Behavioral Issues In Consumer Democracy

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: none, Dr. M.G.R. University, course: Ph. D, language: English, abstract: The current trend has been changing and it is becoming quite difficult to become and sustain as leader in the market. Mostly it is there in the hands of consumers to choose and make market leaders in that particular industry. The consumers are becoming very choosy and take a hell lot of things into consideration before buying a product from the market. The retailing sector is booming now and even the consumers are also seeking more information while purchasing. The malls and big shopping centers are becoming crowded and people are willing to do the window shopping before purchasing. There are several other behavioral issues relating to the consumer buying behavior. Infact, it is increasingly becoming difficult to turn consumers into customers. Previously the aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customer's needs and wants. But now it is much more beyond that. It is customer delighting now. At the same time, the marketers also facing tough competition and they need to face many challenges yet. Understanding consumer behavior and "knowing customers" are never simple. Establishing brand loyalty is increasingly becoming difficult. The customers at any time can go for other brands for any reason. This paper highlights various issues or aspects that a consumer takes care during purchasing activity. This paper deals with how consumers are choosing their brands and how intensive they are during pre purchase system. This paper was also based on the research work done.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: none, Dr. M.G.R. University, course: Ph. D, language: English, abstract: The current trend has been changing and it is becoming quite difficult to become and sustain as leader in the market. Mostly it is there in the hands of consumers to choose and make market leaders in that particular industry. The consumers are becoming very choosy and take a hell lot of things into consideration before buying a product from the market. The retailing sector is booming now and even the consumers are also seeking more information while purchasing. The malls and big shopping centers are becoming crowded and people are willing to do the window shopping before purchasing. There are several other behavioral issues relating to the consumer buying behavior. Infact, it is increasingly becoming difficult to turn consumers into customers. Previously the aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customer’s needs and wants. But now it is much more beyond that. It is customer delighting now. At the same time, the marketers also facing tough competition and they need to face many challenges yet. Understanding consumer behavior and “knowing customers” are never simple. Establishing brand loyalty is increasingly becoming difficult. The customers at any time can go for other brands for any reason. This paper highlights various issues or aspects that a consumer takes care during purchasing activity. This paper deals with how consumers are choosing their brands and how intensive they are during pre purchase system. This paper was also based on the research work done.

This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to 'proper' political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it - to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.

This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to "proper" political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it - to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.

The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.

This book provides the first systematic overview of German sociology today. Thirty-four chapters review current trends, relate them to international discussions and discuss perspectives for future research. The contributions span the whole range of sociological research topics, from social inequality to the sociology of body and space, addressing pressing questions in sociological theory and innovative research methods. TOC: Introduction Culture / Uta Karstein and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr Demography and Aging / François Höpflinger Economic Sociology / Andrea Maurer Education and Socialization / Matthias Grundmann Environment / Anita Engels Europe / Monika Eigmüller Family and Intimate Relationships / Dirk Konietzka, Michael Feldhaus, Michaela Kreyenfeld, and Heike Trappe (Felt) Body. Sports, Medicine, and Media / Robert Gugutzer and Claudia Peter Gender / Paula-Irene Villa and Sabine Hark Globalization and Transnationalization / Anja Weiß Global South / Eva Gerharz and Gilberto Rescher History of Sociology / Stephan Moebius Life Course / Johannes Huinink and Betina Hollstein Media and Communication / Andreas Hepp Microsociology / Rainer Schützeichel Migration / Ludger Pries Mixed-Methods and Multimethod Research / Felix Knappertsbusch, Bettina Langfeldt, and Udo Kelle Organization / Raimund Hasse Political Sociology / Jörn Lamla Qualitative Methods / Betina Hollstein and Nils C. Kumkar Quantitative Methods / Alice Barth and Jörg Blasius Religion / Matthias Koenig Science and Higher Education / Anna Kosmützky and Georg Krücken Social Inequalities―Empirical Focus / Gunnar Otte, Mara Boehle, and Katharina Kunißen Social Inequalities―Theoretical Focus / Thomas Schwinn Social Movements / Thomas Kern Social Networks / Roger Häußling Social Policy / Birgit Pfau-Effinger and Christopher Grages Social Problems / Günter Albrecht Social Theory / Wolfgang Ludwig Schneider Society / Uwe Schimank Space. Urban, Rural, Territorial / Martina Löw Technology and Innovation / Werner Rammert Work and Labor / Brigitte Aulenbacher and Johanna Grubner List of Contributors Index

Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality. With the ongoing transition of democracy’s underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences’ findings, the book’s chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and it examines how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of (ir)rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions toward political irrationality. This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy, and the future of democracy.

In this book, Quan Li and Rafael Reuveny combine the social scientific approach with a broad, interdisciplinary scope to address some of the most intriguing and important political, economic, and environmental issues of our times. Their book employs formal and statistical methods to study the interactions of economic globalization, democratic governance, income inequality, economic development, military violence, and environmental degradation. In doing so, Li and Reuveny cross multiple disciplinary boundaries, engage various academic debates, bring the insights from compartmentalized bodies of literature into direct dialogue, and uncover policy tradeoffs in a growingly interconnected political-economic-environmental system. They show that growing interconnectedness in the global system increases the demands on national leaders and their advisors; academicians and policy makers will need to cross disciplinary boundaries if they seek to better understand and address the policy tradeoffs of even more complex processes than the ones investigated here.