Question:
Discuss about influences on consumer buying behaviour opinion survey?
Answer:
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to provide a report about the importance of the ethical consumerism in the business regarding understand the ethical dilemmas and issues that are related to several aspects of the customer behaviors. The customers who are the members of the business are required to understand the business ethics regarding the brand and loyalty. It is the responsibility of the business to follow the social and ethical rules against the unethical behavior of the customers (Yusoff and Rahim, 2010). The problems of global economic can be solved with the contribution of new ethical consumptions that can be adopted from the practical standpoint. The companies following the ethical dilemmas are interested in building products with good functionality and not with selfishness and also will focus on the specific requirement of customers. Discussions regarding the products that fall under the ethical consumerism category are also discussed here. A review of the ethical consumerism of Nestle regarding their products and services are also provided in this report. Short opinion surveys on behalf of the influences that are made from the consumer buying behavior carried out by some students at GSM are also provided in this paper.
Ethical consumerism
Ethical consumerism can be described as the choice of the customers regarding their purchase of good which must be ethically sourced, produced and distributed. It can be said that ethical consumerism is the phenomenon that explained the concern of the customers with respect to the social challenges faced by them regarding to the consumption of products, environmental condition of manufacturing, responsibility of organizations, etc. As commented by Ali and Wisniesk (2010) the ethical consumers are the one who purchase the thing that are ethically produced i.e. which includes using perfect sources, do not include child labor and the products are produced in a good environment. As argued by Brown (2013) ethical consumerism states that the people is aware of what they are buying and do not buy anything without any information. As argued by Gill (2012) foods such as eggs, fish or chicken are mostly liked by the people, that are killed by the human but also they want to know that the person who prepares coffee should be paid fairly. The foods that are chosen by the customers are such as healthy food, vegetable, energy drinks, etc. which the customers also want to produce ethically.
The popularity of the ethical phenomenon is regularly increasing day-by-day in the social media, and new technologies, especially through the Internet service. Regarding the law, the child labor is banned which the customers also want to be followed by the companies. It will be useful for the organizations to follow the rules and regulations of the business ethics as well as the ethical consumerism to assure to their customers about providing ethical products (Dr. Vanitha, 2012). As much the products and services of the companies will follow all the ethical rules, it will more increase the brand’s popularity.
The company adopted the ethical consumerism will not have to regret any time regarding their products and services. Adopting ethical consumerism means to use the resources fresh and healthy, and it can also use alternative resources if required. As argued by Gunderson (2013) it is not on the hand of the end users to know all the resources that are used in the products are healthy or not.
The ranges of the products that fall under the ethical category are such as
- Cleaning
- Dairy
- Banking
- Energy
- Fashion
- Soft Drinks
- Insurance
- Finance
- Food
- Travel
- Tea industry
- Cosmetics & Toiletries
Company review: NESTLE
NESTLE is the world’s largest health, nutrition and wellness company. The tagline of NESTLE “Good Food, Good Life” explain that the company provides healthy and most nutritious food and beverage to their customers. The people employed in NESTLE is around 280000 and have factories all over the world. From last decades, NESTLE had been popular in world’s best work company and also world’s best ethical companies. According to the manager of the company, the success comes from the commitment they did to the social people about the ethical products. The popularity of Nestle increases due to the production of several varieties of foods, sweets, cereals and drinks along with this, it can also be said that it is the longest running boycott company of the world (Hamelin, Harcar and Benhari, 2013).
Today Nestle becomes the longest boycott company in the world. In 1977 it began due to the aggressive marketing of baby food in rural countries. According to the report of International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), Nestle is more responsible for a violation regarding the requirements of the baby food than other countries (Hudson, Hudson and Edgerton, 2013).
There are several different ethical issues of Nestle regarding the categories of people, the environment, animals, and politics. According to the report collected from Fair Labor Association (FLA), the violation of child labor is captured in the harvesting process of cocoa (KUWASHIMA, 2013). Also, notice that many adults and children got injured in harvesting the cocoa pod. Nestle provide commissions to FLA in case of investigating the full supply chain management of the company regarding the chocolate supply. The supply chain of the company is also mapped. Nestle handles all the results that are collected during the survey. Nestle explained all the payment to the suppliers is done under the code of conduct of the company. According to Fair Labor Association (FLA), in the history of the multinational chocolate companies, Nestle is the first to allow tracing and accessing all its procurement system. It can be said that this survey should be conducted in every big chocolate companies so that all the process of the companies can be done under the rules of codes of conduct (Yeow, Dean and Tucker, 2013).
