Review of Literature

2.1 Introduction
Consumer Awareness is an act of making sure the buyer or consumer is aware of the information
about products, goods, services, and consumers rights. Consumer awareness is important so that
buyer can take the right decision and make the right choice. Consumers have the right to
information, right to choose, right to safety
Consumer awareness refers to the awareness of the consumption of goods formed by consumers
in the long-term shopping environment and purchasing activities.
The change of life concept is the subjective factor of the change of consumer awareness. As
people's living standards continue to increase and incomes continue to increase, people's life
concepts are constantly changing. Differences in consumer personality are the internal
motivations for changes in consumer awareness.
Intensified market competition is a catalyst for changes in consumer awareness. Many
companies have launched their own branded products in order to gain a foothold in an
increasingly competitive market. In the face of a variety of goods and brands, consumers' brand
awareness matures. When people buy goods, paying attention to the brand has become a fashion.
Faced with the severe competition situation, companies began to realize the importance of
implementing brand strategy, and began to focus on market research, and on this basis, deeply
grasp the consumer's psychological pulse to improve market share and brand loyalty. Student
Name Professor Course Date Marketing Consumer Behavior As a sales marketer, vital that you
understand and control your consumer behavior so that you make and formulate the right
strategies at the right time. According to HubSpot.com, one should be in a position to theirs
either physically or psychologically, what their clients purchase. In the article, economist shares
their theories on how to control and study how people spend their money. The psychological
state of ones' mind contributes heavily to what they buy (White). Studying consumer behavior as
a marketing method started in early 1940, shifting the market's focus from economic oriented to
other areas like psychology and sociology. The article also discusses the various school of
thought on how to control customers spending. Later in that article, White also outlines some
consumer behavior strategies from various expert economists around the world.
With the change of people's life concept, consumers' rational consumption psychology has
become increasingly prominent. Social Marketing, Customized Marketing, brand-name
shopping, and the consumer's perception of the price of the commodity (directly expressed as the
consumer's sensitivity to price), are all main factors for understanding consumer attitudes, and
help explain the reaction of market demand to price changes.

2.2 Rise Of Consumer Awareness

 In the globalization, liberalization and privatization era, most of the economic decisions are
taken by the market. Though the government has withdrawn itself from many economic
activities, it interferes very often when the market mechanism fails due to structural rigidities in
the economy and other factors, to provide goods and services to the people.

Consumption is one of the important economic activities, which requires regular government
intervention, as the market is unable to promote security and welfare aspects of the consumers.
On the other hand, consumers have to be aware not only of the commercial aspects of sale and
purchase of goods but also of the health and security aspect also. Besides this, they should be
aware of their rights and duties being as rational human beings.

Though the first consumer movement began in England after the Second World War, a modern
declaration about the consumer’s rights was first made in the USA in the year 1962, where four
basic consumer rights i.e. Choice, information, safety and right to be heard were recognized.

Ralph Nadar, a consumer activist is considered as the father of “Consumer Movement”. 15th
March is now celebrated as the World Consumer Rights Day. The U.N.O. Also adopted in the
year 1985, certain guidelines to achieve the objectives of maintaining protection for consumers
and to establish a high-level of ethical conduct for those engaged in the production and
distribution of goods and services. In India, 24th December is celebrated as “Consumer’s
Day” every year.

2.3 Objectives of the Study

The Study based on the following objectives:

1. To study the level of consumer awareness of the consumers in the study area
2. To make the students habituated about the survey work.
3. To make the students acquainted how different statistical tools can be applied in different
socio-economic problems.

2.4 Meaning of Consumer Awareness

Consumer Awareness is the process of making the consumer of goods and services aware of his
rights. It involves educating a consumer about safety, information and the redressal options
available to him.

As previously discussed consumer awareness is one of the most persistent problems the government
faces when it comes to consumer protection. To resolve this problem the government has come up
with various methods over the years. In fact, it is the main aim of the Department of Consumer
Affairs.

