Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics (1980) 4, 5 1-60.

CONSUMER RESEARCH

Part 11. Discussion of Five More Consumer Topics and Suggestions for Future Research*

JOYCE EPSTEIN ERICA Research

This a continuation of apaper which appeared in the last issue of the Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics. Thejirst part of the paper dealt with studies of consumer representation, particularly in the nationalized industries (which show its weaknesses and inadequacy) ; with studies of information and education (which show the limited usefulness and slow progress of each); and with work done on the realneeds of consumers (which shows the deep uncertainties which exist about what those real needs are).

HereJive further topics of consumer research are considered and suggestions are made for future research.

Consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is an elusive concept to pin down. It is usually examined indirectly by looking at consumer dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction in turn is usually examined by looking at complaints, and ‘. . . . complaints are not a satisfactory barometer of consumer dissatisfaction’ (de Rijcke, 1974). All of which means that very little’is reliably known about how satisfied consumers are.

It has been estimated in the U.S. that for every complaint received there are thirty-five dissatisfied customers. Why so few dissatisfied customers complain is not clear. The NCC study (1976) of nationalized industry consumer councils suggests that lack of awareness that there is somebody to complain to is certainly one reason. Fewer than 5% of the public had heard of the electricity consumer councils, and for every electricity consumer who did complain there were a hundred dissatisfied customers who did not complain. Tortuous complaint procedures were another reason put forth by the NCC as a reason for non-com- plaints. As an example, the NCC shows what happens when you want to complain about the Post Office. If you go to the Post Office, a notice there says contact the Post Office Advisory Committee, but gives no POAC telephone number or address. If you look up POAC in the telephone directory under ‘P‘,

*The full paper from which this is an adaptation, including annotated bibliography and review of consumer organizations in Europe, is available on application to ERICA, 25 Lloyd Baker Street, London WCl9AT.

Correspondence: Joyce Epstein, 25 Lloyd Baker Street, London WClX 9AT.

0309-3891/80/0300-005 1$02.00 0 1980 Blackwell Scientific Publications 51

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the entry there tells you to go to ‘A’ for Advisory Committees. Go to ‘A’ and you are told to see the preface of the directory. In the preface there is a note saying complaints are to be referred to the Post Office.

However, the suggestion that difficult complaint procedures discourages com- plainers is not supported by Ennemoser’s study (1975) of Gas Board customers. He found that dissatisfied consumers who did not complain think the complaint process is easier than those who have complained. So perhaps it is not their expectation of difficulty that deters them.

Other studies (e.g. NCC, 1976; Day, 1978) show that people prefer to complain in person, and when this is not possible, they tend not to complain at all. The complaints that are made, then, represent atypical consumers.

There have been numerous surveys of the general public, asking people to remember whether they have made any unsatisfactory purchases within the past X number of months or years. In a review of such surveys, Day (1978) concluded that about 20% of the U.S. public is discontented because of defective products. The figure varies for different classes of products and goes as high as 35% for cars. In addition to the fact, emphasized by Day, that the complaining customer is atypical of customers is the fact that non-complaining satisfied customers have valid problems of which they are unaware (‘latent dissatisfaction’). All in all this means that compilations of complaint statistics, like those gathered by the Office of Fair Trading, may actually have limited value in telling us how well the market is performing.

There are plans now being made by several European researchers for cross-cul- tural surveys of consumer satisfaction and consumer complaints. Here in the U.K. the NCC is beginning to plan a long-range continuing quarterly study of how British consumers perceive their problems. The NCC will do population surveys of consumer experience in eight to twelve areas (shopping, housing, leisure, education, etc.), returning to the same area every 2 years to develop a continuing profile.

There is a trend in U.S. research toward developing overall indexes that would be capable of evaluating aggregate consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction over a comprehensive set of products and services. These indexes avoid the shortcomings of volunteered complaint data and of single incident recall. The goal is to enable policy makers to focus their attention on products with the highest rates of dissatisfaction. The methods involve administering mass, lengthy, probing questionnaires about consumer product experiences and then analysing the results to interpret general trends.

Costs and benefits

There is very little research on the costs and benefits of consumer measures. There are surveys (such as Barksdale & French, 1976) which ask businessmen if

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they believe consumerism puts up costs and they answer ‘yes we believe consu- merism puts up costs’. The only shocking thing is that 2 years after that particular survey it was cited by Foxall (1978) as ‘ample evidence’ that consumerism puts up costs. In neither article were facts and figures mentioned.

In 1978, Reeson used a theoretical model to evaluate the benefit of the price surveys funded by the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection. Under best-use circumstances, they would save the consumer 57; on the food bill. Morris (1977) calculated that CACs cost the government only 6p per person and, when compared to the money recovered by CACs for shoppers, amount to a ‘social profit’.

