There are several problems which hinder ethical products from entering the mainstream consumer market. How can such problems be resolved?
Public concern over the pollution caused by the solid waste produced in our daily life has gone up in the recent years in Singapore. Tan (2007) reported that healthier food and cosmetic products retail shops have increased rapidly in last six years. However, the respond is not satisfactory. There are many factors hindering the ethical products from entering the mainstream consumer market. The main problems are the expensive cost of ethical products and lack of public awareness over ethical products. These problems can be resolved by the joining effort from the government and the retailers.
According to Mr. Eric Chew (Tan, 2007), “environmentally safe dishwashing liquid here was triple the price he used to pay in Australia”. This is a common problem happening in Singapore. If you have the habit of going to supermarket, you would have noticed that how much an organic apple cost more than an ordinary one. Most of the people wouldn’t even give a second thought for buying that. If the cost of the goods is much higher than the affordable or reasonable price, people are not willing to pay for it. This will eventually loose the potential customers of the ethical products (EPs for short). The solution is quite obvious here, that is to reduce the price of EPs. To achieve this goal, government can play a leading role by reducing the tax or absorbing the GST (good and service charge) of the EPs. The cheaper price will encourage more people to buy EPs and as the demand go up the supply will follow up and eventually the price will become more affordable to a wider range of customers.
Another problem is the lack of awareness of the public. Recently, there are many activities, advertisements and promotions about environmentally friendly life styles in town. Public are aware of the fact that global warning and all sources of pollution are caused by human activities but most of them do not have the knowledge to adopt environmentally friendly life style. All of this information may be easily available to the younger generations but they may not be as easily accessible as for the older generation. As a solution, government and retailers can work together to promote the knowledge on the advantages of using EPs and the impacts of EPs over the environment. Retailers can put up some signs and explanations about the EPs in their stores. As the public awareness increased, there will be more people willing to pay more to save the environment. This will again inspire more people to invest in EPs and there will be more variety of EPs in the market at an affordable price.
To reiterate this, the EPs can be promoted to enter into the mainstream market by the jointly efforts of government and retailers together with the public.
Public concern over the pollution caused by the solid waste produced in our daily life has gone up in the recent years in Singapore. Tan (2007) reported that healthier food and cosmetic products retail shops have increased rapidly in last six years. However, the respond is not satisfactory. There are many factors hindering the ethical products from entering the mainstream consumer market. The main problems are the expensive cost of ethical products and lack of public awareness over ethical products. These problems can be resolved by the joining effort from the government and the retailers.
According to Mr. Eric Chew (Tan, 2007), “environmentally safe dishwashing liquid here was triple the price he used to pay in Australia”. This is a common problem happening in Singapore. If you have the habit of going to supermarket, you would have noticed that how much an organic apple cost more than an ordinary one. Most of the people wouldn’t even give a second thought for buying that. If the cost of the goods is much higher than the affordable or reasonable price, people are not willing to pay for it. This will eventually loose the potential customers of the ethical products (EPs for short). The solution is quite obvious here, that is to reduce the price of EPs. To achieve this goal, government can play a leading role by reducing the tax or absorbing the GST (good and service charge) of the EPs. The cheaper price will encourage more people to buy EPs and as the demand go up the supply will follow up and eventually the price will become more affordable to a wider range of customers.
Another problem is the lack of awareness of the public. Recently, there are many activities, advertisements and promotions about environmentally friendly life styles in town. Public are aware of the fact that global warning and all sources of pollution are caused by human activities but most of them do not have the knowledge to adopt environmentally friendly life style. All of this information may be easily available to the younger generations but they may not be as easily accessible as for the older generation. As a solution, government and retailers can work together to promote the knowledge on the advantages of using EPs and the impacts of EPs over the environment. Retailers can put up some signs and explanations about the EPs in their stores. As the public awareness increased, there will be more people willing to pay more to save the environment. This will again inspire more people to invest in EPs and there will be more variety of EPs in the market at an affordable price.
To reiterate this, the EPs can be promoted to enter into the mainstream market by the jointly efforts of government and retailers together with the public.
References
Tan. D. W. (2007, February 11). Buying a better world. The Straits Time, p. L6. 
1 comment:
Thank you, Sammy, for a much better draft.
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