Consumer Rights Essays (Examples)

The Center for Digital Democracy, represented by Jeffrey Chester, executive director, claims the Obama administration raises money from Google -- "Google is a Democratic darling in many ways" -- and hence the suspicion is that Obama asked his FTC to go easy on Google. "Our fear is that Google gets special treatment," Chester insists.

Conclusion

hether or not Google was aware it was gathering this data from households and businesses in 30 countries (it stretches credulity to think that with their remarkable technological genius Google didn't know), this is a very important privacy matter that the FTC should be investigating and even fining Google. Certainly consumers should be made aware that Google in fact gathered these data, and the public should also demand that the FTC dig deeper into Google's intentions; if they say they won't use the data, they why do they have it? They should be required to…

Conger, 2009).
ecommendations for Organizations

The many factors of data mining and their use for profiling customers and their needs also create opportunities for organizations to build greater levels of trust with their customers as well. And trust is the greatest asset any marketer can have today. The following are a series of recommendations for how organizations can address demographic influences that impact their marketing strategies in light of concerns surrounding the ethics of data mining.

First, it is imperative, across all demographic segments that marketers make a deliberate a very clear effort to explain their opt-in and opt-out policies and also provides evidence that they do what they claim to in this area. The greatest challenge for the consumer is controlling their personal information online and ensuring it is well managed to their preferences (Pratt. Conger, 2009). Marketers who give consumer control over their data in this way will…

The iPad is also differentiated with the screen technology, internal memory size and support for expanded Application Programmer Interface (API) calls so developers can create applications for it quickly. This has led to many news organizations creating iPad-specific applications to further promote their content, and also has led to many universities creating entire courses delivered on the iPad.
From a promotion standpoint, Apple excels at event marketing and the ability to manage multichannel marketing programs. The launch was coordinated across all Apple retail locations, which is how the company uses promotions and distribution to its advantage. Apple concentrates on promotions to drive traffic into their stores, in effect uniting these two areas of the marketing mix. Promotion is also heavily influenced by Steve Jobs, who heavily promote the iPad during the launch event in San Francisco. The iPad's promotional strategies also led to Apple creating entire segments of their stores…

This is achieved by forcing them to maintain a list of individuals who do not wish to be conducted about purchasing a variety of products and services. Furthermore, these protections were enacted to ensure that businesses are not engaging in tactics that are abusive by limiting the times when they can call and what they can say. (Caudill, 2000)
In contrast with the Consumer Privacy Bill of ights, the proposed regulations are designed to enhance protections. This is occurring over the Internet vs. On the telephone. These differences are showing how there is a loop hole in existing regulations as to how these laws are applied. The new guidelines are building upon the provisions from the Telephone Consumer Protections Act of 1991 by establishing procedures as to the way confidential information is used and collected from firms. This is occurring is through placing limits on an organization's online activities. ("Consumer…

ight to Privacy
Being a citizen of the United States comes with many benefits in comparison to citizenship in other countries. Through the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of ights we are granted certain rights -- the right to free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly -- just to name a few. However, despite the 27 amendments the Bill of ights that guarantee American protections and liberties, there is no explicit law that guarantees protection to a citizen's right to privacy (Davis, 2009). It is more of an assumed protection, although most Americans do not realize it.

In 1928, Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis referred to the right to privacy as the "right to be left alone" (De Bruin, 2010). This assertion is often supported with a citation of the 14th amendment which states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which…

Potential Concerns about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Despite the multitude of benefits revealed by the CFPA, commercial banks and mortgage lenders continually present their growing dissatisfaction with the act. epresentatives of this side include reputable organizations such as JP Morgan Chase or Wells Fargo, as well as a series of independent mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders and local and regional banking institutions. Their most compelling reasons for the dismissal of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency are succinctly presented below:

1. The banks feel that there is no real necessity for new regulatory legislation as the economy is already showing sighs of recovery; these financial institutions feel that the resources would be better spent otherwise. Additionally, the CFPA does not introduce any real new elements, but politically enforces the lessons already learnt from the economic crisis

2. The state could abuse its power through the Consumer Financial Protection Agency in…

Thus the indifference curve II passing through D. must have a negative slope. It is generally assumed that such curves are convex to the origin.
Now I-I is a particular indifference curve. We may think of the consumption of any bundle of goods on it as yielding a particular level of satisfaction, or utility, to the consumer. However there are indifference curves passing through every point on figure 2, each one negatively sloped and each one convex to the origin. Those which pass through points above and to the right of D. link

Indifference curves that cross are incompatible with the assumption that consumers order bundles of goods consistently.

Up bundles of goods that yield higher levels of satisfaction than those on I-I and those below and to the left yield lower levels of satisfaction. Such curves can never cross one another, for this would violate the rationality assumption. Consider…

As Farrell (June 14, 2000) states: "The idea is to make milk the "cool" drink. The "mustache" still runs, with current stars such as Britney Spears." The success of such milk advertising to teens, it seems, represents an especially skillful endeavor, since milk is otherwise so much (and traditionally) associated with babyhood and early childhood, life stages (and self-images and reflections by others) that teens in particular generally yearn to leave far behind. Moreover, the considerable success of the "milk mustache" campaign proves very well the fact that just about anything can be successfully marketed to teens, as long as it is marketed to them with enough imagination, research, and skill (and with plenty of advertising dollars).
Some advertising for teens is also currently undergoing some interesting media changes, internationally. Within one global mega-conglomerate, Coca Cola, according to Foust (March 1, 2004):

Coke has diverted money into new initiatives that…

It is interesting that the decision immediately becomes part of the feedback for the next decision. For example, I was not terribly enamored with my older laptop, so that brand was ruled out fairly quickly in the process -- I simply did not feel right about buying that brand again when there are so many on the market. The new purchase immediately went into my memory so that the next time I purchase a laptop, a lot of the lessons I learned from this process and the analysis that I undertook will form the basis of the next laptop purchase decision-making process.

