After passing of consumer protection act 2019 in India the plight of consumers has considerably reduced to an extent but there are certain problems associated with the consumers today also when it comes to fairness and equity in the consumer market sellers often rob or fool consumers and make good their profits without considering the interest of the consumers. This article talks about the rights and obligations of the consumer in accordance with the consumer behavior the problems with the consumers which they face and what is the solution of that the psychology of a consumer when it buys a product looks for it this article also discusses about the concept of dynamic markets with respect to the changing mindset of the consumers. As changing society perceptions of consumers also changing and in the wake of this changing world it is necessary for us because we all are consumers to know about our rights and the sellers’ ill practices. And in last the paper discusses some very important landmark judgements when it comes to the identification of the rights of the consumers.
INTRODUCTION
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Consumers are the backbone of economy consumers are the reason of improved technology, improved advancement in the world with an ever-ending aim to reach the sun. Had there been no consumers there would not be any technology or marketing techniques or any kind of luxuries which we are enjoying nowadays. As rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi that a consumer is the sole reason of the businesses which are carried around the world and are existing. In the early society the buying and selling of goods was used to done in the form of barter in which goods were purchased with goods or we can say that goods in exchange of goods that was the time where the cash or metal currency was not in the market. With the passage of time the cash or the paper currency was introduced in the public domain which the main purpose was to introduce something as a uniform system of buying and purchasing of commodities without any exchange of collateral goods. Like this the consumerism has been transformed since ages and this is how the matter of currency or exchange has been evolved. But with the advancement in technology and peoples brains the consumer has started being abused in the form of Mal practices with the consumers, cheating in any form like for example the product defect and many other things. Now after the passing of consumer protection act 2019 the consumers are considered or been taken into the purview of this act which shall protect the consumers from any mistreatment or fraud practices of the sellers. With the coming of new marketing techniques and sales department’s advancement the consumer of today’s time is in danger of either the malpractice of the buyer or malpractice of the advertiser. According to Section 2(7) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, a consumer can be defined as – “consumer” means any person who—
i. buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such use is made with the approval of such person, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose; or
ii. hires or avails of any service for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such service other than the person who hires or avails of the services for consideration paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentioned person, but does not include a person who avails of such service for any commercial purpose. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause,—
a. the expression “commercial purpose” does not include use by a person of goods bought and used by him exclusively for the purpose of earning his livelihood, by means of self-employment;
b. the expressions “buys any goods” and “hires or avails any services” includes offline or online transactions through electronic means or by teleshopping or direct selling or multi-level marketing. In light of the above section we have looked into the meaning of consumer under the consumer protection act 2019 now it’s time for us to look at the marketing techniques and they are effects on the consumer’s mind with the help of understanding the consumer’s behaviour.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
When it comes to cater the needs of the consumer and to provide them with the outmost new technologies and products according to their needs and circumstances it is very important for pertinent for seller or General public in large to understand consumers behavior because at the end of the day the behavior of a person defines who is he and what he wants in his life or when it comes to consumer then what a consumer likes or dislikes. First of all, it is imperative for us to understand the meaning of marketing and then the impact of marketing on the consumers. The marketing techniques are aimed to get to know all to target the consumers’ needs or imposing a particular product on their lifestyle so as to make it seem real. A product can be said as a successful product when it matches with the needs of the consumers or in other words consumers buy those products which are in contrast with their needs. One of such examples would be in the context of current Indian market of the consumers in the current scenario in the auto mobile sector the SUV cars are in great demand in the Indian market while the sedan or the hatchback cars are comparatively lesser in demand. This is evident that nowadays every auto mobile sector at least in India is focusing more on SUV segment and thereby launching more and more models which can comply with the needs of the consumers and therefore resultant to which there would be increase in the sale as well as goodwill of the company. Consumer behavior can also be termed as the consumers’ inclination towards a particular product or a particular service which they want in the present situation. It can also be altered from time to time with the change in demands for the modernization of the society. While talking about understanding the consumers behavior it is very important to consider these very crucial factors-
I. Psychological factors which may include sociological approach and the knowledge about the particular product to the consumers along with the economic and cultural factors of the society.
II. Sustainable product factors which mean consumers’ demands to a particular product for example earlier every shopkeeper used to give a polythene bag but nowadays due to the changing mindset and awareness the consumer needs a paper bag or a jute bag instead of polythene.
III. Advancement factor this includes progress in technology or introduction of a new technology in the consumer sector with the advancement for modernization in the society.
Economical factor this includes the pricing one of the major components when it comes to the consumers’ needs pricing factors and the product quality factors.
