Introduction
People have different perceptions and understandings on the concept of consumption, but it take a lot of considerations and concern for one to get the ideal meaning of the term consumptions and how it needs to be applied in daily activities and practices. As argued by some scholars and writers, consumption is not necessarily about transaction but it is fundamentally subjective state of consciousness with different meanings and hedonic responses (Kreitner, 2000). This paper targets at investigating the inner meaning of consumption and drawing meaningful understanding to people on the application of consumption and how it relates to people, their uncovered activities and unpredictable needs. For this to be achieved the paper will be divided into two parts and each part will contain unique description of consumption, depending on the understanding of some scholars, philosophers and famous writers (Macy, 2002). Most of the information in this paper is evidence-based considering the fact that it relies on academic journals and lecture notes which have trusted basis.
Part 1 of the assignment
Consumption is not necessarily always a transaction but as Holbrook & Hirschman (1982) states in their article if seen from experiential perspective it is phenomenological in spirit and regards consumption as a primarily subjective state of consciousness with a variety of symbolic meanings, hedonic responses, and aesthetic criteria (p. 132). Consumption according to the understanding of some scholars and writers such as Holbrook & Hirschman is the reputation, the impression and the ideas that people have towards something consumable (Emile, 2004). Anything unpreserved could be a good or a service but mostly it is a product. Consumption is therefore related to branding which is the art of enhancing and changing the latter. Consumption on the other hand is the availability of technique to those attempting branding (Berlin, 1967).
Various companies that deal with foods and related consumable item take the consumer to be a key target of the products that the deal with. For instance, Coca-Cola is an international company that deals with beverages and it core benefits are accrued from the rate of consumption of its products by the consumers (Miller, 2007). The interests and the demand that people have on certain foods or drinks significantly determine if the product is of any added value to their lives or not. It further helps the producing company to detect and get an assurance that their products have a demand that they may regulate the rate of production (Ivancevich, 2007).
Reflecting on the comparison made by Joshua Johnson on Pepsi versus coke, branding of the beverages and other eating stuff causes rivalry between the producing companies and this is evident from what is illustrated from the two beverages companies. Consumers tend to go for the coke brand and advertising of Pepsi continues to face more challenges as a result (Basu, & Wright, 2007). The consumer has the freedom of taking both brands but after some time they tend to be more loyal to the best-branded brand. I think the design and taste of coca cola has more to do with its win and success.
Peer pressure is a main influence when it comes to consumption more especially regarding trendy products. Whenever somebody sees someone with the some eating stuff, there is always an urge to own the same, and this is normal in human beings. The fact that peer influence activates one to take that which he/she had not planned for suffices to show how people tend to take what their friends or peers are taking.
Mostly companies use magazines to advertise these products using individuals of certain target group. These magazines are meant to influence the peer to try to look the same. For instance, young individuals tend to be interested in what their friends perceive to be best and fashionable. Peer pressure has influenced many people to consume what they did not intend to consume. Most of the people who influence young people are people with unique talent or feature that young individuals may want to follow or interested on. For instance, when advertising some eating foods like ice cream, and the seller wants to target young boys, they will tend to use images of beautiful ladies to take the attention of these boys, thereby raising their interest on the ice creams. The converse is true. Another example is that of rich people who would rather buy expensive products other than going for the simple ones commonly found.
Social class and culture influence consumption in ways that are unclear. The most limiting factor when it comes to consumption is the need to take what others are taking without considering the social and economic inequalities. Whenever one lives in a culture that does things differently, there is that urge of catching up to reduce attention and discrimination. Individuals think they are rich just because of associating themselves with things that the rich do (Chopra, & Meindil, 2007).
Hedonic responses include the activities that an individual acquires and gives meaning to stimuli. This begins with exposure, which is usually the result of self-selection. There is an occurrence of attention in cases of more than one sensory receptor. People have different attitudes towards some products and this prevents them and their friends from consuming the same. Some think that putting on weight is old school and prefer just keeping fit while in school. Well, the latter is just an example of attitude as an influence towards consumption.
Personality has a lot to do with symbolic meanings and this influences consumption. This is in the sense that people with a mighty aesthetic criterion rarely go for common things. For example, one will not easily spot a president having earphones on and listening to music. This closely relates to lifestyle and perception. What does that mean? It means that a nurse for example will always have nice meals on while working and while not working and therefore it is necessary for him or her to have it taken care of and maintained (Ashley, 2005). This is how lifestyle will influence people to consume and how they view consumption.
Conclusion
The four layers of diversity when it comes to consumption and competitive advantage are personality, which includes the dislikes and likes, beliefs and values. This diversity layer is the earliest shaped in life, influences the other layers, and at the same time gets influence from them as well. An internal dimension is the second layer and includes aspects of diversity, race and gender (Geunes, 2006). The internal dimension influences humans to make assumptions and base judgments. The third layer is external dimensions, which include aspect of human beings lives. These are like friendships, relationships and marriages. The fourth layer is the organizational layer, which concerns culture aspects found in any working setting. For example in this includes the life of employees, time and dressing while at work thus dictating the level of consumption as well as competitive position in a market.
