Nobody really saw this version of 2020 coming. This pandemic has shaped 2020 and beyond, in ways unimaginable. Who knew that it would require such enormous sacrifice and change for so many?
As a leader of people and founder of multiple businesses, I am well versed on change being inevitable, yet accepting it is always difficult, particularly in the face of a global Pandemic! If the last few months have reminded me of anything, it’s that as humans (and businesses), we’re built to adapt, numerous times over. Achievement is for those who never give up.
But is adaptation – small evolutionary change – always the correct course of action?
There is a well-known quote that says: We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails.
Long ago, our business embraced the concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement) as our corporate mantra – we even renamed our business after it! It forced us to constantly re-think what we did each day, for ourselves, our clients and our clients' customers. It taught us to embrace change rather than fear it and in most cases, kept us ahead of the game in what is a complex industry.
17-years later, and our successful, dependable heritage in digital marketing is proof of our adoption of that mantra. Understanding that agencies must continuously evolve to be effective for the brands they partner with, our own history is a story of continuous evolution; from our brand name, vertical focus, core disciplines and the methodologies and technologies we embrace.
But 18 months ago, something shifted. We looked at the world around us and felt many problems weren’t being prioritised or addressed.
- Digital marketing and agency ecosystems had become complex and saturated.
- Brands’ needs - and how they were organisationally structured - were side-lined.
- Lack of brand loyalty among consumers, and ineffective advertising, was everywhere.
- Huge shifts in consumer behaviour, improved global connectivity, more powerful devices and emergent retail models (e.g. recurring revenue or subscription models) were driving powerful changes in verticals.
- Consumer expectations for a great customer experience were at an all-time high.
We started to feel that small evolutionary steps no longer met the challenges that our industry - and the brands we serviced within it - were being forced to face. We lacked direction and were lost in our own complexity, tinkering with parts of our business but never truly adapting or evolving it. It’s hard to admit, but it’s the truth.
So we stopped. We tore it down. We took our years of insight and operational knowhow, and we rebuilt, remaining focused, on point, and true to ourselves and those we serve. And so here we are, 18 months later. We are now dealing with a pandemic, but with a new brand, a new proposition, a new structure and a new ambition. House of Kaizen UK is now Daydot.
Digital Experience Optimisation (DxO) is a rapidly evolving field, therefore brands must be flexible and agile, striving for expertise and continuous innovation. But it’s not for agencies to pay lip service to innovation: it needs to be built directly into their DNA with a service offering and purpose to match. Our rebrand and repositioning is our expression, alignment and attempt to meet those challenges head on and hand-in-hand with our clients.
In a rapidly evolving and uncertain world, with continuously evolving consumers – we believe recurring revenue models are crucial for many businesses. The list of benefits are well documented: from greater predictability and volume of revenue and profitability; to increased product innovation and most importantly, customer satisfaction. When aligned with the measurement and understanding of key metrics such as ‘customer lifetime value’ and well planned customer retention programmes, significant growth is unleashed. More efficient marketing expenditure, better communications, increased brand loyalty, greater volume of sales, financial stability and the list goes on!
However, a significant gap exists today: the ambitions of how businesses desire to perform and how they actually deliver against customer needs is apparent. Issues such as a lack of capabilities and strategic consensus combined with poor inter-departmental collaboration and technology paralysis is often at the heart of such a gap. And so our goal is quite clear: to improve the effectiveness of our clients’ ecommerce investments by delivering measurable, substantive and sustainable returns.
Daydot is the culmination of our heritage and our significant step in evolving to meet the challenges of today. A close-knit bunch of agile, industry specialists from a diverse set of backgrounds and capabilities, we’re committed to discovering opportunities, enabling customer understanding, and creating digital experiences that unleash growth. With specialists across all facets of DxO, our services run throughout the entire customer journey: Discovery (Customer research), Enablement (Consultancy) and Creation (Experimentation).
A different name with an enhanced service offering, to meet the challenges we’re aware of today, and the ones we will discover tomorrow.
Founder & CEO, Daydot