Saw an interesting blog describing the pleasant surprise Benoit Quirynen in Belgium got when receiving a tariff optimisation review on his bill.

http://blog.euscopia.net/2011/01/telecom-automated-tariff-optimization.html

As mobile network operators and service providers become increasingly relied upon as a utility service, more tariff transparency may be required to improve customer relations.

We all know the feeling, as our bank balances shrink each month from utility payments. How do we know that we're getting the best deal? Should we make more effort to shop around? It's only inevitable that we begin to mistrust our suppliers, not because we're sure that they are over-charging, but because we have no evidence to the contrary.

We're all guilty. If there was a law against dull, obscure and downright perverse websites then our prisons would be full of software marketing executives. Perhaps the world would be a better place.

Someone mentions a groovy new technology, or a link appears when searching the web. The task is to quickly understand what they do, put it in context and pick up any points of interest. The home page appears, and the torture begins. A masters in Latin is often needed to pick through the contorted prose. Everyone, it seems, is the leading player in their field. But what field? Will we ever figure it out, before the tears flow and the mist descends?

Today's medical profession has come to acknowledge the benefits to patients from the placebo effect. We all tend to recover from ailments more quickly when we believe our treatment to be efficacious whether it actually is or is not; mind over matter is the key. One could even put the case that placebo is the driving force behind our voracious desire for consumer brands.

We all tend to convince ourselves of the superiority of the international brand regardless of the reality. After all, we need some justification to put up the dosh – so to speak. We even put up with the acknowledged deficiencies of the top brands as 'in the round' they offer a quality synonymous with the image we wish to present. For top brand manufacturers these market values represent the holy grail, the golden vision, the shangri-la of their marketing mission.

Some days the world conspires against me. One piece of bad news is compounded by other unwelcome developments. My football team always loses on those days. My toast always falls jam side down. My car will be stuck in a snowdrift and while I'm fetching a shovel will be given a parking ticket by a traffic warden who looks like a gargoyle escaped from the north pole.

One solution to days like that is physical comfort therapy - eat, drink and be merry. Another is to do something which gives a positive feeling that the world is getting better. Retailers and service providers are keen to offer their wares as comfort for all the world. We can imagine a latter day statue of retail libery standing proud above a giant shopping mall with the inscription "Give me your depressed, your time-poor, your huddled masses yearning to shop free, the wretched refuse of your teeming store, send these, the listless, tv-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door".