Culture Value, Consumer Perceived Value and Purchase Decision Style: Comparison of Chinese Urban Differences

. Nowadays, China has a huge population and a vast territory. Different factors influence consumers everywhere. This paper explores the similarities and differences in cultural values, consumer perceptions of price and consumer purchase decision styles among consumers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China. The study mainly found that consumers in the South (Guangzhou and Shanghai) are more interested in the quality and substance of goods, while in contrast, consumers in the North (Beijing) are more interested in the brand, origin and packaging of goods. However, the similarity between the three cities is that they all value for money. In this regard, it is important that businesses take into account the different factors that affect consumers in different regions and further develop products or services that suit them.


Introduction
China has become one of the most important emerging markets in the world because of its rapidly growing population, its huge market and its rapid economic growth. In order to exploit the market potential, organization entering this market must first develop a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese consumer and a key way of doing this is to understand the consumer's decision making process (Cui & Liu, 2000). Early research explored the decision-making styles of Chinese customers and determined that Chinese consumers' cultural values were recognized, as were certain Chinese decision-making patterns (Fan & Xiao, 1998;Hiu et al., 2001).
Consumers in other regions' decision-making styles were not examined because of the study's predisposition to consider China as a specific cultural entity, which resulted in sampling consumers from almost all Chinese metropolitan centers (i.e. municipalities and province capitals) (Zhou et al., 2010). As a consequence, these results do not completely represent the geographical variety of consumer decision-making patterns in China, nor can they give appropriate tactical counsel for companies entering diverse regional marketplaces .
Consumers in other regions' decision-making styles were not examined because of the study's tendency to consider China as a single cultural entity, which resulted in sampling consumers from almost all Chinese metropolitan centers (i.e. municipalities and province capitals). As a consequence, these results do not completely represent the geographical variety of consumer decision-making patterns in China, nor do they give appropriate strategic counsel for enterprises entering diverse regional markets. ( (Lysonski et al., 1996;Zhou et al., 2010) should vary between cultures. The rural-urban divide in China is the most obvious geographical variation (Knight & Song, 1999). The facilities, productivity expansion, and personal wealth (Knight & Song, 1999;Li & Luo, 2007) of regions with varied degrees of urbanization are vastly different. We want to learn more about the connection between cultural value, perceived value, and the way consumers make purchasing decisions as a result of our research.

Perceived value
Many academics have evaluated perceived value from a variety of viewpoints (Sa´nchez-Ferna´ndez & Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007), and the widely acknowledged consumption-value theory (Sweeney & Soutar, 2001; Wang et al., 2004.) is one of the most prominent and commonly used.

Consumer decision-making styles
Underlying marketing experts and entrepreneurs, the reasons for customers' choices to buy a product or service are a constant and pressing problem. Consumer decision-making styles were discussed by Sproles and Kendall. This notion takes a consumer-centric approach to identifying the fundamental attitude and traits of shoppers. This idea is a mental picture of the beginning point and prospective aspects of consumer choice making that has epistemological and emotive qualities. (Sproles & Kendall, 1986 ).A significant number of academics have come around to the idea of consumer choice styles. Research on consumer behavior has placed a significant emphasis on identifying and validating these styles as an essential field of study (Xue, 2007). Researchers used Sproles and Kendall's (1986) consumer styles inventory (CSI) to confirm the existence of consumer decision-making styles across cultural backgrounds. (Durvasulaetal.,1993;Fan & Xiao, 1998;Hafstrom et al., 1992;Lysonski et al., 1996). However, country-specific categorization varied, and our study found fewer than the eight kinds given by Sproles and Kendall (1986). Particularly, consumer options in poor nations are restricted by (lack of) economic growth or government policy constraints. (Lysonski et al., 1996).
Past studies have revealed that cultural value influences consumer decision-making styles (Zhou et al., 2010). Zhou et al. (2010) argued that Differences in physical base and industrial development between coastal and inland regions of China result in consumers in these regions having different Although past research has not directly pointed out the relationship between perceived values and consumer decision styles, both constructs are specific to the specific shopping context. Because perceived value connects abstract cultural values to specific consumer behavioral attributes (Overby et al., 2005), and dimensions of perceived value are reflected in specific consumer decision styles (Sproles and Kendall,1986). Therefore, we can conclude that consumer decision style is a micro reflection of perceived value. Therefore, the perceived value of different regions should lead to different consumer decision styles.
Both variables are relevant to the current buying situation, even if previous research has not clearly brought out the connection (Overby et al., 2005) between perceived values and consumer choice patterns. When it comes to consumer behavior and decision making, perceived value relates abstract cultural ideals to particular consumer characteristics and aspects of perceived value. This means that the way consumers make decisions is a micro-reflection of how they value things ( Sproles and Kendall,1986). Therefore, consumers' decision-making techniques should change based on the perceived worth of various places.

