Awarding Responsible Research
Vanessa Patrick Advances Marketplace Inclusion Through Research
Bauer College Associate Dean of Research Vanessa Patrick is leading the conversation for marketing scholars and practitioners on how brands can make products accessible for everyone.
Her paper “Creating Equity by Design: A Conceptual Framework for Marketplace Inclusion” is a finalist in the seventh annual Responsible Research in Marketing Award for its examination of how brands meet the needs of consumers with disabilities.
Awarded by the American Marketing Association (AMA), EBSCO Information Services and the Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM), this recognition helps to highlight the value of this research, Patrick said.
“This is an important issue because all consumers should feel included in the marketplace. The onus should not be on the disabled individual to fit in. It is on the marketplace to bridge the gap between what is needed and what already exists.”
The paper expands principles introduced in Patrick’s previously published work “Designing for All: Consumer Response to Inclusive Design,” a finalist for the 2023 Responsible Research in Marketing Award. In it, she introduced the concept of “mismatches,” a new way of viewing disabilities where responsibility is put on the marketer to make more inclusive designs, Patrick said.
“Mismatches,” she said, occur when the needs of the consumer are not met by a product design. An example of this might be a website being inaccessible to a person with a visual impairment who uses screen readers, she adds.
“The logic behind inclusive design is to center the design around the edge consumer in order to benefit all consumers. In other words, if you put the needs of consumers with disabilities first, then you are more likely to meet the needs of everyone else and reach a broader market,” Patrick said.
She said that once she became aware of these marketplace mismatches, it was hard to overlook their presence. Through her research, Patrick said she wants to help build a market where every consumer feels seen and empowered with seamless access to products and services, free of limitations or constraints.
“With my work, I’m trying to shape how marketers adopt inclusive design,” she said.
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