I was flicking through Business Week at the airport a few weeks ago and I came across an article entitled " Masters of Collaboration ...

I was flicking through Business Week at the airport a few weeks ago and I came across an article entitled "Masters of Collaboration"that immediately caught my attention as collaboration is a subject very close to my heart (being one of our core agency propositions) and one particular quote really struck a chord with me:

"many design consultancies have responded to the seismic shifts in technology and culture by adopting a radical, collaborative approach—in stark contrast with the magician/know-it-all designer type of old. And while there may well be outsize personalities within the consultancies' offices, the new philosophy seems to sit comfortably within these open-source, consumer/user-driven times"

How right they are and how much does that apply to the marketing industry today !" The article goes on to say:

"The aim is to come up with products and experiences that fit clients' customers, rather than express the individual tastes of designers." .

and again I thought how much this echoed our point of view that too many agencies today fall back on their core expertise when answering a Client brief and ignore what will cause real consumer behavioural change and action.

One company that are making this core to their approach is Continuum that has shown double-digit revenue growth in each of the past four years with this approach - take a look at their website they boast virtual teams with diverse backgrounds including MBAs, psychologists, and ethnographers.

This is just the sort of approach that we believe Client's should employ - there is no way that an agency can claim to have all the skills and experience required under one roof to help Client's navigate their way through the confusion of today's marketing landscape however much they try to claim otherwise !

I bought a new suit from a well known US designer earlier this year on a trip to New Year and the other day I was searching for something in...



I bought a new suit from a well known US designer earlier this year on a trip to New Year and the other day I was searching for something in my pockets and found this small piece of paper (picture) which not only made me smile but also restored my faith in the principle of customer service.


This faith has been severely tested in the past 3 days where I have experienced 2 examples of really lousy customer service from 2 companies that I previously admired - namely Orange and Sky. I spent 30 mins speaking to a very enthusiastic operator at Sky assembling a bespoke package to replace the Virgin Media service that I really cannot abide any more (charging 50p a minute for any help on Broadband was the final straw) to be told that unless I bought there and then I would have to call back even though he could not help me with a new BT connection needed to run Sky+....!! I then tried to get someone at Orange to help me with a fault on my SPV Orange phone to be told that I would have to take out Orange insurance at £6 per month even though we have a business account and spend a fortune each month.
Surely in the new age of the empowered consumer or "prosumer" as they (we) have become known this sort of treatment should be avoided by companies at all costs - or should it ? I think there seems to be a divide between companies who nurture consumers and treat them with respect and companies that still view us as cannon fodder. Sky is a great case in point in they spend millions of pounds each year to convert people to their service and then when they do gt a "bite" they are happy to let it go which to me is ludicrous - just think what they could achieve if they spent as much on trying to retain an interested consumer as they do on trying to get them to pick up the phone !
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