Concept of Consumerism

Consumerism and Need for Consumerism

Concept of Consumerism

It is the social force protecting the consumer and aiding the consumer. In other words, it is an organised effort to fight against the unfair marketing practices with a view to secure consumer protection. Consumerism is the society’s attempt to bring back the balance in the exchange between the buyers and sellers as the strength of power is normally in favour of sellers rather than buyers.

The term consumerism came into existence in the early 1960s when it was coined by the business community in the western world particularly in America. It is the social force designed to protect the interest of consumers by organising the consumers to bring pressure on the business community to ensure protection.

Producers, sellers and service providers give importance to the consumers. In a sense every one of us is a consumer. It may be individuals, families and institutions. They consume a variety of products and avail a number of services almost every day. You buy textbooks, notebooks, pen and other stationery items for your studies. Sometimes one–quire notebooks you buy do not contain 192 pages and the pencil is not of a good quality. Have you not been dissatisfied and heated over these when you have paid a fair price? Thus, a consumer is one who consumes goods manufactured and sold by other

The term consumerism was first coined by businessmen in the mid 1960s as they thought consumer movement as another “ism” like socialism and communism threatening capitalism.

“Consumerism is an attempt to enhance the rights and powers by buyers in relation to sellers”

-L. Massie

“Consumerisms not limited to organised efforts only but, is a social movement seeking to augment the rights and powers of buyers in relation to sellers”.

-Philip Kotler

In other words, consumerism refers to protest against business injustices and to efforts at correcting these injustices. Consumerism as a protest against unfair business practices and injustices, aims at removing or uprooting them or reducing them if not eliminating them totally. There are countless injustices and unfair practices on which the business community stuffs its profits and guff the consumer satisfaction. To illustrate a few of this kind, these can be – supply of unsafe products, adulteration, fictitious pricing, defective and deceptive packing and packaging, false and misleading advertisements and sales literature, hoarding, profiteering, black-marketing, price collusion, misuse of brands, planned obsolescence, short measures and weights, release of those goods which are not really wanted by the consumer nor can they afford, face lifting of products and the like.