CONSUMER

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods
generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts,
so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.
CUSTOMER:
A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is usually used to refer to
a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization,
called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods
or services. However, in certain contexts, the term customer also includes by extension
any entity that uses or experiences the services of another. A customer may also be a
viewer of the product or service that is being sold despite deciding not to buy them. The
general distinction between a customer and a client is that a customer purchases
products, whereas a client purchases services.
CONSUMER
India has been observing 15 March since 1989 as the National Consumers Day.
This day has a historic importance as it was on this day in 1962, when the Bill for
Consumer Rights was moved in the US Congress. During his speech President John F.
Kennedy had remarked:
If a consumer is offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are
unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his
dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and national interest suffers.
John F. Kennedy had equated the rights of the ordinary American consumer with
national interest. He gave the American consumer four basic rights:
The Right to Safety - to be protected against the marketing of goods which
are hazardous to health or life.
The Right to Choose - to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety
of products and services at competitive prices: and in those industries
where competition is not workable and Government regulation is
substituted, an assurance of satisfactory quality and service at fair prices.
The Right to Information - to be protected against fraudulent, deceitful or
grossly misleading information, advertising, labeling, or other practices, and
to be given the facts s/he needs to make an informed choice.
The Right to be Heard - to be assured that consumer interests will receive
full and sympathetic consideration in the formulation of Government
policy, and fair and expeditious treatment in its administrative tribunals.

The Consumers International (CI), former International Organisation of
Consumer Unions (IOCU), the umbrella body, for 240 organisations in over 100
countries, expanded the charter of consumers rights contained in the US Bill to
eight, which in a logical order reads:
1. Basic Needs
2. Safety
3. Information
4. Choice
5. Representation
6. Redress
7. Consumer Education and
8. Healthy Environment.
This charter had a universal significance as they symbolised the aspirations of
the poor and disadvantaged. On this basis, the United Nations, in April 1985,
adopted its Guidelines for Consumer Protection.
Who Is the Customer?
Anyone who derives direct or indirect benefit from a product is a customer.
This includes people who request, pay for, select, specify, or use a software
product, as well as those who receive the products outputs. Customers who
initiate or fund a software project supply the high-level product concept and
the projects business rationale. These business requirements describe the
value that the users, developing organization, or other stakeholders want to
receive from the system. Business requirements establish a guiding framework
for the rest of the project; everything else thats specified as a requirement
should help satisfy the business requirements.

For commercial software development, the customer and user are often the
same person. Customer surrogates, such as the marketing department, attempt
to determine what the actual customers will find appealing. Even for
commercial software, though, you should get actual users involved in the
requirements-gathering process, perhaps through focus groups or by building
on your existing beta testing relationships.