Download Labeled as Disabled (LAD) people

Is it Possible to Improve the Quality
of Life of “Labeled As Disabled
(LAD)” People Through Marketing?
Murad Canbulut, Istanbul Kemerburgaz University
Deniz Atik, Izmir University of Economics
21st Marketing Congress
October, 2016
Quality of Life (QOL)
Economic development has influenced individual and social
lives in a positive manner, which is also reflected in increased
Quality of Life (QOL) (Arndt 1981; Kilbourne et al. 1997; Mullen et al. 2009;
QOL  a multi disciplinary concept, mostly associated with
economic, social, psychological, and physical status (Farquhar
1995; Sirgy et al. 1982; Wegner et al., 1984).
Economic dimension  Focus on vital topics such as poverty,
hunger, and disease.
Socio-psychological aspects  Focus on as happiness, life
satisfaction, and subjective well-being (Sirgy 2002).
Canbulut & Atik
21st Marketing Congress
Sandıkçı et al. 2015; Sirgy et al. 1982; Sirgy et al. 2004).
Disability and QOL
Physical status (body / deficiencies)
Exclusion from the work environment
Poverty
Lower life satisfaction, happiness, and well-being
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21st Marketing Congress
Social exclusion
Historical Background of Disability
EXCLUSION
Medical institutions Marginalized in Asylums
Industrialization  Inefficient for the production system
Market system  Cannot meet advertised beauty images
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21st Marketing Congress
Religious institutions  In earlier times – Evil to be punished
Labeled as Disabled (LAD)
NORMS AND DISABILITY
Physical attractiveness, the look, is emphasized in
contemporary society (marketable look?)
Therefore, labeling process begins,
Not Normal  Disabled
We prefer using the term:
Labeled as Disabled (LAD) people
Canbulut & Atik
21st Marketing Congress
Normal  Able bodied
Literature
Leading fields in disability research  Medicine, health, and
public policy.
Medical Model – emphasizing impairment
Social Model – emphasizing social barriers
Very limited research on disability in marketing field.
Focusing on disability and LAD people Marketers, public
policy makers, and marketing scholars may benefit (Baker et al.
2007; Vezina et al. 1995).
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21st Marketing Congress
(e.g. Oliver 1990; Sheakespeare and Watson 2001)
Theoretical Contributions
We also hope to make contributions on the future of the
body.
The study  Emerging market context, Turkey.
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21st Marketing Congress
Considering the lack of research on disability in marketing
We hope to develop an alternative model of disability, which
may shed light in improving the QOL of LAD individuals
through marketing elements.
Methodology
Need a humanistic approach Most of the researches are
conducted by able-bodied individuals (top-down); however,
we need a deeper and better understanding of LAD
individuals’ experiences from their own perspectives.
Qualitative approach  30 semi-structured in-depth
interviews.
12 females and 18 males  17 of the informants had a
disability (physical or visual impairment), and 13 were ablebodied, between the ages of 17 and 55, with different social
and cultural backgrounds.
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21st Marketing Congress
Disability  Sensitive topic.
Methodology
Researcher Murad  Having a LAD sister is more familiar with
this sensitive topic and able to have a bottom-up approach
Two different cities of an emerging country, Turkey.
Istanbul (the most populous city) and Izmir (the third most
populous city and hometown)
Between March 2014 and September 2015.
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21st Marketing Congress
Two different interview protocols were prepared;
one for LAD individuals  to understand their feelings,
thoughts, and experiences.
the other for able-bodied individuals  to understand their
attitudes towards disability.
• Tell me about a positive shopping experience.
• Tell me about a negative shopping experience.
• Could you please describe an ideal fe/male figure? (Body,
personality, fame, or so on).
• What do you think about media representations, ideal
fe/male figures, or so on? How do you feel when you see
these representations?
• Tell me about your feelings and experiences when you
participate in daily life.
• Tell me about a good experience (inclusion, welcome, positive
reaction).
• Tell me a bad experience (exclusion, negative reaction,
discrimination).
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21st Marketing Congress
Some Questions for LAD Individuals
• Do you have individual disability experience?
• Could you tell me an experience with disabled individual?
• Have you participated in disability projects? What was the
motivation?
• Do you have collaborations with associations, governmental
individuals, or famous people?
• How did the project affect the company’s future plans? (e.g.,
production of special products, more disabled employment, or
so on).
