"I consume therefore I am not....

I've long been unhappy with the use of the word consumer. The other day I realised one reason for this. It creates the idea of humans as having no function or desires beyond consumption. It transforms a moment of 'consumption' into an ontology, a defining characteristic of personhood. You're a consumer when you look at an advertisment and therefore for the rest of the day? Is human subjectivity so constrained? Much writing about marketing and 'consumers' appears to suggest this is so. What the word obscures is all the other interest stuff beyond the moment of consumption - the play, the meaning making and creativity and the culture that make it what it is...

Matt Jones looks for another word, and tries out individual. It sort of works. This reminds me that there's a great paper by Ginny Valentine and Wendy Gordon on the limitations of the word consumer and how dangerous is becomes even for those seeking to influence, sell to and 'target' 'their' consumers: the 21st century consumer. Well worth a read."

[The Ideas Bazaar]

Great points and links from Simon Roberts.  Am wondering now, if Markets are Conversations, what does that make us : consumers-no, users-no, individuals - hmmmm maybe !

An afterthought - mulling over this some more - it might depend on area of business.  For instance, in retail, the reason that 'consumer' gets used is because the provider of the goods has to go through a retailer or some other channel and needs to differentiate between customer and user or consumer.  When your customer is not the end customer then you need a word to describe the dialogue you are having - i make cereal, I sell to Foodland - Foodland sells for me.  I want them to sell more and need to have a discussion about their customers.  I can't use the word customer because Foodland is my customer.  I could talk shoppers but then I am referring only to their business.  In order to influence them I have to talk broader - about the markets and volumes they may be missing out on, that is in both our interests.  Thus the word consumers - consumers may or may not be Foodland shoppers, it keeps us on mutual ground, and can focus on serving both our interests better. 

In the same vein, i might provide consumer research that goes beyond just store research to try and engage a dialogue and influence the chain of customers/individuals/users that make my product successful.

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