Literature Review
There is a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and perceived value; however, there is a negative correlation between customer satisfaction and social value (price/value for money), whereas there is a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and emotional value (performance/quality) (Slack, 2020).
Over the last 15 years, cultural values have dominated scholarly and governmental discussions around arts and creative industries policy. The emphasis on how "economic worth" frequently appears to dominate other types of value in policy debates has been an important aspect of research in this field.

Academic Gap
There are many obstacles that hinder the exploration of consumer perceived value in the research process. On the one hand, the existing value constructs are too narrow, and dimensions other than price and quality would increase the usefulness of the constructs.  The existing literature that explores the relationship between benefit/sacrifice and perceived value does not adequately examine the influence of customer characteristics. Researchers should focus on paracritical and integrative perspectives in future studies of consumer perceived value and decision styles, depending on the specific context and/or different research objectives. (Fang & Wen, 2016).In addition to this, the effects of regional variables and purchasing environment were not analyzed. Also, the studies on culture and consumer decision making styles did not constitute a representative sample of the regions concerned. Geographical differences limit the generalizability of the study results.The geographical differences limits the generalizability of the findings. (Fan & Xiao 1998) Therefore, the following section of this studies is mainly to focus on the how the different cities effect the three concepts as mention before (consumer perceived value, cultural value and decisionmaking style). This passage contributes the advantages of varied cities as to consumer perceived value, cultural value and decision-making style, which located in different parts of China.

Methodology
Comparative studies are studies that demonstrate the ability to test and compare contrasting themes or ideas. comparative research describe the similarities or similarities between two topics the topics are different.(Delwyn Goodrick) Comparative research aids in defining the organizational structure of the subject matter and highlighting the differences between the subject matter. The emphasis of the comparative study is the contrasts between the two subjects, and the comparative aspect of the issue is clearly defined. Thus, it is clear that in comparative research we are comparing two things, or identifying their differences, or both. We should decide whether the two things being compared are more similar or more different.In comparative research, we study two or more cases, specimens, or events.
However, there are two main ways: 1. Descriptive comparison The purpose of descriptive comparison is to describe, and perhaps explain, the invariance of an object. It does not aim to produce change in the object; rather, it usually tries to avoid change. Normative comparison. A special type of comparative research is needed when the purpose is not only to detect and explain, but also to improve the status of the object or to help its development.A special kind of comparative comparison is needed when the purpose is not only to detect and explain, but also to improve the status of the object or to help its development. A special kind of comparative research is needed when the purpose is not only to detect and explain, but also to improve the current state of the object or to help improve or develop similar objects in the future. This is the technique of normative comparison. (Syed Aftab Hassan Bukhari)Compare with the single case study which is an in-depth studies of individual cases are usually conducted over time, such as a policy,program,intervention site,implementation process,or participants. Comparative studies can cover two or more cases.
Only in the case of when why and how questions are being poesd about the processes or outcomes of an intervention.What is more,when there is an opportunity for iterative data collection and analysis over the time frame of the intervention.(Delwyn Godrick).The steps outlined above must also be followed while conducting comparative case studies. Determine the KEQs and the objective of the assessment to see whether comparison studies are the best design for your study. In order to focus the comparison case studies, drawing or programming's proposal, identify original propositions.3. Identify the kind of cases that will be studied and how they will be studied. 4.Determine the method for gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing clues across instances. 5.Try to think of and test other possible reasons for the findings. 6.Inform others of the results..(Delwyn Godrick)

