Analysis of perception of consumer's rights by the Y generation

Abstract

Protection of consumer rights is an inseparable part of any government policy. Consumer's rights and their perception by individual subjects are the factor which can influence company business strategy in a substantial way. Sometimes it is possible to get an impression that protection of consumer rights is felt more like a brake than an engine of mutual relations between the entrepreneurs and consumers. Consumers are better informed about products, their quality and characteristics and also about problems of products on the market. It is getting harder to hide from the consumer everything which was not a problem 10 or 15 years ago. At the same time permanent pressure on a product price, while keeping their quality and services, makes producers take costly measures which cause, together with continuously growing cost of fuel, that many producers left their existing manufacturing centres and moved towards East. If this was the right measure only future will show. Consumer rights and their perception by consumers, being an important component influencing purchase and sales behaviour of particular participants of market relations, are a fact which can be scarcely discussed about. The level of perception in case of consumer rights is, of course, changing with experience, age and education as well as purchasing preferences of consumers. The aim of this contribution is to present results of a survey focused on analysis of consumer rights perception in a chosen group of respondents. The target group became so called Generation Y, which is a group of respondents about 18 to 26 years old, with necessary intellectual background, expected high level of information technology awareness and ability to learn quickly and react to new inputs. It is possible to find a different kind of surveys about consumer's area but they are usually regarding perception of brands, products, satisfaction with environment etc. Orientation on perception of consumer rights has not been applied yet. Marketing experts, bank institutions, PR managers and employment agencies are all interested in the subject target group called "GY". It is regarded as a progressively developing and actively reacting group of potential customers and their favour is worth fighting for.