Negative Consumer Behavior What is negative consumer behavior and what are the characteristics of a bad customer? How can managers address this issue to ensure success?

Negative Consumer Behavior

To fully understand what negative consumer behavior is and what makes a bad customer, we first have to understand what "consumer behavior" is. In their book, "Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Strategies," Berkman and Gilson (1981) say that the American Cultural System, which is made of values and artifacts, strongly influences consumer activity in the United States. "In the twentieth century, American Culture reflected a distinct consumption ethic based upon affluence and gratification of desires through material acquisition" (Berkman and Gilson, 1981). Consumer Behavior is defined as "the activities of people engaged in actual or potential use of market items-whether products, services, retail environments, or ideas" (Berkman and Gilson, 1981).

Thus, there are unlimited types of behaviors that the consumers can exhibit making it difficult to distinguish between good and bad consumer behavior. Sometimes, a consumer behavior that maybe considered negative in one market place can be considered positive in another.

Shoplifting for example. "Some 800,000 times a day, this tableau of temptation, fear and exhilaration plays out in the humdrum aisles of department stores and supermarkets" (Adler, 2002). Shoplifting without a doubt is a type of negative consumer behavior since this behavior costs department stores and supermarket thousands of dollars every day. Yet in the February 25, 2002 "Newsweek" article written by Jerry Adler, Brandy Samson, the manager of a jewelry and accessories store in the Sherman Oaks California Fashion Square, sees shoplifting in a positive way by using it to understand what it is that the consumers want. She continued to say "We know what's hot among teens by seeing what they steal" (Adler, 2002).

Though shoplifting has negative effects for one type of market it is a positive consumer behavior in another like the security and protection market. The rise in shoplifting incidents will lead...