Consumer awareness means awareness of consumers in different aspects of consumption

activities. Consumer awareness is a broader and wider concept. It covers the followings:

a) Consumer awareness about Maximum Retail Price (MRP).

b) Consumer awareness about Fair Price Shop.

c) Consumer awareness about price, quality and expiry date of the product.

d) Consumer awareness about their rights and duties.

e) Consumer awareness about certified products like ISI, Agmark, ISO-2000

2.5 Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

Consumer Rights is an insight into what rights consumer holds when it comes to seller
which provide the goods. What if the goods provided to the consumer by the business is not
up to the standard? Then in that case – what should a consumer do? To be precise, what
rights consumer have is in the court of law to fight against the malpractices of the business
firms or seller.

Consumer Rights
 Right to Safety: This is the first and the most important of the Consumer Rights. They
should be protected against the product that hampers their safety. The protection must be
against any product which could be hazardous to their health – Mental, Physical or many
of the other factors.
 Right to Information: They should be informed about the product. The product
packaging should list the details which should be informed to the consumer and they
should not hide the same or provide false information.
 Right to Choose: They should not be forced to select the product. A consumer should be
convinced of the product he is about to choose and should make a decision by himself.
This also means consumer should have a variety of articles to choose
from. Monopolistic practices are not legal.
 Right to Heard: If a consumer is dissatisfied with the product purchased then they have all
the right to file a complaint against it. And the said complaint cannot go unheard, it must
be addressed in an appropriate time frame.
 Right to Seek Redressal: In case a product is unable to satisfy the consumer then they
have the right to get the product replaced, compensate, return the amount invested in the
product. We have a three-tier system of redressal according to the Consumer Protection
Act 1986.
 Right to Consumer Education: Consumer has the right to know all the information and
should be made well aware of the rights and responsibilities of the government. Lack of
Consumer awareness is the most important problem our government must solve.

Responsibilities of a Consumer

The consumer has a certain responsibility to carry as an aware consumer can bring changes in the
society and would help other consumers to fight the unfair practice or be aware of it.

 They should be aware of their rights under the Consumer Protection Act and should practice
the same in case of need.
 They should be well aware of the product they are buying. Should act as a cautious consumer
while purchasing the product.
 If in case a product is found of anything false or not satisfactory a complaint should be filed.
 The consumer should ask for a Cash Memo while making a purchase.
 A customer should check for the standard marks that have been introduced for the authenticity
of the quality of the product like ISI or Hallmark etc.

Duties of the Consumers

In order to secure rights, consumers have to fulfill the following duties:

1. While purchasing goods, consumers should look at the quality of the products as well as on
the warranty of the product.
2. They should ask for Cash Memo for the item purchased.
3. They should form consumer awareness organizations.
4. They must complain for their genuine grievances.
5. The must know their rights and duties.
2.6 Need and importance of consumer awareness

It has been observed very often that a consumer does not get right goods and services. He is
charged a very high price or adulterated or low quality goods are sold to him. Therefore it is
necessary to make him aware. Following facts classify the need of making consumers aware:
1. To achieve maximum satisfaction : The income of every individual is limited. He wants to buy
maximum goods and services with his income. He gets full satisfaction only by this limited
adjustment. Therefore it is necessary that he should get the goods which are measured
appropriately and he should not be cheated in any way. For this he should be made aware.

2. Protection against exploitation : Producers and sellers exploit the consumers in many ways
as underweighting, taking more price than the market price, selling duplicate goods etc. Big
companies through their advertisement also mislead the consumers. Consumer awareness shields
them from the exploitation by producers and sellers.

3.Control over consumption of harmful goods : There are several such goods available in market
which cause harm to some consumers. For example we can take goods like cigarette, tobacco,
liquor etc. The consumer education and awareness motivate people not to purchase such goods
which are very harmful for them.

