DISQUS

Amen, brother!

why social media matters Choice: buy time on the old broadcast networks...or activate the new social networks. Smart companies let the human networks market for them. They get lower costs and highly credible word of mouth by giving up a little (imagined) control.

joy I saw these all over the place in Paris last year. They just made me happy - great design, common sense.

global manners Far from being an outdated, charming notion, manners are essential for success in the global business arena. A mannered person knows how to be comfortable -- and put others at ease -- at any table in the world: steakhouse in the US, boardroom in Paris, a jet out of Kyoto. This, of course, requires a maturity beyond the me-centric culture we slog through now; it demands we think about others, community, shared benefits. Great, you know how to navigate Second Life. Do you know how to navigate an introduction among a Mayor, a CEO and a visiting dignitary? Who gets the tip o' the hat first? Trust me, it matters.

rocking in corner This is the bat-shit-crazy extension of all the Oprah-induced public confessions we've suffered for ... how long now? not everything is about YOU..or ME. Sometimes, it is about US...OURS... We need less "self" focus and more community focus. Narcissism is a key part of sociopathy...focus obsessively on yourself, and you don't contribute to -- or feel anything for -- the rest of the world. Blech. Scared.

finally! Wow. Somebody finally said what so many of us have known or felt. Congratulations - and thank you! - Mr. Hitchens. I suppose complacency and silence is the natural state in a theocracy, which is why our country was NOT founded as one. Now, where's the equally brave voice on the Bush Cheney cabal? Let the wicked witches all melt at once!

homer?? I really need someone to tell me why they aren't using Homer Simpson to bring their donuts to America. Way better than that hideous Rachael Ray for Dunkin' Do-nots.

upside down Luxury cars, when done right, are R D paid for by rich folk: http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2007/04/lux...

The Mercedes S-class is the innovation center from which new ideas trickle down to the C-class. Same for the 7-series Bimmer...and so on.

The big mistakes - infiniti, the laughable Phaeton - took the base cars and "dressed them up." No real innovation, just some different styling. Consumers can spot a pig in lipstick. A few will go for a dance...but that ownership base works further against luxury. Luxury today is about the currency of knowledge...one must know enough and know better, or get taken for a ride. We've written about this before:
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/151/54/

Sigur Ros I like Sigur Ros just fine -- more for harmonics than anything else. I find the "self-created" language beyond precious. Thoughts so original they cannot be captured by existing words? Doubt it. In the end, I wonder if we aren't debating the very nature of metaphor -- when something is, in fact, two things at once, say both a cigar and well, you get it. The long debate over the relationship and interdependency of signified and signifier continues. Meaning exists in between the two -- not entirely in one or the other, in my view.

by my own sword Clearly, my careless language signals my oft soft brain -- you know where the mistakes are: thought...system... Forgive me. I humbly denounce my pen.

God Bless Challlz Oh, I am thrilled that you posted. I too think "both" is far too easy an answer (anyone heard of Chomsky or Pinker or Levi-Strauss?). This is a complex, often heated, debate, and a fascinating one to those of us who proudly take the name "English Geek" as our own. I'd also introduce into the discussion that genius of modern letters, Gertrude Stein. She understood, singularly, that language and through were intimately intermingled, and that grammar was the one way of looking at the boundary between dark chaos and translucent order. Any pattern, any sytem, applied regularly, is fairly called a grammar. Language treated carelessly, inconsistently or disrespectfully signals the softening of the brain. Rigor on the page; rigor in the thinking. (Stein, not surprisingly, began her career as a medical doctor, a pathologist focused on brain dissections; she was, literally, interested in the hardwired grammar of the brain--how it operated and how it ordered things).

look to the name I wonder what the name means in all of this? Dunkin' Donuts...fine, we get: coffee and donuts. Tim Horton's...a person, a reputation, a living being one can have a relationship with. I'd say America may "run on Dunkin'"...but may be hungry for something more human from Timmy's.