Headache Remedy

Headache remedies are a low involvement purchase. The EBM model encompasses a number of different factors that contribute to a purchase decision. Not all of these factors are used in the decision with respect to a headache remedy. There is a core alternative evaluation where I…

After going through most of the same routine as yesterday, I stopped at the coffee shop because I didn't have to be anywhere. I received a barrage of texts as I tried to study, and realized I forgot a big consumer culture factor yesterday - the constant communications. I send and receive texts all day, plus email, and messages on Facebook, too. I had not even thought of these things when writing in my journal. This brought two things to mind. The first was how important communication is to our consumer culture. It happens constantly, and without it our consumer culture cannot thrive. One text was about plans for the evening. Which movie, which bar, which restaurant, that sort of thing. Purchasing decisions are impacted heavily by communications.
The other thing I thought about was how much consumerism we take for granted. How could I forget about communications when I'm…

Fast-food industry is the main factor. The hardest problem seems to be the adapting healthy menus in a fast-food restaurant.
According to a poll on www.vizu.comabout what drives the food decisions, from 2251 respondents, the consumers desires a nutritional quality of the food (39,7%), a good taste (21,7%), 8,2% buy the foods that make ends meet, 8,5% eat what's convenient, being pressed for time.

List of customer needs, desires and wants nutritional facts: the balanced content of proteins, fat and carbohydrates taste of the food: it is important to enjoy eating the food.

A low content in fat and sodium. The low fat and sodium food can reduce the weight. A model for this type of diet is that developed by Jared Fogle at Subway restaurant. The power of this example made possible sliming without devastating effects for the body.

A fresh ingredients in their food, like vegetables and salad.…

Closing the loan is also known as firm commitment, and involves the completion of all key paperwork within a designated time. A closing date is set, and the closing costs are established. hen the client pays the costs and completes the paperwork, the loan is closed.
The next step is to service the loan. Servicing refers to the management of the payments. The loan creates an obligation on the part of the borrower to make payments as specified in the agreement. The role of the bank is to ensure that those payments are received. Servicing may be contracted out to a secondary party. In the U.S. that might be Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who provide a secondary market for mortgages. In a servicing arrangement, the bank would collect the payments and remit most of this money to the secondary market investor. The bank would keep a portion of the…

Advertisements are a great way to try and reach those consumers whom you are trying to get to buy your product. And keeping in mind the stages those consumers go through when making buying decisions can be very helpful in having a successful marketing campaign. There are several things that a company can look at when trying to determine if an advertisement was a success or not. They can look at satisfaction levels of the consumers or their share of the market for a particular product. Some experts feel that these are not the things to be focusing on but instead they should be looking at consumer loyalty and advocacy. It is thought that companies need focus on creating customers who not only come back time and time again to buy their product but also don't mind telling people about it (John Blasberg, Vijay Vishwanath, and James Allen, 2007).

hat…

In a report on recent research in this area, Hickman (2008) states that, "Although the public recycle newspapers and bottles, only one eighth of clothes are recycled through charity shops
About 70 per cent goes straight to landfill or incineration" (Hickman). This is telling example, of the way that Fast Fashion can affect the environment.

The fact that these fashions are relatively cheap means that they are more easily discarded that would be the case with more expensive garments. Furthermore, the finding that almost all discarded Fast Fashion is not ecologically processed in an environmentally friendly way is a central factor that will be explored in detail.

The same study by Hickman referred to above contributes to the overall picture of the potentially negative outcomes of Fast Fashion in countries like the United Kingdom. " aste volumes from the sector are high and growing in the UK with the advent…

Consumers in Virtual orlds
Literature Review / Theoretical Framework: The article in the journal Marketing Intelligence & Planning points to how marketing research is becoming more pivotal to companies due to increased global competition (globalization). The authors point out that because some firms struggle to re-invent the way they conduct marketing research in the new millennium, they are considered "learning organizations" (Malhotra, et al., 2001, p. 216).

The article presents important practical information about how firms should conduct research. For example, qualitative research should be conducted with a "postmodern" approach, which uses "artistic interpretation" methods and rejects the old way of doing things like sending out surveys to determine what consumers prefer. Updated qualitative research uses computer-assisted data and embraces creative methods. On the quantitative research side, the authors advocate automated "data mining"; new databases should contain unlimited information about foreign product markets (Malhotra, 221).

