Understanding Adoption and Consumption Experience of Stigmatized Well being Products

Abstract

The Research extends the current understanding of stigma in consumer research by highlighting how stigma experiences are not formed only by social controls but also by internalized restraints in consumers. These findings imply that to bring a shift in the internalized narratives of the stigmatized, an alternative narrative about the stigmatized phenomenon needs to be introduced, e.g., menstruation as an essential biological process instead of menstrual etiquette. The Thesis used Across the two essays: make two policy implications. First, policymakers can shift their focus from the stigmatizers to the stigmatized and attempt to introduce an alternative narrative that consumers could use to understand the stigmatized phenomenon. This narrative can be presented gradually through the ingroup members (mothers, teachers, sisters, friends) instead of outgroup agents (doctors, volunteers). Second, the alternative narrative, i.e. introduced to consumers, does not necessarily need to be a stigma-disrupting one. Suppose brands and policymakers use an informational record about the stigmatizing phenomenon. In that case, the current focus of consumers on self-stigmatizing consumption etiquettes can be changed without challenging their beliefs radically and avoiding a reluctance to change.Posit that consumer actions in stigmatized product categories are driven by their motivation to avoid stigma by association. They attempt to distance themselves from a brand that positions their product as a stigmatizing entity and hence, display lower purchase intention and attitude towards the ad. Further, by comparing the stigma-leveraging and stigma-disrupting messages with stigma-neutral (informational).This research makes a significant theoretical contribution by establishing that, in stigmatized product categories, consumer actions are driven by their motivation to avoid stigma by association and not by a motive to conceal their discreditable attribute. newline