October 3, 2005

The Naked Emperor Has No Clothes

I've just read the article in Fast Company about Naked, the non-agency agency that doesn't produce ads or anything else so plebian, but rather deals solely in ideas that they maintain traditional agencies are incapable of coming up with.

These hot shot Brits claim it's unlikely that a traditional agency would tell a client to scuttle a TV schedule and use the money to train its call center staff.

I resent this bull so much, because we have a 30-year history of doing just that: telling clients what we genuinely believe will be in their best interests. We believe that if our clients do well, we'll do well. So why shouldn't we think only of what will best serve our clients?

Is doing what's right so unusual that people have to form a company called "Naked" and pretend that THEY are the only ones who are willing to make honest recommendations? I'm incredibly insulted and stunned that they even have a business, let alone a spread in Fast Company.

There is no question in my mind that the marketing and communications companies such as ours will only thrive in the future by shooting straight with clients and being focused, creative, and disciplined in their behalf.

There was an article the other day about how physicians have figured a way to make a killing on certain tests because the insurance companies will significantly overpay for the test that - in fact - costs the physician very little money. By participating in this scam, physicians are cheating the spirit of the system and driving up the cost of healthcare insurance. Why would any responsible human being participate in anything like this? What IS going on here?

Would you shoplift if you could? Would you steal from petty cash, if you thought you could get away from it? Would you cheat on your taxes? I don't think so. So what makes these Brits think that THEY have a corner on integrity in the marketing and advertising business!

Dick Elliott Has A Big Idea

I really like this new "store" created by Dick Elliott. It's called Charleston Cooks and has great stuff for the kitchen (ONLY the kitchen...not all the other-rooms-in-the-house stuff you'll find at Williams-Sonoma)....AND it has a demonstration kitchen with a very attractive classroom setup where they have numerous cooking classes, ranging from a couple of hours for tourists to learn local cooking secrets to longer courses run by top notch chefs. There are cameras and a big flat video screen that make it even easier to follow what's going on.

It's really a total environment, and very cool. I can see it being replicated in many other locales. And there are endless opportunities for products, book clubs, recipe swaps, chat rooms, catalogue sales, etc.

I think it's increasingly challenging for retailers to come up with unique concepts. Have you noticed, for example, how the Gaps, Bananas, Abercrombies, JCrews, etc. just blend together? Consumers love a powerful concept...just look at Starbucks, still shaking people down big bucks for an ok cup of jo. Dick Elliott has a big idea. Congrats to him.