Toward a Dignity Architecture: The Critical Challenges of Stigmatized‐Identity Cues for Consumer Psychology

As Chaney, Sanchez, and Maimon (2019—this issue) detail, the prevalence of anti‐stigmatization cues may encourage us to believe that a more inclusive marketplace is on the horizon. This commentary argues that, unfortunately, three barriers have limited the effectiveness of these cues, and that each constitutes a call to serious inquiry for a wide range of consumer researchers. First, marketers have done little to reach out to the most severely stigmatized groups, limiting the degree to which inclusive marketing can effect real societal change. Second, researchers have not systematically articulated reasons that anti‐stigmatization cues may fall flat or even backfire, leaving practitioners little guidance in designing effective cues. Finally, studying stigmatization presents methodological challenges, and may feel like a minefield to researchers not well‐versed in complex issues of sexuality, race and ethnicity. If we are willing to address such barriers, however, I argue that we can build a framework for a “dignity architecture.” Like choice architecture, this framework highlights the nonneutrality of marketing actions in experience design, ultimately offering guidance for affirming consumer worth.