Forget “Customers”. Think “Allies”.
That line came to me after reading an insanely great post from Evelyn Rodriguez.
No empathy, no alliance. Rock on.
[CAVEAT:] She gives me a mention in the post (Thanks, Ev!).
Damn, she’s good. Every time I write something I have to check her blog just to make sure she hasn’t thought of it first.
[UPDATE:] Nice story from fellow Evelyn groupie Johnnie Moore, who I think has the best British marketing blog:

A friend was once asked by a CEO to get his staff to have more engaging conversations. His inspired intervention was simply to ask the boss, “Is this an engaging conversation?” Rather Zen like, I think that captures the challenge of getting conversations into the here-and-now where I think change can happen. What Ben and Roz Zander call “possibility space”.

I was having a chat with a very smart British advertising executive the other day. She was telling me how “Britain still has the best advertising in the world.”
I’ve been hearing that for years. The more I know about advertising, the less I agree with it.
Sure, if you’re into cash-thirsty, 30-year-old business models, then yeah, well, maybe the UK is your kind of place…
I’ll shut up now in case this turns into a rant.
[UPDATE:] Evelyn’s link was broken. Fixed now. Thanks to Katherine for spotting it.