Consumer In Service Values And Difference -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Consumer In Service Values And Difference? Answer: Introduction People seek to create identities and realities for themselves, depending on their circumstances and conditions. In this paper, the case of children creating their own social identities through consumption where relations are governed by commodities, in which case, commodities have a symbolic meaning. This is discussed in the context of the article communicator and rational actor side from the Aldridge matrix Discussion According to Aldridge, consumers can be classified based on images based on the western discourse and perception of consumption; based on the Aldridge classification, consumers fall into four main categories of the rational actor, the communicator, the victim, and the dupe, as illustrated in the image below; Consumers fall in the four categories, although the categories are sometimes not distinct. The rational actor consumer is derived in economics where they combine ordered approaches to the process of decision making and motivation marketing by self-interest. Consumers, thus behave rationally as they pursue their self-interest, although capitalization gives people freedom and choices. Victims are consumers that make bad choices due to their irrationality, or lack of objective information, and can be swindled (Greener, Powell Simmons 10); for instance a person that buys into a Ponzi scheme in the hope of making quick millions especially upon hearing that others have made fortunes from the same. The communicator consumer has its roots in anthropology and sociology, where consumption is used as a means to achieving symbolic exchange, where consumption is explained as a symbols exchange between actors that convey messages concerning their identity and lifestyle. Victims are those consumer s that make poor decisions while dupes are consumers that are subject to surveillance and control through consumption that are manipulated from their real needs. This is achieved through marketing engineering to manipulate the feelings and thoughts of consumers through advertising and branded commercial products (Cox 264). In the context of the Nike Kids, the kids the author speaks of, and observes, and who ridicule him for buying old Nike trainers despite having been in the US are essentially being rational communicators. Their life is in shambles, but hey seek to define themselves sociologically and culturally as being urbane, modern, and forward looking, by their aspersion of the old Nike shoes in favor of the more trendy, modern Nike models such as Jordan's. Having seen the modern Nike adverts, no less, they have created an image of themselves, and defined their identity with the ultimate in a luxury product they my never afford, but which allows them to express themselves, and communicate their values and feelings; their social identity. Rationality can also explain the fact that they are dupes, based on clever commercial advertising from Nike, that the newer Nike models are better and ideal, rather than the older functional Nike shoes. Marketers have eroded public space through private interest a s seen in their advertisements where culture has been made into a commodity from which profits can be made, such that culture is commoditized, as exemplified by the New, better, Nike shoes. Yet the author is surprised by this fact, a shoe is functional, and he demonstrates resistance against the commoditization of a shoe to the extent of influencing popular culture. This is his anti-corporate protest as a rational consumer; the kids, however, are victims of the corporate monolith that dupe people with clever marketing; in the process commoditizing culture, as Karl Marx argued (Ellis 155-159). Such consumers are almost powerless to protect their rights against the corporate power that is supposed to be a player in the free market, not a controller of culture Conclusion Consumers can either be rational, communicators, dupes, or victims; the Nike street kids case illustrates communication as a form of consumption in which there is symbolic exchange that enables people (like the street kids), express their identity and lifestyle. The street kids behave rationally on the surface, but below the surface, their reference for the modern Nike shoes is a result of being duped, through commercial branding, a concept well explained by rationality. References Cox, Nancy C. The Complete Tradesman: A Study of Retailing, 1550-1820. , 2016. Internet management. Ellis, Nick. Marketing: A Critical Textbook. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2014. Print. Greener, Ian, Martin A. Powell, accounting Richard Simmons. The Consumer in Public Services: Choice,Values and Difference. Bristol: Policy Press, 2009. Print.