CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE - The Ingram Partnership aims to transform its marketplace.

Chris Ingram has faith his pounds 2.5m investment will reap rewards, Bob Willott writes.

Almost everyone that has come across Chris Ingram's new consultancy venture, The Ingram Partnership, agrees he has identified a gap in the market. But is there a market for the gap?

The perceived gap is for an independent, informed and innovative strategic consultancy, dedicated to helping clients build their businesses from a brand perspective.

Ingram's perception of the global marketing groups is that they are too heavily weighted towards time-serving executives who are preoccupied with pleasing their masters by achieving their immediate revenue budgets, rather than thinking about what clients actually need.

He also accuses them of a 'silo' mentality - reluctant to look at a brand's development potential in the round if that could result in the client's budget being reallocated to communication channels other than their own.

And there are questions about their objectivity. 'Clients have difficulty when seeking impartial advice,' Ingram's partner Andy Tilley says.

But objective consultancy is already available elsewhere - from McKinsey, Bain and Boston, to name just three. Ingram argues that his troops are far more experienced in the practical aspects of brand development and include project management within their offer.