The Difference

I want to clear up a minor discrepancy in advertising vernacular.

There often times is confusion around the terms consumer and customer. Now, it's not a big deal to most people. But in our line of work, it means completely different things - and if you were to ask for a campaign to target one, but meant the other - you would not be happy with the result.

So, to clear things up:

Consumer: These are people with money. They have the potential to be a customer, they may have even heard of you, but they have not contacted or had any business dealings with you.

Customer: These are people that give you money. They are part of the consumer base, they are the ones you have contact and business dealings with.

OK, now that we've cleared that up, let's get back to focusing our creative energies onto things that turn consumers into customers.