For a business owner, it is important to understand the difference between a customer and a consumer. Most new entrepreneurs do not make a distinction between and the two and then wonder why their marketing efforts fail.
When you buy a beer to quench your thirst on a hot day from the beverage cart lady on the golf course, you are both the customer and the consumer. However, in business, the consumer of a product or service is often different from the customer.
A “Customer” is someone that pays for goods or services, while a “Consumer” is someone that uses goods or services. Often the terms are used interchangeably, but each requires a different message during the marketing and sales process.
Consider a business that provides piano lessons. If asked what they do, most people in that business would simply say “I teach my clients to play the piano”. In many cases, the person receiving the lessons is a child. In most cases, it is unlikely that the child is the customer or the one paying for the lesson and they need a different message. Customer and consumers each need different marketing messages.
In the case of the child, the messaging might include a recognition emotional appeal like how popular they will become in school and to their friends when they can play music. Or they might say how proud their parents will be when they can play the piano in front of their parent’s friends.
However, while the child is the consumer, they are not the person paying which is the customer. Mom and dad are the customers. While mom and dad might want their child to learn to play the piano, a savvy business owner would understand that they need a different message for the customer.
In addition to providing piano lessons to the child, when talking to the customer (the parents), in this case, they might include a romance emotional appeal indicating that they provide a day-care of sorts, allowing mom and dad to spend quality time together while the lessons are being conducted. The savvy businessperson might also include a money emotional appeal and tell parents that right-brain activities such as playing music can improve academic scores, which might lead to college scholarship opportunities.
The message changes the “What’s in it for me?” part of the pitch, depending upon whether they are talking to the consumer or the customer. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that knowing the difference between a consumer and a customer when it comes to your marketing is key to your business’s success.
Does the focus of your marketing/sales pitch change depending on whether you are talking to the consumer or the customer?
