When competition is lacking and prices rise, are there still
choices? Often there are not, certainly not obvious and appealing ones.
However, with some creativity and resourcefulness, we as consumers have the ability
to move about the market place and fins alternatives in ways business doesn’t
factor into its modelling because they are not statistically significant. Doing
this can save us a great deal and can enrich our lives in surprising ways. This
article will introduce some alternative approaches to being a consumer and
discuss some of their merits.
Being an
innovative consumer is a good way to save money. However, other benefits
include reducing waste and choosing to support companies and businesses that
are good employers and choose environmentally sustainable business models.
A good
first step for many in terms of becoming an innovative consumer is to shop
around. Simply calling a few businesses out of the Yellow Pages for quotes is
better than nothing, but often the quotes are altogether too similar and the
results can be disappointing. Therefore, assuming that one has made a decision
to obtain a particular product, one needs to think creatively about alternative
ways to obtain it. This means looking beyond the brands and retailers that
market directly to one’s own location and demographic and searching further
afield.
Though prices are said to be set
through supply and demand in the market place, this is slightly misleading
because it suggests that there is one marketplace. There are in fact many, and
the same product may be competing in several. For example, buying a desk top
computer from a major retailer can be a costly business, with retail mark ups
in excess of fifty percent and manufacturers using the most basic possible
parts in order to keep their profit margins as high as possible. If we compare
their prices with some smaller computer shops they may appear reasonable, since
many small computer shops aim to compete for the same market segment by keeping
prices only slightly lower and offering a similar quality product. It is only
when we actively go in search of businesses appealing to a different target
market that we are able to see any real difference. For example, if we look for
businesses that aim to sell computers to the IT savvy, we see that we are able
to obtain a similar system for less than half the price. We may need to wait in
line for it and have someone talk to us in high speed jargon with a strong
accent, but if we knew what we were after in the first place and did our
homework, there it would be. What is more, we would have many options and be
able to buy something tailored to our individual needs.
A crucial aspect of innovative
consumption that makes the above scenario possible is our ability to do
research and know what products will suit us before we approach whomever is
selling them. Reading the tech blurbs on the Harvey Norman website it is
sometimes difficult to imagine that the products and technologies they offer
have anything to do with the jargon and model codes that are used to represent
products in the catalogues of IT catalogues. Their language is modified to suit
their communication team’s target audience, of whom you may unwittingly find
yourself a member if your knowledge of language is restricted to commonly known
terminology. To be a truly innovative consumer, you have to learn specialised
vocabulary. Learning one or more second language also helps as will be
elaborated in part two. Stay tuned.
To be continued…
In the mean time, here is some further reading on the subject. Proceeds appreciated by this blogger.
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