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Archives for March 2009

Using Assurance Data To Create Website Content | The Future Of Sustainability Assurance

I heard an article on the radio the other morning about how Starbucks has launched its own brand of instant coffee (here in the UK anyway). The fun bit was the instructions: place the powder in a mug, pour over just-boiled water etc.

You may think it’s stating the bleedin’ obvious but with us all so stressed about where the next buck is coming from, doing the simple things can sometimes escape us in the maelstrom of survival.

Take sustainability assurance, for example. This increasingly popular pastime among the larger companies uncovers a wealth of data which can have a very useful second life when published on a corporate website.

What’s more, small and micro companies need not feel left out as many assurance standards allow them to set their own benchmarks in a meaningful way as well. [Read more…] about Using Assurance Data To Create Website Content | The Future Of Sustainability Assurance

Jaguar Employees Vote for 4-Day Work Week Instead of Layoffs

The economy is at one of its lowest points in history.  People are losing their jobs as corporate profits tumble.  Companies are asking for and getting bailouts to stay afloat.  What’s a luxury carmaker like Jaguar Land Rover to do?  Ask its employees for help – that’s what.

I’m always talking to any business owner who will listen about how leveraging the strength of employees as brand advocates is one of the most powerful marketing and branding tools a company can have.  Loyal employees are extremely vocal about the companies and brands they work for, and nothing is as powerful as word-of-mouth marketing in terms of retaining customers and finding new ones. [Read more…] about Jaguar Employees Vote for 4-Day Work Week Instead of Layoffs

Package Design Contest for Brooklyn

No, it’s not for the city of Brooklyn, New York.  This package design contest is for Bond No. 9’s newest product – a unisex cologne called Brooklyn.  The company already has a cool looking graffiti bottle for Brooklyn, but to let consumers take control, the company is asking consumers to come up with their own package designs for Brooklyn.  The only rule is the package design must be reminiscent of some aspect of Brooklyn or Brooklyn overall.  How would you evoke the essence of Brooklyn through a cologne bottle design? 

I met my husband when he was living in Brooklyn, so I have great memories of the time I spent there.  I can’t wait to see some of the designs that people come up with for Brooklyn perfume.

From a branding perspective, I love package design contests and events.  It’s such a great way to drive an emotional connection between consumers and a brand.  Events like package design contests allow consumers to “touch” a brand, get more involved with it on a new level, talk about it and experience it in a new way.  These types of events always work well for established brands (think of the Coke can redesign events surrounding the Olympics in 2008), but it’s not very often that a smaller brand achieves success with them.  I think Brooklyn is getting a buzz going about this new contest because the subject is tangible and has so many interpretations.

Do you think anyone will come up with a Horshack design (my hat tip to Welcome Back Kotter)?

 

Thrift and the corporate website

Thrift and the corporate website

Are you really making the most of your corporate material? All of it?

I was with a motion-graphics designer the other day, and he showed me some of his showreels … which included quite a bit of communications presentations, film and Flash work for major companies. You’d have heard of most of these companies, and I’ve visited their websites. Often.

Yet this fantastic work that he’d developed, that was being used for internal conferences or for trade-show backgrounds, wasn’t available on their websites.

I wonder why not?

Internal communications … I can see that there might be something that wasn’t to be communicated outside the company. But how difficult would it be to get that bit edited out?

Trade-show work … that’s already been made available to the public, hasn’t it?

It just seems like such a waste. Not only of these beautiful pieces of work, but of the money and time spent on developing them. A bit of re-use, particularly in these straitened times, can go a long way.

What visual material have you developed in the past that could be re-used on your site, either as it is, or in another form?

Economic Crisis — Risks…And Opportunities

First let me share what I think is the seminal quote on the root cause of the current Economic Crisis. This is from Stephen Green, Group Chairman, HSBC, UK, speaking at the Economic Forum at Davos–

This is about values that have developed in the markets in recent years. We have moved from the old cliché ‘my word is bond’ to a culture and atmosphere where ‘if there’s a transaction, if there’s a market for it, and I have a contract, and it’s legal, that’s it; I don’t need to think about the underlying right or wrong, suitability or unsuitability. The Values behind Market Capitalism • Tony Blair • Stephen Green • Indra Nooyi • Shimon Peres • James J. Schiro • Jim Wallis
Moderated by • Maria Ramos Thursday 29 January 2009

Brilliant!

Source: NEOFORMIX

The Chinese Culture has long associated crisis with risks and opportunities and so it is with the current World Economic Crisis. The risks are well known and widely publicized. But, there are opportunities if you are smart enough to look for them.

