Who are your customers: suppliers or consumers?

[Business Brian]

I heard a story once, about a toy manufacturer who, when asked who his customers were, stated clearly that it was children. After all, if children didn;t want his products, then they wouldn't pester mummy and daddy to buy them those particular toys...and therefore he would make no sale.
 
I personally side very much with that concept - that no matter your trading, you have to ensure that you have consumer demand - stoke it, stroke it, caress it and make it need you.
 
That's why I was all the more surprised when, not long ago, I was talking to the sales director of a caravan building firm who stated the complete opposite. With a turnover of around £200 million, they're hardly small fish, and what was being stated was not simply idly talk or theory, but the company's marketing stance for the next five years.
 
Effectively, he told me that his customers were only the 250 or so distributors. He was quite insistant that he had no interest in the final consumer - they would buy his caravans if the distributors sold them, and because the product was a top-of-the-range caravan with a high mark-up, the distributors would want to sell it.
 
Now I'm thinking about the slowing housing market - the threat of reverse - and the problems that negative equity could cause the economy. In simple terms, there's a very real threat of some degree of recession on its way. And that means there's going to be an impact on luxury goods - especially high-end caravans.
 
The question is - am I the one being naive here? After all, is it a marketing reality that the distributor is the only customer you have to worry about? Or is it true that the final consumer is the one that you are ultimately selling to? Or is it even a balance of both?

[altyfc]

You are quite right.
 
As you may know, we work largely in the tourism sector.  Our clients are, in effect, holidaymakers and not the individual accommodation providers and the like that we work with.  Sure, the latter are our direct clients and who we deal with on a day to day basis, but none of it would be possible if people simply didn't go on holiday.
 
The caravan guy you refer to is indeed being naive and blinkered.
 
Aaron

[carolblake1973]

I'd say both, and target the suppliers differently than the consumers. You can take advantage of some good brand recognition campaigns and this serves the consumer decision as well as lets the suppliers cash in on a good runner. Ad wise both are different markets though both have similar concerns of personal value to self.

[Business Brian]

I would actually quite agree. That's why I was so surprised that this dierctor insisted that his final consumers were not actually his customers. IMO, he's setting up problems for the company later on.

[Suzanne]

I say he's right. Your customers are who buy from you. The final consumer isn't always going to be that. I say there's a real difference between customer and consumer and that's what's muddling ya. You are right about brand marketing but that's for the benefit of suppliers/customers as any.

[Suzanne]

This was a good thread before. Interesting comments. I see we lost quite a lot in the server move/database corruption.

[peterjhale]

There's a BIG difference between the USER and the DECISION MAKER

 
You need to work both of these out and probably target them both in different manners - sometimes they are the same person - but a lot (like the toy people) are not

[Business Brian]

I think there's a very real danger in putting all of your marketing into your distributor base. None of the major corporates I can think of do that - they advertsie the product to ensure that there is a need for that product - thus the distributor is able to sell that product.
 
 With the certain contraction in the house market coming, I don't believe this director's policy will be sustainable - he is selling a luxury item in a market that can only downturn as the house prices come down. In that environment, how on earth are his distributors going to be able to sell the most expensive product ni a luxury market, when the cheaper versions will serve just as good?