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onsdag den 2. januar 2013

Does Social Media affect the private consumers purchase behavior?



Happy Social Media New Year.During 2012 we have seen a growing regulation of behavior which on one hand is a part of the many to many communication among consumers which Social Media is a strong influencer. On the other hand Social Media is also in use from governments (particular from the western world) who want to affect the public opinion on various subjects. We have seen that the environmental subject, are a hot topic, animal welfare is another and corporate taxation is the last one in Denmark where Social Media plays a role.

The sustainability of the corporation depends on the choice and behavior of the consumers.
The consumers can affect the corporations through their social network and social media and general information to be able to affect the behavior of the corporations. The environmental issue is one area where corporations start to communicate the message that their production is environmental sustainable. This information is often written on their homepages and if they are active bloggers they will send the message to their costumers. Corporations know from surveys that consumer purchase behavior is very much affected from how sustainable the corporation is in animal welfare and how they interact in third world countries concerning production and how they treat their employees. The use situation is structuring purchase, form the assessment framework for the choice of shopping location. This is where social media and Social Network will start forming attitudes and creates behavior of the individual consumer that will influence how the corporation should act if they want to keep costumers purchasing their goods and services.

How does social affect the general consumer that a corporation does not pay any corporate tax in the country they are situated in?
The Danish socialist government has chosen to publicize in an easy to read manner who and how much big corporations pay tax in Denmark. This act has one specific purpose; to create a public demand among the Danish citizens that if the citizens should purchase, anything from one of the listed corporations they should have a good explanation for not paying tax in Denmark. The fact is that Danish citizens are one of the most heavily taxed people on the planet earth – so if people has to pay high personal taxes the corporations has to pay their part as well. The Socialist government has now made it up to the individual citizen to demand tax payment from the corporation – the citizen could start boycotting products and services from the corporations who have chosen to send their turnover home to their mother countries.  The next step from the Danish government could be to demand that each time the public sector should make a purchase it is a demand that the corporate company must be able to show that it has paid Corporate Tax in Denmark during the last 5 years. This is how you as a government through the public opinion and with the use of social media create a demand for corporate sustainable taxations.
There are no doubt that social media used as described above has a behavioral regulation effect on how corporations in the future will communicate everything from their accounts and in general how they want to appear to their customers in ethical issues. This could have a huge impact on their turnover and their position in the country they are operating in. The corporate companies will on the other hand have to use Social media as an important communication channel towards their costumers to secure that they are satisfied with the corporate company's transactions. The power has definitely changed from the corporations to the consumer.