Consumers are people too.

(Image and initial thought courtesy of Paul McFarlane and group over at the Experiment.)

We marketers love the term "consumers". We use it as if it is a foreign species we've discovered and are studying in the jungles of Borneo. Yet consumers are us. People. And as one of these people, I know that I simply want to be treated as a person. I think it's safe to say all of us in this group--people, that is--wish marketers would talk to us just like they talk to...well...people.

Nowhere is this more true than in the B2B world of marketing. As marketers we speak of our B2B consumer as a "target" and classify them based on their title, the type of product their company sells, and on and on. It's easy to forget that we're really just trying to connect with someone just like us.

The most successful marketing campaigns I've been involved with have been low on the "cool" factor, but struck a chord with the PERSON behind the desk, not the title on the door.

Next time you communicate with your "target" or your "consumer" stop for a moment and remember they're just like you. And create a message that will resonate with a human being.

Comments

[Todd]

The problem I have with the word consumer is that it creates the impression that these "human beings" are pre-disposed to buy at all times. It's a misleading word, in a sense, because they have SO much going on that doesn't involve consuming. In that way, it can lead us marketing people and our clients astray by not acknowledging (or accounting for) what makes the audience human and, hence, complex.