Was at a (boisterous!) dinner last week in New York with a number of folks after the Corante Innovative Marketing Conference (more on this in a future post), and the podcasting recorders were rolling during a good portion of the evening.
At one point, Joseph Jaffe was talking about “consumers” and, of course, this tripped my Pavlovian response that, no, we are not “consumers.” We are customers, and producers, and people. (Doc and Jerry, your presence was missed!)
Listen to the “‘consumer’ vs. ‘customer’ vs. ‘user’ rant.” (5.6MB MP3)
This is a short snippet of the longer Across The Sound podcast #36.
So…what do you think? Are we customers? Consumers? Users? Something else? Please send e-mail (including MP3 attachments) to [email protected] or audio comments to +1 206 203-3255 if you want to jump into the conversation.
(photo credit: niznoz)
Consumers or Customers?
Christopher Carfi asks the question, Are we consumers? Customers? Or something else? The idea of consumer is a myth and when trying to debunk a myth it’s important to look at the historical context. Here is my perspecitive from Beyond
just don’t ever call me a “USER” – I am a person, dammit.
Consumer: “One that consumes; A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain.”
I favor “customers” or “citizens.”