Articles on Customer Experience:

Build a Brand Consumers Will Actually Want to Control [PDF]
By Scott Davis

In this article, Scott Davis answers questions about customer control: Does the customer really want to be your co-pilot? Does the customer want to do the marketer’s work in building the brand? Make your ads? Design your products? Distribute your message? Maybe not, he argues. (AdAge, 11/27/2007)

Marketing-Touchpoints - The UBS story  [PDF]
By Inga Schmidt

This article was co-authored with our client, UBS, and has been translated into English from the original German text. It illustrates how active touchpoint management can help in converting prospects to clients, extending relationships to existing clients and therefore driving business results. (Marketing Journal, November 2007)

Learn to Use Communication's Negative Space [PDF]
By Kevin O'Donnell

In the environment where you can reach your customers 24/7, success at building a brand—at solidifying and growing your relationship with customers—is really all about being selective. You need to pick the right time and place or, better yet, let the customer pick for you. (Marketing News, November 1, 2007)

See Your Brands Through Your Customers Eyes [PDF]
By Chris Lederer

A new three-dimensional approach to mapping brand portfolios reveals the complex relationships between your brands and those of other companies. It may turn your marketing assumptions upside down.  (Harvard Business Review, June 2001)

Turning Green Into Gold [PDF]
By Andrew Pierce

In this article, Andrew argues that the question for most companies is not if they will take action to make their brands environmentally friendly, but when and the extent to which they will do so. He then discusses what it takes to successfully make green work as a business and brand builder. (Marketing News, October 1, 2007)

Think Big [PDF]
By David Aaker

In this article that appeared originally in the Wall Street Journal, Dave Aaker argues that to win market share, don’t try to influence what brand of product people buy. Change how they use the product in the first place. (MIT Sloan Management Review, September 14, 2007)

The CMO Challenge: Exiting the Comfort Zone [PDF]
By Michael Dunn

In this article, Michael Dunn argues that in order to be effective, marketers need to up their game, take on the new media, and be prepared to be adventurous, extending their influence over many of the critical business growth drivers. (Argent, September 2007)

Don't Be Afraid to Plunge Into Emerging Media [PDF]
By Scott Davis

Color today’s marketers dazed and confused. It’s an understandable reaction to an environment that has become almost impossibly complex, making it difficult for them to figure out where to start (or much less how to go about) meeting management’s escalating demands for demonstrable returns. (AdAge, July 23, 2007)

Only The Strongest CMOs Will Survive [PDF]
By Scott Davis

In this article, Scott discusses the challenges being faced by Senior Marketers and four key mandates they should address on the path toward becoming empowered CMOs. (Advertising Age, January 2007)

Power Switch [PDF]
By Michael Dunn

In many of today's leading organizations, marketing is front and center in driving solid business performance - based on a heightened understanding of and responsiveness to the customer.  Leading the charge are empowered chief marketing officers, who have developed a more expansive influence, range of responsibilities, and view of marketing's capabilities in the broader business scheme. (Marketing Management, September/October 2006)

New Challenges to Marketing's Mandates [PDF]
By Scott Davis

In this article, Scott discusses the need for marketers to take a broader view of their role if they are to contribute successfully to business growth.  This includes thoughts around owning the customer experience, successfully using new technologies, and blending business, brand, and marketing strategies. (Admap, June 2006)

Interesting Bedfellows - Why a Teaming of HR and Marketing Makes Sense
By Jeff Smith

Companies are increasingly realizing that for brand and business strategies to be aligned, the brand can no longer be driven solely by the activities of the marketing department. Delivering against the promises of a brand strategy requires every level of the organization to live the brand. (AMAnet.org, April 2006)

You are Only as Strong as your Weakest Touchpoint
By Scott Davis

After years of paying lip service to the importance of marketing while engineering and design ruled the roost, technology companies are learning that maybe they need to be more like other businesses after all. (Marketing Profs, April 2006)

Cut Ties with Tradition and Expand Your Influence [PDF]
By Scott Davis

When it comes to assessing marketing's effectiveness in creating the type of customer relationships that fuel business growth, consider this: Maybe marketers should stop thinking so much like traditional marketers. (Point, February 2006)

Time to Re-Embrace the The "Next Best Customer" Truism [PDF]
By Scott Davis

If it's so axiomatic that "your next best customer is the one you already have," why do marketers expend so much energy — and hard-fought resources — chasing after new ones? (Point, November 2005)

Implications of Customer Service on Brand
By Prophet

A critique of Britain's customer service within the context of how it may impact brands on a global scale.* (Financial Times, December 2004)

Banking on Delivery [PDF]
By Jeff Smith

Banks are generally held to have entrenched attitudes about customers and marketing. But, in conversation with chief marketing officers of several leading banks in Europe, Prophet found evidence of a willingness to embrace the new customer realities. (Argent, Fall 2004)

Laying the Blame [PDF]
By Prophet

A commentary on the challenges of branding in the financial services sector. Advertising may increase awareness, however, it is the delivery of excellent customer experience that truly makes a positive impact on a company's brand. (Financial Marketing, January 2004)

Understanding Your Brand - Aligning Brand Equity to Drive Business Value [PDF]
By Prophet

A perspective on the importance of knowing what your brand means to target stakeholders, and which elements of it drive value so that brand building investments can be prioritized. (National Hotel Executive, November 2003)

Achieving Consistency - Delivering on Your Brand Promise Across All Customer Touchpoints [PDF]
By Prophet

A framework by which a company can identify, analyze and correct inconsistencies across its customer touchpoints. (National Hotel Executive, March 2003)

Harmonizing Your Touchpoints [PDF]
By Scott Davis

A perspective on the importance of aligning your brand's touchpoints across all interactions with your customers. The article also provides some consumer products related examples. (Brand Packaging, January 2003)

Great Brand Building is Just a Touch Away [PDF]
By Scott Davis

This article outlines how to manage your brand touchpoints to build strong customer relationships. (Brandweek, June 2002)

Extending the Brand: How to Optimize the Brand-Customer Relationship [PDF]
By Scott Davis

This article examines how companies can develop an optimal customer experience by extending brands into new channels and customer touchpoints. (Journal of Consumer Marketing, April 2002)

Brand-Customer Relationship: The Face of Your Business Strategy [PDF]
By Prophet

The days of brand building defined simply by awareness and driven by marketing alone are over. Prophet believes that brand is the essential underpinning to a holistic business strategy, requiring that the brand be managed at the highest levels within the organization. (January 2001)