Customer marketing: Lock sights on the new customer-centric agenda
Simon GlynnLippincott EMEA
Amazon aspires to be "Earth's most customer-centric company". Numerous mission statements are sprinkled with customer focus. Yet the brands we most admire are much more than customer-led.
Being customer-centric once meant doing things for the sake of customers, rather than for the convenience of the provider. So a bank would open extra teller positions at lunchtime when demand is highest. But by that measure, any successful company is already customer-centric. The goalposts for true customer focus have clearly moved.
The natural response has been for brands to...