One of the major example of changing consumer behaviour is In a 2013 report by Accenture, (a global consulting and research leader in consumers trends, technology and oust sourcing) a survey of 10,000 consumers worldwide highlighted some interesting disparities between those in developed countries (Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) and those in emerging markets (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey). Pace of change in consumer behaviour in those emerging markets is far greater than in developed markets. Consumers are increasingly “connected” – often online, interacting with companies and other consumers to research and purchase products, share advice, and praise or criticize a business.
IMPACT OF LIFESTYLE MARKETING ON CONSUMER
Before dwelling in to the intricacies of the impact of lifestyle marketing on the consumers it is very important for us to get a gist of what is lifestyle marketing and what is its aim. Well lifestyle marketing is a process of establishing relationships between products offered in the market and targeted lifestyle groups. It involves segmenting the market on the basis of lifestyle dimensions, positioning the product in a way that appeals to the activities, interests and opinions of the targeted market and undertaking specific promotional campaigns which exploit lifestyle appeals to enhance the market value of the offered product. In other words lifestyle now defines a person’s social standing and way of living his values his interests his opinions his interests which attracts him the most. Lifestyle has demographic boundaries and it is subject to some changes with the change in territorial boundaries. Lifestyle is something which affects more on the consumers or sellers mind which eventually results in making a new product according to the consumers’ needs. For example there are two types of brands one as an average brand of which the target audience is the middle class families and one has some high-class luxury brands of which target audience is rich class or above middle class. Both the brands have different target audiences and different ways of manufacturing the products according to their consumer’s needs. The impact of lifestyle marketing on a consumer is that sometimes it can mislead a consumer. And due to that fake marketing techniques with fake products or services come in the loop and due to which a consumer may suffer loss both economic and mental because lifestyle impacts a lot in the consumer’s mind. One more drawback of increasing lifestyle marketing is that a consumer is more and more attracted towards new products and technologies and leaving behind his basic requirements and running for illusive collateral or material things. For instance:
In the case of Sahara vs. SEBI, It was a case of issuing misleading information and clause in prospectus of company.
Or Harshad Mehta scam for that matter, the Harshad Mehta Scam shocked the entire economy of India. He fooled many investors by taking advantage of the loopholes of the system.
As we have looked into the lifestyle marketing and its impact on the consumers which eventually lead to misleading advertisements along with wrong information spreading into the public domain.
PROBLEMS FACED BY CONSUMERS AND THE WAY OUT
It is far believed that if something has advantages when it has disadvantages too. Today’s consumer is facing many problems in his day-to-day life even after the implementation of various statutes so as to keep their interests secure and safe.
We find most of the time in some or the other day that we all are a victim of some of the other in ethical or wrong practices by the sellers or product manufacturers. The consumer who can also be known as the lion of the market is now a victim in contemporary times. Nowadays consumers are either cheated in quality or quantity for the desired product especially when it comes to e-commerce marketplace although it is very convenient for the consumers but it has certain problems associated with it which consumer becomes a victim. It is quite evident that with the advent of e-commerce marketplace the way of fooling the consumers is now a piece of the cake for the sellers with poor quality products showing them as the best quality product or we can say that the culture of window dressing is much prevalent nowadays. With the prevalence of advertisement and new marketing techniques product most of the times shown as exaggerated while in the real situation the product seems different. The false or erroneous claims in advertisement which eventually lead to harm to the consumer who is under the impression that the advertisement of the product as real and the claims are very much effective. The problems are not limited when it comes to the consumers and the solutions are limited in fact after applying solutions even then the problems are arising even after when we talk about in the context of India the introduction of Consumer Protection Act even after the amendment in 2019 there are in some or the other way sellers fooling the customers or consumers. Here is the table of the problems which are faced by the consumers in today’s world:
PSYCHOLOGY OF A CONSUMER
When we look at the literal meaning of psychology with regards to the consumer it can be referred to the situation of the mind and what a consumer is thinking what he is expecting what is his opinion about the particular product what is his areas of interest and how he deals with this particular product when it comes to the marketing techniques.
