The Low-Income Consumer

Adjusting the Balance of Exchange

Product, price, promotion and place: these are the four key areas in which marketing influences consumers. This innovative book takes the stance that poor consumers are distinctly disadvantaged in each of these areas. Documenting the imbalance of the exchange process by describing the business practice of those who market to poor consumers, issues related to basic necessities such as food, housing and transportation are addressed, as well as the consumption of `sin' products by poor consumers.

The problems faced by those who target low-income consumers are also examined, including the conflict between sound marketing practices and marginally ethical or unethical applications of those practices. The final section of the book presents a revised model of marketing exchange with poor consumers and offers specific directions for a way in which the balance of exchange between marketers and low-income consumers can be adjusted.