Marketing and the Poor

Abstract

It is proposed that marketing exchanges are unbalanced in favor of marketers when one of the parties is a poor consumer, but in addition, marketers are presented with ethical conflicts in such exchanges. An exchange model that includes poor consumers is described. By strengthening ethical foundations of exchange, five implications for making the balance more equitable are discussed. One implication leads to the idea that small buying groups can increase the exchange power of poor consumers, thereby increasing the real and perceived equity as well as the level of commitment of all parties to a marketing exchange.