ANALYSIS: Business services suck the life out of marketing

Professional service companies need to get more creative with their marketing to win customers

Perhaps most telling of all was the response from the sector's professional association. The Business Services Association (BSA) turned down the offer to contribute claiming it was "not best placed to talk on the issue of the marketing of business services" as it was more involved in "strategic issues [but not] the day-to-day running of things." That one comment probably says more about the state of marketing within business services than any other. Even the BSA does not view marketing as strategic, but as perfunctory.

Time and again, organisations declined to comment on their marketing activity. To coin a phrase, one declination is unfortunate, two suspicious, but three is murder. Or at least seriously disturbing. Why the silence if not an admission that there's really not very much going on?