Consumer Literacy Research Articles

Critical Consumer Education: Empowering the Low-Literate Consumer

Consumer education programs assume that consumers have the right to full product information, and well-informed consumers will be able to get their needs met in the marketplace. Adults with limited literacy abilities, however, enter the marketplace without the literacy resources of other consumers and are potentially more vulnerable. Many adult literacy programs assume adult literacy students lack both literacy and consumer skills. The results from an interpretative study suggest adult literacy learners combine a range of social skills and resources and an ability to manage the shame of the low-literacy stigma to get their needs met in the marketplace. Four consumer literacy profiles are discussed, and an alternative form of consumer education tailored to each profile is proposed. We discuss the role of a more critical consumer educational approach in literacy assistance programs and its impact on adult learners’ feelings of self-esteem, empowerment, and agency.

Shopping [for] Power: How Adult Literacy Learners Negotiate the Marketplace

Little empirical evidence exists on how adult literacy learners act as consumers. Yet, adult literacy programs often employ a “functional” approach to consumer education and assume that adult learners are deficient in consumer skills. Data from a qualitative study of the consumer behaviors of adult literacy learners are used to explore how adult learners negotiate the marketplace. The findings challenge the validity of a functional model and support the conceptualization of consumer literacy as a social practice, which includes reading and writing skills, personal and social skills, and the ability to manage the stigma of low literacy.

The Low Literate Consumer

Almost half of all consumers read below a sixth-grade level, yet we know little about how these consumers get their needs met in the marketplace. The goal of this qualitative study was to examine the intersection of literacy skills and consumption activities and identify the coping strategies that low literate consumers employ. Those informants who could challenge the stigma of low literacy and employ a range of coping skills were better able to get their needs met. Thus, consumer literacy is conceptualized as a social practice that includes reading and writing skills but also involves the ability to manage one's identity and leverage personal, situational, and social coping skills.

Decision Making by Low‐Literacy Consumers in the Presence of Point‐of‐Purchase Information

Low‐literacy consumers face disadvantages when making product choices. This article presents the results of two studies designed to explore differences in decision‐making behavior across consumer literacy levels, focusing on consumers’ ability to evaluate information in print ads and product packaging. The authors demonstrate that the presence of a visual decision aid at the point of purchase can improve choice for low‐literacy consumers.

Consumer health information e‐mails: content, metrics and issues

Many consumer general health information Web sites now provide interactive services such as “e‐mail the doctor” and online discussion boards. There has been little research into how consumers are using these services, especially general health discussion boards. In this exploratory study, features of health e‐mails such as enquiry subjects were investigated using content analysis. The material studied was 100 unsolicited e‐mails and 100 discussion messages sent between 2000 and 2003 by users of the UK‐based Web site MedicDirect. Issues emerging from the analysis included the high proportion of unsuitable e‐mails (up to 62 per cent) and the failure of nearly one‐third of users to find the information they sought on the Web site. Over one‐third of e‐mail senders misspelled key search terms. Readability tools could not be applied to e‐mails to assess consumer literacy, despite a suspected mismatch between Web page readability and consumer comprehension. There is ample scope for further research on these topics.

How Effective Are Private Schools in Latin America?

Using multilevel modelling and data from 10 Latin American countries, this paper provides new evidence on the relative effectiveness of public and private schools. There are substantial differences in the achievement of private and public schools, usually around one-half a standard deviation. A small portion of these differences is accounted for by the higher socioeconomic status of students in private schools. A quite substantial portion is explained by the varying peer group characteristics in private and public schools. After accounting for peer characteristics, the average private school effect across all 10 countries is zero, though with some variance around this mean (the effects range between -0.2 and 0.2 standard deviations). Evidence on selection bias is inconclusive, but the paper argues that these effects may constitute an upper bound to the true effects.

How Effective Are Private Schools in Latin America?

How Effective Are Private Schools in Latin America?

When Customers (or Clients) Are Marketplace Illiterate

Illiteracy is a national problem that affects businesses and the marketplace in many different ways. Most of the attention has been on the producer (or seller) level with fwus on the literacy of the job applicant and employees. This paper examines the prob- lem of customer (buyer) illiteracy. The results of a study of 118 veterinary practice managers reveal that consumer (client) literacy deficiencies are problems in the marketplace.

The import of illiteracy to marketing communication

Research identifies nearly 73 million adult Americans as illiterate. Analysis of social, economic and demographic trends indicates that the situation will worsen before it improves. Marketing communications copy prepared at an eighth grade reading level or above may not be comprehended by as much as one‐third of the population, resulting in a severe loss of potential sales and excessive advertising expense. Marketing research to date focusses on the impact of message, source, and channel variables on consumer behavior. However, the current “illiteracy crisis” argues that we reform our thinking ti consider how consumer literacy should influence our message, source, and channel determinations. Key tasks for marketers include evaluating the clarity, readability and specificity of promotional materials; pretesting the marketing communication on a sample of the target audience; and carefully assessing all options available for source and channel selection.

Finding the reader: Early consumer activism and the project of consumer literacy

Finding the reader: Early consumer activism and the project of consumer literacy