Business leaders first need to come clean and admit that they failed and then focus  on opportunities. For example GE‘s CEO Jeff Immett in his letter to shareowners says —

Let’s face it: our Company’s reputation was tarnished because we weren’t the “safe and reliable” growth company that is our aspiration. I accept responsibility for this. But, I think this environment presents an opportunity of a lifetime. We get a chance to reset the core of GE and focus on what we do best. We can reset expectations for our performance. And we can participate in the changes required in the broader economy.

… The current crisis offers the challenge of our lifetime. I’ve told our leaders at GE that if they are frightened by this concept, they shouldn’t be here. But if they’re energized, and desire to play a part in transforming the Company for the future, then this is going to be a thrilling time to be a part of GE.

GE’s Board seems to have felt the pain and see the need for change. The need for change must start and be embraced from the top.

In the McKinsey Report The crisis: Mobilizing boards for change —

The solution is to explicitly change the way the board interacts. The chairman should insist that members articulate what they have thought but have not had the confidence to express. These conversations will often be more conceptual than rote, and participants will have to take the risk of “saying something stupid.” Chairmen will need to muster up the courage to drive relentlessly the discussions that will take most boards into deep and frightening waters. Long-cherished assumptions, existing plans, or defined ambitions may go down the drain.

Next, crises open up changes that were not possible in “normal times”. There must be a realization that disruptive changes will be needed —

A crisis is a chance to break ingrained structures and behaviors that sap the productivity and effectiveness of many organizations. Such moves aren’t a short-term crisis response—they often take a year or more to pay dividends—but are valuable in any scenario and could help a company survive if hard times persist. Although employees may dislike this approach, most will understand why management aims to make the organization more effective.

This may, for example, be the time to destroy the vertical organizational structures, retrofitted with ad hoc and matrix overlays, that encumber companies large and small. Such structures can burden professionals with several competing bosses. Internecine battles and unclear decisions are common. Turf wars between product, sales, and geographic managers kill promising projects. Searches for information aren’t productive, and countless hours are wasted on pointless e-mails, telephone calls, and meetings.

Leading through uncertainty

More resources at — The Crisis A new era for management

The Economic Crisis provides an opportunity for companies who aren’t already, to get serious about Ethics. Now is the time for the Board to set the “Tone at the Top” on Ethics, to establish an Ethics Officer and develop an Ethics based Corporate Culture.

Another opportunity is to improve your Corporate Reporting to stakeholders. Companies need to use their websites to maintain or rebuild their reputations — clearly explain your strategy and how you will accomplish it, improve how you display the Board and the Management Team, and clearly show the risks the company is facing and how it will manage them. More on this in a future post.

Smart leaders will find opportunities in the current Economic Crisis to build the way to an improved future.

The Obama Brand and How it Can Help Your Organization

Since President Obama has taken office, things have been pretty steady and busy with policies, changes, developments, etc. Suffice it to say, that a dull moment there hasn’t been! But while there is a lot to do in the office of the most important job in the free world, President Obama has been making lots of strides to make sure that his “brand” is melded into the minds of the citizens and the voting population. He wants to make sure that you remember him. And as a corporate entity, you should want and aspire towards the same branding for your business.

President Obama effectively uses the tools of social networking very well and has shown that he is able to manipulate  them with ease. Of course, it takes a team of specialists and experts to position him to be this effective, but it is done nonetheless. His weekly radio addresses on YouTube are one of “firsts” that the president has used in his office as a means of mass communications to reach the people. He uses the weekly addresses to bring the citizens up to speed on where things stand with the economy and what the next step(s) is.

He also effectively uses email campaigns to reach the taxpayers, briefing them on where the state of the economy is, what’s next on his agenda, what key areas he wants to focus on next, etc. It is almost as if he wants to make sure to address everything that could possibly be on the taxpayer’s mind. Possible? Hardly, but the effort is made nonetheless.

Social networking, marketing and branding. All three effectively implemented by the president. So can you do the same? Yes you can!

Branding your company, product, or image is not difficult to do at all. Start with social networking and begin building your “image” into the minds of your customers. Be “in their face” at every available opportunity. Compile your mailing lists. Ask questions. Answer questions. Become the expert and the “go-to” person. Brand yourself by becoming something and/or someone that people will search out for the answers.

What can you do to start branding your corporate image? Make a deliberate and calculated use of whatever social platform that you wish to affect. In other words, don’t just start a Facebook page or a Twitter page just for the sake of it or because “everybody’s doing it.” Develop a plan and a desired outcome for your goals. Obama’s campaign certainly didn’t start last year or two years ago building a network of supporters. It all started with a deliberate use and a reason for a Twitter presence. His exact use of media platforms is one of the key components that catapulted him to political stardom. His staff was able to deftly use the social media networking sites to create the Obama brand. It strengthened his network, increased his following and furthered his political platform. You can do the same with and for your corporate brand.

How can you effectively use online tools for your organization in particular? What platforms do you feel would benefit your corporate entity the most?