Key Findings: Conducting surveys is…

Consumer Behavior
The belief that the determinants of social class are occupational prestige, income, and education is borne out by both a wide body of research as well as one's own personal experience. However, while I agree that these factors play an important, even primary, role in determining social class, I believe there are several other criteria that need to be taken into consideration to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the motivational drives within each social class. For instance, personality differences as well as racial and ethnic backgrounds can, and do, influence consumer buying behavior. Therefore, it follows that these variables can also effectively segment behavior within a social class. Indeed, the role played by personality differences, cultural and ethnic factors explain why marketers define target segments by both demographic and psychographic variables: "Social classes display distinct product and brand preferences in such areas as apparel, automobiles, home furnishings,…

Organizations
American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)

Purpose/Function

Benefits

Provision of resources

National Council of Family elations (NCF)

Functions

Benefits

esources

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

Functions

Benefits

esources

Child Life Council (CLC)

Functions

Benefits

esources

American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)

Ellen ichards is the person that developed the idea of 'home economics' as a discipline. This discipline in turn became the founding stone for American Home Economics Association (AHEA) that was founded by ichards in 1909. Later AHEA got evolved into what is now known as the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. The agency deals with several issues related to households and economic functioning of families, these may include obesity, unemployment, weather change, and credit crisis (AAFCS, n.d.). Thus, AAFCS is composed of interdisciplinary experts.

Purpose/Function

AAFCS is situated in Washington, D.C., area and has the main purpose of "providing leadership and support…

consumers' connectivity with the brands that has changed to fundamentally new ways in the today's time. The paper has discussed how the new and digital age has created an impact on the perceptions of the consumers due to which their ways of connecting to the brand has changed as the world has penetrated into the epoch of technological advancements. How the new media is playing an important role for the marketers and brand in connecting to the customers has been under discussion.
Consumer elationship with Brand

Brands are considerably one of the vital and imperative assets for the companies and business, and the brand management is one of the core areas of focus for the marketers. In order to manage the brand carefully and vigilantly, marketers have to largely focus on creating a large and a loyal customer database. However, the changes in the technology and media have provided with…

Introduction
For the purpose of noting buyer behavior, I visited a neighborhood grocery store named ‘Redner’s Warehouse’, one of a chain of popular outlets in my locality. One can find a couple of these outlets on the very same highway, attached to petrol pumps. I elected to observe the behavior of buyers along two aisles in the outlet: the baking and frozen vegetable aisles. Simply staring at buyers is weird and, thus, I selected aisles where I actually had products to buy and could discreetly observe fellow buyers. My aim was noting variations in buyer behavior for diverse goods, besides variations in buyers themselves. For achieving more superior results, I chose to visit the store twice, on a weekday (Wednesday) and on a Sunday, during noon time. During the weekday visit, I found few buyers in for purchase, while on my weekend visit, the store was certainly packed with more…

Detergents are a necessity for all of us and we will purchase them often without much consideration to brand or other characteristics beside the quality / price report. Detergent commercials have most often made me laugh not because they were funny, but because they were rather silly, to say the least. A latest commercial I saw of Ariel presented the owner or manager of a catering business who wanted to reduce costs and so switched to a cheaper washing product. But the cloths were not clean and had to be washed again; as such no economy was made and she decided to return to Ariel. I personally am an Ariel consumer and I will continue to be, and not because of the commercial, but because I like the product's quality. However, in the commercial, I see that the company has recognized the high price of their product relative to other…

Fo instance, appoximately 33 pe cent of Thailand's wate souces ae categoized as having poo quality and the phenomenon is consideed a seious envionment poblem. Moeove, Thailand is anked among the last Asian counties based on amounts of fesh wate available pe capita (WWF, 2010).
In this context, the Thai govenment and the Thai people have commenced to pay moe attention to the effect of the envionmental poblems, as well as to the adjacent economics of the poblem. People make an effot to buy poducts which ae envionmentally hamless and, though them, to minimize the negative envionmental implications of consumption. A fist effot in this diection was the intoduction of the Thai Geen Label Scheme in 1993 and its fomal launch one yea late (Geen Label Thailand, 2010). In shot, the scheme suppots the development of the geen poducts secto by intoducing infomation fo consumes and standads fo businesses. Moe…

complexities of doing business in our virtual age, looking in particular at e-commerce but also asking how the presence of e-commerce on the market has affected traditional businesses as well. Once upon a time - that golden age - things were simple. You decided you wanted to grow up to be a bookstore owner. Or a hardware store manager. Or a florist. So you leased a store, bought some books, and lovingly hand-sold them to each customer who flocked to your door and then went home at night to count your money.
Of course, owning a bookstore or a hardware store or a flower shop was actually never that simple. But the picture now is even more complicated as virtual stores have entered the picture. Part of what makes engaging in e-commerce so difficult is that there are no paths that others have trod before one. And the costs of…

A. The entity receives payment in exchange for providing a consumer report  B. The entity regularly assembles or evaluates information about consumers 
C.The entity furnishes consumer reports 
D.The entity uses means of interstate commerce for the purpose of preparing or furnishing consumer reports
Suppose a consumer reporting agency (falsely) reports that a consumer has defaulted on a credit card debt, which of the following is true?
A. The consumer can sue the CRA for defamation 
B. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can take enforcement action against the CRA for violating the reasonable procedures requirement 
C.The consumer must dispute the inaccurate information in order to have any right to sue.
D. Only the consumer can take action against the CRA.
Suppose that a bank (falsely and negligently) tells a CRA that a consumer has defaulted on a credit card debt, which of the following is true?
A. The consumer can sue…

" (Al-Ghaith, Sanzogni, and Sandhu, 2010)
With a focus on Saudi Arabia it is reported that there is "no reliable local production in the fields of software or the hardware. The increased demand for ICTs is met by acquiring overseas technologies.

