We have already started thinking about how and how much consumerism and the role that it plays in the future, will change in the post Coronavirus scenario.

COVID-19 is spreading like wild fire throughout the world creating a path of death and destruction. Unfortunately, India has also fallen prey to this. The world is in danger of falling into a Great Depression, with millions of unemployed workers across the globe. With industries staring at a blank immediate future, the impact will especially hit the poor – both in terms of health and economics; many cannot even afford to wash their hands because of lack of water.

In India, especially, the small and medium scale Industries along with agriculture which form the backbone of our economy are on the brink of collapse as predicted by some experts. Millions of small wage earners are grappling to survive this ordeal and already the farm losses have started mounting. Social or physical distancing is a distant dream for slum dwellers and small factory workers.

People are stocking up on all kinds of food and other necessities, including medicines, should COVID-19 linger on for weeks or months. So the actions and reactions of COVID -19 are already visible. Consumer actions and reactions are a cause of the unprecedented crisis for a developing nation. Future seems to be very uncertain!

One can therefore predict that this period of deprivation and anxiety will usher new consumer attitudes and behaviors that will change the nature of future businesses.  Finally consumers will think twice what they consume, how much they consume, and how all this is influenced by class issues and inequality.  A new equitable buying and usage patterns will surely emerge bypassing class, creed, caste and income levels.

Business firms have an intrinsic interest in endlessly expanding consumption for the purpose of higher profits.  They rely on three disciplines to boost consumption and brand preference.  The first is innovation to produce attractive new products and brands to enchant customer interest and purchase.  The second is marketing that supplies the tools to reach out to consumers and motivate and facilitate their purchasing.  The third discipline is credit to enable people to buy more than they could normally buy on their low incomes.  Businesses aim to make consumption our way of life.  To keep their productive equipment and factories going, they must ritualize some consumer behavior.  All these 3 factors will see a changing pattern in the near future.

To sum up one can say that consumers will neither be swayed by availability, conveniences, choices, discounts or peer competitions. This COVID -19 phase would pass by surely through medical interventions, but it will usher in something called increased savings and their spending which has traditionally supported 70 percent of our economy.  If this goes down, our economy contracts in size.  A slowdown in economic growth will lead to more unemployment.  Add to the fact that more jobs are being lost to AI and robots. This will require capitalism to spend more on unemployment insurance, social Security, food stamps, food kitchens, and social assistance.

For other articles by Consumer VOICE COO’s Desk, click here

Sustainable products and consumption – Are we ready?

How optimistic are we about sustainable products? We as consumers do talk about sustainable products and some survey results even show that consumers are willing to pay more, but when it comes to sustainability, actions speak louder than words.

Sustainability as we all know is based on three pillars – economy, society and environment. In addition, consumers and households play a crucial role in the adoption of sustainable products and technologies, and are responsible for substantial proportions of energy use and waste. Moreover, ethical aspects of consumption are becoming more important. In order to gain an understanding of sustainable consumer and household behaviour, a degree of basic understanding is required about a consumer’s mindset. This is because consumers are a mirror of the society they live in.

As defined by the Oslo Symposium in 1994, sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is about “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of further generations”.

To ensure sustainable consumption, production practices should respect the biophysical boundaries of the planet and reduce current global consumption rates to gel with the biophysical capacity and produce ecosystem services and benefits.

Sustainability today is shorthand for a complete moral system of cultural values, beliefs and attitudes related to a sense of responsibility for the greater good. Consumers today are being confronted by real and immediate sustainability challenges. Crises no longer seem far away in time or space — even abstract problems like climate change and the permanence of plastic waste have become pressing and present topics, and consumers say they want progress and solutions.

When it comes to overall responsibility, consumers are looking to companies and governments to lead on providing sustainable solutions to a wide range of problems linking to sustainability. Sustainable development and corporate responsibility both are relevant factors in today’s world. Effective implementation of sustainable growth requires intimate dynamics of company and environment as both need each other to co-exist. Consumers are skeptical of corporate motives and wary of government policies, but know that any solution to the collective problem must involve the collective entities that we currently have.

