Consumerism

i consume

Quality of life  

• measure of personal and collective-well being 

• 84 indicators that makes a good quality of life (split into five main points) 

Indicators of good quality of life  

• Prosperity 

• Health 

• Society 

• Environment  

• Good governance 

GDP 

• Gross domestic product 

• How a nation measures quality of life 

• Measure of country's economic output that accounts for its number of people 

• Divides the gross domestic product by population 

• Way to measure money to measure quality of life 

Consumerism 

• Economic theory that links to prosperity to consumer demand for goods and services 

• Makes consumer behavior central to economic decision making 

• Controls what happens in the economy 

• Consumer choices are due to values 

Five factors that drive consumerism 

• Identity

• Health and safety

• Jobs

• The environment

• Marketing

Identity

• choosing what to buy what reflects ourself and our values

• influence from peers and the media

• express ourselves through what we buy 

Health and safety

• benefit our quality of life

• the government steps in to make sure we make informed decisions

• consumer health and safety is the focus of legislation in both Canada and US – or the focus of debates about it (product-labeling laws for food and cosmetics, laws about mandatory seat belts, Canada put laws that ban trans fats in some foods) 

Jobs

• when you buy a product, you connect to a chain of people and their job

• Your choice is what keeps them employed

• ex: people working in the factory, people that clean the factory, people that ship the item, etc.

The environment

• consumer choices affects the air, water, and land

• Canada and US has laws to preserve the environment

• both have ban leaded gasoline due to harm for humans and environments, appliances must be labeled energy efficient and meet government standards

• Increase of green products on the market due to government influence and consumer support

• How to engage in resource 

Marketing

• advertising must be true

• there are laws to prevent false marketing

• The competition act ensures healthy competition and fair business practices 

Bandwagon affect 

• Everyone else already has this product 

• Will be left out if you don't have it  

Emotional appeal  

Uses strong emotional language an visuals that connect to your feelings (fear, anger, love, empathy, humour, etc.) 

Glittering centralities 

Relates the product or service to words or images that promise everything but deliver little 

Plain folks appeal  

• Show ordinary people who are relatable using the product or service

• "they're just like you" 

Testimonials  

Experts, celebrities, or people have had success with a product tell about their positive experience with it 

Scientific appeal 

Statistics or scientific data are used consumers to buy a product or service