Get to know us ✦
Our CEO, Mark Squires, founded Watermelon in 2012. His vision was simple: to bridge the gap between technology and insight. This vision is still the core of who we are and is as important now as it ever was.
Mark called us Watermelon based on a nursery rhyme he’d sing to his daughter when setting up the company (to get some peace and quiet).
In an ever-changing landscape with advances in technology and AI create further opportunities to build our own tech and share focused, fast and evidence-based direction.
We have always challenged the status quo
Because we are practitioners, purists who are passionate about what we do. We are obsessed with making customer experience better for our clients. As the customer experience sector has evolved, we have pivoted accordingly.
At the start
The competition were technology companies, insight companies or management consultancies. They were either good at the collection of data or analysis of data. Thus, we saw the opportunity to bridge that gap between technology and research. Enabling brands to build bespoke real-time customer feedback and act on it. Our core services were Tech and Service.
Where we are now
The sector has become tech obsessed, thinking that technology is the only solution. We know that the tech will only take you halfway there. The tech provides scorecards that informed targets but provided no guidance as to how to change the experience. The marketplace has become saturated with tech providers and consultancies obsessed with their own sense of importance.
We focus on building client relationships and becoming an existing of the team/business. Building customer feedback programmes, reinvigorating existing ones and most importantly creating data-led strategy to transform customer experience.
Our Values
Our culture and way of working is guided by our six values – a set of core principles that every Melon observes, reflecting how we behave and how we want to build relationships with each other and our clients.
Why Watermelon?
It is an unusual name choice for an insight consultancy and makes people think about the link to insight. Do the pips represent seeds of growth?
The truth is, the name was chosen, based on a lullaby our CEO used to play his young daughter when setting up the company. This lovely anecdote gives you a glimpse of who we are, what is important to us and our values.