Just discovered consumer oriented marketing? Don't worry. Philips did, too.

I haven't been to the October 2nd Smplicity Event organized by Philips in London. Yet, judging from a recent article in Business Week Online, it must have been a spectalucalr show. However, what struck me most was the kind of statment Stefano Marzano, CEO and chief creative director for Philips Design, treated the reader to. Marzano is quoted in the article talking about the change Philips is undergoing: "from a company in which technology called the shots to one in which the focus is firmly on people." Fair enough. One just gets the impression that this "revolution" should have happened some 30 years ago with the advent of consumer-oriented marketing. Right? Are such giants as Philips just discovering the power of usability research and alternative ways of qualiltative research? If so, then we'd better call the recently ended marketing era the "era of looks-like-consumer-oriented-marketing-but-really-is-just-huge-sums-of-
money-thrown-into-advertising-hype-with-the-hope-we'll-be-able-to-outprice
-the-chinese marketing".