ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a major topic of research into the behaviour of cultural consumers: the direct or indirect influences of the social environment. It looks at the ubiquitous but generally less obvious influence of culture and subcultures and shows how marketing researchers have applied the concepts to the study of arts consumption and at the lessons that can be drawn from their results for practical applications and new research. Consider the example of a man who loves fine arts but discovers, during a visit to a museum, an abstract painting which he finds difficult to understand. The person expresses their preferences in arts and culture and various elements that make up their experiential world. All the statistics from industrialized countries indicate that the majority of the customer base for sophisticated art is recruited from people with a university degree, whereas popular art attracts both those with a degree and those who are less well educated.
