Astrology  Chat  Cityscape  Classifieds  Entertainment  Health  Matrimonial 
Music  News  Panorama  Search  Shopping  Services  Tours & Travel  Home

With Sunita Narain, director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), or the Maharashtra food authorities questioning Pepsi, Coke and Cadbury, it is a great move towards promotion of consumer awareness and making them understand the benefits in the long run.

They must understand that 100 million potential consumers spread across the four Indian metros and around 100 important Indian cities are the ‘target’ of MNCs and large Indian business companies.

All surveys prove these consumers are as powerful as affluent westerners and a decisive factor of the Indian economy. Unfortunately, they do not realise their strength and power to punish the corporates manufacturing and marketing sub-standard products.

An average Indian has no faith in corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and fears a time-consuming battle. This consumer perception is wrong. No business house can risk antagonising the consumers. Brand building and sustaining the brand is a Herculean task. Look at new ad campaigns of Pepsi and Coke trying to convince their consumers about quality, giving statistics of global presence and their experience!

This is what we consumers want. We must shake up the corporate world if there is any wrongdoing and create loss to them by way of settlements and compensations. There cannot be a greater punishment than financial loss for any business enterprise or a corporate house. We must take advantage of consumer forums and law firms in this regard.

Very straightforward, established law firms in the major cities are also waiting for business, ready to jump into class actions.

But, as a consumer, you have to bell the cat. As a consumer you have to understand what class action is. When you doubt your favorite product’s quality, take it to a testing lab or assessing body. It is not necessary that you have to approach only government regulatory authorities.

You need not make the issue public. You can maintain confidentiality and check the result of quality and take it to a law firm. You can advise your friends/family who use the same product to do a similar checking and approach the law firm. This will add to your strength.

You need to make the law firm strike a deal to ensure minimum settlement of your compensation for the suffering you have undergone in using the ‘bad’ product. No fees for the law firms from your side, no financial liabilities for you in writing with the law company if negotiations with the business house fails.

You should only authorise the law firms to use the material evidence and yourself if it decides to sue the company in public interest. In the event of a court case, the court’s decision is final on the settlement of compensation, but it is subject to appeals to higher courts. You should be prepared to accept a lesser compensation.

Once you do this, the corporate mantra would become technology, processing standards, quality, product-at-value for money and customer care.

Don’t allow the TV commercials and your retailers to decide your choice of product. You have to necessarily do your homework on the product and do a comparison study of brands and competition in the category of product you want to buy and know your benefits in totality.

The responsibilities of the corporate world, business enterprise and consumers cannot be written down as commandments. But they can happen only when you demand your choice of product and service and very consciously count your money and spend.

Mani Thirumurthy

Buy what you deserve - Part I