Markets and Consumers

The increased choice of competing products brought by global markets and the downward pressure on prices resulting from competition mean that customers will tend to reject products that they do not perceive as being quality products, even though their price may be low. Global markets and competition will probably tend to give them a choice of better quality at the same price. An improved QIS further increases consumer safety and assures that products are safe for consumption.

The emphasis of a quality infrastructure system is on markets and consumers. All component parts of the quality infrastructure system act dynamically on each other. This inter-action is particularly intense between enterprises and customers/consumers. Enterprises offer products and services and receive direct and indirect feedback from consumers in the form of sales and levels of customer satisfaction.

Markets also provide feedback - although not necessarily as swiftly as coming from the point of sale - on quality infrastructure services, quality infrastructure institutions and governance. This feedback allows review, modification and improvement of the different components and of the whole quality infrastructure - which underlines the dynamism and system nature of the quality infrastructure system.