The Role of Culture in the Purchase of a Product

(The Case of Bavaria Beer 0.0% Alcohol in Albania)

GERTI DAJÇI1, MATEUS HABILI2, ARJAN ABAZI3

Street Blvd Zogu I 1001, Tirana,

ALBANIA

Abstract: - Many cultural elements influence the consumption or not of a product, one of which is religion and

ethnicity. The influence of these elements depends on the fact that a consumer is connected to the tradition, norms,

and rules of the religion and ethnicity to which he belongs. Bavaria 0.0% alcohol is a product that is associated

with the non-consumption of alcohol, which is an element that belongs to the Muslim religion and includes a

Received: February 27, 2024. Revised: July 25, 2024. Accepted: August 22, 2024. Published: September 26, 2024.

Bavaria 0.0% is a product that is characterized as a

flavor malt product with sugars to balance the bitter

taste of barley. An alcohol-free product is produced

is certified halal, and the halal certification of the

product attaches this product as a product that is

consumed by consumers who are of the Muslim

religion, this is greatly reinforced. Halal certification

has to do with:

Certification of products in compliance with the

precepts of Islamic Law

The halal certification shows that the product is

produced in full compliance with Islamic law, so these

products ensure 100% that they do not contain any

religion he belongs to, so this type of certification

attaches a product as a product that takes into account

the cultural factor and more specifically the faith

factor, this type of certification takes into

consideration that the product that has this

level of risk from the consumption of this product

must be very low and be based on the laws of the

Islamic religion. Differentiation as a halal product is

done by the logo and certification, which is done in

accordance with the Islamic religion, this is in

function of the differentiation and positioning of the

offer, which in this case consists of a halal product.

This certification goes through several stages such as

optional pre-audit, certification audit, annual reviews,

and re-certification every 3 years. This process is done

accordance with the rules of the Islamic religion.

Some of the categories of products that are not

prohibited by the Islamic religion are: pork,

carnivores, birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians, insects,

meat, and animal derivatives are generally acceptable,

but slaughtered in non-Islamic, the blood and bodies

of dead animals, alcohol and psychotropic substances.

The term Halal in the Muslim religion means suitable,

and permitted, [2].

while for the category of alcoholic beverages and

tobacco, it is 3.077 ALL or 3.7%, this data shows a

projection of consumer demand. Also, based on Table

1, the consumption of food and non-alcoholic

beverages has increased in value from 2019 to 2020,

respectively by 716 ALL and by 0.3%. The alcoholic

beverages and tobacco category had changes in value

with 53 ALL, while the percentage remained the

same. The average spending of the Albanian

consumer in 2020 is 83,475 ALL with an increase of

Table 1. Albanian consumer spending divided into

Based on the data of Figure 1, [3] and Figure 2,

alcohol, is prohibited.

Consumer behavior based on culture focuses on

individualism and collectivism, these 2 elements have

been at the center of consumer behavior studies,

taking culture as an influencing factor, [4].

[6].

This refers to strategies centered on consumer

culture. The application of these elements is also

concretized in the means of marketing

communication, where in societies that are classified

as collectivist, advertisements are focused on social

status, symbols, and prestige and where benefits are

based on family and reference group, [7]. Whereas in

societies that are classified as individualistic, the focus

of advertising is based on design and performance,

adding the element of religion, another categorization

this case, religion as an element of culture influences

the consumer not to consume pork, [14]. The religion

is the main factor that influences a consumer's

decision-making for a product where in this case it is

pork, it should be emphasized that religion has an

impact on a certain category of consumers and not on

all categories, [15].

taken into consideration and cleaning products are not

different product categories. Whereas if we refer to a

concrete product like Coca-Cola, it is personified as a

product that represents American culture, which

connects this product with the elements that represent

American culture, in this case, we have the example of

how a product is attached to the culture of a country

and thus is represented internationally, the elements

that connect this product with American culture are

the “west”, freedom and individualism, [19]. Besides

the cultural aspect as an American product, Coca-Cola

According to a study titled "Average Family" in

1978 it turned out that in the state of Georgia 3200

Coca Cola were consumed per year. Tea is a product

that is consumed in many countries of the world,

where the consumption of this product has been

massiveized at high levels, this can be translated into

"borrowing" of Chinese or English culture, where this

product may have become part of the culture of

individuals different, where the customer's focus is the

added value of this product, [21] apart from the fact

[25]. This fact shows that the power of culture in

survey questionnaire consisted of questions on a

Likert scale of 1 to 5 where 1- represents not at all, 2-

little, 3-neutral, 4-many, and 5- extremely much.

The reliability analysis based on the Cronbach

Alpha test and Chi-square test was used to test the

hypotheses and the statistical program SPSS 24 for

data processing and analysis.

The limits of the study have to do with the number of

included in the study may change their preferences for

It turned out that the Pearson coefficient is (0.173), an

element that shows that have a weak positive

relationship. The hypothesis falls down because the

sig value is greater than 5%, which shows that the

consumption of beer by Albanian consumers does not

depend on whether or not they are part of an ethnic

community, so it is more of an individual element, in

this case, this element of culture does not affect the

consumption of beer, the ethnic factor is not related to

the consumption of beer.

Based on Table 3, the more a consumer has a

relationship. The hypothesis falls down because its

value is greater than 5%, which shows that the

consumption of beer does not decrease or increase

based on religious affiliation, this is also related to the

fact that the individuals studied follow the rituals and

norms of the religions that they belong This shows

that it is more a personal choice of consumers and that

this depends on how pious a consumer is for the

religion he belongs to, also here individuals who

consume 0% alcohol beer are not excluded.

