Longitudinal Theory of Value in Ethical Consumption - Assignment Example

Ethical consumer Abstract Product consumption trends in most economies take the line of ethical desires and guidelines. Ethics play vital role in determining the kind of industries whose products are consumed by particular communities. Some individuals tend to shape their consumption trends to the ethics of the communities in which they live while others ignores ethic perspectives of their communities but instead assume another different trend that is incongruent to the ordeals of the community. In most cases, business organizations learn the ethical consumption trends of a particular population in order to produce exact goods and products that respect the ethical perspectives of the society. In that respect, this paper will discuss the ethical consumption in the Dubai market with longitudinal theory of value in ethical consumption. Introduction Ethical consumerism or green consumerism refers to the purchase preference of consumers with regard to ethical perspectives during the production process. Consumers will most likely prefer to buy or consume products that they fully approve to have abided by the ethical requirements of the society. Ethical consumerism is a vital topic of survey that is fundamental for adoption by manufacturing and service industries. Ethical values adopted by the consumers in the societies are determined by the nature of the item with reference to its environmental friendliness, labor concerns and its position in the line of human rights. Ethical values considered by customers to an extent involve health and safety of workers in a particular manufacturing farm and animal welfare. The elements of ethical consumerism can be coined in various aspects like shopping, boycotting, banking and investments. Ethical consumerism can better be understood through deep analysis of the value theory of ethical consumption. Value theory of ethical consumerism established by Rokeach value survey assumes two extremes, which include the instrumental value theory and the terminal value theory. Instrumental values ascribe to the accepted moral values that can lead to achieving terminal values. Instrumental values encompass ranges of values that cover love, cheerfulness, politeness, obedience, responsibility, forgiveness, intellect, cleanliness, courage, capability, ambition and logic. Terminal values on the other hand refers to the expected end results coming from the instrumental values that one would like to achieve in his/her lifetime. Probable manifestation of terminal values include mature love, equality, freedom, pleasure, wisdom, salvation, national security, peace, social recognition and happiness. Ethical consumerism varies among diverse societies with regard to varied social, cultural and religious beliefs. For example, Dubai a country dominated by Muslims portrays unique ethical consumerism as compared to the other non Muslim countries. Islam is a religion that tends to show high respects to the life of human beings and animals as well. Muslims recognizes mature love as one of the major terminal value that a product should exhibit before selling to the consumers. Green consumerism among Muslims dictates that marketers show love to the consumers whenever they are doing product marketing. Instrumental love has vehement values in the dictating consumers’ trend in the product consumption among the Muslims in Dubai. Most Dubai citizens have great concerns on the fate of human rights and equality. For this reason, consumers in the economy of Dubai prefer consuming products that undergo processing under maximum respect to of rights of labors and equality in the production sector. Equal consideration of employees despite of their gender differences dictates the positive performance of a product upon arriving in the market. Islamic ethics recognizes descent dressing style that requires men to cover all parts of their bodies except the head while women are required to put dresses that cover almost the whole body. Such ethics are meant to outline respect and social recognition among the Muslims. In that line, Dubai consumers prefer buying apparels that meet the social and religion standards most of which includes kazoos. Most citizens of Dubai will therefore decide to spend more money in the purchase of certain goods provided they meet the required values. In addition, consumers of banking services in Dubai market settles upon respect that they receive from the bank operators. The level of politeness displayed by banks goes in line with the ethical desire of the Islamic community. The banking industry in Dubai has also adopted cheerful advertisements and attendance to their consumers in order to attract the ethical obligations of the consumers. Service providers and production companies in Dubai have resolved to stick to their responsibilities at every level of product and service delivery. Signs of responsibilities depicted by the production firms have great impacts on the consumers depending on level of responsibility showed by the producers. Instrumental value of responsibility also requires companies and other service provides to adopt descent ways of advertisement away from that involving public dancing. Since Dubai is a Muslim country, public dancing is prohibited and considered unethical and consumers are likely to boycott certain products that do not meet the set ethical standards. Instrumental perspective of value theory sets competent manufacturing companies on the forefront to meet and score customers’ preference by ensuring that ethics engraved in the Muslims society of Dubai are protected and appreciated. Consumers in the Dubai market prefer products manufactured under effective competition environment with great regard to environmental protection. Muslims have great love to safe environment and will therefore boycott consumption of products perceived to have contributed to environmental degradation during production process. Muslim in Dubai also boycott consumption of particular goods perceived to be products of companies that contravene sustainability of peace in Dubai. In addition, Dubai consumers prefer goods from particular companies perceived to have great concern on the society through acts such as participating in development programs of the society. Value theory of ethical consumption describes the nature of product consumption in Dubai with reference to the producing companies. Muslim society prefers consumption of goods and services from specific companies that show loyalty to the consumers and other competitors in the market and general public. Larger population of citizens of Dubai prefers trade relations where service providers and manufacturers maintain loyalty to the laws of the land and entire ethnic values that govern the society. Adherence to national security also dictates the application of value theory in the ethic consumerism in Dubai market. Product preference