Follow Us
From his numerous gizmos, Aston Martins and sexual exploits with some of the sexiest ladies on this planet, to his public school British accent, James Bond is as sexy as it gets. However, in recent times, his latest adventure, 'Casino Royale' has been the recepient of some serious flack. It's not for any sort of environmental endangerment the shooting of the film has caused, and no, they haven't done anything to piss PETA off. Rather, in an interesting turn of events, the film is threathned with a case of serious consumer boycott. We're talking about the millions of James Bond fans who, as it turns out, are devasted by the choice of Daniel Craig for Bond and have sworn to stay at a long arm's length from Bond's 21st caper.
A consumer, as any two-year-old will tell you, is a user of goods and services. What human beings, as a race, are becoming increasingly aware of is the fact that any person paying for the goods and services that he uses is entitled to expect that the goods and services are of a nature and quality promised to him by the seller.
The earlier principle of 'Caveat Emptor' or 'let the buyer beware' which was prevalent in what can only be described as the 'olden days' has been unceremoniously tossed aside to make way for the principle of "Consumer is King". The origins of this principle lie in the fact that in today's world of mass production and large foreign multinational companies situated at the other end of the globe, where there is little contact between the producer and consumer, often sellers make exaggerated claims which are never intended to be fulfilled in the first place. This leaves the consumer in a difficult position with very few avenues for compensation. Intense and bizarre proportions of competition have also made producers and marketers only too aware of the benefits of customer satisfaction. That "Consumer is King" is an indisputable fact, and anyone who tells you otherwise is in fact a cockroach in disguise of a human being.
The fact is, people create brands. The word 'boycott' is every marketer's very worst nightmare, and yet, some of the biggest multinational companies in history have acted on decisions so profoundly insane, that they have led virtually to the death of their brands. In 1995 Shell was boycotted worldwide and kicked out of Africa. The Nigerian government hanged 9 environmental activists for speaking out against exploitation by Shell. The tribunal which convicted the men was part of a joint effort by the government and Shell, to suppress a growing movement for environmental justice, recognition of their human rights and economic justice among the Ogoni people: a movement. Big Mistake. And suffer for it they did.
According to schnews.org.uk, Nestle is the 'focus of the longest boycott in consumer history'. The company holds about 50% of the world's breast milk substitute market and is being boycotted for continued breaches of the 1981 WHO Code regulating the marketing of breast milk substitutes. Nestlé encourages bottle feeding primarily by either giving away free samples of baby milk to hospitals, or neglecting to collect payments. It has been criticised for misinforming mothers and health workers in promotional literature. Nestlé implies that malnourished mothers, and mothers of twins and premature babies are unable to breastfeed, despite medical and health organisations claims that there is no evidence to support this. In 1999, Nestle got their wrists slapped and was banned from advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority after claiming they marketed their baby milk "ethically and responsibly ". So they turned to advertising gurus Saatchi and Saatchi who suggested Nestle go on the offensive by using advertising showing the benefits of Nestle financial contributions to charities". Big - still continuing - mistake. But some people just never learn. They're still paying for it and will continue to do so until they wake up and smell the coffee, even if it's Nescafe.
The Swadeshi movement, part of the Indian Independence movement, was a successful economic strategy to remove the British Empire from power and improve economic conditions in India through following principles of swadeshi (self-sufficiency). Strategies of the swadeshi movement involved boycotting British products and the revival of domesticmade products and production techniques.
Swadeshi, as a strategy, was the key focus of Mahatma Gandhi who described it as the soul of Swaraj or self rule.
But perhaps, the best example of consumer boycott yet - serious case study material - was that of the Coca-Cola company. In 1985, Coca-Cola, amid much publicity, changed the formula of the drink. Some authorities believe that New Coke, as the reformulated drink came to be known, was invented specifically to respond to its commercial competitor, Pepsi. Numerous blind taste tests suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi (which is believed to have more lemon oil, less orange oil, and uses vanillin rather than vanilla) to Coke. But the unanticipated furure and boycott of New Coke by its consumers was a very rude shock to the company. They were forced to go back to the original Classic Coke, which basically saved the company from certain death. They acknowleded and understood that the consumer is king, and acted with lightening speed to rectify what was in fact a huge blunder and lack of smart judgement on their part. Over the ages, all things imaginable have been boycotted for either ethical reasons, integrity issues, the failure of making good a promise, or as in the case of Shell and Nestle, human rights violitions - books, artists, restaurants (the most recent example in India being the one owned by Jessica Lal murderer, Manu Sharma), people, food-chains, clothing brands, cars makes, conglomerates, actors. The list just goes on and on and on.