Consider, for a moment, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Despite all the talk about proprietary formulas, we know they're both just fizzy sugar water differentiated by marketing images. Pepsi is the "real thing," while Coke is "it." Our group of "Fast Five" e-consulting firms-Sapient, Scient, Viant, Proxicom and Inforte-faces a similar identity quandary. All five promise soup-to-nuts e-commerce services that are "bleeding edge." Customers can opt for the "Proxicom process" or go with Sapient's "one-team approach," but it's pretty tough to tell these five shops apart. They willingly acknowledge that differentiation is an issue, but at the moment, there's no pressure on them to address it. Why? They aren't competing for clients.
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