Tag Archives: Smart Engagement
Is your company about to lose the platform it’s built on?
In the beginning, tribes of people would supply themselves by following their food. Either fully or partially nomadic, they still went to the supplies, hunting and gathering and forming tools as they went along. Then they started to organise food through farming and animal husbandry, and over time established craftsmen to produce tools and goods, [...]
Lessons from . . . Pond Scum?!
Humans are wired to understand and respond to threats like a lion chasing us down. Climate change, population growth, and other stressors happen too slowly for our minds to get around. Furthermore, doubling rates always seem extremely slow – until it’s too late: pond scum with a doubling rate of one day, would starve the life out of a pond just one day after the pond was only 1/2 covered…
What McDonald’s did wrong, and Wal-Mart does better
by Caroline Rennie
McDonald’s could be doing smart, community-building work that builds brand value. But they’re not. Here’s what they’re doing – and what Wal-Mart’s doing better.
The story:
Nigel Haskel, a minimum wage, 21 year old employee, sees a man start beating a woman in the McDonald’s he works in. He intercedes on the woman’s [...]
What will happen to your costs when ecosystem costs are priced in?
by Caroline RennieLate last year the US Department of Agriculture announced they were forming a new high level office of “EcoSystem Services and Markets” to determine the cost of depleting and the value of protecting, nature’s services. What exactly does that mean?
A few years ago the UN assessed the value of the stuff nature [...]
Is your brand getting the support it needs to be trusted?
by Caroline Rennie
Currently Trust in institutions, corporations, and industry is at low ebb.
The low general level of trust means trust is applied not in a general way, but on a case by case basis (e.g. product by product and brand by brand). In this context, slips can have a disproportionately broad impact and be [...]
Lobbying: a proven way to lose money?
by Caroline Rennie
The International Energy Agency estimates that coal companies ought to be spending $2 billion a year for ten years on clean coal technologies, and Credit Suisse suggests they should be spending at least $1.5 billion. Actually, coal companies are spending a fraction of that on development, and half again as much in [...]
Brands successfully avoid value from environmental activities
by Caroline Rennie
Most companies are wasting their environmental investment – at least as far as reputation goes: while they may be doing, and saying, a lot – the public doesn’t buy their story. Except, that is, Toyota’s.
click on picture to enlargesource: MapChange 2008
What’s going on?Let’s look at GM and Toyota. GM [...]
Increase your sales through Good Causes
by Caroline Rennie
Linking your brand to a good cause can increase sales of your products by as much as 74% according to the 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study. To gain the increase, the cause must be linked to what the brand and company stand for as a business, as well as the [...]
Weee! Stealing a march on your competitors*
by Caroline RennieHP, leading manufacturer of electronic products such as printers, computers, and the like, has implemented a take-back programme in the US with a difference: you can ship any brand’s cartridges or computer hardware back to them – and they will send you a coupon greater than the cost of shipping, towards an [...]
Hot Sh*t! Cow Power
by Caroline Rennie
Too clever.
A farm in Vermont wanted to use the offgasses from their cow’s manure to power their farm. Which they have done. But then they went one better – they saw that this power was renewable energy and could fetch a premium. So they worked out an agreement with the [...]