Do you speak the ‘cradle to grave' journey of your product?

Right to information means the right to be given the facts needed to make an informed choice or decision about factors like quality, quantity, potency, purity standards and price of product or service. The right to information now goes beyond avoiding deception and protection against misleading advertising, improper labelling and other practices. For e.g. when you buy a product or utilise a service, you should be informed about a) how to consume a product b) the adverse health effects of its consumption c) Whether the ingredients used are environment- friendly or not etc.
Due to the ever increasing influence of the market and the ever changing scene with price wars and hard-sell techniques, the consumer's right to information becomes even more important. The right to information means much more than simple disclosure of the product's weight or price. A consumer has the right to know how the product has been prepared, whether it has been tested or animals or not, if environmentally-sound techniques and resources have been used in its production processes, what kinds of chemicals are used into its manufacturing and what could be their impact on consumer health. Clearly, a consumer has to consider a lot of factors before s/he buys a product, especially during online shopping.

Ideally, a consumer should have knowledge of the entire ‘cradle to grave' journey of the product to determine whether it’s safe and beneficial for use or no. The ‘cradle to grave journey' refers to the processes a product goes through- from the time of it being made out of raw material, the processes of its moulding into its final shape, transportation, labour, ingredients used, to the form in which it ends up on market shelves. It is only when a consumer is aware of the history of the product that he can make informed choices. An example of this is the GM food controversy. GM food is promoted as the answer to world's hunger and malnutrition but its safety for consumers and the environment is yet to be proved. Despite strong lobbying by pro-GM groups and the market, consumers in Europe have campaigned effectively against the entry of GM food into their food chain and markets. There are information and publicity campaigns that have made consumers rally behind a common consumer stand against GM food. As a result, the governments and the European Union have placed strict restrictions on the trial uses of GM technology in the market or in agriculture.

We at WishGini ensure that the consumer voice is heard stronger and clear. We not only provide the benefit of online ease and competitive pricing but also empower our customers to demand their terms and price without any inhibitions. For more details visit our website – www.wishgini.com today.

Are you providing your customers the value for their money?

Different interests can interpret the right to choice in different ways. For the developed world consumers, right to choice translates into more and a variety of products to choose from. For e.g. American consumers can choose from 25,000 super market items, 200 kinds of cereals, and read 11,092 magazines. This kind of choice often gives consumers a sense of well-being and safety and encourages them to believe that abundance leads to good living. The market also perpetuates this line of thought by advertising and promotion gimmicks.

The right to choice has a very different definition in developing countries. For a population dependent on the environment for livelihood, the right to choice and other consumer rights need a shift in focus. The focus needs to be on choice of good practices like organic farming and conservation of natural heritage. In cities, people should be able to choose cleaner and safer ways of transportation over polluting ones. Similarly, healthy and fresh food should be chosen over junk food. The right to choose must essentially be a consumer's right to choose a safe and healthy product of good quality over an unsafe or defective product. This can give a consumer immense leverage not just to choose products that are safe but also to influence the practices adopted by the market. Misinterpretation of choice by market forces has systematically weakened the consumer's position vis-à-vis the market. The market has exploited this situation by interpreting the ri

ght to confuse and exploit the consumer.

The consumer has been made to believe that more varieties of the same product on the market shelves give him or her the right to choose what s/he wants. In reality, more varieties of the same product just encourages false advertising claims and give the consumer a false sense of choice. Various kinds of shampoos, soaps, and other cosmetics differ merely in colour, smell and brand image. Each one of them claims one-up manship over the other but gives the consumer very little value for money or a better quality product.

We at WishGini not only provide the benefit of online ease and competitive pricing but also empower our customers to demand their terms and price without any inhibitions. For more details visit our website – www.wishgini.com today.

Empowering Consumers - WishGini

Consumer education empowers consumers to exercise their consumer rights. It is perhaps the single most powerful tool that can take consumers from their present disadvantageous position to one of strength in the marketplace. Consumer education is dynamic, participatory and is mostly acquired by hands-on and practical experience. 

For instance, a woman who makes purchase decisions for the household and does the actual buying in the marketplace would be more educated about market conditions and ‘best buys' than a person who educates himself about the market with the help of newspapers or television. Also, today, it is not just the market or products that a consumer needs to educate himself about but s/he also needs to know about company profile, government policies and introduction of new technology.

 Market influences have grown so much that not just wholesale and retail sellers but even medical practitioners are falling prey to their pressures. The pharmaceutical industry is one such example. India, with its 1 billion population and largely uneducated consumers, is a very lucrative market for this industry. The  pharmaceutical industry, to boost its sales, offers free samples of medicines, freebies, and even free luxury holidays to physicians to influence them to use their brands and give them preference over other brand names. There have been many instances when drugs banned in countries like US, have been prescribed to Indian consumers and are readily available as over-the-counter drugs. It is a sad example of gross violation of consumer trust by medical practitioners. This situation is rampant not just in rural areas but also among educated urban consumers. The reason why the market, in connivance with physicians, is able to exploit consumers is that Indian consumers are not aware of the prevailing situation and do not keep themselves abreast with latest developments taking place around them. Consumer education can play a crucial role in protecting consumers against such dangers. In the Indian context, sustainability and traditional knowledge can play a vital role in empowering consumers but consumers are unable to connect to their knowledge base. Consumer education can re-join the broken link and make traditional knowledge accessible to consumers again. Some sources of consumer education are past experiences of consumers, information dissemination by government agencies and NGOs, classroom teaching by teachers and informal lessons by parents.

We at WishGini help our customers avoid the violation of trust by protecting their identity while shopping online. We protect them from sellers who try to cross-sell products by exploiting the customer database thus customers are empowered to demand their terms and price without any inhibitions. For a secure online shopping experience visit our website www.wisngini.com today.