The trend towards increased reliance on ICTs by the Saudi people, in particular computers and internet services, is one of the highest when compared with other developing countries; however it is still far below the ownership rate in developed countries. Table 1 illustrates the ownership rate of equipment such as fixed-line telephones, cellular phone and personal computers. The ownership rate was calculated per 1000 persons in variant countries over the world." (Al-Ghaith, Sanzogni, and Sandhu, 2010) the goal of the study reported in the work of Al-Ghaith, Sanzogni, and Sandhu (2010) is to enhancing the understanding of factors that influence adoption and usage of online services in Saudi Arabia.…

Consumers have the right to determine if the drugs are safe, which they often do because regulations in Canada pertaining to safety and drug tampering are just as strict as similar rules in the U.S. All 18 Canadian sites investigated by the General Accounting Office, wrote the journal Community Action in 2004, required consumers to supply a physician-written prescription before filling orders. That was the case for five of 29 U.S. pharmacies; no other foreign pharmacies did. Thus, consumers have the right to choice, and to find the best bargain, just as they might in any other commodity. (Bast, 2005) Viewed as such, importation is just another form of free trade and a "beneficial outcome of changing technology, free trade, and globalization. Free trade benefits everyone, and governments ought not cave in to special pleading by interest groups seeking to avoid competition or limit consumer choice."(Bast, 2004) Opponents counter that…

Record companies have been seeking to agree on a common industry standard to make such broadcasts secure and able to be recorded." (" Sony Launches Internet Music Sales" BBC News)
Simply generating a simple, strict technological standard could shut out smaller, cheaper, and better manufactures of particular technological products. "The consequences of launching competing systems was most famously seen in the battle between the Betamax and VHS videotape systems, which were launched almost simultaneously. Video shops often stocked Beta and VHS tapes of the same films" but individuals chose the "more widely available VHS format despite a widely held belief that Beta technology was superior." Consumers will almost always go for the more easily accessible and technologically popular systems, almost regardless of quality, a phenomenon also witnessed in computer technology with the dominance of Microsoft indows. If the standards set by the industry are too rigid, it could lock consumers…

Yet the author does not however delve into the more complex and potentially more valuable aspects of collaborative communication and planning processes that can lead an organization to transform its supply chain from being based on price, to be based on learning. That transformation of any supply chain is achievable, and in the context of New Zealand's manufacturing base, critical to compete in a global economy.
eferences

Michel Aldanondo, Elise Vareilles. (2008). Configuration for mass customization: how to extend product configuration towards requirements and process configuration. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 19(5), 521-535. etrieved March 2, 2009, from ABI/INFOM Global database. (Document ID: 1561310401).

Mohsen Attaran, Sharmin Attaran. (2007). Collaborative supply chain management:the most promising practice for building efficient and sustainable supply chains. Business Process Management Journal, 13(3), 390-404. etrieved March 2, 2009, from ABI/INFOM Global database. (Document ID: 1283942591).

Jane Barrett. (2007, November). Demand-Driven is an Operational Strategy. Industrial Management,…

There have been several arguments with reference to the social impact of the Intellectual Property, and it has been observed that the Intellectual property law has been responsible for the promotion of the competitive forces in such a manner that 'antitrust law does not address, and may do so based on evidence that would be insufficient in an antitrust context' (Brinson, 1994). It is indeed a difficult practice related to the 'forced sharing to attain optimal competition' (Brinson, 1994), and it appear to be unwarranted 'in most antitrust contexts, and it is clear indication of the absent clear proof of market harm' (Thomas, 2006), although it is expected to 'constitute improved and comprehensive Intellectual Property policy, even in the presence of ambiguous evidence' (Brinson, 1994). The anti-trust law and the intellectual property law is expected to minimize the cost of three different things, which include, false positives, as per which…

As a part of its responsibility to monitor federal agency compliance with Section 501, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) collects and compiles data regarding agencies' hiring and advancement of workers with disabilities. At the time of hiring, federal agencies provide employees the opportunity to self-disclose that they have a disability, on a Standard Form 256 (SF-256); the numbers of people who so identify are reported to the EEOC. In1979, EEOC officially designated certain disabilities as targeted disabilities in its Management Directive 703 issued on December 6, 1979, which in 2003 was superseded by Management Directive 715. MD 715 defines targeted disabilities as "Disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in affirmative action programs. They are: 1) deafness; 2) blindness; 3) missing extremities; 4) partial paralysis; 5) complete paralysis; 6) convulsive disorders; 7) mental retardation; 8) mental illness; and 9) distortion…

Consume Behavio: Puchasing Local Baby Food vs. Impoted Baby Food in Ethiopia
Liteatue Review Desciption

A systematic eview of the liteatue is povided in this chapte in ode to develop infomed and timely answes to the study's guiding eseach questions and to confim o efute its guiding hypothesis. In this egad, Faenkel and Wallen (2001, p. 48) advise that, "Reseaches find out what has aleady been witten about the topic they ae inteested in [by] investigating the opinions of expets in the field and othe eseach studies. Such eading is efeed to as a eview of the liteatue." Likewise, Gatton and Jones (2003) epot that a well-conducted eview of the liteatue epesents an essential pat of vitually any type of scholaly eseach poject today. Fo example, Gatton and Jones (2003, p. 51) note that, "No matte how oiginal you think the eseach question may be, it is almost cetain that…

