"Informed Spending" is the New Twist on Consumer Activism

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Our "Informed Spending" Agenda

Buying Influence, Inc. is a non-profit organization seeking to influence publicly-traded corporations so that they make more socially responsible business decisions. Buying Influence seeks to do this through consumer informed spending: providing information to consumers about corporations on a variety of issues, concerns, or causes: women, minority, gay/lesbian, and green. In this way, consumers can make their own choices for socially-conscious spending habits. Developing this habit is called 'informed spending,' which simply is the act of supporting a specific area of interest by spending your consumer dollars with corporations that are friendly to your cause.

The vehicle of influence is YOU – the buying public, spending money in an informed way. Because with every dollar you spend on goods and services, you are indirectly supporting somebody's corporate culture.

Our Strategy

Here’s an example: Mary wants to buy new sheets and curtains for her guest room. Company A and Company B both carry these items. Mary, practicing informed spending, decides to purchase from Company A because they have a good track record of having women on their corporate board of directors and in their highest management positions. This issue is important to Mary, and she would rather spend her money with a company that reflects her values than with a company that does not. Hence, 'informed' spending.

You may be wondering, How in the world does an individual spend all that time to research all those companies, for so many products, and make any sense of it all?” The answer is: YOU don’t have to because WE do it for you! Influence has researchers who do the footwork, gather the data on the corporation, put it into a database, and deliver it to you. But, there’s one more thing we also provide so that your informed spending is easier: We evaluate the data according to our stated criteria on an issue (in this example, women), and assign the corporation a letter grade to indicate how well they scored on that issue. This gives you, the consumer, a simple way to quickly make a judgment call about whether to buy from a particular company. It’s up to you to decide what is most important to you.

The Bottom Line on Informed Spending

The net effect on corporations is to realize that business decisions they make which are socially irresponsible are also socially unacceptable to the buying public. Informed spending by consumers can result in corporations responding to consumer demands. Ultimately, the corporation begins to respond to consumer pressure being applied with their purchasing decisions. And that is informed spending in action!

We at Buying Influence are convinced that most people want to do the right thing, and giving them pertinent information about how informed spending can benefit what is important to them will increase their ability to make informed choices.

Facts Related to Informed Spending

• Informed spending is a short-hand way of saying this:
• With every dollar you choose to spend as a consumer, you have influence with that provider company. Think of each dollar you spend as a kind of vote; informed spending is voting with your dollars to support a company. It all adds up.
• Remember: Spending can support causes = Informed Spending
• Buying Influence is beginning the process of grading Fortune 1000 companies in important socially-responsible areas so that you can make informed choices as you practice cause spending as a consumer. Click here to go to the homepage.
• "Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism," Patricia Aburdene. Hampton Roads Publishing Company, publ 2005. The subtitle of this book is "Seven trends that will transform how you work, live, and invest." This book describes why conscious consumerism (we call it informed spending) is on the rise, and where it will go. We especially like the conclusion which discusses transforming capitalism, which includes informed spending concepts.

Get in the habit of making informed spending 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.