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21st Marketing Congress
Some Questions for Able-bodied
Individuals
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21st Marketing Congress
Findings
Findings
Dark Side
Bright Side
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21st Marketing Congress
The influence of marketing;
Dark Side of Marketing
Setting and imposing the norms
Bodily norms  advertised beauty images
Insufficient products
Not-affordable prices
Not convenient places
Negative media images
Therefore, helping the exclusion process
Considering LAD people as valuable customer segments with
an emphasis on economic dimensions, not humanitarian
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21st Marketing Congress
Barriers  lack of 4P tailored for LAD people
(M, 38-LAD-visual impairment, government official)
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21st Marketing Congress
Disabled consumers’ market has constraints in terms of
distribution channels, advertisement, and promotion. I
mean that we still do not have 4Ps serving disabled
consumers. Moreover, marketers do not have knowledge
about entering into the little known market of disabled
people. They should consider it like entering into a foreign
market because they are foreigner to that market
conditions.
(Male, 48-LAD-visual impairment, former MP)
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21st Marketing Congress
Modernity standardizes people regardless of their age,
income, culture, or so on. The system does not look for
solutions for individual problems, assuming all people love
chocolate, hamburger, or cola; people who eat same food,
drink same beverages, do same activities, and so on. The
modern system does not try to understand differences.
Having differences, we (disabled people) do not create
problems for humanity; the system creates problems for
all people!
Bright Side of Marketing
Specialized 4Ps of marketing.
Academia
More humanistic marketing  Macromarketing, and
Transformative Consumer Research (vulnerable consumers)
and ISMD.
ISMD  Brand New Journal  MGDR!!!
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21st Marketing Congress
Business Life
Social projects  carried out by global corporations (e.g.
Peugeot, Samsung) to increase awareness and acceptance.
(Female, 40-Able-bodied, marketing manager of Peugeot).
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21st Marketing Congress
At the beginning of this project, we did not think about
developing a new product or component for disabled
individuals. After the project had positive results, the
Ministry of Family and Social Policies insisted on us to
produce components for disability friendly cars. Also, with
this project, we developed disability friendly stores. Any
disabled customer can visit one of our distributors without
facing any accessibility or communication problems; and
then choose the most appropriate car. That’s awesome!
The Macromarketing Model of Disability
An Alternative to the Dominant Models of Disability
The Medical Model of
The Social Model of
The Macromarketing Model of
Disability
Disability
Disability
Pathology
Impairment
Individiual
Definitions of disability,
Non-tragedy
Time and Context Dependent
participants
Disability
Societal
(Self) Labels
State/Marketing/Societal
Discourses
Body
Social Barriers
Institutional Barriers
Illness
Discrimination
Tolerance for Difference
Modern
Modern
Postmodern
Imprisonment, no rights
Feelings and experiences of the
Rights (disability
movement)
Inclusion and QOL
Feeling normal and disabled in
society
Main actors establishing the
norms/the actors in disabled
people’s lives
Experiences and coping
strategies
Main actors/ Dominant societal
discourses
Physical appearance, The
impact of marketing
A synthesis of all findings
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21st Marketing Congress
Personal Tragedy and
Related Findings
The Future of Body
Alternative modes of life  Postmodern (Firat and Dholakia, 2003).
Prostheses  New body  New bodily norms
New technologies  New computerized aesthetics (e.g., 3D
organs with different shapes and tattoos.)
Attractive for able-bodied individuals  More efficient,
flexible, faster, and more aesthetical human
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21st Marketing Congress
The advances in prosthetic technology (Siebers 2006).
Future Research
• A woman, a poor person, a person from a different religion or
cultural background may experience difficulties and isolation.
• Taking into consideration all of these, the experience of being
from multiple minority groups and improving the QOL need
further research.
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21st Marketing Congress
• LAD people are among one of the most numerous minorities,
• Individuals with physical impairments  participate in daily
life and make their own decisions on what to wear, eat or do.
• Mentally disabled people  cannot make their own
decisions, fully dependent on their families or take carers.
• How the families decide on the consumption practices of the
mentally disabled individuals?
• Civil war in Syria, millions of people leave their homes and flee
abroad to survive  some groups issued a fatwa to
exterminate LAD children. Being both a refugee and LAD
person may be explored.
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21st Marketing Congress
Future Research
Any questions/comments?
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21st Marketing Congress
Thank you for listening!