Seth Godin has posted a description of what he considers the target market for most products. Say, your average consumer:

"Lazy, as in not willing to do the work to create long term benefits. Lazy as in not willing to read the instructions, follow the manual, do all the steps, invest the time in the research. Lazy as in willing to buy the first choice that's 'good enough' as opposed to finding the best choice. These are people who will spend five minutes to find a parking space one minute closer to the mall.

And in a hurry.

In a hurry because they jump to conclusions, don't read to the end, and most of all, most of the time, search for a shortcut."

This is similar to what Geoffrey Moore described in his bestseller Crossing the Chasm. Moore explains that products should be targeted first at early adopters who are interested in features, then the marketing should evolve as a product becomes more mature by playing up the benefits for the mainstream who expect stuff to just work.

I don't like Godin's use of the term "lazy" to describe mainstream consumers. They're not lazy. They just have better things to do than learn about your new product or service they way they would a new religion. In fact, they're smart enough not to care about the minor differences in quality and price between competing brands of motor oil, carbon monoxide detectors, or digital cameras. The less time they spend worrying about that, the more time they can spend on things that actually matter to them.

Instead, they let people like Ben spend too much money on stuff that only half works. So who's smarter?