Cultural Values of the Netherlands

I have some friends all over the world, the Philippines, Australia, India, and the Netherlands to name a few. I decided to pick a culture that I don't know that much about, hence the title of this blog post. The Netherlands is a small country in Europe.

Cultural values are an important factor when it comes to how consumers make decisions and how marketers plan to market different products to different regions. Some of the core values (according to my friend Marloes) are egalitarianism, freedom of speech, and persistence. I will go into these more in depth below. Core values are defined as a general set of values that uniquely define a culture.

Marloes believes that egalitarianism is an important core value because the Netherlands has historically been a refugee place for many different types of people. A prime example are Jewish people as well as those of Muslim religion and those who are homosexual. In times of need, the Netherlands was a refugee for these people. Now, the Netherlands still carries this value in other ways as well. For example, children are raised without the stereotypes of gender bias. This plays a major role into consumer behavior. For example, if Marloes went to a store and saw an advertisement for a specific product meant for baby girls only, it would be peculiar to her. It's important to note that the people of the Netherlands are very accepting people which is why it's one of their core values.

Like the United States associates freedom as a core value, the Netherlands associate freedom of speech as a core value. As a very Democratic country, the Netherlands are very open to what people have to say. This can result in some what Americans might think of as crazy ads, which are normal to those in the Netherlands. They are open to all sorts of ideas and if an artist thinks an ad would look best in a sort of artistic format, they wouldn't be put off by it. Some might say the more artistic ads are more effective.

The last core value I will be discussing to it's relation in consumer behavior is persistence. Marloes explained that people in the Netherlands are very determined to get/do what they want. She said they won't give up unless they've tried every angle. I think this is important to note when discussing consumer behavior because this could very much so effect the market. With such a headstrong group it might be harder to advertise to them than it would be for a lazier group. Overall, all cultures are different. There may be similarities, but every culture has different core values that influence their decisions.