Objective of Consumer Movement
Need, Objective of Consumer Movement are follows:
Consumer Movement, consumer is regarded as King in modern marketing. In a progressive market economy, the concept of consumer is given topmost importance, and every attempt is made to promote consumer satisfaction. However, this sovereignty of the consumer is only theoretical. In practice, he is not given any such importance. Consumers are ignored in general. They are exploited and cheated.
Consumer Movement, consumers unite together for protecting their own interests. It is a peaceful and democratic movement of for self-protection against their exploitation. Consumer movement is also referred to as consumerism. It is the movement of the consumers, by the consumers and for the consumers to safeguard and to promote their interest. The consumer movement was initially started in America followed by England and other European countries. In U.S.A., the consumer movement was started in 1920, though it is yet to gain tremendous momentum. Every year, 15th March is celebrated as Consumer Day worldwide.
In modern times, a lot of efforts have made to protect the interest of consumer by government and non-government organization.In spite of this, the exploitation of consumers has not come to an end, and they are being be fooled by business interests at all levels.It must be remembered that their exploitation will not come to an end unless they themselves come forward to protect and promote their own interest.
Consumers rights play an important role in their protection and safety. The concept of consumer's rights is comparatively a recent one. But, now acquired Universal recognition. Every consumer should be aware of his rights and duties and should use them in his daily life for his safety and protection.
The need to protect the interest of consumers has felt been long back. Even so, late president of U.S.A John. F. Kennedy, officially recognized the need and declared some of the rights of consumers. These rights were right to safety, right to information, right to choose and right to be heard. They were incorporated into the UNI charter of Human Rights. Later on, three more rights were added by International organization of Consumer union. They were right to redress, right to consumer education and to healthy environment.
Consumer means a person, the one who consumes products or services for satisfying needs of the body, mind, intellect and soul. Consumer is the most important person in the business. Only to give maximum satisfaction to the consumers, the production and marketing activities are undertaken by the producers and traders. Traders and consumers are the two parties in the process of commerce. The relations between the two, need to be based on understanding of the duties and obligations of each of them towards each other. Consumer should not be exploited by traders. Business is dependent on consumers, and its growth is only possible through their active support and co-operation.