Based on Table 4, the consumer who consumes

beer may or may not have information about Bavaria

0.0% beer. It turned out that the Pearson coefficient is

(- 0.085), a very weak negative relationship, which

shows that the more a consumer consumes beer, the

less information he has, which shows that there is

little interest in Bavaria Beer 0.0% and the less beer

product. Hypothesis 3 is rejected because the sig

0.0% alcohol

Based on Table 5 the higher the price of the

product Bavaria 0.0% alcohol, the more or less the

product is consumed, and the lower the price of the

product, the more or less the product is consumed.

The Pearson coefficient is 0.087 resulted in a very

weak positive relationship, which shows that the

more Bavaria Beer 0.0% alcohol is consumed, the

more important the price is, but this fact depends on

whether the most important price for consumers is

consumer has about Bavaria 0.0% alcohol beer, the

more it is consumed, and the less information there is,

the less Bavaria 0.0% alcohol is consumed. The

Pearson coefficient has resulted in 0.157 positive and

weak correlation, an element that shows that the more

the information increases, the more the consumption

increases, and the less information there is about

Bavaria 0.0% beer, the less it is consumed.

Hypothesis 5 falls down because the sig value is not

smaller than 5%, which shows that the information or

not about Bavaria 0.0 beer % alcohol does not affect

H6: Gender affects the alcohol level of beer

Based on Table 7 the variability of gender affects

the level of alcohol in the beer consumed by

consumers. The Pearson coefficient has resulted (-

0.74), a weak negative relationship. This shows that

the different level of alcohol in beer is not affected by

the variability of gender. So, gender is not related to

the alcohol level in the beer product. Hypothesis 6

H7: the possibility of gender difference to the non-

consumption of Bavaria beer with 0.0% alcohol

shows that the level of consumption of Bavaria 0.0%

alcohol increases or decreases with the variability of

gender. The hypothesis is accepted because the sig

value is greater than 5%. This shows that the gender

factor influences the non-consumption of Bavaria

0.0% alcohol beer, but it should be noted that which

gender consumes more or less Bavaria 0.0% alcohol,

and sub-segments within the segments of Bavaria

beer non-consumers should also be identified to better

understand that when gender changes, non-

Table 9. Correlation between percentage of alcohol in

the consumption of Bavaria 0.0%

H12: the percentage of alcohol in beer affects the

consumption of Bavaria 0.0%

since its value is greater than 5%. Also, the Durbin-

Watson coefficient is 1.6, which shows that the

equation is good for prediction because there is no

autocorrelation.

The equation:

Consumption of Bavaria 0.0% alcohol = -1.505+

0.240 x information about Bavaria 0.0% alcohol +

0.109 x religious community + 0.078 x ethnic

community +

(-0.375) x percentage of alcohol + (-0.038) x reason

for not proving Bavaria 0.0%.

which shows that there is a factor other that cause the

decrease in the consumption of Bavaria beer with

0.0% alcohol. But if we assume that all independent

variables are zero except for the information about

Bavaria beer 0.0% and we increase the information

variable about Bavaria beer 0.0% by 1%, then the

consumption value of Bavaria 0.0% alcohol will

increase by 24%, this shows that the impact of the

information about Bavaria 0.0% alcohol is high for the

consumption of Bavaria 0.0% alcohol if we assume

being part of a religious community in the

consumption of Bavaria 0.0%.

percentage of alcohol in the beers consumed by the

respondents are zero with the increase of 1% of this

variable, then the consumption of Bavaria 0.0% will

decrease by 37.5%, this shows that the percentage of

alcohol 0% affects to a large extent in the

consumption of this product, so this element is one of

the main indicators of the consumption of this

product. If all independent variables are zero except

for not consuming Bavaria beer 0.0%, the

0.038%, this shows that the impact on reducing the

low, it also shows that the factors that increase non-

4 Conclusions

b0=-0.1505 b1=0.240 b2=0.109 b3=0.078 b4=-0.375

b5= -0.038

The consumption of a product is influenced by many

factors, but in the case of the study Bavaria Beer 0.0%

has an element related to a cultural aspect such as

religion, but it can also be consumed by individuals

who do not consume alcohol. In the study, the fact that

the consumer belongs to a certain ethnic community

does not affect the consumption of beer, this element

shows that the consumption of beer is not related to

the consumption of this product, but is more related to

what the consumer wants than the consumer is

influenced from the fact that this product is attached to

a cultural element such as ethnicity. But the

consumption of beer depends on the piety that a

consumer has towards his religion and it also depends

element in marketing does not affect the consumption

of Bavaria 0.0%, this shows that the consumption of

Bavaria 0.0% is more influenced by the consumer's

personal tastes. Having or not having information

about Bavaria beer 0.0% does not affect the

consumption of information, this shows that the

consumer consumes Beer Bavaria at 0.0% of his

preferences. Gender is an element that can affect the

consumption of alcoholic beverages, from the study, it

was found that it is not affected by the level of alcohol

that the alcohol element in a product does not affect

the consumption of Bavaria 0.0%, also the 0.0%

suffer from autocorrelation. The coefficient b0 is -

1.505, this element shows that other independent

variables that were not included in the study

negatively affect the consumption of Bavaria 0.0%.

From the cultural factors such as ethnicity and

religious affiliation, the influence on the consumption

of beer Bavaria 0.0% is higher with the religion factor,

while the ethnicity factor does not have any high

influence, a part of the product is consumed by the

religion factor, but the percentage is not

consumer have more impact on the consumption of

Bavaria 0.0, that is, on the marketing communication

strategies of the product Bavaria 0.0% alcohol should

be based more on other elements that are not related to

the religion factor. Also, the reasons for non-

consumption do not have a big impact on the

consumption of Bavaria 0.0% alcohol, the reasons for

consumption without taking into account the influence

of ethnicity and religion have a greater impact on

consumption than the factors of non-consumption.