ABSTRACT
Within new consumer behaviour research the emphasis on how consumption relates to the rest of human existence has created more legitimacy for macroand non-managerial marketing topics (Belk, 1995). However, interest in societal consequences of marketing does not appear to extend the same degree of legitimacy to all consumer populations. Disadvantaged consumer groups often remain excluded or at least underrepresented in this research stream. As Henderson (1998, p. 157) notes, people in the non-dominant social system are traditionally ‘underresearched and underserved’. From a critical marketing perspective, lack of interest in disadvantaged consumers is wrong. Critics suggest that the imbalance of marketing exchanges create inequities and unethical practices in the relationship between marketers and disadvantaged consumers (Alwitt and Donley, 1996). Criticism is also aimed at marketing’s obsession with targeting the most wealthy and profitable consumers as a cause of social inequality (Curtis, 2000).