Findings
Three cities chosen to be indicators that help to illustrate how three elements (perceived value, cultural value and consumer decision-making styles) been effected in Guangzhou Beijing, and Shanghai. The literature, press release and second-hand data show that cultural characteristics and consumer psychology vary greatly from city to city in China.
Guangzhou is a kind of pragmatic and price-sensitive city. Guangzhou people are less interested in politics and are good at managing their money and investments. Guangzhou people prefer plain and practical products to formal things such as beautiful designs and brand names. Among the three major cities, Guangzhou consumers are the most sensitive to the practicality of goods and are also price sensitive. To enter the Guangzhou market, it is more effective to emphasize product value for money than appearance. For SMEs with little brand awareness, it is wise to choose Guangzhou, which has a strong sense of pragmatism.
Shanghai has preference for foreign brands and high price sensitivity. Shanghai consumers have a high preference for foreign products, saying "foreign" when they see a beautiful product and "rustic" when they are not satisfied with it. "This sometimes makes foreigners uncomfortable. Surveys show that in Shanghai, foreign household appliance brands are more popular than national companies. When advertising or marketing products there, it is necessary to emphasize that they are Sino-foreign joint ventures or foreign.
Of the three major cities, Beijing consumers are the least price sensitive. They have a strong sense of face and have a tendency to show off their purchases. Beijingers have a strong sense of face and like to show off when they spend. To cater for this mentality, premium product packaging can be used. In addition, Beijingers lead the three major cities in their love of national brands. Foreign companies entering the Beijing market should emphasize their sense of social responsibility or carry out social welfare activities such as reforestation and environmental protection, which are more likely to enhance their corporate image than in other regions.
In the first half of 2018, the per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents in Beijing was RMB 21,216, an increase of 7.0% year-on-year. Among the eight consumption components, per capita housing expenditure was RMB7,820, up 23.5% year-on-year; the proportion of per capita housing expenditure in consumption expenditure was as high as 36.9%. Beijing is the city with the highest level of house prices in China, and overall per capita housing expenditure is higher when rent prices have risen faster so far this year.
In contrast, As a first-tier city, Guangzhou not only has far less residential expenditure than Beijing. The low per capita housing expenditure in Guangzhou is partly due to the fact that the level of housing prices in Guangzhou itself is much lower than that in Beijing, which is also a first-tier city. And partly due to the fact that there are still a large number of urban villages in Guangzhou, it provides a large number of inexpensive accommodations for migrant workers, which to a large extent pulls down the per capita housing expenditure in Guangzhou.
However, while housing expenditure is relatively low, Guangzhou leads the 3 cities in spending on food, tobacco and alcohol, reaching 6,724 yuan, more than 2,600 yuan higher than Beijing. The share of expenditure on food, tobacco and alcohol in consumer spending (Engel's coefficient) was as high as 32.1%. However, a lower Engel's Coefficient is not always better, nor is it an accurate measure of a region's standard of living. In fact, food culture largely influences a country's Engel coefficient, with China taking food more seriously and investing more money in it, while developed Western countries such as the USA are relatively less 'fussy' about food, resulting in a relatively low Engel coefficient. The Engel's coefficient is more accurately measured in developed Western countries, but even in some Western tourist cities, such as some seaside cities in France, the Engel coefficient is higher due to the length of time spent on food and drink.
The Engel coefficient has a lot to do with lifestyle. Especially in these 3 China's big cities, where food and drink have long been settled, spending more on food and drink indicates that there is relatively less pressure to live in these cities and a greater willingness to spend on food and drink. Guangzhou, for example, has a strong willingness to spend on food, and can eat late into the night,

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Volume 21 (2022) 370 so spending more on food and drink is higher. One of the reasons for this is that property prices in Guangzhou are not as high as in other first-tier cities, so you can spend more on things other than housing, and probably have a better quality of life.
The data shows that in addition to spending on food, tobacco and alcohol, Guangzhou's per capita spending on education, culture and entertainment reached RMB 2,426 in the first half of the year, ranking first among these 3 cities in China. In 2020, Shanghai's per capita expenditure on food, tobacco and alcohol exceeds 11,000 yuan, and Shanghai's per capita expenditure on food, tobacco and alcohol reaches 11,224.7 yuan, the only province to exceed 10,000 yuan, but in terms of the proportion of expenditure on transport and communications, Shanghai is only 10.71%(First Financial, 2018).

