Consumer

A consumer in a very simple meaning is a person who buys things or uses services. A consumer is the final user of products or services. The consumer's use is final in the sense that the product is usually not improved by the use.

In the literature we find that the consumer is the final link in the economic process, extending from the manufacture of the goods by the manufacturer (professional, entrepreneur) through a great form of marketing the product as a commodity to the purchase of the goods by the person who has the stuff to use, consume or use is not treating it as a good fit to continue trading and good having to serve him or her economy.

Households are the example of economically independent micro-entities. Next to the enterprises they are the main operators in the market economy. Very often, the concept of household is used interchangeably with the concept of the consumer.

Economics and marketing

The consumer is the one who pays to consume the goods and services produced. As such, consumers play a vital role in the economic system of a nation. In the absence of effective consumer demand, producers would lack one of the key motivations to produce: to sell to consumers. The consumer also forms part of the chain of distribution. Typically, when business people and economists talk of consumers, they are talking about the person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the decision to buy or not to buy. However, there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.

See also

• Nicosia model of consumer behaviour
• Howard Sheth model of consumer behaviour
• EBK model
• Bettman model

Consumer — recommended articles

Perfectly elastic demand — Types of customers — Market structure — Bricks and clicks model — Odd even pricing — Perfect competition — Mass Merchandising — Operational management — Service economy

References

• Lancaster, K. J. (1966). A new approach to consumer theory. The journal of political economy, 132-157.

Author: Joanna Możdżeń