Consumer Reporting Agency - Safeline US, LLC A consumer reporting agency, as per the definition outlined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), “means any person which, for monetary fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties…” (Federal Trade Commission - FTC, 2012). Thus, in essence, Safeline is indeed a consumer reporting agency. This is more so the case given that true to the definition outlined above, the company is organized on a cooperative nonprofit basis and collects tenant information with a purpose of availing reports to members (third parties) on troublesome tenants.
In response to Jane Doe’s Attorney, it is important to note from the onset that Safeline is not in contravention of the Fair Credit Reporting…

Psychology of Consumer Behavior
Consumer perspectives on the emerging culture of consumption in Singapore

b) Introduction

The consumption style of consumers alludes to the mental approach or orientation a purchaser has towards settling on decisions. Although purchaser choice making style depicts a consistent trend of affective and cognitive responses, national culture has been demonstrated to have an effect on individual attitudes and values. In this way, culture has a noteworthy impact on consumption trend in Singapore (Mooij & Mooij, 2011). This study will embrace buyer research into consumption styles to improve comprehension of how culture shapes consumption trends across Singapore. Primarily, this study will evaluate and confirm to the identified Singaporean culture. Minimal research analyzes cultural factors shaping buyer decision making. There is confirmation of cultural aspects in the purchaser's styles of making choices for fashion although no study has covered if this impact extends to the purchase of general…

Direct-Consumer Drug Advertising
Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising

Direct-to-consumer drug advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is a hot-button issue. Is it ethical, or does it lead to self-diagnosis and take advantage of people who have hope for a cure? Currently, New Zealand and the United States are the only two countries that allow this kind of direct-to-consumer advertising to take place, which calls into question why other countries do not allow the same, if the practice is ethical. From a deontological point-of-view, using Kant's categorical imperative, this paper will address whether the direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is ethical or unethical. According to the deontological approach, one's duty is to do what is morally right and avoid what is morally wrong, regardless of what the consequences of those actions may be (Beauchamp, 1991; Waller, 2005). Because that is the case, there are moral questions raised that have to be considered with something as…

Hipster Consumer Behavior
Following the publication of Norman Mailer's essay, "The White Negro" in 1957, the term "hipster" has become part of the American lexicon. The image of hipsters has changed in fundamental ways since that time, though, and marketers interested in this segment are therefore faced with some significant challenges in fine-tuning their marketing mixes to appeal to young adults who define themselves as hipsters or who are attracted to the image for other reasons. This paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning hipster consumer behavior, including a background, a description of the lifestyle branding theoretical foundation that can be used to formulate marketing initiatives, and the findings that emerged from the research. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings are presented in the conclusion.

Background

Although adults of any age may be regarded as "hipsters," this category is commonly regarded as…

Business Law
During the consumer movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Congress enacted a substantial amount of legislation to protect "the good of the people." There is only one problem with consumer protection laws -- they are slow to react and even harder to enforce. As a result of this situation, corporations are allowed to profit at the expense of consumers' health. The resistance comes in a number of stages. The first is denial of the problem, wherein the corporations argue that there is not enough evidence to link their products with the negative outcomes that are being reported. Then there is the lobbying that causes politicians to defer action until a later date, or ignore the call to action altogether. Too often, when statutes are enacted, corporations fight them to the end, resulting in flawed legislation that either has loopholes, require interpretation from the judicial branch or is difficult…

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BERR. (2009). China and India: Opportunities and Challenges for UK Businesses. BERR Economics Paper No. 5. Retrieved February 13, 2010 from http://www.pdfone.com/view/19_keywordchinasconsumermarketopportunitiesandrisks/china-and-india-opportunities-and-challenges-for-uk-business.html

China-Britain Business Council. (2010). Opportunities for UK Businesses in China's Regional Cities. UK rade & Investment. Retrieved February 13, 2010 from http://www.pdfone.com/view/22_keywordchinasconsumermarketopportunitiesandrisks/opportunities-for-uk-businesses-in-china-s-regional-cities.html

Ebrahimi, Helia. (2008). Will pricelings save the west? Designer driven: China is soon expected to the world's biggest buyer of luxury goods. he Mail on Sunday. P. 62.

Foster, Sarah. (1997). Buying Irish: consumer nationalism in 18th-century Dublin. History oday. 47(6):44-49.

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Ji, Richard & Meeker, Mary. (2005). Creating consumer value in digital China. China Internet. Morgan Stanley. Retrieved February 13, 2010 from…

Today's consumers act more en masse rather than as individuals, and so, marketing must show them why the "must" have the newest trendy items, or why they have to continue to need those items. Consumers still have personal choices, but they tend to shop for what is "hot" right now and making an item or service hot is what marketing is becoming. Today, people value things not for what they do, but what they say about them as consumers, and how they show they have "taste" and "class." Things are valued because they are expensive, rather than functional, and that is a very different side of marketing as well. Consumers are bound by expense today, and it is no wonder quality is becoming a thing of the past - perhaps it will end up being the real "luxury" in our consumerist society.
eferences

Needing the Unnecessary: The democratization of luxury."

popularity of foreign restaurant: consumer attitude and behavior toward foreign cuisines in Bangkok
Thailand as a tourist destination