Regarding the environmental reporting of the company, the top mark is received from the ethical consumers. According to the report received in 2011, most of the impacts regarding the environment are reduced by the company that also raises their ethical points. The ethical issues regarding the animals are found in the company business. Most of the ingredients are tested on the animals without any limited test period that also put the company under boycott (La and Yi, 2015). The ethical issues of Nestle are also found in the political matters. Mr. Tom Levitt received several expenses regarding free tickets of tennis and cricket tournaments and for South Africa tour that is also against the ethical rules. The ethical problems regarding all the issues done by the company either increase or decrease the ethical judgments of the company.
Nestle claims to be the most ethical companies of the world as they solved all the faults and problems according to the code of conduct of the company. They follow the rules of the ethical consumerism in their business to provide the products and services to their customers ethically (Lu-Ming, 2013). The ethical behavior of the company improves the popularity of the brand name that leads them to generate more profits and revenue. The effect of the ethical consumerism on the business of the company will improve their popularity to overcome the lost reputation regarding the boycott. Nestle also creates their position in the market by increasing their ethical consumers in the market.
Influences on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Opinion Survey
A student group of GSM College conducts an opinion survey in the case of influencing the consumer buying behavior regarding several factors. The decision of resulting purchase and the consumer buying behavior are powerfully influenced by the social, cultural, psychological and personal characteristics (nassar, 2015). In case of developing the required marketing mixes for the marketers for applying to the targeted customers, it is required to understand the influences of those factors. The influences of these factors occur in our decisions and values. There are several social factors regarding groups such as inspirational groups, member groups, and reference groups. Other social factors also include roles, status, and families. The factors that are included in the cultures are such as social class, the culture of consumer and subcultures (Romaniuk and Wight, 2014). The psychological factors that influence our life include learning, attitudes, perception and beliefs. The factors regarding the personal characteristics are such as age, occupation, lifestyle, and economic situations. The personal decision and the self-concept are also involved in the personal factors of the customers. The personal factors are always changes regarding our changing situations.
The consumers buying decisions are also influenced many other people. The marketer required to aware of the people that are involved in the decision of buying and their effects on the role in a case of making the marketing strategies including those people. In case of running the business process successfully, a company is required to acquire the knowledge of the business ethics that help to build the brand name and the confidence of the customers will also be increased (Smogorzewska, 2014). In most of the department of the business of many companies, they started to think about following the ethical rules regarding their service and products to make their business pure. Regarding this survey, it is noted that the customer buying behavior influence many other departments of the company also. These includes maintaining products, manage the financial accounts, maintaining the database, and other aspects of the business. The responsibilities regarding the social and ethical behavior also influence the corporate ethics and made them follow the rule. A survey regarding Nestle resulted in several ethical and unethical behavior of the company. In case of making the brand name in the top position of the market, Nestle is required to changes all its unethical behaviors to ethical and collects a good point in the market (Wilkins, 2011).
Conclusion
The ethical consumerism provides the explanation about the concept that the customers used in a case of boycotting products that are produced involving unethical activities that cause harm to animals, environment and others. The ways in which the ethical consumers behave depends on the social, cultural, psychological and personal factors that influence the Consumer Buying decisions. The responsibility of the organization is to provide the products and services to the customers under the social and ethical values. The profit make by the unethical behavior of the company will not continue for a long time and will decrease the trust of the ethical consumers. It is required to maintain the ethical behavior and the social liabilities for Nestle to improve the level of the ethical customers in the market.
12 students of GSM are involved in the questionnaires to collect the information of Nestle regarding their ethical behavior in the market. Nestle is the world’s largest food and beverage company that is also the longest running boycott company in the world. In some cases, the ethical value provides by the ethical customers to the company is very low whereas in some of the cases it is at the top.
Recommendation
- All the big companies are required to follow the values of the ethical customers in their business in case of becoming the ethical company in the market.
- In case of making more profit, Nestle required providing more ethical products to the customers.
- Companies should follow the social and ethical responsibilities to provide more ethical products to their ethical customers.
- The review of the ethical customers should be applied in the business in case of providing more ethical services.
- The needs of the ethical customers should be followed in the market to improve performance.
References List
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