Consumer Activism Influences Ethical Corporate Decision-making

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“Corporations will keep doing things the way they’ve always been done, unless they face ongoing public scrutiny, or a real threat to their reputation and self-respect." -- Evelyn Murphy

Consumer activism is the single most important way to influence corporate decision-making. The market for ethical consumerism has been growing at 14% per annum, with the latest Ethical Purchasing Index, produced by Cooperative Bank, valuing the market at $34 billion. (from the Ethical Corporation) Consumers are becoming more interested in the corporate ethics than ever before.

What You Can Do To Make a Difference: Consumer Activism

There are simple things you can do to ensure that your dollars influence better corporate decision-making. The top nine are:

1. Consumer activism means getting in the habit of making informed buying decisions – instead of an unconscious decision, make your buying pro-active. Start with a few major items, or items you buy frequently and do the research them. How? Right here on this website.
2. Start being more conscious of the locally-owned and operated businesses you come across everyday. (The corporate listings we provide are only on large, publicly-traded companies.) Consumer activism can be as simple as buying from local businesses that perform to the standards that have meaning to you – whatever that may be.
3. Help identify good companies. Good companies deserve rewards! Tell them “Thanks, I noticed.” Share with us your good news story about how your consumer activism made a difference.
4. Send us your suggestions suggestions on companies that deserve to be rated and companies that we need to alert the public about that aren’t performing. Share with us your bad news "consumer activism" story!
5. Tell the corporations what you think – in writing by letter, by email, by fax or by phone call. For instance, tell them you are not shopping there any more and WHY! This is the most basic yet most effective form of consumer activism. The more you communicate with companies what you think, the more likely and more quickly change will happen. Contact information is on the packaging, so start there. Look the company up on Google or other search engine and go to their website.
6. Tell others about why consumer activism is important to bring about corporate responsibility. Bring issues like this up with your friends; direct them to this website; encourage them to begin ‘buying influence’ with their hard-earned dollars, too!
7. Become more knowledgeable about the issue that interests you most; it will make you a better communicator as you talk to others about consumer activism and advocacy. Seek out and spend a little time each week reading about your issue. No doubt you’ll be surprised at how much is out there.
8. Realize that public policy and corporate responsibility are sometimes intertwined, so pay attention to what is happening locally and nationally as issues are debated. View them through the lens of corporate responsibility and consumer activism.
9. Support our efforts by reading more about Buying Influence and my making a donation.

Buying Influence is not the only organization interested in consumer activism and corporate responsibility. Political science professors and students at Whittier have formed The Consumer Activism Project which is dedicated to research and education about consumer activism in the United States. To these ends, T-CAP "conducts on-going research to inform contemporary public policy and political debates."

According to The Consumer Activism Project, consumer activism is "citizen action aimed at influencing corporate decisions, corporate power, or the allocation of societal goods and values." Consumer activism can take the form of boycotts, green investing, or other actions as outlines in the nine ideas above. An interesting viewpoint about consumer activism is from their website:

Consumer activism has been around since before the nation’s founding as evidenced by the Boston Tea Party, but in the last two decades, rates of consumer activism have skyrocketed, jumping about 15 percent since 1980. The rise of consumer culture in the United States during the latter half of the past century shifted relationships between people and institutions in ways that both positively and negatively affect civic life and democracy. The citizen-consumer has replaced the citizen-producer as the dominant mode in the United States. Instead of asking “what can I do for my country?” we ask “what can my country and everyone else do for me?” The values of the citizen-consumer have lent to the erosion of conventional political participation and weakened democracy in that citizens are less involved in their own governance and public accountability through formal political channels. On the positive side, consumer citizenship has opened new venues for civic participation, namely, consumer activism. Furthermore, citizen-consumers are savvy enough to know that corporations have become influential political players, and confident in approaching these powerful institutions directly to press political agendas.