The rise of customer power
Customer power, engagement and influence are rising, driven by the Web. The Giraffe Forum seeks to explore the shift from organization power to customer power.
The name “Giraffe Forum” is taken from the Long Neck principle developed by Gerry McGovern. It is part of a unique approach to identifying what customers really care about called Customer Carewords, which has been used by organizations such as Tetra Pak, Rolls-Royce, IKEA, the BBC, and Pioneer.
Every time Gerry McGovern partners have analyzed customer needs using Customer Carewords, we have found a Long Neck—a small set of things that really matter to customers in making any decision.
We nearly always find that the organization’s Long Neck is very different to the customers Long Neck. What organizations really care about is not of much interest to customers—and vice versa.
The Giraffe Forum is about exploring how to evolve better customer-centric thinking within organizations. In an era where customer power is rising, only those organizations that truly understand their customers can succeed.