Overall, while the stakes are getting higher in a broad range of issues (environment, climate, waste, worker’s rights, etc.), eroding trust in government and corporations has left consumers hungry for leadership within the realm of sustainability.

For other articles by Consumer VOICE COO’s Desk, click here

Did you know that poor diet is not limited to insufficient intake of nutrients but also excess intake of salt, sugar and fat which is one of the biggest cause of non-communicable diseases worldwide, with India being no exception. According to the National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey report 2019, Males showed a prevalence of diabetes (12%) as females (11.7%). Cases of Type 2 diabetes is on the rise and every year globally 15 million people die from NCD between the ages of 30 and 69 years. Something serious must be done, before it reaches a pandemic and an important way to control it is availability and accessibility of healthier choices. How can this be done? This can be done through front of package labelling or FOPL.

WHAT IS FRONT-OF-PACKAGE LABELLING (FOPL)

Front-of-package labelling refers to symbols and rating systems, including shelf-tag labels, which are designed to summarize the key nutritional characteristics of food products.

Front-of-package labels have been proposed as an approach to help consumers make healthier food choices at the point of purchase. However, there are concerns about the possible misinterpretation of front-of-package labels. Currently, there is no consensus on the most effective front-of-package format. There is a wide variety of front-of-package labelling systems that are inconsistent, which may add to consumers’ confusion.

Labeling is an effective policy tool when consumer preferences differ as noted in several nutrition labelling studies. Consumers have different concerns about nutrition. The standardized nutrition label provides a large amount of clear, concise nutrition information and allows consumers to make their own choices.

HOW WILL FOP HELP CONSUMERS?

Food label represents the identity card of food products: it reports composition, ingredients and their relative amounts, it informs about quality, origin, processing and preservation. This information gives the consumer the opportunity to consciously choose what to purchase. The label could concretely help us in protecting and improving our health, if our choices are supported by some basic knowledge of wholesome nutrition, based on a balanced and varied diet. In a wider perspective, this may translate into a reduction of obesity and chronic disease incidence – closely related to negative eating habits – and significantly impact on public health in terms of costs for individuals and medical systems.

Public organizations are taking particular care in encouraging the population to adopt healthier lifestyles and to comply with wholesome dietary habits, since diet is one of the earliest modifiable risk factors everyone could personally handle to protect his own health.

In this regard, FSSAI, the country’s apex food regulator, announced the formation of an expert panel to look into the draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018, which were announced in April 2018.

To date, three main nutritional goals are strongly recommended to reduce the risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes as well as cardio vascular diseases: to reduce salt, saturated and trans fats intakes, while increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables. We also remind that this needs to be joined to appropriate physical activity.

FUTURE OF FOP LABELING

Food label represents the identity card of food products: it reports composition, ingredients and their relative amounts, it informs about quality, origin, processing and preservation. This information gives the consumer the opportunity to consciously choose what to purchase. The label could concretely help us in protecting and improving our health, if our choices are supported by some basic knowledge of wholesome nutrition, based on a balanced and varied diet. In a wider perspective, this may translate into a reduction of obesity and chronic disease incidence – closely related to negative eating habits – and significantly impact on public health in terms of costs for individuals and medical systems.

Public organizations are taking particular care in encouraging the population to adopt healthier lifestyles and to comply with wholesome dietary habits, since diet is one of the earliest modifiable risk factors everyone could personally handle to protect his own health.

In this regard, FSSAI, the country’s apex food regulator, announced the formation of an expert panel to look into the draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018, which were announced in April 2018.

To date, three main nutritional goals are strongly recommended to reduce the risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes as well as cardio vascular diseases: to reduce salt, saturated and trans fats intakes, while increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables. We also remind that this needs to be joined to appropriate physical activity.

For other articles by Consumer VOICE COO’s Desk, click here

You may also read