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Client Concept
In most contexts’ is considered as client
of an entity whoever decides the purchase of a certain good or service
offered by that same entity. So, it can be distinguished the direct
client (the one who buys for the satisfaction of his own need or of
somebody to whom he offers the good – for example a son).
The client concept should also be
distinguished from the consumer concepts, which are not necessarily
coincident – in a situation that someone purchases to offer, the client
is the one who purchase while the consumer is who effectively consumes
the offered good.
Another important distinction is the one
between the client and the payer. In a commercial or marketing
perspective the client is who decides the purchase and not necessarily
the one who pays. This distinction is important in the case of products
destined to children and teens. In many situations it’s the child or the
teen that decides (or influences decisively) the purchase, being this
one considered as client, even though who pays can be the parents. On a
purchase of baby products, the deciders will be the parents even though
the consumer is the baby for which should be considered as clients the
parents and not the baby.
Translated from Portuguese
by Susana Saraiva, Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese translation
specialist. Contact: spams@sapo.pt.
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