Consumerism means the movement of the public and the state in order to support the rights and opportunities of consumers in relations with commodity producers, suppliers. The concept appeared in the late 1960s, it replaced another concept - "consumer sovereignty". This is a kind of transition from the economy of producers to the economy of consumers.
What is consumerism?
Consumerism is a movement in a society whose goal is to protect, expand the rights of consumers. This movement is called consumerism. The consumer is an important link in the system of economic, market relations. Between the manufacturer of the goods, their buyer always there were disagreements, the state tried to regulate them by means of laws.
Philosophy of Consumerism
In philosophy, the notion of consumerism is opposed to creation as a life concept. For example, the consumer is working to consume, and the creator is working for the benefit of mankind, for the sake of self-realization , satisfaction of creative ambitions. Although the producer also consumes in the process of his life, consumption is not his goal, a deity.
In the modern world, two processes have emerged:
- the rooting of the philosophy of consumerism;
- the development of creative directions.
If earlier a person understood himself as "I am my principles", now he thinks himself up as "I am my things". For consumers, there is a thirst for many unnecessary things, the desire to acquire goods of well-known brands. When creating luxury goods, knickknacks for production, a lot of materials are needed, so necessary to create really necessary things. As a result, the industry that produces objects for life suffers a loss.
Consumerism in marketing
Consumerism is a movement of citizens with the aim of expanding the rights of consumers, ensuring the quality of goods. Success directly depends on how much the product, advertising, service meet the needs of the buyer. Consumerism and its importance for marketing play an important role. Only if the manufacturer learns to understand what is necessary for the consumer, what are his real realities, needs, then the company's revenues will gradually increase:
- The success of any enterprise will depend on the consumer, whether he wants to buy something, pay for it.
- The company needs to know the needs of customers long before production begins.
- It is necessary to constantly monitor, analyze the needs of customers.
Consumerism and environmentalism
Since for many people business is considered the cause of economic and social disasters, two trends emerged in the society: consumerism and environmentalism, which are aimed at improving the state of the environment. In response to environmentalism, companies have developed environmentally friendly products from self-decomposing packaging materials. In a society there was such direction, as konsyumerizatsija, directed on introduction of consumer devices (tablets, smart phones) in electronic system of the enterprise.
In other words, consumerization is a process that allows employees to use consumer devices to perform business tasks. Due to this, employees have the right to choose independently, where, how and with what devices they conduct work. This is convenient, increases pipe productivity and saves time .
Consumerism - the pros and cons
The following advantages of consumerism can be distinguished:
- customer satisfaction;
- an equitable distribution of resources among the population;
- access of consumers to information;
- participation in decision-making;
- price reduction to acceptable;
- the development of a pan-European energy conservation strategy.
Consumerism and marketing are inseparable. But this movement is able to realize itself only in a society where people are interested in what they are buying and they are eager to protect themselves from low-quality products. If the importance of consumerism in the modern world increases, this direction can displace low-quality goods from the market, and their producers.