A lot of folks on the client side don’t know this yet, but most traditional advertising agencies - even ones with a shiny new “digital/on-line/interactive” department - are headed for a world of hurt.  Why?  Three reasons.

HISTORY
For more than 100 years, ad agencies have all operated pretty much the same way. Be clever, know how to sell, and get in deep with the client. Being clever is a good thing, as is getting in deep. But ad agencies are so focused on selling the client’s stuff - and have been for so many years - they are not very good at figuring out what people want to buy.  Consider the very terms that are used in sales and marketing: “taking market share,” “grabbing eyeballs,” “capturing customers,” etc. Even the word “brand” originally meant a red-hot piece of metal used to burn the identity of the owner into a horse or cow’s rump. Barring a few bumps in the road (like when big media mark-ups went away) the ad agencies have pretty much continued on status quo. But now that the power has shifted to buyers (as opposed to sellers), ad agencies continue to tap dance on an ice-berg that is slowly - but surely - melting.  So why can’t they change? (more…)

The great thing about services is that unlike their product counterparts, they are a fluid thing. In fact, a service isn’t even “real” until it happens. A service is “made” once the service interacts with a customer or vice-versa. It’s sort of like the old saying, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” Who’s to know if there isn’t a person there to hear it?

But just like products, the creators of services are too often focused on what they want, the need they are seeking to fill, and the problems they think their customers have. This is particularly true with established companies, where they can grow to take their customers for granted, assuming that they know what those customers need.