Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13307

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Ringold DJ.
Vulnerability in the Marketplace: Concepts, Caveats, and Possible Solutions
Journal of Macromarketing 2005 Dec; 25:(2):202-214
http://jmk.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/2/202

Abstract:

Vulnerable consumers fail to understand their preferences and/or lack the knowledge, skills, or freedom to act on them. To protect them, some want to censor information, restrict choices, and mandate behaviors. One-fifth of the American public is functionally illiterate, K-12 performance is declining, and yet a substantial majority of American consumers (adolescents included) appear to be marketplace literate. Rather than curtail consumer prerogatives to protect a vulnerable minority, education reform focused on the values, knowledge, and skills necessary to create and navigate responsive markets is proposed. Reformed adult and K-12 education can refine, expand, and accelerate learners’ informal and experiential understanding of marketplace fundamentals. The aim is to significantly replace trial and error with a robust understanding of markets, markets habitually governed by social virtues. Evidence suggests that these aims can be better achieved via K-12 choice and should be the focus of adult basic education reform.

dringold@willamette.edu

Keywords:
consumer vulnerability • education reform • school choice • adult basic education • public policy and marketing