The assessment item explores the various consumer aberrant or criminal behaviors that are a common practice in everyday life. An intensive literature review from journals has been covered considering in each journal the various categories of consumer misbehavior ranging from slightly unethical through to the more serious illegal behaviors. More views have been gathered from a cross-cultural interview whereby individual responses to the suggested consumer misbehaviors have generated vivid views necessary for inclusion in this assessment item. The members of the interview group have been considered as hailing from different ages, sex, religion as well as social classes to come up with non-biased views. Finally, some recommendations have been highlighted based on the results of the findings of the various research findings that have been visited to come up with this assessment report.
Introduction
A consumer is a very significant entity in any production chain. The ultimate end goal of the system of production is consumption and therefore the consumer is the end entity to complete this line. It is out of this factor that the consumer attracts a lot of focus in this assessment item of the behaviors of the consumer. Ethically everybody would require appreciable attributes associated with consumer habits. In most instances, this has not been possible and even extends to affect the buyer since the extent of sales determines the benefits of the retailers. To some extent therefore the retailers give a positive contribution towards these aberrant consumer behaviors although sometimes it is out of goodwill and rights they do so.
The decision by the consumer to purchase an item is a result of ethical issues. A consumer may be motivated to purchase an item guided by ethical norms or on the other hand, guided by the perceived consequences of behaviors. Research has shown that more weight falls on the side of ethical norms, whereby consumers to a large degree rely on ethical norms as opposed to perceived consequences in forming ethical judgments. (Babin, B. J. & Babin, L. A., 1996).
There are factors that were found to be of major impact as regards the influence of these aberrant or criminal consumer behaviors. Factors of the price of the commodity and emotional issues are significantly important. Evidence of financial status, education level as well as religious affiliation however has a significant impact on the consumers’ misbehaviors.
Concept of Consumer Misbehaviours
Shoplifting is one of the most serious consumer misbehavior. According to Larry Greene Meier’s Journal Information Week: April 9, 2007; 1133; ABI/INFORM Global Pg.47., shoplifting is a common customer misbehavior practice affecting much retail. There has always existed of disparity on a balance between the percentage of shoppers frequenting a retail outlet and the actual difference in the store quantity. The peoples’ movement inside the premise has not always been monitored.
The purchase of illicit goods is another form of customer misbehavior as has been put forward by Nancy D. Albers-Miller The Journal of Consumer Marketing. Santa Barbara: 1999, Vol.16, Iss.3, P.273-287. Illicit goods or rather illegal goods may be either stolen or counterfeit and the need for the product is neither physical nor psychological. People can do without the purchase of such a product.
The same journal also highlights another form of misbehavior, the compulsive consumption by the consumer in which case emotional issues are the contributing factors towards it; stress, as well as pressures in an individual, is also a contributing factor leading to unnecessary expenditure. Consumption of addictive substances such as in cases of underage consuming alcohol and the use of addictive drugs that have been noticed in individuals. The resources at the disposal of individuals should be used for the positive good rather than being wasted. These addictive substances, cigarettes also included poses a great danger to the individual health in addition to portraying consumer misbehavior.
Nancy et al journal add more emphasis to shoplifting indicating emotional influences associated with this misbehavior. Shoplifters have low ethical morale to guide them and therefore indulge in these acts. Counterfeiting, according to Nancy et al, has resulted in the growth of trademark privacy where customers offer positive support to the development of piracy. The pirated products always common with low-cost prices in the market attracting more consumers. As accordingly these high purchases exhibit some consumer misbehaviors and they remain to be blamed for the promotion of counterfeit products. The aberrant behaviors are motivated by some situational factors such as price, penalty, or situation-specific elements. They are all interrelated towards the influence on the individual.
According to Nil and Shultz (1997) Journal of Macro marketing, more emphasis on shoplifting and buying contraband are serious unethical customer behaviors. In the Entine (1994) American Journal Internet downloading by retailers in their own rights serious piracy problems to raise the awareness of the production conditions has resulted to serious piracy problems. Security of the Internet transactions has continued to be questioned by consumers. Likewise, to overcome piracy there is a need for data confidentiality authenticity and integrity. The Internet has allowed traders the ability to track down information of consumer transactions but this raises some new challenges towards rights to personal privacy.
The American Journal also highlights the purchase of pornographic materials as another aberrant and criminal behavior. Just like the illicit goods, and compulsive consumption, pornographic materials as well as their purchase exhibit some sorts of aberrant behaviors by the consumers. The end gain of the pornographic materials is the ethical degradation of the individual.
Progressive Severity of Consumer Misbehaviours
Consumer misbehaviors are very diverse in the range from slightly unethical through moderate to serious illegal as well as cremate behaviors. Downloading from the Internet though allowed is evil towards piracy. Whereas this can be treated as an individual right, critically examined it violates the property right of piracy.
The purchase of junk foods is another form of consumer misbehavior. The nutritional effect of the products though expensive in terms of spending is just a violation of individual health. Compulsive consumption is yet a very common form of consumer misbehavior, which is attributed to pressure as well as an emotion by the individual at the time of making the decision to make the purchase.
Purchase of illicit goods assumes a higher status of consumer misbehavior, which is mostly motivated by the price of the commodity compared to its actual value. Shoplifting is tantamount to actual theft or stealing and it is punishable by law. It is a result of the low moral standard of the concerned individual.
The purchase of pornographic material has ethical drawbacks as well as a social negative effect on the consumer despite the fact that it is commonly experienced in the marketplace.
