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.