4. Motivation for saving : The awareness controls people from wastage of money and
extravagancy and inspire them to take right decision. Such consumers are not attracted by sale,
concession, free gifts, attractive packing etc due to which people can use their income in a right
way and can save money.

5. Knowledge regarding solution of problems : The consumers are cheated due to illiteracy,
innocence and lack of information. Therefore it becomes necessary that the information about
their rights should be provided to them so that they cannot be cheated by producers and sellers.
Through consumer awareness they are also made known to the proceedings of laws so that they
can solve their problems

.
6. Construction of healthy society : Every member of the society is a consumer. So, if the
consumer is aware and rationale, then complete society becomes healthy and alert towards their
rights.
2.7 Consumer Protection Measures
Introduction

In order to protect the interest of the consumers, the government has adopted three strategies:

1. Administrative measures

1. Technical measures

1. Legislative measures

Administrative Measures
Administrative measures of the government include the distribution of essential commodities
through Public Distribution System (PDS). PDS is a system through which the government
distributes some essential commodities at a reasonable price through the Fair Price Shop. In a
free market economy, the price of a commodity is determined in the market through the free play
of demand and supply. Equilibrium price is that price at which demand and supply of the
commodity are equal to each other i.e. there are zero excess demand and excess supply. But
sometimes government interferes in the market systems by fixing the price lower than the
equilibrium price, to protect the interest of the consumers belonging to the lower strata of the
society. This price is known as Control Price. When the government fixes price lower than the
equilibrium price, demand exceeds supply, which leads to black-marketing and hoarding. To
check these government sales different commodities at different FPS at control price.

Technical Measures
Technical measures consist of Standardization of the product. One of the important measures
taken by the government to protect the consumers is the creation of institutions for setting up the
standards for making and producing various products and enforcing them. In India, this has been
achieved through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and Agmark. While BIS caters to the
industrial and consumer goods while Agmark is meant for the agricultural products.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, earlier known as the Indian Standards Institution (ISI), whose
headquarter is located at Delhi, has the responsibility of lying down the standards for industrial
and consumer goods on a scientific basis and certifying the goods that meet the standards and the
prescribed quality.

The Agmark is implemented under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marketing) Act of
1937, as amended in 1986. This scheme is run by the Directorate of Marketing and
Intelligence (DMI) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Products such as
honey, masala etc, carry such marks.

At the international level, an institution called International Organization for Standardization

(ISI), established in 1947 located at Geneva, serves to provide such a common reference
standard. All the international Companies, goods produced by them, and institutions are certified
as ISO 6000, ISO 14000 etc.

For setting international food standards, there is a similar body called Codex Alimentaries
Commission (CAC). This was formed in 1963 by the Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization(WHO), located at Rome, Italy. It develops food
standards, guidelines and codes for production and international trade in food products like milk,
fish etc.

Legislative Measures
Legislative measures include enactment of Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Government
enacted a specific law called the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Act provides for the
establishment of consumer disputes redressal agencies at District, State and National level for the
protection of consumer interests and to redress their grievances in a speedy, simple and
inexpensive manner. The Act has led to the setting up separate Department of Consumer
Affairs in Central and State Government, which focus exclusively on the rights of the
consumers, as enshrined in the Act.

