Consumers
Consumers are the keys to Strategically Getthing Ahead with E-Commerce Development Solutions!
The word "Consumer" is a broad term or label that refers to any individuals that use goods and services. The core fundamental purpose of
business, commerce and/or
trade is to turn Consumers into
Customers by providing them the goods and services they want and need.
To do this we at eCommerceDevelopment.com strongly encourage business owners, goods and service
providers to carefully consider what the Consumers within your market reach really and truly want and need. To do this we recommend you take some
time to carefully empathize with them. By that we mean to try to put yourself in their shoes
and connect with them in ways that are, unfortunately, not common enough in the present day fast-paced world we live in. This fundamental aspect to
business is what is often overlooked and as Harvard Business School and many of the tiop business schools of our time teach as being the main
caise to why so many businesses fail during the first few years of operation.
The concept of a consumer is used in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary. Below we will discuss some of
these general concepts in order to help shed more light on consumers:
Consumer In Economics and Marketing
Typically, when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about a person as a consumer, an aggregated
commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend
in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profile and psycho graphic profiles of
market segments, marketers are engaging in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.
There is increasing backlash from the public over use of the label "consumer" rather than "customer", with many finding it
offensive and derogatory. Again eCommerceDevelopment.com strongly recommends that business owners,
carefully consider on a far more personal level what the Consumers within your market really and truly want and need, by focusing more of your
personal time and energy into carefully empathizing with Consumers, so as to best provide
them with what they most want and need.
Consumers In Law and Politics
Within law, the notion of consumers is primarily used in relation to consumer protection laws, and the definition of consumer is
often restricted to living persons (i.e. not corporations or businesses) and excludes commercial users.[3] A typical legal
rationale for protecting the consumer is based on the notion of policing market failures and inefficiencies, such as inequalities
of bargaining power between a consumer and a business. As of all potential voters are also consumers, consumer protection takes
on a clear political significance.
Concern over the interests of consumers has also spawned much activism, as well as incorporation of consumer education into school
curricula. There are also various non-profit publications, such as Consumer Reports and Choice Magazine, dedicated to assist in
consumer education and decision making, and Consumer Direct in the UK.
Alpha Consumers
Alpha Consumers are people that play a key role in connecting with the concept behind a product, then adopting that product, and
finally validating it for the rest of society. The term was coined by entertainment economist Michael Wolf in 1999 and published
in his book The Entertainment Economy.
The example given by Michael Wolf in The Entertainment Economy was: “The first few people to see the next hot movie, the first
few people to own a cellular phone, the first few people to wear the new pastels and brights—all achieve a status boost by being
in the know, being the one others follow. I call these trendsetters “alpha consumers.” Theirs is the key role of connecting with
the concept behind a product, then adopting that product, and finally validating it for the rest of society. If hits are like
explosions, alphas are at the epicenter. They feel the first vibrations of the explosion and transmit them to the rest of the
culture. Alphas are not the same for every product. The women who flocked to the touchy-feely movie The Bridges of Madison County
followed their daughters to Titanic. The college music fans who discovered Hootie & the Blowfish were different from the VH1
audience that made them a national phenomenon. The first Jeep buyers were a far cry from the soccer moms now cruising about
in their nine-seater Suburbans.”
"Watch the cool kids, the alpha consumers, today, and you can see what everybody else will be doing a year from now." Composed of:
'alpha' (something that is first) + 'consumer' (one who buys goods and services).
Apparent meaning: one who picks up on trends before they become trends, perhaps creating or fueling the trend; used as a predictor
for what will be popular in a few weeks or months.
Type of word formation: compound of 'alpha' + 'consumer'
Reason used: The author was describing companies that profit by predicting trends in consumer goods. One way that they did this
was by watching the habits of certain groups of people who tended to be the first to pick up on or even start the trend.
These consumers, since they were the 'first,' were given the designation 'alpha.'
Dictionary entry: Alpha consumer, n. - one who starts a trend or picks it up very early, often long before the rest of the
population, usu. used as a predictor of economic trends ('this pattern was seen among alpha consumers months ago') [compound
of 'alpha' + 'consumer']
Consumer theory
Consumer theory is a theory of microeconomics that relates preferences to consumer demand curves. The link between personal
preferences, consumption, and the demand curve is one of the most complex relations in economics. Implicitly, economists
assume that anything purchased will be consumed, unless the purchase is for a productive activity.
Preferences are the desires by each individual for the consumption of goods and services, and ultimately translate into
employment choices based on abilities and the use of the income from employment for purchases of goods and services to be
combined with the consumer's time to define consumption activities.
Consumption is separated from production, logically, because two different consumers are involved. In the first case
consumption is by the primary individual; in the second case, a producer might make something that he would not consume himself.
Therefore, different motivations and abilities are involved.
The models that make up consumer theory are used to represent prospectively observable demand patterns for an individual
buyer on the hypothesis of constrained optimization.
Prominent variables used to explain the rate at which the good is purchased (demanded) are the price per unit of that good,
prices of related goods, and wealth of the consumer.
The fundamental theorem of demand states that the rate of consumption falls as the price of the good rises. This is called
the substitution effect. As prices rise, consumers will substitute away from higher priced goods and services, choosing less
costly alternatives. Subsequently, as the wealth of the individual rises, demand increases, shifting the demand curve higher
at all rates of consumption. This is called the income effect. As wealth rises, consumers will substitute away from less costly
inferior goods and services, choosing higher priced alternatives.
Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often
associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism.
Veblen's subject of examination, the newly emergent middle class arising at the turn of the twentieth century, comes to full
fruition by the end of the twentieth century through the process of globalization.
In economics, consumerism refers to economic policies placing emphasis on consumption. In an abstract sense, it is the belief
that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society (cf. Producerism, especially in the British
sense of the term).
Consumerism has strong links with the Western world, but is in fact an international phenomenon. People purchasing goods
and consuming materials in excess of their basic needs (subjective) is as old as the first civilizations (see Ancient Egypt,
Babylon and Ancient Rome, for example).
A great turn in consumerism arrived just before the Industrial Revolution. While before the norm had been the scarcity of
resources, The Industrial Revolution created an unusual situation: for the first time in history products were available in
outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices, being thus available to virtually everyone. And so began the era of mass
consumption, the only era where the concept of consumerism is applicable.
It's still good to keep in mind that since consumerism began, various individuals and groups have consciously sought an
alternative lifestyle, such as the "simple living", "eco-conscious", and "localvore"/"buy local" movements.
Consumerism, the promotion of consumer rights and protection. Subject to the doctrine of caveat emptor (Latin, "let the buyer
beware").
The older term and concept of "conspicuous consumption" originated at the turn of the 20th century in the writings of sociologist
and economist, Thorstein Veblen. The term describes an apparently irrational and confounding form of economic behaviour.
Veblen's scathing proposal that this unnecessary consumption is a form of status display is made in darkly humorous observations
like the following:
"It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very
considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent
amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go
ill clad in order to appear well dressed." (The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899).
The term "conspicuous consumption" spread to describe consumerism in the United States in the 1960s, but was soon linked to
debates about media theory, culture jamming, and its corollary productivism.
“By 1920 most people [Americans] had experimented with occasional installment buying."
Webster's dictionary defines Consumerism as "the promotion of the consumer's interests" or alternately "the theory that an
increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable". It is thus the opposite of anti-consumerism or of producerism.
- Anti-consumerism is the socio-political movement against consumerism. In this meaning, consumerism is the equating of
personal happiness with the purchasing material possessions and consumption.
- In relation to producerism, it is the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of
a society, rather than the interests of producers. It can also refer to economic policies that place an emphasis on consumption.
Modern Consumerism in the 21st century
Beginning in the 1990s, the most frequent reason given for attending college had changed to making a lot of money, outranking
reasons such as becoming an authority in a field or helping others in difficulty. This statement directly correlates with the
rise of materialism, specifically the technological aspect. At this time compact disc players, digital media, personal computers,
and cellular telephones all began to integrate into the affluent American’s everyday lifestyle. Madeline Levine criticized what
she saw as a large change in American culture – “a shift away from values of community, spirituality, and integrity, and toward
competition, materialism and disconnection.”
Businesses have realized that wealthy consumers are the most attractive targets for marketing their products. The upper class'
tastes, lifestyles, and preferences trickle down to become the standard which all consumers seek to emulate. The not so wealthy
consumers can “purchase something new that will speak of their place in the tradition of affluence”. A consumer can have
the instant gratification of purchasing an expensive item that will help improve their social status.
Emulation is also a core component of 21st century consumerism. As a general trend, regular consumers seek to emulate those who
are above them in the social hierarchy. The poor strive to imitate the wealthy and the wealthy imitate celebrities and other icons.
The celebrity endorsement of products can be seen as evidence of the desire of modern consumers to purchase products partly or
solely to emulate people of higher social status. This purchasing behavior may co-exist in the mind of a consumer with an image
of oneself as being an individualist.
See Consumer Bill of Rights
References
- Cross, Robert G. (1997). Revenue management: hard-core tactics for market domination. Broadway Books. pp. 66–71. ISBN 0-553-06734-6.
- http://mistinthegarden.com/2009/02/04/dont-call-me-a-consumer/
- Krohn, Lauren (1995). Consumer protection and the law: a dictionary. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-87436-749-2.
- "An Institutional Analysis of Consumer Law". Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. http://law.vanderbilt.edu/journals/journal/35-01/overby.htm. Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
- Michael Wolf - Random House, New York 1999 ISBN 0-8129-3042-8 ISBN 0967450659
- Rice University Definition Database
- See for example: Janet Luhrs's "The Simple Living Guide" (NY: Broadway Books, 1997); Joe Dominquez, Vicki Robin et al., "Your Money or Your Life" (NY: Penguin Group USA, 2008)
- See for example: Alan Durning, "How Much is Enough: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth" (NY: W.W. Norton, 1992)
- See for example: Paul Roberts, "The End of Food" (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2008); Michael Shuman, "The Small-mart Revolution" (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007)
- Veblen, Thorstein (1899): The Theory of the Leisure Class: an economic study of institutions, Dover Publications, Mineola, N.Y., 1994, ISBN 0-486-28062-4. (also available: Project Gutenberg e-text)
- "Consumerism". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Online. 2008.
- Levine, Madeline. “Challenging the Culture of Affluence.” Independent School. 67.1 (2007): 28-36.
- Miller, Eric. Attracting the Affluent. Naperville, Illinois: Financial Sourcebooks, 1991.
- Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia
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