What role should consumerism play in our economy?

What role should consumerism play in our economy?

Consumerism • Consumerism is the belief that the more people buy, the better it is for the economy • When we buy goods and services, we become consumers • Identity: The choices we make as consumers can reflect our identity. • What influences you as a consumer?

Make a list of the things that you feel influence you as a consumer

Factors that influence consumers • Cost • Durability • Needs • Wants • Availability • Advertising/Marketing • Exposure • Association • Environmental impact

What guides you behaviour as a consumer? • How will your identity – who you are, what you believe in and value, where you live, the groups you belong to- come into play? • How much will you consider you health? Safety? Security? • How important to you are the environmental impacts of products and services? • How will marketing affect what you buy? • Do you really need to buy anything at all?

Response to consumer culture:

Buy Nothing Day • How would a buy nothing day affect you? • How would a buy nothing day affect the economy?

Identity • Choices we make as consumers can reflect our identity • Clothes we wear • What do your clothes say about your beliefs and values? - How are your choices influenced by the choices your friends make?

Choose a product that you have bought lately • Do you feel that you made the right choice? Why or why not? • To what extent did your identity play a role in your purchase? • What other factors played a role in your purchase?

Health and Safety • Federal laws ban some products from being distributed to consumers for health reasons • Federal laws and warnings discourage consumers from buying certain products • Cigarettes • Energy drinks Why might Canadians have different views about decisions to ban certain products?

Trans fats • Calgary to become first city in the country to restrict the use of artery clogging trans fats in restaurant foods • Some groups disagree because trans fats are a staple of many processed foods

How might a ban on trans fats affect demand for food products? How might it affect the producers who supply food to restaurants?

Jobs and Environment • Choices you make as a consumer affect everyone in the production, distribution and sales of the product • Choices you make also affect the air, water and land that you share with everybody? • Why might products that are environment friendly be more costly?

Marketing • Marketing/advertising influences decisions we make as a consumer, whether we like it or not. • Both Canada and the U.S. have laws to ensure that advertisers cant’ make false or misleading claims about their products

Advertising techniques • Glittering Generalities • Relates the product or service to words or images that promise everything, but deliver little or nothing • http://youtube.com/watch?v=p8RCfMDG3bA&feature=related • Emotional Appeal • Uses strong emotional language that connects with your fears and desires • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14KK170QdcU • Bandwagon Effect • Encourages you to buy a product or service because everyone else is. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BW5VTygKrw

Advertising techniques cont. • Scientific Appeal • Uses statistics or scientific data to persuade consumers to buy a product or service • http://youtube.com/watch?v=B8BeGgT1v5M • Testimonials • Uses celebrities or experts to speak for a product • http://youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGig9i_Ak • Plain Folks Appeal • Relates a product or service to the experience of ordinary folks

Other commercials • http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z3aP5Ks7e1S • http://youtube.com/watch?v=GDcWRUtrVuc • http://youtube.com/watch?v==Xo9pFniB8aQ • http://youtube.com/watch?v=5wgvC_E0zl8

Jobs • When you take a product, you connect to a chain of people and their jobs. Your choice is part of what keeps them employed. • Ballpoint pen pg. 250

Measures of Economic Growth • Economic growth is the degree to which a country’s wealth increases over a period of time (usually a year). Measures of economic growth include; • How much profit a country’s economy makes from the goods and services it produces • How many people have jobs and are making an income

Environment • Your choices as a consumer also impacts the air, water, and land that you share with everyone • What is your pen made of? Pg 252

Legislation about Consumerism and the Environment • Canada and the US have laws and programs related to consumer demand and the environment. For example: • Both governments have banned leaded gasoline, because of the harmful effects of lead on human health and the environment • Consumers shopping for new appliances in both Canada and US can identify energy-efficient options because of government programs that label these appliances

Kennecott Mine • http://youtube.com/watch?v=P9Df0_-OxDc • Pg 253 • Cartoons about Consumerism pg 256

Health & Safety • Federal law requires warnings on products such as cigarettes to discourage consumers from buying them. As the warnings tell you, smoking can lead to cancer and heart disease. Despite these warnings, adults can still buy cigarettes. • Some governments in Canada have gone further. They have _________some products and made them unavailable to consumers.

Legislation about Consumer Health & Safety • Consumer health and safety is the focus of legislation in both Canada and the US – or the focus of debates about it. For example: • Both Canada and the US have product-labeling laws that require producers to list the ingredients in food and cosmetics. • The US has laws making airbags mandatory in cars, along with seatbelts. In 2007 Canada’s laws made seatbelts mandatory

What’s GDP • Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the amount of wealth a country’s economy produces. The term per capita means “average per person”. So GDP per capita is a way to estimate how well off people are in a country. • GDP per capita pg 261

Boycotts • A boycott is a decision by consumers to stop buying a product or service as a way to bring about change. • A boycott usually has moral or ethical reasons behind it

What role should consumerism play in our economy?