for part 1 of the assignment, my group mates & i analysed a TEDx talk presented by Diane Ridgway-Cross on the topic "Conscious consumerism - time to shop & live - our values" and made a mind map based on it.
Diane talked about how she grew up in a family that were conscious consumers. Her mother played a huge role in making her the conscious consumer she is today.
From the video, we summarised that it's important to be a conscious consumer, to always be mindful of the products we buy and what brands/companies we buy from. we should wield the purchase power by rewarding companies that stand for our beliefs and values and hold accountable to those who don't. learning to stand for what we believe in, making a difference and voicing out can help make positive changes, even if it's small.
Some of the key aspects we found useful to our brief "how design turn us into a buying machine" are 4 out of 5 women are willing to pay more for goods and services with CSR. we listed some examples in the mind map. besides that, we also learned that companies/brands love to gauge customers by giving out cheap retail prices/discounts.
We disagreed with 2 points. Firstly, not everyone can be conscious consumers, mainly lower class people because fair trade products are not only sometimes inaccessible, they can cost more than free trade products. between these two, lower class people are forced to opt for the latter. Besides that, Diane mentioned that " women are able to come up with 10 companies they are boycotting" which is untrue by looking at the information we found on a website. Not everyone is a conscious consumer. Most people boycott because of the poor product quality and customer service rather than the companies' involvement in CSR.
After watching and analysing the video, we were curious about several things. One of the questions was "how can we practice conscious consumerism as a lifestyle when there are just way too many companies around us?". The other question was "How much of a conscious consumer am I or how much am I NOT a conscious consumer" we did further research on that. I also did the survey on: https://slaveryfootprint.org/survey/#where_do_you_live (if you're reading this, you should take the survey) It helped me learned about modern slavery and how we may unknowingly contributing to it and how we can learn to stop contributing to modern slavery (forced labour and child labour).
I haven't watched all the other consumerism videos but one of the ones I watched was "How social consumerism can change the world" a TEDx talk by Andre Angel. I liked this video because he taught us about social consumerism. Social consumerism can be called social consumerism when it's a win-win-win situation. By that i mean:
1) when the consumer's needs are met
2) the business achieves profitability
3) a social issue is positively affected
I think a lot of brands nowadays try to apply this into their business to raise awareness and to help those in need. one famous example would be Apple and their collaboration with the Red Org. ,an organisation that partners with many big brands to raise funds towards the cause of HIV/AIDS (How (RED) Works., n.d.). They collab by releasing RED products. Any of their RED products, such as iPhone, their proceeds are made as donations to fund HIV and AIDS programmes.
As of right now, because of the global pandemic happening right now, Apple has decided to donate 100% of the sales of their RED products towards the Global Fund's COVID-19 Response.
I think what Apple doing is great and the way they are able to engage with their customers by raising funds for a current issue that's critical to us right now is a smart move.
How (RED) Works. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.red.org/how-red-works
(PRODUCT)RED. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/my/product-red/
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