Essay – Consumerism
Consumerism Essay: Consumerism refers to the pattern of tendencies, inclinations and behaviours of the general public’s purchases of goods and services. Consumer follows the concept of visible consumption which was first coined by the economist Thorstein Veblen. Contrary to popular belief, consumerism and capitalism are not one and the same thing, despite consumerism being a byproduct of capitalism. Consumerism is the purchasing tendencies of a culture rather than an economic ideology. The 20th Century witnessed an unprecedented rise in consumer culture owing to globalization relaxing trade markets.
Discussion
Consumerism is an ideological influence that suggests that the inclination of purchasing and consuming more goods and services will lead to a better and more content lifestyle. The four factors influencing consumer behaviour are cultural, social, personal and psychological. These factors influence customers irrespective of whether they end up buying a particular product or not. For instance, mobile manufacturing companies such as Apple and Samsung would promote their cellular phones by demonstrating the greatness of the features of cellular phones such as the iphone 14’s display quality of 6.1 inches AMOLED display, the storage capacity of 512GB, camera resolution of 12 megapixels and battery life of 3279 mAh. Taking the same instance, the iphone 14 offers great cultural value in the form of affluent social status, and an increased sense of self-identity and importance, thus influencing customers in every aforementioned aspect.
Consumerism follows a particular four-step process namely, Problem Recognition, Information gathering, evaluating solutions, and purchase phase. For instance, car manufacturing industries like Tata Motorcorp would sell cars such as Tata Tiago has a mileage of 26 km/l that costs Rs.5.45 lakhs. As a majority of India’s population belongs to the service sector the information facilitates the company to sell fuel-efficient cars at economical prices. Tata being a major corporate ensures the evaluation of problems by establishing sufficient service centres leading to the ultimate purchase of the car. The entire process of selling the cars for consumption is wrapped up by customer feedback through surveys in the post-purchase phase. Consumerism has increasingly become an essential factor driving the Indian economy. The advent of several multi-national companies such as IBM, Apple and Coca-cola through relaxed and open markets, has generated unprecedented high revenues for the economy. The Indian economy has observed a 16% improvement in the economy in the year 2021.
Conclusion
To surmise, consumerism is a contemporary product of a capitalistic market that has the potency of turning into a double-edged sword. On one hand, it drives the economy through a constant transaction of products and services in return for money, it has the ability to influence cultures and society. Unchecked consumerism may create problems like social and class divide which for a developing country like India with social and cultural diversity may prove to be disastrous.
FAQs related to Consumerism
Q1. What factors is consumerism based upon?
Ans: The four factors influencing consumer behaviour are cultural, social, personal and psychological. These factors influence customers irrespective of whether they end up buying a particular product or not.
Q2. What are the basic steps of consumerism?
Ans: Consumerism follows a particular four-step process namely, Problem recognition, Information gathering, evaluating solutions, and purchase phase. The entire process concludes with the post-purchase phase.
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