Is it Time to Kill the Term ‘Consumer’?

If we removed the noun "consumer" from the retail lexicon, what would we lose?

The reason I ask is because the participatory nature of social media has rendered the term invalid (or at least not as valid as it once was). In an era where people are no longer merely consumers of information, but purveyors of it, the appellation seems out of place.

In the mind of some, the word could even be considered offensive due to the fact that it pejoratively stereotypes people as little more than selfish materialists whose entire lives are bent on Conehead-like massive consumptive behavior.

In Search of a Better Word
If we cease to use the term consumer to describe those who purchase products, with what do we replace it? "Customer" is a better word, but that still doesn't do it justice. Perhaps a more preferable term is "people." 8thBridge was built on the conviction that brands should reshape themselves around people. Retailers should view their customers as real people, gauging the value of their influence beyond just the three transactional data points — name, product purchased and purchase amount.

People as Promoters
Speaking of assessing customer value, another "P" word — one that will appeal to retailers — is "promoter." Not the "carnival barker" variety, mind you, but the term as found in Net Promoter Score (NPS), a management tool used to gauge the loyalty of a brand's customer relationships.

NPS is based on the perspective that every company's customers can be divided into three categories — promoters, passives and detractors — with the idea being that brands court promoters, who are those most likely to recommend the brand to their friends.

Commenting on the value of NPS, 8thBridge CEO Wade Gerten said, "From a retail standpoint, people are participants in and even controllers of the purchase process. Their influence and advocacy carries great weight, especially when they can easily share their brand and product preferences with friends and followers on social networks."

‘Consumer’ Bears Negative Connotation
A Time magazine article suggests there's yet another reason we should stop referring to people as consumers; it makes us more selfish.

According to Time, a team of researchers has discovered a direct correlation between the use of the term and our attitudes about consumption.

"The ‘consumers’ rated themselves as less trusting of others to conserve water, less personally responsible and less in partnership with the others in dealing with the crisis," the study found.

It concluded that viewing each other as materialist consumers led to "a more depressed, anxious population and a more antisocial, isolated society."

Terminology Use is a Statement of Value
Use of the term may matter less to the person buying a product, but it should matter to brands for the very reason that it carries a negative connotation. To refer to customers merely as consumers is to depersonalize, even dehumanize them.

Espousing his views on the topic, Don Norman, co-founder and principal of consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, remarks that by imparting descriptive and somewhat degrading names such as "customer," "consumer" or "user," brands distance themselves from the very people they're attempting to serve.

What's really at stake is how you view both your customers and your brand. Norman says companies that are company-centered (as opposed to being customer-centric) lack empathy and understanding of the point of view of their customers.

So, the terms they choose aren't merely a matter of semantics, but a statement of value. People are either consumers, or consumers are people.

"All of them are people," concludes Norman. "All deserve their share of dignity. Their roles can be specified in other ways. It's time to wipe words such as consumer, customer and user from our vocabulary. Time to speak of people. Power to the people."

Words carry weight and impart meaning. Due to the fact the term "consumer" bears such a negative connotation, not to mention that it inaccurately describes how people shop today, perhaps it's time to, as Norman suggests, yank it from our vocabulary.

Gerten agrees with that assessment, proposing that it will soon be retired to the history books as fewer and fewer people consume what they're sold or do what they're told.

"People are more than an aggregation of their purchases — more than what they buy," he said. "Marketers that agree with this point of view are beginning to change not just their words but also what they measure."

That's our perspective. What's yours? Is it time to kill the word "consumer"? If so, what might be a more suitable alternative?

Paul Chaney is principal of Chaney Marketing Group, an agency that provides integrated online marketing solutions.