures that make up South Africa. Below is a selection of some of the pictures taken on the day in class.
 
Chinese and Afrikaans cultures in perspective
 
The participants grouped themselves according to ethnic, geographical, religious, social and nationality sub-cultures. An opportunity to share cultural values was created in a way that inspired students to learn from each other. Apart from showing full representation of all ethnic sub-cultures in South Africa, it was interesting to note that there were cultures from as far as China, Germany, Sweden and Venezuela.
 
isiXhosa and Ndebele sub-cultural dress
 
No wonder why South Africa is called the rainbow nation. South Africa is a melting pot of diverse and rich cultures that define it. Blessed with twelve official languages (including sign language), the culture is extremely diverse and colourful, with many other unofficial languages enshrined in the Constitution.
Various topics were discussed, such as enculturation – the way people learn native culture, and acculturation – the way people learn and adopt other cultures, and the implication to consumer behaviour thereof. Students were asked to describe prominent rituals in their religion and products prominent in the religious festivals.
 
 
Venda and Afrikaans, English sub-culture
 
The general consensus among participants was that, although culture is enduring, it is also dynamic and must change to reflect changing times. For example, students believe that some cultural beliefs are outdated and must be replaced with new ones. The issue of paying lobola and the initiation schools were two cases in point discussed at great length, with many opposing and supporting views. At the end, it was agreed that no culture is superior to any other, and that cultures are just different.
 
Zulu and isiTswana sub-cultures
 
A special thanks to Mr Michael Humbani and Dr Tinashe Ndoro who coordinated the event and solicited full participation of students. Indeed the event was a success, a lively day, enjoyable and a memorable one that all participants agreed should be adopted as a ritual in the Department of Marketing Management.
- Author Department of Marketing Management

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