Thailand has become a tourist destination hotspot for its scenic beauty, the humble nature of their people, and the relative value of foreign currencies relative to the baht. According to EIU ViewsWire (2003), "Growth in the tourism industry in recent years was the result of the depreciation of the baht against non-Asian currencies (which improved competitiveness relative to destinations outside the region), aggressive marketing campaigns and an increase in the number of airlines offering flights to Thailand." (EIU ViewsWire, 2003)

Additionally, according to EIU ViewsWire (2003), "Tourist arrivals rose by 5.8% to just over 10m in 2001, despote the global economic downturn and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., bringing in Bt 295bn (U.S. $6.6 bn) in revenue. Thailand benefited from its reputation as a safe and stable society and…

Theory
Consumer Behavior

The success or failure of an organization unreservedly depends upon the behavior of consumers towards its products or services (Kotler, 2010). Consumers have now become more knowledgeable and conscious towards choosing and consuming products. They do not just buy a product; but make a relationship with that brand and the manufacturer of that product (Oliver, 1999). This relationship reflects their consumption patterns and brand preference. This is the fact which business organizations must recognize about consumer behavior (Farley, 1964). To stumble upon this consumer behavior, organizations use different marketing and promotional strategies to stay competitive within their respective industries. In this way, they explore what is their potential target market and what they can do to meet these consumption demands (Kotler, Brown, Burton, Deans, & Armstrong, 2010).

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the behavior of consumers towards the products offered by one of the…

Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is a broad-based law the impacts both businesses and consumers. The ACL represents a unified codification of a variety of prior product liability laws. In fact, one of its main benefits is that the law is applicable throughout Australia. Another major component of the law is that it imposes a strict liability standard on manufacturers and suppliers of goods, which was not a uniform standard prior to the introduction of this law. This is a relatively new law; the need for it was identified in 2009 after a Productivity Commission reviewed existing consumer protection laws and found glaring inconsistencies, which made it difficult, if not impossible, to enforce those laws that did exist.
Perhaps the greatest change to the law is that the ACL is now a strict liability law. Strict liability "means that a breach may be committed without negligence" (The FindLaw Team, 2012). In…

Emotional Drivers Swarovski
The motives behind consumer decisions to purchase luxury brands like Swarovski have been studied in a number of researches. The general findings of these studies have been that these motives are largely emotional, and that they are evolving as the composition of the luxury market segment changes. De Mooij (2005) defines emotion as an "interaction between cognition and physiology." The characteristics of emotion that or of greater concern to luxury brand managers are that emotions are learned and that they vary from culture to culture.

The mode of expression of emotion also varies by culture. In capitalistic societies, consumption has evolved into a unique mode of expression of self-satisfaction, self-esteem and self-pleasures. These buying motives shape the perceptions of various brands among consumers, along with brand loyalty and brand image. De Mooij (2005, p. 116) explains luxury brand buying motives in terms of collectivism/individualism and masculinity/feminism. Conformance…

protection of personal rights. For instance, in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court on Griswold V. Connecticut, married couples should have the rights to privacy when it comes to birth control.
PROTECTING THE RIGHTS TO PRIVACY

Imagine the state telling people how many children they can have, what birth control methods they can use, and blasting the personal information of individuals on the television, computer, radio and etc. Personal information about what diseases, medical health, salaries, how many times an individual has been married, how many divorces, and other personal rights should be protected by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Should the state laws have the ability to give personal information to others? Should companies or individuals have the right to get personal information about a person off the computers? hat should individuals do to keep their privacy?

In Connecticut, it is a crime for a person to use…

They are also the guidelines by which a member determines the correctitude of conduct in relationships with the clients, colleagues, members of allied professions and with various populaces.
A member of the family and consumer sciences profession and of AAFCS is required by the code of ethics to maintain the highest responsible standard of professional performance. At all times, a member should uphold confidentiality and act with intelligence, dedication, and ebullience. A member is required to fulfill the obligation in order to continually advance and extend personal professional qualification. Sharing the professional competence with colleagues and clients is also a requirement meant to enlarge and carry on development of the profession.

The code of ethics requires members to support the objectives of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Members should also take part in its development through informed, active participation in its programs. Extending public cognizance and understanding…

hat types of sports events do they go to? Are they eb savvy? Are they frequent fliers? Once you develop that kind of intimate understanding of your shoppers, you can truly begin to cultivate their loyalties" (Pedersen 1999:1).
On one hand, this may make consumers uncomfortable -- but it may also mean that when a supermarket chain discovers that the majority of its customers have young children, the chain may include a new line of baby care supplies or discounted coupons on diapers bought in bulk. If a credit card company discovers that the majority of its users are not frequent fliers, it may create a new rewards points program that offers different promotional strategies than mere upgrades to first class.

Take for example a promotional strategy whereby Coca-Cola "joined forces with Random House to offer sample chapters of unpublished novels in cases of Diet Coke. The idea was hatched…

randing Affects the uying Decision
"How Does randing Affect Consumer Purchasing?." Using this research question, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each research method (qualitative and quantitative) within the scope of the proposed dissertation topic. Identify which method you will select (or state whether you will use a mixed methodology) and explain the reasons for your choice.

DA Qs 1 Answer

The marketing guru Philip Kotler perceives branding as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." It has also been adopted by the American Marketing Association. Michael Dunn, President and CEO, of Prophet, a strategic professional services firm in San Francisco, states that branding is just a defensive tool against market competition; but acts as "insulation against deteriorating economic conditions."