Guangzhou's urban culture and the civic culture of Beijing and Shanghai
Guangzhou is a down-to-earth city, full of food culture, the unique morning tea culture, especially the retired aunts and uncles in Guangzhou would go to the teahouses in twos and threes early in the morning, especially at weekends when some of the teahouses would be full and there would be queues at every turn. There is a strong business culture, with a large number of Cantonese businessmen, and a real wealth hidden in the people.

Culture: the soul of Beijing's urban development
As a national cultural centre, the nature, connotation, structure and functions of Beijing's culture have both the universality of being a national capital and the specificity of Beijing as a regional city; at the same time, as a modern international city, the dimensions of Beijing's culture go far beyond the concept of a regional city. Therefore, neither its connotation, structure nor function is singular, but rather rich and multi-dimensional. Culture is the source of Beijing's charm. As China's premier district, Beijing's important role is certainly reflected in its special function as a political centre, but also in its irreplaceable position as a cultural centre(2018,Beijing Daily News).

Sea(Haipai) culture of Shanghai
Sea(Haipai) culture is known as the culture of Shanghai. In essence, it is a reference to European and American culture. It is based on the traditional culture of Jiangnan (Wu-Yue culture) and the modern industrial civilisation of Europe and America, which has had a profound influence on Shanghai since the opening of the port, and has gradually formed a cultural phenomenon unique to Shanghai. It has the classical and elegant style of the Jiangnan culture (Wu-Yue culture) and the modern and fashionable style of a cosmopolitan city. Sea Culture refers to a unique spiritual quality that has developed on the shores of Shanghai in recent years, going back as far as the modern era, a cultural form that is distinct from cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Nanjing, where traditional and foreign civilisations seem to have intermingled, and from cities such as Shaoxing and Suzhou, which have a strong Jiangnan flavour(Art China, 2018).

The Consumption Style of Three Cities
Guangzhou is comfortable and lacking in innovation. Guangzhou is more mundane and pragmatic, lacking in some dreams and sentiments. Guangzhou's simplicity is reflected in every aspect, the pursuit of real and comfortable, an unpretentious metropolis that gathers food, the skyscrapers that surround Tianhe in the centre of Guangzhou are dilapidated and overcrowded urban villages.
Beijing is atmospheric and gritty, and people in Beijing are particularly susceptible to being pumped up and fired up to strive. Beijing is home to the top elite in every industry in a barren land.
Shanghai has the pride of being the first metropolis in the Far East, and a foreign port city where Chinese and Western cultures intermingle to form the characteristics of the Haipai school, as well as the pomp and vanity of a commercial city, but life is easily distorted in the high density of living space, and the comfort of life leads to a lack of courage to change.
Shanghai is a metropolis with avant-garde clothing, fashionable and modern people. Shanghai and Guangzhou are arguably the forerunners of Chinese mercantile culture, but the difference between the two is that Shanghai is a culture that prioritises rules, while the Lingnan culture prioritises profit. The different cultural value could represents in vary way. For example, in eating habits, Cantonese will more prefer affordable,unpretentious Cantonese cuisine. By contrast, sophisticated, expensive Western cuisine will be popular in Shanghai and Beijing.
Hence, these three cases have been selected to indicate how consumer perceived value effect the consumer in three different cities. Dodds and William propose the concept of perceived value based on rationality.They argue that the perceived value of a product or brand is a function of the perceived benefits of the product or brand and the costs (time, money, etc.) of acquiring the product or brand. DODDS et al. (1991) mentioned also that the perceived value is an important factor influencing purchase intentions, the greater the perceived value the stronger the purchase intentions. But the path coefficient of perceived risk on purchase intentions is not significant.The experimental sample was selected from Guangzhou university students who use the Internet frequently. Perceived risk does not directly affect their willingness to shop online, but may indirectly affect their willingness to shop online through its effect on perceived value (Fan, 2010).
In Beijing, the demand for personalized travel services is gradually rising, as is the flexibility of travel times and destinations. Therefore, as a new trend, this case is discussed by Zhang (2020). She divides the perceived value of consumers into two parts. It proposes that the perceived value of online car consumers consists of two parts: perceived benefits and perceived costs, where perceived benefits include emotional, social and functional benefits, while perceived costs include risk costs and monetary costs. She also developed a model of online taxi consumer satisfaction, which can show that social benefit, functional benefit and emotional benefit are all positively related to consumer satisfaction. Both monetary costs and risk costs have significant negative effects on consumer satisfaction, with monetary costs having the largest effect and risk costs having a relatively small effect.
Pan (2009) take an experiment about elements about influence of customer perceived value on Chinese consumers' purchasing behavior. The experimental site was selected in Shanghai,via shanghai mobile phone market, a structural equation model of the customer's perceived value on purchasing behavior is elicited. Base on the structure, Pan has found three points. First, customer perceived value has a direct impact on Chinese consumers' cell phone purchasing behavior. The more consumers focus on the functional value of a product, the more frequently they replace their phones, implying a positive relationship between functional value and purchase frequency.
The second dimension, perceived cost, has a statistically significant effect on Chinese consumers' cell phone purchasing behavior. The more consumers pay attention to the perceived cost of a product, the lower the purchase price of a cell phone and the lower the frequency of cell phone replacement, which implies a negative shadow relationship between perceived cost and purchase price. Third, the effect of dimensional image value on Chinese consumers' cell phone purchasing behavior is statistically significant. The more consumers pay attention to the image value of the product, the higher the grade of the cell phone they buy and the more frequently they replace it, which means the effect of image value on purchase price and purchase frequency is positive (Pan, 2009).
Three of the chosen cities have their own characteristics. The difference in consumer perception is reflected in the difference in products, which in turn leads to the difference in the dimension of perceived value.
For intangible goods, consumers' perceived value comes more from the service experience. Consumers' perceived value comes from the service experience. In measuring the perceived value of luxury goods, consumers are concerned with the social value of the goods. When measuring the perceived value of luxury goods, consumers pay more attention to the social value and image value brought by the goods.
In Shanghai, the consumer decision-making style vary in recent year, especially in clothing market. So, the researcher Wei (2018) do an experiment about how decision making style will be effected.

