Customer

General term to refer to the purchaser or user of a product or service, and therefore often the target of a client's activities and the subject of market research. The term consumer usually refers to the purchaser or end user of a product or service, especially when this is obtained for personal or domestic use. However, organisations may have customers who are not buying for personal use, such as in business-to-business research. In addition, as more organisations such as educational institutions and government departments re-define their users as 'customers', the scope of market research expands and the more general term becomes more prevalent and accurate.