CapGemini is a very good IT Consulting company. A large chunk of its revenue is tied to outsourcing. I have had the pleasure of working for Cap as a marketing agent and they have always had a good product and a good strategic angle but their communications strategy, especially in the U.S., has faltered. It is nowhere more evident than in their latest outsourcing print ad campaign.
This stuff is “we’re here” advertising at it very worst. “We’re here” advertising explains what business you’re in and gives customers a way to get in touch. No selling. No art. No emotion.
In today’s ad, adjacent to a cartoon of a hotel employee dressed in desert fatigues collecting car keys from a couple getting out of a car is the headline “In our hands, your system will never get out of hand.” The metaphor, apparently, is “your car is in good hands, while in the hotel.” OMG! The copy prattles on about outsourcing giving you the freedom to do what you do best, or some such nonsense.
I did some planning for the outsourcing group at Cap and they are way smarter than this. The top bosses may not be, but the line general certainly was. This is a disgrace. Who would want to outsource their business to a company who can’t communicate clearly.
In case anyone is reading the business press: Capgemini is in the outsourcing business. Woo hoo!