2.9 Consumer Awareness in India

The Consumer Protection Act enacted on 24

th
December, 1986 is abenevolent, unique and highly progressive piece of social welfare
legislationproviding for simple, speedy and less expensive remedy for the redressal ofconsumer
grievances in relation to defective goods and deficient services.Consumer Protection Act is a
weapon in the hands of consumers to fight againstexploitation by traders, manufacturers and
sellers on one hand and providers ofservices on the other. The Act provides effective, people
oriented, broad basedand efficient remedy to consumers against unfair dealings and
exploitation. It was enacted with an objective to provide better protection of the interests of
theconsumers and to make provision for the establishment of Consumer Councils andother
authorities for the settlement of consumer disputes. Unlike other laws, whichare basically
punitive or preventive in nature the provisions of the Act arecompensatory. It is a matter of great
satisfaction that we can legitimately boast thatwe now have in our country a statute, which
provides more effective protection tothe consumers than any corresponding legislation in force in
countries, which areconsidered to be much more advanced and industrialised.The Act
contemplates establishment of adjudicatory and advisorystructures in the form of consumer fora
and council structure respectively for theprotection of consumers’ rights. It extends to the whole
of India except the State ofJammu and Kashmir which has its own Consumer Protection Act. The
Act appliesto all goods and services unless any good or service is expressly excluded by
theCentral Government by notification. The Act extends to all sectors -public, privateor
cooperative. The Consumer Protection Act is an alternative and additionalremedy to the
remedies already available to the aggrieved persons/consumers byway of civil suit.To provide
cheap, speedy and simple redressal to consumer disputes, threetier quasi-judicial machinery is set
up at each District, State and National levelscalled District Forums, State Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission andNational Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission respectively. At present,there are 662 District Forums, 35 State Commissions with
apex body as a NationalConsumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC). These quasi-
judicial bodiesare required to follow summary procedure and Principles of Natural Justice
toprovide quick and speedy justice to the
consumers. After the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the firstindependent
evaluation study of the implementation of this Act was done through astudy conducted by IIPA
in 1994. It was found that large majority of the consumersbelonging to various categories and
income groups were completely ignorant ofthe existence of the CPA and the redressal
agencies created under it. Eleven

4
years later, according to a survey commissioned through ORG Centre for SocialResearch by the
C&AG, the position had improved only marginally. The surveywas conducted in July-August,
2005 in 25 States/ UT’s covering 48,732consumers, 6237 complaints, 249 manufacturers /
service providers, 39 NGOs and34 laboratories. The report of ORG-MARG revealed that:
1

•
Sixty-six percent of the consumers interviewed were not aware of consumerrights and 82
percent were even unaware of the Act.
•
Nearly 49 percent of the aware consumers had come to know about the Actonly in the last 4
years though the Act had been in existence for the past 18years.
•
Overall, only 13 percent of the consumers reported to have been aware ofthe existence of any
redressal agency.
•
A majority of the complainants came to know about the redressal agenciesthrough electronic
media (48 percent), print media (61 percent) andfriends/relatives (68 percent,), NGOs were not a
popular source ofawareness as only 4.9 percentage of the complainants attributed theirawareness
to the work of NGOs.
•
The consumers were not aware of the features of the simple andinexpensive system of lodging
complaint in the absence of any focusedawareness programme launched by the Ministry or the
States in this regard.The beneficiary survey carried out by ORG – MARG revealed that
78percent of the respondents were carrying a negative opinion of the effortsmade by the
government or had no idea about the same and were notaware that they could directly represent
themselves in the ConsumerForums. It is pertinent to note that lack of awareness in this regard
haddeprived the consumers of the benefit of the adjudication mechanism as outof the total
expenditure of
`
3387 incurred by the consumers on each casein the Consumer Forum on an average, as much as
`
2787 (82 percent)was the expenditure on advocates.Therefore, one of the major hindrances in the
consumer movement in thecountry is the lack of awareness among the consumers. The
consumers apart frombeing unorganized do not have the mechanism to understand their rights
andresponsibilities. These studies reveal not only lack of awareness but lack ofconsumer
education as well. A lot more needs to be done on this front. The right toconsumer education has
been recogonised under the Consumer Protection Act,
1
CAG
, Performance Audit of the Implementation of the Consumer Protection Act and Rules-Reportof
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ended March 2005
, Union Government(Civil), Performance Audit, 2006, p. 9

5
1986. However, unless awareness increases realizing the rights to the consumers,consumer
education remains a distant dream