Consumers are Statistics. Customers are People.

by Aaron ShieldsMar 28, 2010

Never in my retail experience have I seen a “consumer” enter a store. I’ve seen lots of “customers,” for that’s what they call themselves…The development of the whole consumer movement came as a result of the failure of retailers and manufacturers to give adequate attention to the physical and psychological needs of the customer.

- Stanley Marcus

Rather than focus on what a customer really wants, marketers have focused on what the average, hypothetical, composite customer — “the consumer” — should want. But the consumer isn’t a person, it’s a statistic on  piece of paper; it’s a poor simulacrum of a real person.

Treating customers as the statistical consumer results in initiatives that some people may like, but nobody ever loves.

Instead of focusing on averages, look to what your real customers, preferably the best ones, love about you and forget how they fit into boxes on a piece of paper.

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