History of Consumer Movements
Discuss about the Origin of online consumer movements.
Technology has changed how consumers search, buy and consume products in the market. Digital revolution has empowered customers with the gift of choice. Before customers make a purchase online or in shopping stores they have to research more about the product. This has led to consumer advocacy groups called consumer movements. Consumer movements’ main goal is to ensure customers get value for their money. They protect customers from exploitation and demand the best of products and services from businesses. This has created new challenges to marketers in segmenting, promoting and advertising products and services in the tradition conservative channels. Most of online consumer movements can be studied from the shopping and purchasing behaviors of customers. Some movements start as complains and gradually evolve into mainstream organizations championing customers’ needs. Online consumer movements have similar features which we will explore in this paper. With research proving that most consumers use the internet to research on products. Mainstream online consumer movements like Consumer Reports and Get Satisfaction have emerged. Customers also rely on ratings, customers’ feedback and reviews most of which are available on these online platforms to make decisions.
Research has shown that consumer movements started at the begging of the twentieth century. One of the first movements was the National Consumers League (NLC) which was founded in 1899. NLC was the first consumer lobby group that was distinctively concerned with championing of consumers recognition (Hemetsberger, 2012). This was different from previous consumer campaigns that only advocated for better prices and safe products.
NLC used the Marxian approach that identified consumers as helpless victims of an unfair economic system designed to exploit consumers. NLC argument was that businesses were only interested in profit making and not improving the lives of consumers. To achieve consumer protection goals NLC advocated for consumers to change their consumption behaviors. They further lobbied the government to put restrictions on businesses as a measure of protecting consumers.
The twenty first century has seen a shift in consumer movements to online digital platforms. Social media has given every consumer a voice and a right to praise or complain about a given product or service (Kozinets, 2014). Marketers have also adopted digital approach to remain competitive in very dynamic markets. Customers’ issues are automated with instant responses. Online consumer movements have helped organizations
The main function of any consumer movement is to protect the rights of consumers from unfair trade practices and exploitation. These functions can also include the following:
Functions of Consumer Movements
Consumers have a right to be protected from unsafe products that may cause harm to their health (Qiu, L.2015). This has been evident in some products that have been sued for causing cancer or obesity to customers. It’s the duty of the consumer movement to research on the ingredients and raw materials used in making different products. Example some electronic gadgets like phones have to found to contain high amounts of lead metal that are harmful to human health. Also consumers have witnessed some motor vehicles being recalled for not following proper safety standards.
In a free economy product prices are determined by the market forces of demand and supply. When these forces are favorable to traders, they take advantage to maximize on profits. Charging high prices is a common practice in most markets (Sandlin, 2010). Consumer movements step in to ensure that traders are protected from this form of exploitation by unscrupulous traders. This has been very evident in the oil market. Economic blocks like OPEC have stepped in several times to measures on the price of oil. At times even penalizing countries that tend to exploit consumers.
Monopolies create unfair trade practices. This has been evident mostly in the telecommunication industry. Online consumer movements have on several occasions advocated for fair trading rules that allow competition. Consumers gain when different businesses fairly compete to provide better services and goods. Several consumer movements have petitioned government organizations to form authorities like the Competition authority to prevent monopolies from taking advantage of consumers.
Having an educated consumer is very important in protecting the rights of consumers. Online consumer movements develop webinars, online feature contents and videos to inform and educate consumers. This training can be in safety or health issues related to using particular products. For example in the pharmaceutical industry, online lobby groups inform users of particular products on the side effects (Handler, J.F., 2012). This is very important as most traders only focus on making profits.
Online consumer movements pressure authorities to put rules and regulations that ensure they are protected and not exploited. This has been evident in the financial sector in most developed countries (Sam, M., 2013). During the financial crunch in the USA lobby groups petitioned the government to rein on the financial institutions against unfair practices that saw very many investors loss their mortgages and properties.
Online consumer movements have a lot of customer’s data (Wang, Y.J., 2013). They research and analyze this data to businesses in the aim of improving products and services.
Mainstream Online Consumer Movements
There are several consumer movements online.Some are mainstream organizations with clear mandate and objectives while others have aren’t. Examples include www.consumerreports.org and www.getsatisfaction.com websites for online consumer movements.
Consumer Reports was first founded in 1936. It has been in operation for more than eighty years and in the begging of the digital transformation, changed to digital platforms with a massive online presence (Jones, G. 2015). Consumer Reports has achieved substantial success in ensuring the rights of consumers are safeguarded. These ranges from demanding better financial and health services. Product safety is also one of their key concerns in food, cars and household products.
