The Low Literate Consumer

Abstract

Almost half of all consumers read below a sixth-grade level, yet we know little about how these consumers get their needs met in the marketplace. The goal of this qualitative study was to examine the intersection of literacy skills and consumption activities and identify the coping strategies that low literate consumers employ. Those informants who could challenge the stigma of low literacy and employ a range of coping skills were better able to get their needs met. Thus, consumer literacy is conceptualized as a social practice that includes reading and writing skills but also involves the ability to manage one's identity and leverage personal, situational, and social coping skills. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The Stigma Turbine: A Theoretical Framework for Conceptualizing and Contextualizing Marketplace Stigma

“…Prior work has not fully examined how forceful change, along with increased mobility and interconnectivity at the individual, societal, and marketplace levels, influences stigma. Only a few marketing studies have touched on the dynamic nature of stigma (Adkins and Ozanne 2005;Saatçioglu and Ozanne 2013). Reflecting Bidirectional Tensions The ST rotates in both directions to fuel or quell stigmatization processes.…”

Children as vulnerable consumers: a first conceptualisation

“…Researched examples include the way that resources such as health care, education and retail facilities are distributed across society (Adkins & Ozanne, 2005;Alwitt, 1996;Piacentini, Hibbert and Al-Dajani, 2001). …”

The Branded and Gendered Brazilian Body: Material and Symbolic Constructions in an Overlooked Context

“…CCT scholars have investigated stigma as an attribute that conveys a devalued social identity to an individual across most social contexts, resulting in feelings of powerlessness (Henry and Caldwell 2006) and higher risk in market interactions (Adkins andOzanne 2005, Crockett, Grier andWilliams 2003). Stigmatized individuals exhibit multiple and diverse responses that include resignation, escapism, concealment, and withdrawal, but also confrontation, creative production, and mainstream engagement (Henry and Caldwell 2006).…”

“…From this gamut of identified responses to stigma, research has given more attention to passive stigma management, that is, identity transformation. Moreover, this work has focused on psychological and behavioral aspects of stigma management (Adkins andOzanne 2005, Goffman 1988) to the detriment of body transformation. However, we note, the social world of an individual operates to enforce and strengthen a system of meanings and practices associated with the body.…”