Filipinos as Consumers Essay

Philippines is considered as one of the countries with the lowest economic status, thus most Filipinos earned low or insufficient income to sustain their needs or wants. The insufficiency of their income made them to become wiser when purchasing the products. Some preferred to choose products with affordable prices while others stick to their loyalty to a specific brand. Practically, the Filipinos also prioritize their basic necessities than purchasing other unimportant products and they also look for more affordable alternatives. For example, if the price of rice increased and a certain Filipino citizen cannot afford to purchase it, he will switch to the best alternative which was corn. Sales and discounts have huge roles on how the Filipino consumers purchase. Based on my observations, Filipinos were attracted to â€Å"big discounts and sales† because they believe that they could spend less. There are some that they marked the date of their most awaited sale of their favourite products on malls or stores. Some grabbed the opportunity to purchase the products in their lowest prices though they do not badly need the said products. In my personal experience, I am easily attracted to the products with yellow price tag which signifies discounted prices. But I realized that during regular days, the price were the same on the yellow price tags. This simply shows how influential yellow price tags are and how Filipinos were attracted to discounts and sales. Brand names were one of the concerns also of the Filipinos. Though the prices increase on the products of a specific brand, loyal customers will prefer to purchase it. They were not only purchasing the product alone but also their experience from that product or brand. Nowadays, many stores in our country offer and sell products that were imitated from the original brands. These imitations were very affordable but their durability were not trustworthy. The product might be easily broken and the money that you have spent will be wasted. When a consumer bought a fake Nokia cellular phone, a tendency that it will not function very well and it might contain hazardous parts. I prefer to purchase products from a well-known and trusted store because of the assured durability of the product and they offer customer service. Products with good and large packaging invite more consumers to purchase. As a consumer, good packaging has a great impact on me because those products will be noticed easily. Large packaging may give a thought to the consumers that it has greater amount and lesser in price compared to the other products. Smaller packaged products and sachets were patronized also by the Filipinos. To most Filipinos, the small amount of money they spent on shopping, the better. I can relate this situation on my personal experience. My mother always buys shamp oos in sachet because according to her that it would be more practical to buy in sachets. Instead of buying a shampoo in a 90 mL container, the price was lesser and it has wide availability on sari-sari stores. Amount of money was an important factor when the Filipinos shop. It was very common to the Filipinos that we plan ahead or make a list of the possible items to be purchased. They also made some estimation of the possible prices of the listed items. This was one of the ways on how the Filipinos budget their own money. Nowadays, most consumers preferred the local brands because of its cheaper prices. Such as Happee toothpaste, C2 tea, Human Nature products, Champion Laundry detergent, MyPhone cellular phone and many more. According to current reports from ACNielson, the number one concern of the Filipino consumers was for â€Å"health, wellness, and youthfulness†. Filipinos are worried to acquire diseases because of the expensive medicines or treatments that they would spend. Filipinos cared on how they appear physically and give importance on time, the reason for the increase on the consumption of cosmetics, health and convenience products. When it comes to food products, some Filipino consumers checked the â€Å"nutrition facts† that were placed at the packaging of a certain product. Those Filipino consumers were usually the mothers who were very much concern and secure the health of its own family. When it comes to junk foods, I chose the chips with the â€Å"Sangkap Pinoy Seal† because of the assurance that it contains vitamins and nutrients. Children usually hate the â€Å"healthy foods† and would like to eat more sweets and chips. Their mothers were having a hard time on how to feed healthy and nutritious food to them. But the markets today offered products that the children will surely like its tastes and at the sam e time gives them the right nutrition. Advertisements were very influential to the Filipino consumers. Televisions, mobile phones, newspapers, and radios were the mediums used for advertisements. I have noticed in some advertisements that they used one of the powerful or effective people in the country to attract more consumers. Famous actors and actresses, successful people and politicians were usually the common endorsers of their products. With the help of the product endorsers, a great possibility that the sales of the product will increase and will be well-known in the industry. Consumers from different regions may vary because of the influence of their culture and tradition. There are some that prefer to spend less and save more. Others were known to be â€Å"great spender† because their region was composed of wealthy people. Poor Filipinos prefer to stick on whatever available food or thing that they can afford with their small amount of money. Though majority of the status of the Filipinos have not improved, but recent studies showed that Filipino consumers exhibit wiser purchasing habits. This simply implies that most Filipinos today are becoming wiser consumers.