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Volume 21 (2022) 372 By comparing 25 mid-range midsuit brands, she summarized the product portfolio scale chart and the number of stores category chart, which could conclude that decision making style is closely related to 5 factor.
Firstly is wage. The correlation between monthly income and age is quite significant, and it can be seen that the level of consumption is positively correlated with age, which is one of the reasons why the main consumer groups of brands positioning mid-to-high-end prices are over 30 years old. The insignificance between gender and monthly income suggests that gender is not a constraint on spending power.
Secondly,according to the Sample purchase intention line chart,the proportion of those with strong purchase intention is not very large, and most people show moderate purchase intention. There is a significant correlation between consumer purchase intention and consumer attitude; while there is no significant correlation between consumer price. In other words, the price factor is not really the main cause of purchase intention. Once purchase intention is manifested, price factors do not necessarily limit consumption. This segment of consumers, when purchasing Shanghai Chinese clothing, would be more inclined to choose brands that offer multiple models. It will be more inclined to choose brands that can offer multiple models for consumption. Finally, there is a significant correlation between consumer demand and purchase channels, which shows that Shanghai Clothing's regional clustered stores already have considerable popularity and reputation, with certain competitive advantages of differentiation (Wei, 2018).
In 2013, there were serious food safety hazards in Beijing. Thus, an experiment have done to investigate factors affecting consumer purchases. Wang uses option conjoint analysis to measure consumers' willingness to pay for pistachios, the data that he obtained is suitable Lancaster's random utility theory. According to the conditional logit model, four factors that influence consumer decisions in Beijing can be summarized. As a start, product quality attributes influence consumers' purchase decisions by affecting consumer utility.
To obtain higher consumer utility, consumers are willing to pay higher price premiums for product quality attributes such as origin and taste. Consumers are willing to pay a price premium for U.S. pistachios compared to domestic pistachios compared to Turkish pistachios. Meanwhile, the increase in income makes consumers willing to pay a higher premium for U.S. pistachios, but does not significantly increase their willingness to pay for domestic pistachios, with higher income groups preferring U.S. pistachios. For the third point, Beijing consumers prefer plain pistachios. Consumers are willing to pay a price for regular pistachios compared to sweet. Finally, consumers do not have a strong willingness to pay for the packaging attributes of nut foods. Consumers prefer to buy non-giftwrapped pistachios, but do not pay a premium for them, indicating a high propensity for rational consumption among Chinese consumers (Wang, 2019).
By the end of 2014, SUBWAY had just over 400 stores in China.An research which located in Guangzhou was carried out. Firstly, there are significant differences in the purchase decision behavior of Guangzhou SUBWAY consumers by age group. There are significant differences in the purchase decision behavior of Guangzhou SUBWAY consumers by age group. Consumers between the ages of 23 and 29 had the greatest buy behavior ratings, while those under 22 have the lowest. Consumers between the ages of 23 and 29 had the greatest buy behavior ratings, while those under 22 have the lowest. More 23-29 year old consumers Consumers between the ages of 23 and 29 are more open to new experiences and attuned to western preferences, thus they are the most active purchasers of Guangzhou SUBWAY. Consumers under the age of 22 lack buying power and are not financially independent, hence they have less purchasing power for the more expensive SUBWAY.
