Editorial: Stop Saying ‘Vulnerable Consumers/Customers’!

Purpose: This editorial calls out the practice of using identity-first language and labelling consumers and customers, describing them as ‘vulnerable’ and offers practical strategies for person-first language of consumers/customers experiencing vulnerability.

Approach: We use Australian Indigenous and Indigenous women’s standpoint theory to reflect on our own use of terminology in the field of consumer/customer vulnerability and use our personal experiences to offer a series of practical strategies.

Findings: We propose six motivations for the use of person-first language in the field of consumer/customer vulnerability; easy to use, an English language convention, common practice, easy to measure, unintentional ignorance and an ‘us vs. them’ mindset.

Originality: This article is the first to call out the practice of using identity-first language in the consumer/customer vulnerability field and offer practical strategies to enable person-first language.