What’s the right amount to spend on a marketing budget?
28th January 2026
What directors of IT companies need to know about fractional CMOs
5th May 2026
In 1986, The Guardian released a short film that played with assumption, and it has remarkable parallels with our Voice of the Customer exercise.
A TV advert from 1986 reminds us how easy it is to misjudge intent. The same mistake happens every day when businesses assume they understand their customers.
The original Guardian TV advert can be seen here: Punk Rocker Guardian 1986 - YouTube
In the advert a pensioner walks along the pavement.
A punk rocker runs towards him at speed.
He looks aggressive. He looks dangerous.
The punk grabs the pensioner from behind and drags him sideways under a shop canopy.
Your brain fills in the ending.
Seconds later, bricks crash down from a crane onto the exact spot where the pensioner had been standing.
The punk was not the threat.
He was the reason the man stayed alive.
The film from The Guardian made one point very clearly.
What you think you are seeing is not always the truth.
That lesson sits at the heart of how many businesses misunderstand their customers.
The story of Alex*
A few years ago, we worked with a new client.
One part of their operation had doubled in size every year for three consecutive years to £12M. One particular customer had also introduced three new clients during that period.
The leadership team felt confident they understood why.
The sales director explained it clearly:
-The team worked very hard
-They were available 24/7
-They always went the extra mile.
All good things. All expected. But in our view just normal operating procedure.
So we ran an anonymous Voice of the Customer exercise, and what came back surprised everyone.
The customer told us the real reason they stayed loyal and kept referring others had remarkably little to do with the sales team.
It was Alex.
Alex was the Executive Assistant to the CEO.
Every time the customer visited London, Alex organised the entire trip. Travel. Restaurants. Hotels. Even a private itinerary for their partner. Every detail worked. Every visit was a joy and felt effortless.
During the interview, we asked this customer how our client compared with competitors. His answer was simple but direct, "Their products and people are all good, but they're invariably the same as each other. It's Alex that's the real difference.”
Alex never appeared in the sales narrative.
Never appeared in the marketing copy.
Yet Alex was quietly driving £millions in growth year after year.
Much like the punk in the film, at face value things were hugely misunderstood.
(*Alex is not their real name)
Alex never appeared in the sales or marketing narrative, yet was quietly driving growth year after year.
Assumption is expensive
What Voice of the Customer really means
- Interviews with senior leaders
- Anonymous customer interviews
- Analysis of repeated themes and language
- Identification of high importance and low satisfaction areas
- An opportunity matrix to show where change will deliver commercial return
- Regular repetition to track progress over time.
Why it matters commercially
Start by listening
Who is your Alex?
What assumptions are quietly costing you growth?