Aaker & Day (1972) point out that ‘although benefits are difficult to quantify, the costs are usually painfully obvious’ but even cost figures vary enormously depending upon whether they are being estimated by consumerists (low) or marketers (high).

Thorelli & Thorelli (1977) describe costs of consumer measures as ‘trivial’ compared to the cost of advertising. One marketer (Fulop, 1977) was vague about whether sales promotion gimmicks raise prices: ‘. . . (It) is most difficult to prove or refute. To isolate one variable from the many components which make up price is very difficult’ but four pages later in the same article she writes ‘ . . . consumer bodies fail to appreciate that their proposals could involve . . . the raising of costs’ and three pages later that conditional ‘could’ becomes more adamant: ‘consumer protection measures have a cost. . . It is far from certain that if they knew the cost, consumers would always be in favour of the measures . . .’. Nor in favour of the sales gimmicks, perhaps.

Discussions with experts in the field indicated that most feel it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to establish with certainty the costs and benefits of consumer measures.

Looking at business

For the most part, consumer research has limited itself to the output of business-studying products, advertisements for products, complaints about products, decisions to buy products-but there has been very little scrutiny of business itself, of the actual decision-making processes within firms that ulti- mately can have a great impact on consumers. Olander & Lindhoff (1 974): ‘This is of course a sign of the asymmetry in power distribution between business and consumers. Marketing researchers have as yet seldom had big difficulties in getting access to households in order to study their internal decision processes, attitudes, knowledge, personality traits, etc., but could consumer action researchers get access to the business firms in order to study the deliberations taking place in board rooms . . .?’

The answer is, apparently, almost never. In one of the few consumer studies of

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business (Social Audit on Avon, Frankel et al., 1976) it was reported that 100 companies had been approached but only one, Avon Rubber, agreed to the study and, at that, withheld information at various points. The researchers had good access, though, and were able to question management at length and to examine company documents. The final report constitutes an interesting analysis of company operation, with the authors only occasionally slipping into unsup- ported claims and charges. For example, the best they can offer to counter Avon’s presumably unproven assertion that publishing tyre defect data would turn customers away is their own equally unproven insistence that it wouldn’t.

There have been numerous surveys of attitudes of business people (e.g. Arndt, Crane & Tallhaug, 1977; Straver, 1978). Other researchers, besides Social Audit, have attempted to study business. For example, Ennemoser tried to study the reactions of the Gas Board as part of his study of consumer complaints but was refused access. And still others have focused on specific malpractices, rather than business operations as a whole, the most notable of whom is Nader. Another British group who scrutinize business is CIS (Counter Information Services) but they look at business primarily from the worker point of view, and tend not to take the consumer interest into particular account.

One other group has conducted a very interesting study of an entire industry, not one particular firm. The group is TACC (Technology Assessment Consumer- ism Centre) and the industry was the British bread industry. The study docu- ments show bread companies have been devising ever newer ways to make cheaper and less nutritious bread without even passing the economic savings on to the consumer. One point they make has an especially relevant context. The main counter-argument from business to consumerists has always been that business must be giving people what they want, otherwise they could not sell their product. Look at all the product failures, they say, and that is proof that consumers are protected by their own sovereignty. But the TACC report shows that, although the bread industry did not eventually succeed in marketing one certain defective product (half-baked bread) and was forced to withdraw it from the market after 3 years because not enough consumers would buy it, sufficient numbers of people bought and tried this bread during its 3-year existence to enable the companies to make a profit. Only the consumer who tried this bread lost. The companies did not.

The disadvantaged consumer

Considerable work has been carried out by agencies such as RICA and the NCC on consumption of public services by the poor, the disabled and the elderly but there is almost no European research to report that has especially focused on the disadvantaged consumer and commercial consumer production and services. There are many researchers and writers who address this issue but conclude, like

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Klein & Lewis (1976), that there is a case ‘for generalizing the standards that middle class consumers expect for themselves’. Certainly, Thorelli & Thorelli’s characterization of people who use consumer resources as ‘the vigilantes of the marketplace’ suggests that for Thorelli & Thorelli what is good for the ‘vigi- lantes’ is good for everyone. There are a few who insist this is not so. Andreason (1976) argues that the consumer problems of the disadvantaged are qualitatively different from those of the middle class, and so a middle class consumer move- ment cannot benefit the poor, who are in most need of it. Caplovitz’s work in the U.S. is the seminal work in the field and demonstrates strongly how the poor are victimized. Cunningham & Cunningham (1976) surveyed knowledge of con- sumer protection laws among the rich and the poor, and since they found all income segments to be ignorant of their rights, they dismissed him thus: ‘This would seem to negate Caplovitz’s statement that low income consumers need to be treated with special care . . . The only difference between how wealthy people and poor people are swindled is that wealthy people lose more money,’

The consumer and labour

The research here hardly merits a separate heading. There is none. An industrial research specialist at SSRC states that the consumer interest is never included in studies of labour, government and industry. It is never excluded either. It simply never occurs to anybody. There have been countless studies of the effects of strikes on business and labour but none on the consumer. The closest to it was one which studied the effects of strikes on workers not directly involved in the dispute but who were laid off because of lack of materials.