Part 2 of the assignment
This section critically discusses and reviews the central principles of competitive advantage as described in the case of EBICo. These principles are customer focus, strategic quality planning, enhancing teamwork, training and recognition, quality assurance and performance measurement. The top of the list principle is top risk management. Risk Management led process defines uncertainty and gives the difference between risk and uncertainty (Adler, 2005). Because of that, if EBICo adopted the methods where implementation success depends on top management’s commitment demonstration. Holbrook & Hirschman should realize that the uncertainty and commitment of management needs demonstration and visibility (Purnell, & Paulanka, 2003). Commitment, which is the willingness and devotion of resources to total risk management also means investing in the program and the willingness to invest immediately in order to later reap the benefits with reduced uncertainty and risk.
EBICo should appreciate the fact that Total risk commitment means the enthusiasm to change the culture and style in which the company carries its operation for it to increase its competitive advantage. Strategic quality planning is the second principle and it plays a key role in making sure that there are quality services and products output of companies for the purposes of competitive advantage (Dungier, 2007). Any organization should be able to identify its strengths and weaknesses by undergoing the strategic planning process to gain competitive advantage.
A customer requirement is conformance to quality. For maximum achievement of customer satisfaction, every supervisor, employee and manager an organization must have a passionate commitment to meet the customer’s requirements making it the key to profitability and quality for the purposes of reducing risk and uncertainty. A strong involvement and commitment of supervisors, managers and employees in the focus process of customers will assure cost reduction, quality and competitive advantage for the organization concerned, which in this case is risk and uncertainty (Michael, 2005).
In an organization, successful implementation of total risk management depends on participation and support of a knowledgeable and skilful workforce with optimistic values and attitudes towards work and reduction in uncertainty. For this to happen, it requires recognition of a system that is motivating to the workforce for production of high quality outputs. It also requires continuous training for better production of outputs.
There have been many case studies conducted regarding competitive advantage over the years and publishing of results in journals. Provision of a brief account of literature is prohibitive in view of the fact that it has been so omnipresent. In this case study, there are only a few selected provisions and experiential perspectives of recent total risk management publications. There is more emphasis on single organizations as mentioned earlier to have a better way of dealing with risk and uncertainty (Bhungalia, & Kemp, 2002).
There is an implementation of total risk management in many energy providing companies. This has seen them through a successful road such as the Rialto and other energy providing companies in UK and other parts of the world. A leadership commitment and an organizational structure for process identification and improvement reduce risk and uncertainty. Use of analytical and data based statistical tools for studying process, involvement of external and internal customers, empowerment of employees and effective measures for improvement monitoring. Authors accrue that the efforts from the total risk management are remarkable when it comes to competitive advantage (Blythe, 2005).
Tannock and rahman reported three similar case studies of risk versus uncertainty in 2005 carried out in energy providing companies in the UK. Provided studies give insights into the issues facing energy companies that are in the urge to develop more approaches of increasing competitive advantage (Leuning, Swiggum, Wiegert, & McCullough-Zander, 2002). The studies show that the companies have distinct approaches to competitive advantage in marketing as well as their implementation and should share with other energy providing companies in UK and outside UK for the purposes of reducing uncertainty (Coyle, 2009).
There was also a discussion by Hanson on various characteristics of increasing competitive advantage in small organizations. The small organizations are all over the world and suffer from uncertainty and risk more but mostly in UK, which happens to be the home country of an organization (Miller, & Abbotson, 2010). Competitive advantage has seen many companies improve in the way they handle their customers and their employees as well as their businesses.
It is one thing to have a good company and it is another to have it well marketed without risks. Many companies adopt total risk management but end up failing to implement it therefore making it useless with more uncertainty issues (Copacino, 1997). The study shows that it is not easy to implement experiential perspectives since it requires a lot of commitment and hard work. For a company, this does a great job in ensuring that there are better services each new day. In UK, companies work very hard to see that there is a good way of increasing competitive advantage and forget uncertainty marketing (Adler, 2005).
Conclusion
Organizations require mentoring for it to increase its competitive advantage. The Mentoring process is where one gets a mentor to help in advice for different areas like finance and business (Maier-Lorentz, 2008). The one mentoring asks questions so that he or she can get the starting point depending on the issues and problems not forgetting that there are things like review of results that continues the learning cycle. The mentor’s skills of questioning determine the thinking level of the one receiving mentorship regarding marketing strategies in most cases (Doorenbos, & Nies, 2003). An organization gains experience of other organizations who offer mentorship. As an individual, I would seek a mentor to know what I do not know about businesses and organizations to remain competitive in a market. Mentors are always experienced in the areas that they are good in and where they specialize (Julie, 2011).
In the main, it can be concluded that consumption of any good and utilization of any service is greatly determined by the way the producing organization managers the quality of production, branding and pricing of the products or services. This consequently affects the competitive advantage in the sense that an organization which captures the interests of the clients in terms of quality, timely production and timely delivery gain more profits due to the unlimited sales that they make, thereby beating their competitors. Thus, the rate of consumption is directly proportional to the competitive advantages stabled and maintained by an organization.
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Appendices
https://www.ebico.org.uk/
