Degrees of Consumerism

'Tis the season to be jolly... until of course you receive your Visa bill in January. Not that this has anything to do with today's post.

Yesterday I discovered something new.

You used to have your consumer. Of course you still do have Average Joe Consumer. Mr. Jones who goes shopping for the holidays (do I dare say who goes Christmas shopping?) and buys the idiot proof digital camera for his wife. That, for instance could be Mr. Jazz finding a camera for me. We recently bought one and it pretty much had to be idiot proof. Me and technology? We don't get on too well. I find it excessively complicated to simplify my life.

Now there's another market segment (one that no doubt has been around for ages, but I just found out about), the prosumer* (from professional consumer). This would be Non Average Joe Consumer who knows all about the digital camera and would collapse in a fit of hysterical laughter at my camera. This is the guy who's gotta have the most expensive high end digital camera, even if he doesn't necessarily know how to use it to its full advantage.

So does that make Average Joe and avsumer and Mr. Anti-consumerism a nonsumer? (not that they'd have a name for him 'cause he's basically useless to marketers).

The mind, again, boggles. It doesn't take much to boggle my mind these days...


(For the record, it's qute an elastic word though which can also have other meanings, but those hold no interest to me at this point)