Luxury Dynamics, II Readers of this article might enjoy these two postings on luxury brands here on UE:
New Luxury Brands: Secrets Shared http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/151/54/
Faking It: Brand Tom Ford http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/394/50/

don't feel too bad! the onion is expert at making things looks and sound real!! that's part of the satircal fun of it...no worries, the kiddos aren't really making the clothes (as far as anyone knows!)

...and so with brands... The same dynamic is reshaping the brand management worlds as well. What used to be seen as proprietary intellectual property (the brand) is now being treated as public, shared, community currency. As I've posted elsewhere on this site, the consumer is acting as the brand manager for many of the most successful companies today: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/210/54/ . Here's a big idea: open source brand management. Here's a bigger one: it may already be happening.

UK Crowd to Buy Football Team An interesting angle on this phenom: http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/

challenges to Murdoch's efforts come from...Murdoc There are big media "mindset" challenges to Murdoch to be sure. He's after something else: reputation. I've written about this elsewhere on UE: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/392/50/

emotionality love that you addressed the emotional/emotionless side of this. it is one of the complex things here -- how to still have the power/emotional magnetism of a brand, but achieve price pressure. is the future the rise of branded commodities? cell phones are already there. maybe?

make it happen I think it would be particularly powerful if a big retailer actually got behind this and pushed it. It's one thing to be ready for it...and to give deals for groups of consumers. But what if, say, IKEA pushed a digital campaign on certain items to certain populations...and upon 100 (or 1000...or 10,000) people signing up and purchasing, the price drops. Be a platform to ENABLE this crowd pricing...and BOOM...you are the next big challenger.

Innovation Membrane? I wonder if there is value to thinking about the meeting place in between the two options you note here? I agree that every single employee can't be part of innovation...we do still have to get jobs done at the end of the day. But, it would be a shame to see good ideas left behind, and innovation become just "an initiative" instead of part of the culture. Maybe the key is to think of the innovation teams as a "membrane" that ideas can pass into and out of with ease? If so, that means communications strategy and HR are as integral to innovation as anything else.

Brava! This is a fantastic example of true leadership. So many companies claim to "lead"...but only if it doesn't cost them anything. The big, bold, courageous act here for Unilever is that it is actually going against the very beauty business that helped bring it to power. That's smart business: what took you one place at one time is not what will keep you there, or fuel future growth. These campaigns look like social responsibility (they are)...but are also something else: innovation. Cheers to Unilever. Validate your consumers, and they will be loyal to you forever.

drink cocaine See this link: www.drinkcocaine.com
Coke was thinking about the copyright issue!

fashion hogs? The tone of this article is just bizarre to me. Why say that LVMH "hogs" all the retail space from others? They got their first, had the dollars and did the deals. I'm unaware of a "sharing" ethic in business that says hotly competitive companies are supposed to save room for each other at the table. Large Tuna out.

pitiful This will be remembered as a defining moment -- like Bush's ridiculous "Mission Accomplished" banner. These old guys can ignore all the numbers -- viewership, revenues, stock price -- that they want. Their job is to defend what they've done and continue to do. Go ahead, play Big Band louder as Elvis plugs in his microphone... End of day: saddest part is that they talk about "digital" and "media" as if they were separate things! That's the defining moment. (Damn talkie films. Who wants those? And a PC?! Jesus, man, get a grip! Fax machines? Silly, silly.) Large tuna out (of touch?)

don't forget... ...there's also the recent deal with Michael's crafts shops...and the KBHomes relationship, too. When was one person's name last so spread around and sold to the highest bidder? YSL. Yves Saint Laurent was once a respected designer. Became a French manwhore of marketing. Ended up on cigarettes. Then, fusspants Tom Ford had to come in and try to revive the cheap-o brand. Martha: study YSL and learn. Brand extensions erode brand equity. Large tuna out.