Strategic brand, marketing and digital consultancy CAB Studios claim that creativity is often overlooked by organisations seeking out the next generation of talent, and that creative education must be mandated and regarded more highly in order for the industry to continue to grow. This is according to their new White Paper ‘Power to the Customer’, which explores how brands must evolve in the customer age, and what the industry needs to do to keep pace.

CAB Studios, whose client list includes Pizza Express, Jamie’s Italian and DW Sports. Power to the Customer also takes a broader look at how brands are consistently failing to understand the evolving relationship they have with their target audience, as well as throwing a spotlight on those who have succeeded at delivering winning Cx.

Among the brands cited as performing well are W Hotels, Lush Cosmetics and Argos, all championed by CAB for being disruptive, memorable, engaging and personalised in their approach to customer experience. CAB also welcomed contributions from a number of industry experts including Paul Armstrong, Founder of HereForth, and Nick Watt, Head of Content at Digital Donut, who cited Reuters news and BabyCenter respectively as brands that recognise the power of their customers and that have quite simply ‘got it right’.

Other topics explored include; the role of Big Data in Cx, mastering Omnichannel, Lifecycle marketing, and the future of agencies. Power to the Customer concludes with CAB’s ‘Manifesto for Change’, in which they call on organisations to stop imposing rules on minimum qualifications when seeking out creative talent, and that they learn to recognise creativity and marketing ability in all of its’ guises. 

Ben Wood, Executive Creative Director at CAB Studios commented. “Of course, education and training are important, but creativity isn’t bestowed on someone based on qualifications. We know that recruiting from a diverse talent pool has benefitted us hugely; we have people on our team who run their own businesses, or have come from management positions in retail, the important thing is shared values and ways of thinking that deliver something unique to our clients. Ultimately great people are the ones that create memorable and engaging customer experiences, so businesses that take a narrow approach to recruitment will fall behind in the increasingly competitive customer age.”