The essence of a brand is the base upon which the prosperity of the…

Marketing
Involvement

Consumer involvement refers to the amount of time, though and energy that a consumer puts into a particular purchase decision (McNamara, 2014). This can be categorized along the emotional/rational scale. So many small purchases like impulse purchases are low involvement. At the very low involvement end of the scale is something like fries with your burger -- you might not even want them, and accept the suggestion for them almost reflexively. At the high involvement end of the scale would be something like the military bidding process, or for consumers buying a house or car. A medium-involvement purchase involves at least some thought. An example might be new headphones -- it's not an impulse purchase but unless you're ad audiophile there is only so much energy you will put into that purchase.

For marketers, the optimal situation for a low involvement purchase is to reduce the search for…

Invest in the global consumer" deals with the subject of expanding market for international goods and how companies must understand the new dynamics of the increased purchasing power of consumers from China and India. This article was published in the Forbes in July, 2009. The article is exceptional in its research considering how little sophisticated research could be done for a business magazine. The author has cited examples from financial news and also given current statistics to support his argument that the new global consumer is more interested in hi-tech products than anything else and the reason one must invest in hi-tech products in the U.S. is because there is little competition offered by China in this field.
The idea of a global consumer is interesting but not very new. We have been learning about the new consumer since the growth of the Internet and the ever-increasing influence of globalization.…

It was also very interesting to note that many large suppliers may actually step in to help their troubled client. Again, this makes sense, especially if the client is a long-term business partner doing a major amount of business with the company. Saving a company actually makes sound financial sense in these cases, and uniting with a group of company creditors is also a good idea. It seems that for the most part, when a company runs into financial difficulties, if they are a viable and respectable company, there are resources available to help them regain their footing and continue business. This shows how important it is to always have excellent relationships with customers, no matter what business you engage in.

eferences

Brownstein, Howard and Edward Gavin. "When Bad Things Happen to Good Customers." Business Credit, June 2003, retrieved from ProQuest…

Psychology of Consumer Behavior
The research into how young women perceive their own bodies -- in response to constant exposure to media images of un-naturally thin and extraordinarily beautiful females -- has been a popular topic for many years. But when it comes to male models that are nearly perfect, handsome and muscular in exactly the right places, there has not been as much attention or research. This paper reviews the potential of -- and reality of -- dissatisfaction in males based on the media's model images of males.

Body Image for Males -- Background

Annette La Greca is Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami and Gerald Koocher is the Dean of the School for Health Studies at Simmons College. As co-authors of The Parents' Guide to Psychological First Aid: Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Predictable Life Crises they assert that the research for body dissatisfaction among…

intellectual rights and how they apply to all aspects of the business cycle.
Intellectual ights and the Business Cycle

Intellectual rights are something that almost every business today has to deal with in some form or other. While the concept is a relatively new one, it has, nonetheless, become a concept that no business today can afford to ignore. Intellectual rights can affect every part of the business cycle, and a company that ignores this issue does so at its own peril. Businesses can be forced out of business or find themselves in complicated legal trouble over intellectual rights if they abuse the intellectual rights of others. Businesses can also find themselves mired down in lengthy court battles and in financial peril if they ignore their own intellectual rights. This paper examines the issue of intellectual rights as they apply to all aspects of the business cycle.

What are intellectual…

International Human ights, Women and Gender
International Human ights: Women and Gender

Women are the most assaulted segment of the human society. A shocking statistic reveals that a majority of the females are subjected to violence and sexual violence by the time they reach their late teens (Fergus, 2012).

Definitions of Violence against women, constitutes the mental and physical torture they are subjected to by way of restricting their right to freedom in the broader sense of the term. The crimes and exploitation against younger girls implies, by definition, violence based on gender discrimination. It has been observed that this act of violence is fallout of the negligence shown towards equality of the female child and womenfolk in general (Fergus, 2012).

The act of violence exposes the women and specifically the younger female child to isolation, loss of identity, unhealthy overall development, psychological and social stigma (WHO, 2006) and hence…

C. Mayor Adrian Fenty made HIV / AIDS the most important public health priority (Greenberg et al., 2009). Funding from the CDC allowed for a partnership between the D.C. Department of Health's HIV / AIDS Administration and the George Washington University School of Public Health and Healthy Services, which was responsible for the Epidemiology Annual eport for 2007 -- the first to be published for D.C. since 2002 (Greenberg et al., 2009). The Department of Health also initiated a routine HIV screening campaign to help provide testing resources and lower stigma, titled "Come Together DC -- Get Screened for HIV" (Greenberg et al., 2009).
Efforts to address the epidemic in D.C. included a combination of increased resource availability and educational services as offered by public health departments. The "Come Together DC -- Get Screened for HIV" campaign provided approximately 73,000 tests in 2008, which was a 70% testing increase from…

In this way, religion was used in an attempt not only to make the proletariat content with their lives of alienation, exploitation and poverty, but also as a way to actually encourage them to want less and to enjoy their low stations in life as a sign of their future happiness in the religious afterlife. Regardless of Marx's beliefs concerning the Christian faith, or any other religious belief system, his critique of religion was aimed not at religious institutions per se, but at their implementation of religion as a means of subjugation.
It is for this reason that Marx believes the emancipation of humanity will necessarily involve an emancipation from religion. Because religious teachings, as Marx sees them, reinforce the ideals that create and maintain the inequalities of the capitalist system, such teachings must be done away with if the proletariat are to be able to make fully informed and…

