I plumbed new depths of ‘trusted partner’ yesterday. I grabbed a quick lunch with a client prior to having wash up and 2010 planning meeting on a big web project we have just launched. The poor chap had managed to chuck himself down a frozen hill badly fracturing a shoulder and near breaking a wrist. MRIs and many specialists later he finds himself trussed up and pretty incapable.
Lunch saw him in great pain, choosing a suitable starter (queen scallops), and then moving on to sausage and mash. No problems on the starter – ideal for the one armed. His main forced us to new levels of agency / client partnership when I had to cut up his food into bite sized pieces.
His brief to cut up into 3 pieces, was soon taken although those cut into 4 pieces proved much more elegant – a classic example of delivering beyond expectations.
It made me think of a section of a recent online procurement RFI that asked us “what additional non-billable services have we offered clients”. I shall upload this perfect example next time.
I have been contemplating a pitch Shep’ and I did last week that for a first-time-for-us covered ‘prosumption’ as part of an approach to develop digital understanding and better resources.
In is woolliest form prosumption is useful when we are developing materials for a sub group of consumers when you just can’t follow the traditional; write/art direct/code/build, test, review and rebuild approach. Whether than be for time or budget reasons.
Prosumption is the mixing of consumer and the producer to produce a new hybrid – the Prosumer. In what (another new word for me this week) I now know to be a portmanteau – a blend of two words and their meaning.
Reading around what I thought was a new internet thing. I find it’s almost as old as Ian, and much older than I am. In 1972, Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested that technology would drive the consumer to become a producer (‘democratisation of media’ - I hear Gemma (AD at AMV) shout). In the 1980 book, the term was coined by a futurologist named Alvin Toffler who predicted this coming together.
The approach results in individuals working together blurring the barriers, between need for something and capability to provide it.
The conclusion of much of this work is that once mass market saturation and standardisation have brought us all happi(ish)ness, the market evolves to initiate a process of mass customization. Giving consumers exactly what’s wanted with the assumption that this delivers a risk free relationship and a guaranteed happy customer.
Pretty interesting? It does make you think that once we all have perfectly tailored good, where will we go next? Ultimate rebellion should see us go full circle and start buying goods at George at ASDA perhaps?
Anyway fairly standardised fingers are crossed here. We hear Wednesday this week.
PS. I am really trying to avoid puns in headlines. Really sorry.
When you kick off a new business you end up with responsibilities for office services that you would rather do without. In the early days, due to my inability to say no to the rep I landed stationery. Those who I worked for at Shire Health International will know the hilarity of this – I have come full circle – I am sure next week will see me run out and put coins in metres for account directors!
In the less busy days of early last year I grabbed every order of paper, pens, and flipcharts as an indication that we were growing like mad. In the more recent days we all order from our desktops preventing me from any clear sign of growth. Alas I am only left with the P&L and feel from the office on our progress!
My paper guys of choice were Viking – always on time, always in stock, cheap as any and returns were near effortless. A valued if commoditised supplier, products that did what they did and communication that focused on stock lines and deals.
Then out of the blue came an email from Nigel, Viking’s Online Community Manager with an invite to climb aboard a platform on which all of their customers interact, discuss and share ideas on how they and the stationery industry as a whole can get better.
Like most I haven’t aired everything I have felt on stationery. Starting up has been a busy time and stationery although important is pretty low down the list (except when we run out of recycled laser paper during a pitch). Items on this website – span recommendations for ‘Start-up’ kits for new businesses, conference packages, more automatic ordering systems and alternative approaches to pricing.
Kicking these ideas into the business is a team of back office ‘Idealists’ whose job is to investigate the most popular ideas and report back on them on the site and I hope push them into the business.
For a supplier of commodities I thought this was at least a progressive move, a potential pragmatic source of innovation and at most a potential brilliant business driver. See what you think here.
Almost a year ago I wrote an article on POM to P, a call for pharmacy to embrace the opportunity that new P brands offer. I stand by my argument that pharmacists’ role in consultation gives value to the consumer and allows pharmacy to become true healthcare providers of the high street.
A year on the opportunity arrives. We are proud to have been an intrinsic part of the launch of alli, a landmark pharmacy launch and arguably the most successful pharmacy switch ever. What is so important about alli is that the consultation is a critical part of the offer – more interaction than transaction. It’s a launch that emphasises pharmacy’s shift from a provider of products to an enabler of positive behavioural change. With alli, pharmacists must outline the personal commitment essential to weight loss, help consumers understand their responsibilities and manage their expectations.
To date both pharmacy and consumers have embraced this brand wholeheartedly. GSK have invested heavily in training and pharmacy have enrolled for that training at an unprecedented rate. It feels that this is the switch pharmacy are really going to get behind, proving once and for all that broader access to treatments is good for manufacturers, good for pharmacy, and most importantly good for us all.
Time will tell…
