Vulnerable consumers: marketing research needs to pay more attention to the brain health of consumers.

Abstract

We propose here that marketing research should increase consideration of the brain health of consumers, and argue that it would help both extend our current knowledge of vulnerable and other marginalised groups, as well as extend generalizability and external validity of marketing research in general. We show that such a focus would help enrich methodology, especially around causal inference, as well as impact on our understanding of a number of key emerging themes in marketing research. We particularly focus on the consumer behaviour around digitalisation, as well as compulsive buying behaviour. Further, we show that increasing consideration of consumer brain health will further efforts towards inclusivity of marketing, and help continue progress towards marketing research as a force for good.