Week 3 : Harmonizing Producers’ Priorities and Customer Awareness

Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

    Today's post is my reflection on the third week of classes of MKTG 4312 (Responsible Consumerism). From the title of this week's topic, it can be seen that the chapter talks about how to align the producer's priorities with customers' awareness. Some of the producer's priorities are export income, return on investment, and return of resources while examples of aspects of customer awareness are customer rights, protection, and great goods and services from the producers. 

    The first part of harmonizing producers' priorities and customer awareness is pursuing customer satisfaction. For a business to prosper, the customer will have to be satisfied with the goods and services provided by the business. If the customers are unsatisfied, they will not return to the business - it's as simple as that. There are several steps in pursuing customer satisfaction. The first step is through protecting and educating customers on their rights. For example, a case that became a sensation in social media a year ago comes to mind. The case involved a popular coffee chain in Malaysia called Zeus Coffee and a customer. One of the employees had short-changed the customer by 5 cents, which angered the customer. The coffee chain then added to the fuel by posting on social media and making fun of the customer for demanding the 5 cents. This created a wave of unsatisfied customers who disagreed with the coffee chain for their actions. In reality, the 5 cents were the customer's rights, and the company should have protected them instead of making fun of them. 

   The second step is through the assurance of fair trade policies and the provision of support systems. Inadequate support systems can lead to huge issues that will lead to customer dissatisfaction. The third step is through the promotion of customer awareness and the establishment of consumer organizations in society. In Malaysian society, there are several consumer organizations such as the Consumers Association of Penang and FOMCA. While there are several other associations in the country, I believe that there should be more to fully serve all the people of Malaysia. Additionally, there should be better awareness given to today's youth in order to continue the movement. 

   The second part of harmonizing the producer's priorities and customer awareness is by accommodating diverse values. In a world filled with 8 billion people, it is essentially impossible for everyone to have the same values. Consumers' values will differ according to the way they were raised and the environment around them. Several ways to accommodate these values are through competing, collaborating, and compromising. Healthy competition is important for the local and global economy. An example of healthy competition is between the American tech company Apple and the South Korean tech company Samsung. Another way to accommodate diverse values is through co-creation between consumers and producers. This will allow the consumers and the companies to be aware of each other's values and create goods and services according to those joint values.

   The third part of harmonizing the producer's priorities and customer awareness is by ensuring effective governance and compliance. First and foremost, firms should apply the principles of ethics in their businesses. Unethical business practices will definitely repel customers, especially in this day and age. The corporate governance framework is shown in the image below. 

   The final part is by prospering with the community. This can be achieved through corporate social responsibility and through focusing on SDGs. Firms can use the SDGs as a guide on how to shape their corporate social responsibility activities. For example, they can use the fourth SDG which is quality education to focus their CSR on providing long-term solutions for inadequate quality education in underprivileged societies. 

Thank you for reading today's post. Comment down below on what you wish to see firms do for their CSR.