among the consumer in Dubai obtains its value with regard to level of contribution of the manufacturing to the national security of the country. Love shown by companies towards the consumers of a particular product in terms of level of concern extended to the health safety of individuals of individual consumers in the market. Affections and tender shown to consumers by product manufacturers have since played a great deal as the investment industry in Dubai record an upper growth. Consumers in the Dubai economy have particular cultural and religious belief that seem to prohibit consumption of products related to sources ought to deprive the welfare of animals. Acceptable value of products that are ethically approved for consumption in the Muslim society should have little correlation to the breach of animal’s life. In addition, Muslim communities who form the greatest population of Dubai have negative beliefs on the consumption of products that are derived from the pigs. Consumption of pig products and animal products whose welfare has been breached qualifies to be unclean and untidy. Muslims in Dubai always strive to avoid consumption of such products to uphold the societal respect and self discipline. Dubai consumers prefer consumption of goods and services that do contravene their particular family relations. Islam ethics prohibits consumption of goods and services that pose risks to the unity of the families. Consumption ethics of Dubai citizens focuses on purchase of goods believed to be safe for the spiritual development and love among the society. Muslim community adores high standards of sanity and disregards publication of sex provocative items, which work towards maintenance of intimacy and self respect among various individuals in the societies. The Muslim community living in Dubai displays the real attitudes and concern on the consumption trend that focuses on ethics of the community. Ethic consumerism in Dubai has great impact on the production trends in the country. Muslim consumers are always very keen in selecting types of the firms whose products they consume. Preferable manufacturing companies going by the consumer behaviors in Dubai should always poses the values of love that can hold families together in harmony. Ethical consumption of products in the economy of Dubai takes close watch on the effects of the product on the security of individual families. Dubai citizens also prefer consumption of products manufactured by industries that respect the rights of employees and welfare of animals. It is also worth noting that consumers in the economy of Dubai are traditional conservatives who decide on their consumption in lines of tradition. Dubai citizens disregard consumption of products manufactured by industries that handle pigs due to traditional and religious beliefs that regards pigs as unholy and unclean. To maintain ethical sanctity, Muslim communities in Dubai prefer consumption of products they believe to be safe to the spiritual growth and development of the community. Dubai consumers’ base also disregards the consumption of alcoholic products with strong beliefs that it is ethically unclean and unsafe for families and national security. Muslim communities in Dubai also dispute provocative dresses that tend to expose particular parts of the body. Ethically accepted dressing code adds an individual societal recognition and respect as well as cherishing self discipline of certain individuals. With the reference to the consumer preferences of the Muslim community living in Dubai, I would recommend open advertisement of products in the media houses to sensitize non ethical consumers and motivate ethical consumers. The advertisement of the products should be decently presented to go in line with the ethical perspectives of various communities. The advertisements should stress more on the need to cherish ethical consumption of goods as way of maintaining peace and ensuring harmonious coexistence in the communities. The advertisements should also focus more sensitizing consumers on the importance attached to ethical consumption with reference to national security. This will target at attracting the non ethical consumers to adopt the ethical mode of consumption. The advertisement of products should be reciprocated in a way that it dispels total respect and concern to the ethical entities of a particular society. In addition, the advertisements should be shaped in way that it discloses the real intent of the particular industry in line with environmental conservation as preferred by the existing ethical entities. Moreover, the advertisements should be structured in a way that the encoded message reiterates the health concern of the consumers with regard to the ethical desires. Product promotion techniques like road shows are also viable methods of sensitizing consumers to adopt ethical consumption model. Road shows for promoting products should always be conservative and respect the ethical code of conduct of particular communities to entice the non ethical consumers to adopt ethical model of consumption. The road shows should always testify the innovative and creativity of the company on the product in question to meet the ethical standard of particular community. The road shows should also involve strong messages of love in relation to the product and stress on the need to maintain national security and family safety. The road shows should also enlighten the consumers over the great care and concern a company or manufacturing industry has over human rights and labor laws. The road shows should also educate consumers of a particular concerning the environment protection and in essence demonstrate to the consumers over the efforts made by the manufacturing industry to heighten the environmental conservation measures. The prior move will work towards attracting new ethical consumers as well as nurturing the preference of the already existing ethical consumers. In addition, the road shows should also inform the consumers of a specific product over the measures taken by the manufacturing industry to ensure that health safety of the consumers is protected while using the products. Moreover, the road shows should also emphasize the significance of a particular industry’s products with regard to the spiritual development and respect of a particular ethnic group. Emphasis on spiritual protection of a particular community will display a positive image of the industry to the public thereby motivating the initial ethical consumers while subsequently absorbing the interest of the non ethical consumers in the trial. References Shelter offshore. (2011). Living in Dubai & Knowing the Rules. Retrieved October 23, 2011 from http://www.shelteroffshore.com/index.php/living/more/living-in-dubai-knowing-the-rules-10831 Blowfield, M. (2001). Ethical consumption. Retrieved October 23, 2011 from http://www.nri.org/publications/policyseries/PolicySeriesNo12.pdf Read More