Consumerism and the Consumer - Everything you need to know

What is Consumerism?

Consumerism is the web that weaves the world of businesses together, integrating the consumers with the producers. The digital revolution has made these connections stronger and achievable for small businesses also. The trends in the economy which drive consumerism are an interesting area. The ecosystem that builds the trends are dynamic because opportunistic businesses seamlessly integrate themselves into those ecosystems that they fit in. One such consumerism example is Uber eats as an extension of Uber, the car service provider.

Consumerism - The Dependents and the Dependables

Consumerism has played an essential role in the growth of many industries and countries. The travel and tourism industry and the hospitality industry were dependent on discretionary consumerism to see their growth. They grew in leaps and bounds before the pandemic because of a conducive consumerist culture. Consumerism is encouraged by allied industries that are dependent on the primary industry. Travel and hotel portals and aggregators are responsible for making national and international tourism accessible to the typical Indian middle class. Cab aggregators and food aggregators are responsible for the increasing consumerism in these sectors. Telecom service providers are factors that saw the growth of OTT platforms and content consumption.

One common criticism of marketing companies is that they thrive on consumerism. They make consumers believe in the myth that they "need" some material possessions without which their lives will be much less happy than that of those who have those acquisitions. Many people feel empowered to choose how, when or if they will interact with corporations to build their own consumer space. In this new environment, consumers dictate to companies the type of products they want and how, when and where they want to learn about them. Hence consumer is an essential link in driving consumerism.
The pandemic has created a maximum drive for consumerism in two sectors - digital and health. If we look closely into the consumerist traits that drive these two sectors, we will understand the underlying players in consumerism. In a society, consumers seek products and services required for their everyday sustenance and growth. In order to understand the role of consumerism in marketing, let us take the example of a child in a family who is given food for everyday sustenance and education for this future. Pre-COVID days segmented marketing based on income, reach, and attitude worked. So you had fun foods, interesting foods and healthy foods, driving consumerism in the food category targeting children.

Similarly, you had schools, coaching classes, hobby classes driving consumerism in the education sector. While the education sector turned digital to sustain consumerism, the food category propagated healthy options to drive consumerism. Hence consumerism in marketing defines the adaptations required.
Two important allied industries that are likely to strive post-pandemic are the technology enablers for small businesses, including FinTech companies and EdTech companies. Their challenge will be to encourage, motivate and stand by first-time entrepreneurs. They may also create a conducive ecosystem to drive consumerism in small businesses through digital marketing. As both consumers and small businesses get comfortable with digital payment and digital business, consumerism will increase.
Specific industries and sectors have to wait for a long time for the current opportunistic impetus from the consumerism movement. For example, the EdTech industry has been in the bylanes waiting to take off for a very long time. The pandemic is driven need saw all schools, colleges, educational institutions and workplaces adopting digital technology rapidly. Some consumerist examples in today's world are related to tech gadgets and software services.
The role of consumerism also changes from country to country. In a country like India, where there is a huge youth population seeking employment, positive consumerism growth is a must. The government machinery and the participation of small business players can drive consumerism even when the going is tough. Any economy revives when consumerism picks up.

Small and medium enterprises will play a significant role in giving the required impetus to consumerism. They will create employment opportunities for many displaced employees and bring much-needed money to the table. Post pandemic measures taken by small businesses to scale up, reach out to consumers will play an essential role in future consumerism. We cannot separate consumerism and the growth of a country. Both are interlinked and need symbiotic support throughout their life.

The Birth and Growth of Consumerist Culture

Over some time, the stakeholders in the ecosystem build what is known as the consumerist culture. The steps that a society goes through when a consumerist culture is built are as follows:

1. A natural event or a human-induced trigger encourages discussions about a particular trend, product, service, lifestyle, which is likely to drive consumerism in the near future.

2. The media, the opinion-makers in the digital world, the small and big businesses that are likely to benefit from the trend encourage discussions. Greta Thunberg's emotional speech challenging the world leaders fuelled the growing popularity of all products and services that tried to reduce the effects of global farming. So from recycled products to organic and local consumption were the trending voices.

3. Businesses that relate to the trending consumerism thrive. Many brands from FAB India to Mamaearth are products of the consumerist culture set in place by the ecosystem to fight global warming.

4. Man is a social animal and hence has to be constantly reminded of the trends that he stands for. The businesses do this job through worlds representing the trending consumerism fad line organic, locally produced, farm to fork, reducing carbon footprints, energy saving in their advertisements.

5. Consciously for the businesses and unconsciously for the consumer, a consumerist culture sets in. For a customer, the energy-saving rating of the electric bulb is essential. In contrast, the electric bulb manufacturer uses consumerist culture-driven words like energy-saving, 5-star rating on his product packaging.

6. Consumerism and a consumerist culture can also be built based on our understanding of human psychology. One such consumption pattern is based on aesthetics. Aesthetics means perceiving the world with the senses. It is interesting to note that aesthetic experiences include everyday consumption of products, services and places. By increasing attention to the design of everyday consumables, companies such as Apple, Bose, or car manufacturers have driven this consumerist culture. Fine dining, lifestyle merchandising are all concepts built on this consumerist culture.

7. Consumer decision-making is a five-step process consisting of need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, selection, post-purchase evaluation. In all these steps, the consumerist culture drives the choices of people. When consumers are continuously exposed to a trend, idea or concept, the herd mentality makes them consider the same in their purchase decision, thus driving consumerism.

Conclusion

Domestic consumers may not be the only reason for increasing consumerism in a country. A friendly environment and ease of logistics may open up a whole new world for the businesses in a country and drive consumerism. The demand for a particular product or service is created in the multiple access points that consumers reach out to while shopping. Most of them are in the digital world today, and it will only be appropriate to say that today's consumerism is digitally driven.

But even in this digital world, who you partner with to drive consumerism is important. All this leads us to the ecosystem required to create and sustain consumerism in society. This ecosystem consists of consumers, the governing body, the businesses, the prevailing culture, supporting the financial system and much more.

Also read:

1) How to start a medical store? Steps to start a pharma shop
2) How to grow your brand? Best Tips & Tricks
3) Tips to Grow Sales of a Small Business
4) Debit-note vs Credit-note: What are the major differences?
5) OkCredit: Simple, Paperless & Secure solution for businesses

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FAQs

Q. Can businesses drive consumerism?

Ans. Yes. If other macro-environmental factors are conducive, businesses can create a need and want and drive consumerism through efficient marketing communication.

Q. Give some examples of consumerism examples?

Ans. Fitness gadgets and applications were some products and services which were very popular in the early part of this decade.

Ans. Start a web portal, have blogs written on your business and the products and services in general and invite experts in the field to contribute content to your portal.