Consumer Choice
Introduction
In today’s world, our lives are affected by a huge number of choices that we have to make everyday:
We all buy goods and services everyday and most of them we choose to buy because we want them or we think we need them. With all of the choice that is available for consumers today, it can be difficult not to waste money on buying goods or services that we don’t really need or like.
How do you decide what to buy?
You may, without realising it, be restricting yourself because you have been influenced by:
All these things can influence your decision.
In order to avoid unwanted purchases or buying goods that you do not really need on impulse you need to be able to resist different pressures. You need to be able to buy what you really want and not just buy what someone else has persuaded you to have.
To help avoid being let down try asking yourself some of these questions.-
If you really give these questions some thought and answer them honestly, you will stand a much better chance of finding what you really need.
Once you have answered these questions, you are ready for the next stage in the consumer decision-making process.
If it does and you're able to narrow down your choice you can go on to:-
You can also use this opportunity to assess how helpful the staff are. One shop may be cheaper than another but you want to buy from someone you can trust and can return to if something goes wrong.
If a shop doesn't seem interested in you before you've bought anything just imagine how they'll treat you afterwards if you need to return to make a complaint.
Gathering Information to help with your decisions
There are lots of ways of doing this and some are more reliable than others. So you'll need to evaluate or weigh up what you are told.
To use Which? all you have to do is look in the index to find the product you want. The index will tell you if and when it has been tested and in what monthly issue the report appears. Then you simply look in the magazine and read up the report.
Most major public libraries stock copies or you can buy regular copies of the magazine by visiting www.which.net
If you do not have access to Which? or it does not cover the product that you are interested, you may have to rely on other sources of information including:-
The Influence of Advertising
Advertising is a big business across the world. Companies are investing millions of pounds to create campaigns that are so sophisticated and subtle that you may even find it hard to know what products a company is actually advertising to you.
To ensure that we receive their messages, advertisers use every conceivable way of advertising from television advertising to posters in local bus stops. Their techniques are all designed to catch our attention.
Advertising campaigns need to get it just right to ensure that they are effective on the public. They will make decisions like – Who is our target audience? What type of media shall we use?
Companies will spend time making sure that they use they use the right seductive imagery or packaging that is the most appealing. In today’s society, one of the biggest and most successful marketing concepts is paying a celebrity to endorse your products. There is a huge amount of money generated by people wanting to dress in the same clothes as David Beckham or use the same hair products as Jennifer Aniston.
Due to the fact that advertising can be so powerful, there are strict controls in this area to ensure that the advert is not misleading or untrue.
There are various bodies that keep a close eye on advertising:
1) The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
The ASA investigates complaints made against adverts and has the power to stop publication of an advert if necessary. They require that all advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful and they administer the British Code of Advertising Practice.
2) OFCOM
OFCOM can stop any advert from being broadcast on television, radio, telecommunications or wireless communications if it feels that it breaks the Code of Practice.
3) The Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT)
The DGFT has jurisdiction over misleading adverts that have been place by a trade or business. He has no jurisdiction over TV, radio or cable and cannot act on complaints regarding to taste and decency.
4) The Trading Standards Department
Your local Trading Standards Department also enforces legislation that controls advertising. One of the most common complaints they deal with involves misleading pricing and there are strict guidelines laid down about the way goods and services are priced.