Second, the greater the degree of personalization, the more likely SUBWAY customers in Guangzhou will buy. Guangzhou SUBWAY customers' purchasing decisions are highly influenced by personalization, according to a multiple linear regression research. Customization has the greatest influence on Guangzhou SUBWAY customers' buying decisions, demonstrating that SUBWAY's unique ordering methodology is popular. Customization has the most significant impact on Guangzhou SUBWAY customers' buying decisions, according to the findings of a multiple linear regression study. Due to the one-of-a-kind nature of SUBWAY's ordering system, the company is able to provide customers a variety of culinary items that are uniquely their The personalized marketing approach is perfectly suited to fulfill the demands of individual customers.
Thirdly,the better the service, the more likely Guangzhou SUBWAY consumers will buy. As people's standard of living increases, so does the demand for food service. The level of service has a significant impact on customer loyalty and the reputation of the company. Therefore, the better the service, the more likely consumers are to dine at Guangzhou SUBWAY (Xu, 2016).
Overall, urban consumers in economically developed areas place more importance on quality and brand than on price. In terms of cultural differences, northern consumers place more importance on quality and reputation and less on brand, while southern consumers place more importance on price and brand compared to northern consumers, but both urban and rural consumers, both northern and southern, place great importance on the cost effectiveness of goods (Deng, 2015).  do an study of how cultural values, consumer perceived values and purchase decision styles effect Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou's consumers. All three these selected cities are all suit their assumptions (There are significant differences in cultural values among consumers in different regions of China with different levels of urbanization; There are significant differences in perceived value among consumers in different regions of China with different degrees of urbanization; There are significant differences in purchase decision styles among consumers in different regions of China with different degrees of urbanization).The first point is that the way consumers make decisions is directly or indirectly influenced by cultural values. Differences in cultural values are partially reflected in differences in perceived value, which further influence consumers' price consciousness, brand consciousness, and quality consciousness in their purchase decisions. Past research on consumer decision styles has neglected to explore the antecedents of their formation, which has led to difficulties and inconsistencies in the understanding of consumer decision styles.
Second, in terms of openness, self-transcendence, and self-improvement, consumers in metropolitan regions, small and medium-sized cities, counties, and rural areas considerably vary from one another in terms of their cultural values. Consumers in urban regions are more likely to be swayed by the importance of transparency, followed by consumers in small and medium-sized cities, then counties, and finally consumers in rural areas, in that order. This results in considerable disparities in the social and functional value aspects of perceived value for consumers in each location, with customers placing a higher value on the social and functional value of goods and services in regions that are more urbanized.These differences in cultural and perceived values, in turn, lead to the strongest price consciousness in the purchase decisions of consumers in rural areas and the strongest brand and quality consciousness in the purchase decisions of consumers in metropolitan areas.
From the above findings, the antecedents of consumer purchase decision styles are cultural and perceived values, and that there are significant differences in the cultural values of consumers in different urbanized areas, which lead to differences in perceived values and consumer purchase decision styles (Su et al., 2013).