"The Research Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2011" Census.gov (2012): 32, internet, 26 Jun. 2013. Available: http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-244.pdf.]
With so many residents facing homelessness, it seems imperative to understand the cost of not implementing the hygiene centers through the local public health departments. When researchers examined the hospitalization rates of homeless persons in Honolulu, Hawaii, they found that hospitalizations in acute-care hospitals occurred at a rate 5.6-fold above the average for state residents.[footnoteRef:6] for psychiatric hospitals, it was 131-fold higher. The estimated cost of the excess hospitalization for the 1,751 homeless persons studied was close to $3.5 million in 1992 dollars. In 2010 dollars,[footnoteRef:7] this would amount to about $4.9 million. Based on a homeless population of 136,000 to 750,000 for the State of California, the excess medical costs associated with homelessness could be somewhere between $381 million and $2.1 billion dollars per year. [6: Jon V. Martell et al., "Hospitalization in an…

Theodore Levitt, the world and consumers in particular are moving towards having similar likes, preferences, and tastes and these have caused people to prefer the same products the world over. These products that are given preference are those that are liked by everyone else. "Everyone in the increasingly homogenized world market wants products and features that everybody else wants." Levitt, 1984.
This statement is true in the world that we currently see, and this should be the focus of all marketing campaigns whether they are aimed at building brand awareness, changing the attitudes of consumers, or just trying to increase sales of a product. By simply creating a product that will become the preference of many, it is remarkably easy to capture and penetrate the market and thus boost sales by a large margin.

Levitt also argues that "different cultural preferences, national tastes and standards, and business institutions are the…

The amount of interest that we would pay each month is the rate (say 6%) divided by twelve (multiplied by the principal). Therefore, the yearly compounded rate is higher, actually, than the disclosed rate. In Canada, mortgages use semi-annual compounded rates, while payments are still monthly. Mortgages in the U.S., however, are mostly payable and compounding monthly, which means that U.S. homeowners are paying more in interest on their homes than Canadians, as the yearly compounded rate is higher than the disclosed rate.
Buying a home, we found, is a lot like buying smaller things, as we have been doing, on credit, with credit cards, which is called "installment buying." Installment buying stipulates that, although one may "purchase" something with a credit card and use it, it legally still belongs to the seller until the last payment is made. If the buyer defaults, the goods revert to the seller and…

behaviors inherent in e-tailing (in business-to-Consumer relationships / communications). Note the communications medium in which each behavior occurs.
Explain how each medium enables e-commerce.

E-tailing is the business of electronic retailing or retailing over the Internet (*). There are three types of e-tailing behavior: independent, intervening variables, and dependent variables.

Independent:

The independent retailer will want to know two variables of the people who generally resort to e-commerce. These are: (a) personal characteristics and (b) environmental characteristics. The retailer will want to know the buying habits of the consumers in order to target a given market. These demographics include age, gender, marital status, occupation and income.

The retailer, too, will want to know the environmental variables, namely background variables of what or who influence the consumer; where the consumer shops; what the consumer would like to buy and so forth. This is so in order that the retailer would know…

online consumer reviews from the consumer's perspective.
Online consumer reviews are often the first way that a consumer will learn about a new product or service. The pros of online consumer reviews include receiving potentially unbiased information about a product or service. The cons of online consumer reviews include their increasing lack of credibility as more companies are resorting to tactics like paying bloggers for positive product reviews, paying writers to write positive Amazon reviews, and the inability to genuinely decipher the difference between a trustworthy and untrustworthy review. Paid or compensated reviewers are becoming increasingly savvy in their presentation of material. By inserting a few objective or even critical comments amid a sea of positive information about the brand or specific product, the paid reviewer engenders trust and therefore creates an illusion of credibility. The ill informed consumer might be prone to trusting the paid reviewer because of the…

Giant Consumer Products Incorporated
When considering the ever-changing and highly competitive globalized landscape of today's food industry, firms must stay at the cutting edge of their respective fields in order to sustain profitability in the long-term. Accordingly, companies are faced with the continuous task of finding new ways to understand and subsequently accommodate the shifting needs of customers and shareholders, while simultaneously securing lucrative business models and job environments. The Giant Consumer Products Corporation (in particular its frozen food division, which is also its driving operational force) is facing a multitude of barriers on the road to the sustainment of profitability. While trying to contend with growing levels competition and the emergence of countless convenient organic alternatives, this firm must find a way to reach these emerging market segments and compete profitably with young progressive market entrants. For, despite this organization's historic dominance in the frozen food sector, countless new…

" He is right that many Americans who call themselves Christians and who attend Christian worship services do not live their lives based on the Beatitudes. And then Kavanaugh also says "Nietzsche seems to have understood the Sermon on the Mount better than many Christians." ell wait a minute. If Nietzsche found the Sermon on the Mount "scandalous," and attacked it as "demeaning of the will to power," how can that be construed as understanding it better than many Christians?
To even bring Nietzsche into a discussion about "The Alternative Kingdom" is ludicrous. In Nietzsche's the Birth of Tragedy (p. 23) he says the "Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life's nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in 'another' or 'better' life." In his essay, Human, all too Human, Nietzsche denounces the Christian idea of "...sins perpetrated against a god,…