Customer Capital: a good idea but still not the answer

Tim Ambler applauds Customer Capital as a valuable new addition to the marketing vocabulary, but questions whether it gets to the heart of the problem.

Customer Capital: A Good Idea But Still Not The Answer

Tim Ambler London Business School

In the last issue of Market Leader, Hamish Pringle and Peter Fisk proposed a new language for marketing based on the notion that customers should be seen as part of a company's capital. This is essentially a good idea: 'Customer Capital' is a valuable new tool in the marketer's armoury (www.customercapital.org).

But will this, or any new language, solve marketing's communication problem with analysts, shareholders and the directors of large companies? Marketing is unquestionably not getting...

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