The labour unions have often claimed that they are, and speak for, the consumers. In Europe the trade unions operate many consumer-type organiza- tions. A document of the ILO asserts that labour groups represent consumers because workers ‘form the majority of low income consumers in most countries’, but this same paper goes on to admit that thus far the income earning sphere of trade unions has received more consideration by members than has the income spending sphere, and further down: ‘. . . although trade unions are considered to be one of the major spokesmen for consumer interests, they are also concerned with problems affecting the employment situation . . . they therefore do not give unqualified support to all demands of consumer movements, but remain true to their own priorities. . .*.

The present state of research and future directions

This has been a review of a sample of research on basic issues in consumerism. The field is market-oriented, American, impressionistic, and ‘difficult to find. There is probably scattered empirical and theoretical research activity in uni-

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versities and other centres throughout the U.K. and Europe but due to language and dissemination problems, it is difficult to find out readily what there is and where it is happening. Researchers contacted during the course of this review expressed frustration at the inability to find out what work is being done. Perhaps the forum of an informal European research seminar would encourage better exchange of information.

The research is over-reliant on self-reports, consumers’ memory and attitude surveys, with little behavioural study. Asking people what they do is not the same as observing what they do. An attitude survey published by the Commission of the European Communities marvelled, with regard to consumers not counting their change: ‘Strangely enough, neither composition of the family nor level of education nor income level significantly influenced purchasers’ behaviour.’ But the CEC did not examine purchasers’ behaviour. They examined self-reports of purchasers’ behaviour. Observational studies have shown that consumer be- haviour is indeed affected by income and education.

It is not due to anybody’s oversight that there is a lack of behavioural research. Attitudinal research is easier, faster and cheaper. And it often represents a valuable, indeed the only, approach. But there needs to be more study of how consumers actually behave, instead of how they say they behave. This does not mean that lab-coated, clip-boarded consumer researchers must peer at people from behind the aisles at Tesco. The food label study done by Consumers’ Association is a good example of a simple behavioural approach. Instead of asking people if they would like the ingredients listed on food cans or, worse yet, what in the abstract they would like on food cans, people were shown actual labels and asked to choose. The results were clear and unambiguous: people want information, want it in large print, and want it on one spot on the can. More behaviourally-oriented approaches can be devised for the study of most con- sumer issues.

There are, as the report shows, whole subject areas which have received virtually no research attention at all. Consumerism and trade unionism and the disadvantaged consumer are the most notable areas. Last winter there was a good deal of emotional commentary in the press and on the television on the palpably nasty effects of strikes on consumers. If this is to become an issue, there is an urgent need for reasoned and objective study of the whole field of worker- consumer welfare. One can hardly conceive of a more timely or important contribution from the consumer movement. What is the nature and degree of specific consideration of consumer interests in negotiations involving trade unions, government and business? What are the real effects of trade union decisions, and of labour-government-business agreements on consumers? What are the attitudes of consumers? How are they identical with the workers’ point of view and how divergent? This last question is perhaps even more important in considering the underprivileged consumer. The validity of studying the poor as a

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special class of consumer, with different needs, aspirations and problems, raises very important questions for the entire consumer movement. Do the poor have special consumer needs not recognized by the consumer movement? Are the activities of consumer representative organizations irrelevant for the poor and working class, or worse still, are they harmful? Specific, practical, testable research programmes can be generated to examine these questions. They need not remain the realm of rhetoric. For example, what has been the comparative impact on middle class and lower class people who do walk through the doors of a consumer advice centre, in terms of specific problem resolution?

The major omission in current consumer research is the study of impact.

The impact of consumer research on government policy In the United States, where consumer research has increased explosively in the 1970’s, there is a growing awareness and restlessness that the results of the research have failed to make their way into policy (Friedman, 1974; Wilkie & Gardner, 1974). Significantly, this is seen as partly the fault of the researchers. They have not oriented their work sufficiently to policy-makers’ needs.

Although research in Europe has not been as plentiful as in the U.S., there nevertheless has been some major work done, for example by the NCC here and BEUC Europe-wide. How have they fared in terms of policy impact? What has been the reaction of administrators and policy makers? What are their needs, and do the reports address those needs? How can research be adapted so as to be most useful to administrators of consumer agencies and to government policy makers? Follow-up studies that include questions like these would help to shape future work and increase their chances of impact.