A perfect example of the consumers psychology is when we talk about India then we see that most of the consumers have a psychological belief that Chinese products are cheap and not durable while at the same time some might think that Chinese products are the perfect opportunity at the perfect choice for them because of their cheap prices. Basically, consumer psychology is a field of study of human behaviour in order to buying patterns, customs and preference regarding products including their reactions and preference to advertising, packaging and marketing of those products. The aim of consumer psychology is to evaluate and understand consumers and their decision making process. There are many factors which can change or alter the consumers psychology the factors include demographical, economic, sociological and cultural. When it comes to product choices and the consumers reaction or choices in those particular products it majorly depends upon these factors because the demographical or any of these factors can change a consumer psychology for instance when we talk about India due to the humongous population and lack of employment the consumer of India prefer low cost or low priced products rather than going on with the quality or going on with the expensive products while at the same time when we talk about US in that case the consumers in US might want or inclined towards durable or the products with quality due to the better financial or economic conditions of the people of the developed Country psychology changes of the consumers. Similarly advertisement or marketing techniques also impact consumer behaviours in a way that sometimes advertisement or marketing techniques are that much misleading which can harm the consumer in some or the other way for instance if I saw an advertisement of a car maker company claiming that they make the best in segment and ultra-luxurious cars with high end technology but in reality it has too different maybe the car looks good from the outside but it has considerable qualitative differences when it comes to the quality of the car. .We can say that marketing techniques and manufacturing techniques may sometimes result into the changed psychological behaviour of the consumer which might result into the infringing of the rights of the consumer. Consumer’s psychology shall be kept in mind while making or enacting any legislation or provision.
DYNAMIC MARKETS AND CONSUMERS
A significant challenge for firms in an open competition marketplace is to balance the conflicting attributes of price and quality. Higher quality levels tend to lead to increased product costs, which, depending on market preferences, can trigger an increase in consumer demand. With the increased demand of profits among the product manufacturers or sellers the consumer is in a dangerous triangle in which all the end sides of the triangle are either product manufacturers or sellers or marketing heads the definition of dynamic markets in today’s world’s market is driving the consumer the market is defining the consumers’ needs rather the consumer defining the market. Today product manufacturers or sellers are trying to brainwash the consumer with their products as the ideal products and due to which a consumer is in a tussle between these people and the ideal product which he should be buying. Nowadays product manufacturers or sellers or marketing heads are trying to increase their profits by fooling the consumers with the ideal culture. There are number of instances when we old or something from the e-commerce website even if the product is expensive and it turns out to be a fake or a defective product when it comes to our doorstep and when a consumer goes to return this product the sellers apply for this technique in which they returned half of the money of the product in refund, this clearly shows that the sellers or the marketing heads or misleading the consumers so as to make good their profits. With the enactment of Consumer Protection act 2019 in India the consumers are now in a kind of safe space where they have assurance that if they will get fooled by any of these marketing people they have a right with them. The term “Caveat Emptor” which means let the buyer beware, plays a very important role in today’s time where a consumer should be well-versed with the current marketing or market situations and shall act to take decisions accordingly.
CASE LAWS
Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTC) v Ashok Iron Works Private Limited
This case is a landmark judgement when it comes to the consumer’s right to sue corporate or private bodies when the right is infringed and in this case the Supreme Court held that the private bodies can be sued individually under the consumer protection act if there is a breach in the service.
Indian Medical Association v V.P. Shantha and others
There is always a tassle between medical aspect of consumer and the law of torts because in law of torts medical negligence is there and when it comes to consumer rights then also medical aspect comes into picture. In this case the Supreme Court held that medical professionals come under the purview of consumer protection act and they can be sued if there is a negligence on the part of their duty or deficiency in duty.
SEHGAL SCHOOL OF COMPETITION V DALBIR SINGH
We often have heard of our parents saying that the schools in India are taking fees for the month of which the holidays are declared and students are not going to school neither their classes are going or sometimes we have heard parents complaining about the extra fees paid by them in the schools of the children which is not legally defined on this case as decided the subject matter of this topic.
In this case the honourable court held that the extra fees shall not be taken and if it has been taken then it should be refunded back.
Bata India Limited vs Dinesh Parshad Raturi
This case is the perfect example when it comes to the excess money asked by the product manufacturers or sellers from the consumers without any justification in this particular case Bata company asked Rs.3 from the consumer as the amount payable for the paper bag and the court held that this amount is erroneous and without any justification and fined Bata company with Rs.9000 as the compensation for asking for three rupees of paper bag.
THE WAY AHEAD
The consumer is the sole reason of advancement in the technology and development in new sciences which can help civilizations in living a good life but his abuse should not be done in any of the society and it is his as well as sellers of product manufacturers duty to not to harm his interests. Various legislations have also been passed in India such as consumer protection act 2019 which is an amended act of consumer protection act 1986 also area of consumer disputes also comes under the purview of Indian contract act 1872, Sale of goods Act 1932 and also some part of it is covered under Negotiable Instruments Act.. not only of India the consumer of the whole world should be aware of their rights and obligations along with they should be aware about the particular product and their defects or the mall practices which sellers do when it comes to selling of their product. At last consumer is the lawyer of the market and he shall roar loudly.
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