Consuners Flashcards
What is consumer responsibility about
How as a consumer you may enact responsibly towards the environment
Business has been designed to make consumers focus on the insignificant elements of life asking how many created wants can we satisfy
Are we just mindless consumers, passive in the marketplace?
What are the good elements of consumption
Sustains people and produces aggregate happiness and prosperity
Consumer me are intimately sovereign and and powerful within the market
What are the negative aspects of consumption
Concerns regarding consumption and materialism
Are we happier because we live in a vibrant society
Constantly persuaded to consume more, to find this we take on more work and responsibility and hence more stress
Adverts highlight potential material distatisfaction
Stress and vulnerability largely associated with big jobs
Material goods put pressure on the environment
Consumption has become about culture and cultural identity
What are the politics of purchasing
Consumers are the captain and the entrepreneur obeys their orders
Consumerism can be used to provide a critique of markets
We should put moral constraints on consumption- less demand- less production- less jobs (ethics)
What does consumer sovereignty suggest
Can use purchases to vote
Can resist or even decide to opt out of consumerist lifestyle and the problems it creates
What are the 3 types of consumers
Ethical consumers
Sustainable consumers
Anti consumers.
What is the definition of ethical consumption
Conscious and deliberate choice to make certain consumption choices due to moral beliefs and values
Who are ethical consumers
Environmentalists
Vegans
Veggies
People concerned with labour standards
Take the ability to make rational ethical choices into the market
Ethical consumer magazine can guide on consumption
What is the definition of sustainable consumption
The use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring better quality of life while minimising the use of natural resources as to not jepodise future generations
What are anti consumers
Try to reduce total consumption
Do not believe in the consumerist thesis l- that more goods make you happy
They think less consumerism is better than sustainable consumerism
Encourage international buy nothing day
What are the limitations of consumer responsibility
Whilst differences between consumer groups are recognised, differences within segments and people are less understood
Why do people want a responsible holiday
Want to participate in the responsible experience (community benefit, group benefit and individual benefit)
Want to be involved in responsible tourism
Can be presented on a continuum of inner directed v outer directed and high involvement v low involvement
What were the outcomes of the responsible consumer study
Would’ve though most people fell into upper right quadrant but it was actually only 25-30 percent
30% bottom left
To think the idea that there are 3 types of responsible consumer is perhaps idealistic. They perhaps are not heterogenous
Ethical issues and the consumer
Product policy Marketing communications Pricing Distribution Marketing strategy Market research
What are the issues with communication
Individual- misleading and deceptive Aggregate social and cultural Intrusive and unavoidable Create artificial wants Reinforce consumerism and materialism Create insecurity and perceptual distatisfaction Perpetuate social sterotypes
What are the ethical issues in pricing
Right to fair price Excessive pricing Price fixing Predatory pricing Deceptive pricing
What are the 2 ethical issues associated with firm strategy
Right to be treated fairly can be violated in 2 ways
Target vulnerable customer
Certain groups are discriminated against
Consumer exclusion
What are the issues of globalisation and ethics
Reproduce consumerism and disarisfscton
Dislocation of production and consumption
Cultural homogenisation
New forms of resistance
What is the consumer sovereignty test? Smith (1995)
Consumer capability- freedom from vulnerability or coercion
Information- availability and quality of relevant data
Choice - extent of the opportunity to freely switch
What are some facts about ethical consumption
1 third of uk customers are seriously concerned with ethical issues
70% said CSR was important
Market for ethical products is 9bn growing 6 tones faster than the overall markets
What does hertz say
Instead of show me up at the voting booth people are turning to corporations
Cast your vote at the supermarket and shareholder meetings and you will be heard
E.g child labour and footwear
What are the downsides to ethical consumption
Motive for responsibility of corporations will always be economic rather than moral
Market choices depend on willingness to pay
Rich get more voting power than the poor - the market is hardly democratic
What does Buchholz say needs to change to society to make us more sustainable
New environmental ethic that provides moral limits to consumption
But the ideology of consumption is deeeply emebedded in society
Real challenge is the introduce alternative growth means
What steps can be taken to achieve a more sustainable consumption
Product recapture
Service replacements - mud jeans
Product sharing - mobility
Reducing demand- manadorty procing for bags