The impact of legislation on consumers Considerable consumer legislation is now in operation. Research must take the next step to see what has been the impact. There have been studies of the effects specific legislation has had on business (e.g. the effect of the Resale Price Maintenance Act) but none on consumers. There may soon be changes taking place in the EEC in the field of consumer legislation. Now is the time to develop comprehensive testing programmes to measure their impact.

The impact of consumer representative bodies The main purpose of consumer representative bodies is to make industry/ management more accountable to the consumer. Almost nowhere does the empirical research address this issue.

Asking how many people have heard of the National Gas Consumer Council,

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how many complaints are made to it, or how demographically representative the Council is may have little, if anything, to do with how effective the consumer representatives are. Who is an effective representative? Metsch & Veney (1977) are critical of the selection process that confers ‘advantage to those who shout the loudest even if they are not the most representative’. Perhaps those who shout the loudest are more effective. After all, NCC called for consumer representatives to be more aggressive in pressing the consumer interest. What is needed are measures documenting the comparative effectiveness of different patterns and types of representative councilsdocumenting the outcomes of council recom- mendations over a period of time; documenting council input in changes in service quality; documenting consumer change in the sense of confidence about controlling their own services; documenting changes in industry sensitivity to consumer perspectives. An accumulation of measures of this sort may tell us something about consumer representatives’ impact on industry accountability.

Research can and must devise impact criteria to begin to measure the effective- ness of the variety of consumer representative bodies that exist here and in Europe. Most countries have an NCC-type of government consumer advisory board, for example, whose mandate is to represent the consumer. The question of whether or not they are fulfilling their mandate is not unresearchable. If criteria can be shown to be established for a range of consumer representative bodies, either cross-culturally or here in the U.K., that will be a significant contribution to the research in consumer problems.

The impact of consumer information and education

‘Presumably, consumer information programmes are intended to benefit con- sumers. Yet we really have known precious little about the impact of such programmes, be it on consumers, manufacturers, or the trade.’

Little has happened in the 4 years since Thorelli & Thorelli made that state- ment to change it. Committed consumerists are convinced of the value of information and education programmes. They feel certain the benefits are real but impossible to pin down. A BEUC study of consumer education, for example, totally omitted the evaluation of impact on students because ‘mere imparting of facts (is) of comparatively minor importance’. That won’t wash. Someone must make the long-term commitment to evaluate a demonstration consumer educa- tion programme. Are educated consumers (i.e. those who have had a consumer education programme) more willing to express their wants and needs to business in the form of unsolicited letters? Do educated consumers seek out more informa- tion before buying? Do educated consumers buy more from retailers who offer larger amounts of information about their products? Questions like these cannot be avoided indefinitely. The answers will be relevant for existing consumer agencies as well as for the future of consumer education.

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Conclusions

This review of basic issues in-consumerism was intended to serve as a reference paper for the development of an ERICA research programme. Its examination of consumer literature has covered eight topic areas.

Representation. There have been several British studies of the functioning of consumer representative bodies in the public sector. They have pointed to difficulties in the selection, training, role and power of consumer representatives.

Information and education. It is now generally recognized, through survey research, that few people are aware of the various sources of consumer informa- tion that are available. Users of consumer information are the cosmopolitan middle class, and little is known about what sorts of consumer information would interest the large unreached majority. There are growing numbers of researchers who think that information offered without prior basic orientation in consumer education is a waste of resources.

Real needs. An ecological/ideological concept that production should be geared to fundamental, objective needs is opposed by those who feel needs can only be defined by the individual, whether these individual needs are psychologi- cal, learned or functional. There is general concern among most consumerists however that needs are manipulated by advertising, especially misleading adver- tising, but this has been impossible to document with certainty so far.

Consumer satisfaction. The level of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with products and services is unknown. Researchers are working on the develop- ment of scales of satisfaction to begin measuring the degree of the problem with some reliability.

Costs and benefits. These have not been quantified and the consensus is that they probably can never be quantified.

Looking at business. Mostly it has been the other way around, with business looking at consumers. The difficulty is getting access to the inner workings of business. The few studies that have managed this have yielded interesting data.

The disaduantaged consumer. Most consumerist research appears to take for granted that what is good for the majority of consumers is also good for the poor, the disabled, the elderly.

The consumer and labour. This area has received no research attention.

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The existing research in the field of consumerism is sparse (as far as European work is concerned), difficult to find, impressionistic, over-reliant on self-reports and lacking in impact data. Directions for future work, then, clearly lie in producing more plentiful, accessible, behavioural research. Above all, future work should address the question of impact (what works) and to do so must begin to tackle the difficult problem of devising and applying criteria of effective- ness in all consumer areas.

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