With a membership of more than seven million users, Consumer Reports guides consumers in different markets. Through research and reviews customers have gained a lot by making informed choices for the Consumer Reports website.
Get Satisfaction is based in San Francisco and was one of the first online consumer movements to be formed in the USA. Its main responsibility is ensuring consumers are engaged with businesses that provide products and services. Some of the clients that Get Satisfaction serves include PG, HootSuite and Adobe, This are businesses that have millions of customers across the globe.
Get Satisfaction champions consumer rights by researching and advising producers on customers’ feedback. This guides organizations to deliver products and services that meet client’s expectations (Roux, D., 2017). With a massive online presence, Get Satisfaction is a force in online business community to be reckoned.
The impacts of online consumer movements are both positive and negative to consumers and organizations.
Quality improvement – Close monitoring of products and services provided by companies have improved. This has translated to more sales for businesses because when product’s meet consumers’ expectations, they purchase more. These have also translated to innovation as company’s research and invest more in product development.
Quick dispute resolutions – Mostly in cases of refunds or replacement of goods and services, online consumer movements have come in handy in very many ways. For example in insurance claims and mortgage disputes that may involve lengthy legal battles, online consumer movements help in settlements.
Ease of accessibility – It may be challenging for consumers to meet with company management to raise their issues. It is relatively easy to approach online consumer movements as they are online.
Available to only the online community – Not all consumers are on online platforms or have access to internet services. This limits mostly consumers in developing countries.
Positive and Negative Effects of Online Consumer Movements
Lack of privacy – Most online movements use social media sites that lack confidentiality. This limits most consumers from addressing their issues.
Technical challenges – Complains and issues raised by consumers most of the time require expert analysis. This has proved to be challenging to be addressed through online channels.
Government enforcement – To give power to online consumer movements the government through its agencies and ministries should champion enforcement of rules and regulations. This is more practical in situations where legislative or legal policies have to be implemented.
Comprehensive protection – The works of consumer movements should be expanded to not only online users. With digital penetration still a challenge in very places in the world. Businesses with global presence are compelled to look for more innovative ways to accommodate all their customers.
Improve content championing – With more relevant digital content online, consumers will be knowledgeable and empowered to make right choices.
Conclusion
Businesses understand that their main purpose of existence is to serve their customers in the best way possible. Online consumer movements should complement businesses goals and objectives and not oppressive. In mature developed markets the relationship between consumer behavior and services should be mutual. Research has proved that online consumer movement’shave the potential to break or make a business
References
Hemetsberger, A., 2012. When David Becomes Goliath-Ideological Discourse in New Online Consumer Movements. ACR North American Advances.
Kozinets, R.V. and Handelman, J.M., 2014. Adversaries of consumption: Consumer movements, activism, and ideology. Journal of consumer research, 31(3), pp.691-704.
Mayer, R.N., 1989. Consumer Movements.John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Qiu, L. and Benbasat, I., 2015. Online consumer trust and live help interfaces: The effects of text-to-speech voice and three-dimensional avatars. International journal of human-computer interaction, 19(1), pp.75-94.
Sandlin, J.A., 2010. Netnography as a consumer education research tool. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31(3), pp.288-294.
Handler, J.F., 2012. Social movements and the legal system: A theory of law reform and social change.
Sam, M., Fazli, M. and Tahir, M.N.H., 2013. Website quality and consumer online purchase intention of air ticket.
Wang, Y.J., Minor, M.S. and Wei, J., 2011. Aesthetics and the online shopping environment: Understanding consumer responses. Journal of Retailing, 87(1), pp.46-58.
Jones, G. and Richardson, M., 2015.An objective examination of consumer perception of nutrition information based on healthiness ratings and eye movements. Public health nutrition, 10(3), pp.238-244.
Mellet, K., Beauvisage, T., Beuscart, J.S. and Trespeuch, M., 2014.A “democratization” of markets? Online consumer reviews in the restaurant industry. Valuation Studies, 2(1), pp.5-41.
Denegri-Knott, J., Zwick, D. and Schroeder, J.E., 2016.Mapping consumer power: an integrative framework for marketing and consumer research. European Journal of Marketing, 40(9/10), pp.950-971.
Roux, D., 2017. Consumer resistance: proposal for an integrative framework. Rechercheet Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 22(4), pp.59-79.
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