Author: Aarron Spinley
Aarron Spinley
Aarron Spinley is a Fellow at the Field Bell Institute. He is the author of its core text and teaches the CPD accredited ‘Mini MBA in Customering’, a 12-week, flexible online program for working individuals and corporate teams. More at fieldbell.co
Marketing and customer management is full of rabbit holes. Those who burrow ever deeper into them, nose down and backside up, miss the full picture. The Ghent Altarpiece is a 12-panel, 15th-century masterpiece by Jan and Hubert van Eyck. Painted in 1432, it’s regarded as one of the most important artworks in history – and one of the most valuable ever. This my friends, is an irony. You see, in 1934 the original “Just Judges” panel of the work was stolen, never to be recovered. To this very day, a mere copy of the missing panel by restorer Jeff Vanderveken,…
2025 saw a campaign that had some in the Australian marketing fraternity all a-flutter. Bank West is betting on a new platform in market. “Just Enough Bank”. In straight positioning terms, it does appear to tick a few boxes. If we assume there’s good market diagnostics informing the strategy, and we have no reason not to, then they are offering a zig to the industries usual zag. No attempt at heart-warming images of children in the local playground, no aspirational oomph from investing in tomorrow’s track stars, and no curated corporate image of community philanthropy, or promises to stand behind…
It seems a week can’t go by without people losing their marbles over some new thing: abstract, techy, quasi-predictive, and always, always hyperbolic. Well, here we go again. The LinkedIn bros are hyperventilating about how our personal bots will be shopping for our new car, speaker-system, gumboots, and tampons. “The old commerce world is dead!”, they scream madly into the night, wide eyed and trembling in excitement, or angst, or both. Their doctor scrambles for a benzodiazepine. They ignore her. Brand marketing is over! You can throw away your degree. Distinctive assets? Your bot won’t care. And customer management? Gone…
One of my sons is heading toward to the end of his teen years. He’s sailing through it like an OG. Assured. Confident. Way too adult in some ways, but I’m proud of him. Unlike his old man at the same age, he’s comfortable in his skin, knows who he is. But that’s not the experience for many, perhaps even, for the majority. Acne, awkwardness, and growing pains while making major life choices and navigating puberty, an increasing independence, the threat of anxiety and depression, academic strains and peer pressure – all at once. But we get through it, don’t…