Why do we need consumer awareness

The need for empowerment of consumers as a class cannot be over emphasized and is already well recognized all over the world. The advancement of technology and advent of sophisticated gadgets in the market and aggressive marketing strategies in the era of globalization have not only thrown open a wide choice, for the consumer but all the same also rendered the consumer vulnerable to a plethora of problems concomitant to such rapid changes.

There is an urgent and increasing necessity to educate and motivate the consumer to be wary of the quality of the products, and also the possible deficiencies in the services of the growing sector of public utilities.

In short, the consumer should be empowered with respect to his rights as a consumer. He should be equipped to be vigilant with a discerning eye so as to be able to protect himself from any wrongful act on the part of the trader. Following facts classify the need of making consumers aware: 1. To achieve maximum satisfaction : The income of every individual is limited. He wants to buy maximum goods and services with his income.

He gets full satisfaction only by this limited adjustment. Therefore it is necessary that he should get the goods which are measured appropriately and he should not be cheated in any way. For this he should be made aware.

Protection against exploitation : Producers and sellers exploit the consumers in many ways as underweighting, taking more price than the market price, selling duplicate goods etc.

Big companies through their advertisement also mislead the consumers. Consumer awareness shields them from the exploitation by producers and sellers. Control over consumption of harmful goods : There are several such goods available in market which cause harm to some consumers. For example we can take goods like cigarette, tobacco, liquor etc.

The consumer education and awareness motivate people not to purchase such goods which are very harmful for them. Motivation for saving : The awareness controls people from wastage of money and extravagancy and inspire them to take right decision. Such consumers are not attracted by sale, concession, free gifts, attractive packing etc due to which people can use their income in a right way and can save money. Knowledge regarding solution of problems : The consumers are cheated due to illiteracy, innocence and lack of information.

Therefore it becomes necessary that the information about their rights should be provided to them so that they cannot be cheated by producers and sellers. Through consumer awareness they are also made known to the proceedings of laws so that they can solve their problems.

Construction of healthy society : Every member of the society is a consumer. So, if the consumer is aware and rationale, then complete society becomes healthy and alert towards their rights.

Rights of consumers Consumers have the right to buy good commodities and services from the market. The protection of law has been provided to him so that producer or seller cannot cheat him in any way. Generally a consumer has got the following rights: 1. The consumer has a right to receive information about the quality, quantity, potency, standard and price of the goods or services. The consumer should rightfully ask on getting all the information about the product or service before making a choice or a decision.

This will enable him to take well informed and thought decision and also preventing himself from falling prey to high-pressure selling techniques. The right to information is used to shield consumers from deceptive advertising, misleading labels and packaging, high prices, etc. This right provides access to all the variety of goods and services and competitive prices.

In monopolistic competition, the goods and services should be of the best quality and price. The seller should not use aggressive techniques to see the products and consumers should have the right to all the variety of alternatives.

This right requires free competition in the market. The consumer should have a free choice in choosing any product from the market. The above three rights are useless if there is no proper authority to listen to customer grievances. Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on consumer awareness in the comments section. A startup enthusiast who enjoys reading about successful entrepreneurs and writing about topics that involve the study of different markets.

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