Conclusion and Discussion
In all, consumers in Shanghai and Guangzhou prefer simple, functional items over more ornate ones, and they place a higher value on appealing designs, well-known brands, and overall perceived quality and value for money. Because the people of Beijing like to brag, they love imported goods, particularly those from well-known international names. The cost of food, alcohol, and cigarettes are all higher in the three cities studied. Guangzhou is the least costly of the three cities to live in because of its Lingnan culture, which discourages people from overspending on luxury products. Shanghai and Beijing, on the other hand, have strong cultural values that lead to a preference for more contemporary and cutting-edge items.

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Volume 21 (2022) 374 As a result of the demographic profile of the people who live in Guangzhou, the city's consumers have a consistent and uncreative decision-making style. As a result, their consumption choices are not readily altered and tend to favor customers who are older. Because Beijing is such a youthful city, its population has a high turnover rate, which results in a huge workforce and significant buying power. As a result, Beijing consumers should make diversified purchase options. Because of their demographics, customers in Shanghai and Beijing are more likely to favor Western cuisine over Cantonese food, which is a popular option among Cantonese consumers. The Shanghai consumer loves to purchase brands that are intelligent, cost efficient, and occasionally pricey. We know that monetary cost is the most significant element affecting Beijing customers, followed by risk cost, both of which are adversely associated to perceived price. This was discovered via research into the perceived value that Beijing consumers have of a product or service.
When it comes to food, Beijingers are quite fussy about where their food comes from, as well as the flavor and quality of what they eat, and they are ready to pay a premium to do so. It isn't only the taste of the food or the provenance of the brand that influences customers' propensity to purchase. Most consumers in Guangzhou prefer to prepare their own food, which allows them to better meet their individual nutritional needs and has a positive impact on the purchasing decisions they make. This preference is largely due to two factors: the consumer's age and his or her financial ability and willingness to try new things. The second notion is that customers should be involved in the preparation of their meals. A third factor is that as a service sector, clients are increasingly demanding more than just the flavor and aesthetics of their meals; they are also looking for excellent service from their waiters.
Fourthly, people are more likely to purchase products if they like the way they taste. Even if the business is not in a very convenient location, the delectable cuisine will convince most customers to return for more purchases. Fifthly, the atmosphere of the store is pleasant, which enables customers to be serviced while also being drawn in by the brand culture, which in turn influences the customers' purchasing choices. Sixthly, the speed at which food is delivered will also cause customers to rethink their judgments. Because the pace of life in China is continually quickening, the speed at which food is delivered will also become an essential issue for consumers to consider when evaluating a restaurant.
This article investigates the cultural values, pricing perceptions, and decision-making methods of customers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou via a series of case studies. Therefore, the article will provide suggestions in these areas.
(1) Direct and adapt one's products and marketing strategies toward certain demographics of customers. For instance, in Guangzhou, a city with a high proportion of elderly people, you may have more success selling products aimed at middle-aged and elderly consumers. On the other hand, in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which have a high proportion of young people, you may have more success selling fashionable, trendy, or expensive luxury goods.
(2) Take use of the distinctions in regional or ethnic culture. You can take advantage of consumers' curiosity and make their purchases go more smoothly by combining the various cultures that are found in each city and launching what is known as "city merchandise." For instance, you can combine the culture of Beijing's Tiananmen Square with ice cream by making the ice cream look like a Tiananmen Square. This will allow you to combine culture with merchandise.
(3) Take advantage of the fact that things are scarce and sell them for a limited season to capitalize on the "sell one less" mentality that consumers have, which will allow for a large number of items to be sold in a short amount of time. This will allow for a greater number of items to be sold overall.
(4) Because China is a nation that adheres to the principles of Feng Shui, taking advantage of the harmony of the language and altering the brand name to one that has the same pronunciation as the previous one may go a long way toward generating customer interest in the product.
(5) Additional design on the outer packaging according to the different age groups of the goods; for instance, more cartoon and animation images can be designed on the packaging for younger consumers as a way to attract their attention; this can be done in accordance with the age groups of the goods. The corporation need to adapt the packaging for older customers with bigger letters, making it possible for even people with impaired vision to grasp what's being sold.
Finally, the limitations of this paper is as below: First, this article is devoid of quantitative analysis. The paper lacks a deep examination of particular examples, and the substantial research does not cover all target audiences. Therefore, the study instances in this paper are not thorough, and there are significant flaws. Second, the city sample is insufficiently representative. As the sole consumer literature included in this research is from Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, these three cities are not typical of all Chinese consumers; hence, the findings may be limited. Future research need more representative cities to cover and make some empirical quantitative analysis like big data regression and machine learning.