Interviews Five People
Consumer misbehaviors have raised some most common issues categorized as compulsive buying behaviors, addictive consuming behaviors, consumer fraud, and shoplifting. When these aberrant and criminal behaviors were subjected to a focus group, diverse opinions were generated. The group in question is also diverse in terms of sex, age, ethical standard, religion as well as financial status. Factors such as expected penalty price, emotional well as peer influences were found to be the guiding principles towards these misbehavioural practices. The findings were very genuine as to the negative ethics their stand is since each individual comment held that ethically the deeds are not good. However, driven by some force the unethical behaviors are quite prevalent in our daily lives.
Price was found to be the main contributor since the benefits of any commodity needed by a consumer are balanced by its monetary value. The purchase of counterfeit goods for example is a factor of price is the counterfeit good is usually less expensive compared to a genuine product. The same applies to a stolen good both of which give the consumer some advantage. A stolen good gives the consumer the advantage of quality and cost-saving. This, therefore, has a positive motivation effect on the customer’s aberrant behavior. Results also highlighted a negative variation between a perceived chance of being caught with a stolen good and the possibility of actual crime commitment. When one has no fear to be punished, therefore, engagement in an aberrant or criminal behavior proved positive as per the results of this interview. However, some varying views were also eminent since some people just want to rebel against the system without necessarily considering the probable criminal conviction. They derive satisfaction from participating in aberrant, deviant, as well as criminal behaviors.
Another interesting result of the cross interview was the revelation of some situational elements influential to some illicit behaviors. Revelations had it that social pressure is a clear guide towards peoples’ obeying or breaking rules. Peer pressure while on the side of encouragement would lead a person to be involved in these misbehaviors while it may deter the individual when acting in a restrictive capacity.
The finding transcends beyond dishonesty. Some complicating areas to participation were found to be the ability participant has to rationalize the behavior. When an individual is exposed to the healthy combination of cost and rewards, transgressions might be committed by virtually everybody. Even the most honest group were found to exhibit dishonesty in circumstances when they are tempted or subjected to dishonesty situations, as well as exposure to a perceived low risk of apprehension or punishment coupled with the ability to rationalize the behavior through the adoption of dogmas such as it is not really illegal to commit the aberrant act of behavior. The research interviews also gained information that society is influential towards reinforcing or rationalizing these misbehaviors because that it is only some laws that surprise the members of the society and not others.
The consumer’s personal as well as social-ethical judgments are very important to the perceived consumer misbehavior. According to the interviews conducted, if the consequences were positive then the action is more ethical. More consumers are also likely to engage in questionable behaviors of the rewards were great.
Four Recommendations
Perhaps one of the most efficient methods to curb shoplifting as one of the customer’s misbehaviors is an installation of digital video, which apart from monitoring the customer behavior, also assists the retailers to management staff. It also includes help to operational efficiency and creates new ideas out of the existing technology. The digital video monitors the customers’ movement and any suspicious activities whose appearance is sent as red flags through the camera, audio surveillance systems, radar as well as chemical sensors. For more efficiency, the system can be connected to cash registers.
As a way to try to offset customers’ motivation towards the aberrant behavior of purchasing stolen and counterfeit products, here come some recommendations to retailers. It is healthy to stock only branded goods. The sales and purchasing manager department in any outlet system should be made aware and conversant with the actual logos and labels of all items existing on the shelves. During delivery only authorized agents of the suppliers of the product should be entertained to do so. If one product has multiple producers their different labels should be well known and at the display section each brand should be shelved separately but similar commodities need to share adjacent positions in the display. There is also the need to make the consumers aware of the criminal penalty danger that goes with these stolen or counterfeit goods. There has always existed an inverse variation of criminal conduct and the perceived severity of its punishment. There is also a negative variation between a perceived chance of being caught with a stolen good and the possibility of actual crime commitment. However, this scenario is inapplicable to the group that was found to achieve satisfaction from deviant acts as the interviews highlighted.
Piracy attracts customers since the result of it is the production of relatively cheap products. While not overlooking the positive contribution that has been bred by the technology of Internet transaction, there is a dire need for retailers to ‘being upfront with shoppers’ concerning the capturing of information and its subsequent use while curbing the use and sharing of personal data by the customers. Privacy policies need to be formulated and even published. There exists a linear relationship between privacy-related statements and security-related statements both of which are significant in influencing a consumer to make purchases across several shopping categories.
For the retailers to be of potential cause to controlling these misbehaviors it is also worthwhile that, during investment, the right business is chosen that will exclude the sale of addictive substances, as one way towards illicit purchases control.
Conclusion
Although the frequently occurring aberrant and criminal behaviors associated with the purchasing trends of different consumers cannot be fully controlled, some efforts may be exercised to reduce their severity in society. The first step towards the success of the same is knowledge. Society needs to be informed as we have seen that religion and education are very positively contributing towards the reduction of misbehaviors. With especially education, the socio-economic status of the individual is enhanced while with religion, the affiliation helps to restrict an individual to acts like shoplifting, purchase of pornographic materials among others.
Knowledge of the diversity and extent of these activities to retailers is also of crucial importance, as it will assist them to take the necessary measures and precautions. The retailer will be able to put measures in place that will make it difficult for a potential participant to succeed towards the misbehavior.
References
Babin, B. J. and Babin, L. A. (1996), ‘Effects of Moral Cognitions and Consumer Emotions on Shoplifting Intentions’, Psychology and Marketing, Vol.13, No. 8, P.785-802.
Entine (1994) American Journal.
Larry Greene Meier’s Journal Information Week: 2007; 1133; ABI/INFORM Global Pg.47.
Nancy D. Albers-Miller The Journal of Consumer Marketing. Santa Barbara: 1999, Vol.16, Iss.3, P.273-287.
Nill and Shultz (1997) Journal of Macromarketing.