<b></b><p></p><p><b><b>Housebuilder&amp;’s new marketing correspondent Malcolm Pitcher launches his new column with an attack on those developers risking their reputation and that of the industry for the price of a simple shower</b></b><br><b>Equitable Life and Marks &amp;&amp; Spencer. Two companies which until recent times were adored and revered by consumer and City alike. </b><br><b>When I looked around at the pension market some years ago, financial advisors and friends all recommended Equitable Life on the basis of good returns and low charges. It seemed to me like a no-brainer decision.</b><br><b>As a marketer I spent 20 years sitting in meetings where M&amp;&amp;S was lauded as the &amp;“company we would most aspire to be like, offering quality products, fantastic brand image and first rate customer service&amp;”.</b><br><b><b>How the mighty can fall</b></b><br> Both of these companies lost the plot - through arrogance, maybe, or perhaps through that great killer of a changing market and poor forward thinking, the &amp;“let&amp;’s keep yesterday going just a little bit longer&amp;” syndrome.</p><p>Marks and Spencer, especially, went from success story to a shop that people didn&amp;’t visit, or, if they did, they wouldn&amp;’t admit to it. The change in customer perceptions was so sudden and should be a lesson to us all. …