An enlargement of the notion of consumer vulnerability

Consumer vulnerability has long been an important issue in public policy and macromarketing. The focus of a special issue of the Journal of Macromarketing (vol. 26, issue 1) underscores this importance. The articles in that special issue lend both conceptual and methodological clarity to the subject of consumer vulnerability, thus bringing to the fore the hitherto overlooked importance of this construct. The purpose of this article is to extend this renewed interest by introducing an integrative view of consumer vulnerability that is a sum of two components: a transient, state-based component dominant in some of the articles in the special issue, and a systemic, class-based component. The proposition is that such an integrative view provides a proactive tool for macromarketers and policy makers in their efforts to safeguard and to empower vulnerable consumers.