Harvard Business School: education program on Corporate Social Responsibility

Harvard Business School (HBS) will host an executive education program, Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to CreateBusiness and Social Value, from October 17–20, 2012 on the HBS Campus.  Corporate Social Responsibility will address the challenge of balancing business objectives and social accountability.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is a crucial element of any business strategy,” said Kash Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing and faculty chair of Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value.  “Corporate Social Responsibility will help corporate executives focus, align and integrate their CSR initiatives to create shared value for firms and communities.”

Brands in the Edge of Ethos : You Want Success? Start a Mass Movement.

There’s a new talk in the marketing world now and it has to do with… movements. The goal is to use people as Media, exploit their causes  and , ultimately, find and  push their buy button in their brain . How? This is where  the book ‘Uprising: How to build a brand and change the world by sparking cultural movements’ explains how brands can become part of something that is changing the advertising industry. Author Scott Goodson is founder and chairman of the agency, StrawberryFrog. Perhaps a good read for selfish  brands with a vision to become tiny hidden persuaders  and manipulators, exploiting the so-called Social (?) Media.

After Capitalism? “Nice Capitalism” ... of course !!

Economist Jayati Ghosh has seven dreams for an ideal society, which would root out inequality but preserve cultural differences. You can see the relevant video in Guardian here. She is one of the world's leading economists, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi, and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates (Ideas). What a pleasure to see today such leading figures in economics to embrace ideas presented in a book published in 2008 , before the economic crisis, that forecasted the turmoil .. Have you read the book “Nice Capitalism” ? The book was proved prophetic, since with his own way ( and with it’s underlined message “Nice Capitalism…WANTED! ) forecasted in time the collapse of the American economic hegemony and it’s model of “Selfish” Capitalism - characterized by greed, arrogance but also indifference for the increasing inequalities in the society - and the supremacy of “Nice” Capitalism that is adopted mainly in countries of Europe , based on the ancient Greek – centric idea of “metron” (measure) in life. 

Monsanto and other Global Brands Give Millions to Kill GMO Labeling

New campaign finance reports reveal that Monsanto Co. just contributed $4.2 million to defeat Proposition 37 in California / US, which would require labeling of genetically engineered food, according to consumer watch dog Right to Know .  That is the largest contribution in the race.  Total contributions from major global brands to defeat Proposition 37, amount to $25 million.

Thus far, the “Big 6” pesticide companies (Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont) have contributed $13.5 million to defeat Proposition 37. See details in the link. http://www.carighttoknow.org/monsanto_gives_4_2_million_to_kill_california_gmo_labeling_initiative

Σε αφανισμό οδηγούνται οι μεγάλες ελληνικές βιομηχανίες από τις εξοντωτικές τιμές του φυσικού αερίου

Με Ειδικό Φόρο Κατανάλωσης (ΕΦΚ) δεκαπλάσιο από άλλες χώρες, έλλειψη ανταγωνισμού, μονοπωλιακές πρακτικές, άκαμπτο ρυθμιστικό πλαίσιο και εξοντωτικά τιμολόγια που είναι 100% ακριβότερα από ότι σε γειτονικές χώρες και σε χώρες της ΕΕ, το φυσικό αέριο βάζει τη ταφόπλακα στην χαμένη ανταγωνιστικότητα των Ελληνικών προϊόντων και γίνεται η αιτία να οδηγηθούν χιλιάδες ακόμη εργαζόμενοι στην ανεργία. Διαβάστε περισσότερα εδω.

THE NEW TRIAL OF SOCRATES 2012: Serious stuff for Thought Leaders

In the spring of 399 B.C., Socrates confronted 500 Athenians, citizens, judges and jurors, in his trial initiated by the charges leveled at him by Meletus, Anytos and Lycon. The trial began with a reading of the formal charges: Socrates is guilty of crime in refusing to recognise the gods acknowledged by the state, and importing strange divinities of his own; he is further guilty of corrupting the young.

On May 2012, almost 2,500 years later, the trial of Socrates was repeated. This time Socrates was acquitted in a historical trial which is not a re-enactment but a modern perspective based on current legal framework supplemented with ancient Greek elements and comical theatrics.

The Alexander S. Onassis Foundation found advocates for its venture, top American and European judges and lawyers, who all examined the trial material retrieved from ancient texts by Plato (Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, Phaedo), Xenophon (Memorabilia) and Aristophanes (The Clouds), as well as the corresponding Athenian law of that time.

The 2012 event took place in Athens ( the 2011 trial was in New York), and you may see the relevant video ( also in English and French languages, with concurrent translation), at : http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/688

Building Ripples Into Your Futureproof Brand

By Marc Stoiber

The concept of brand has rippled, or expanded, greatly with the rise of sustainability.

Suddenly, it isn’t all about limiting interaction to times revolving around consumption. Companies are thinking about how the consumer can do more, impacting the environment during use or at disposal, for example. And they’re also going further and further up the supply chain to ensure virtuous behavior – knowing that journalists are growing more vocal about environmental infractions that previously remained hidden.

Speaking with Robert ter Kuile, PepsiCo’s senior director of environmental sustainability, I learned that this ripple is now spreading beyond the consumer entirely, and into their community.

Ter Kuile, who speaks about innovation in water use this week at GLOBE 2012, said that his company is digging deep into local communities to find water saving opportunities that produce both positive environmental and consumer impact.

“If you start thinking outside your watershed, you’ll miss nuances of the local situation that you really need to pay attention to” ter Kuile said. “It’s about breaking down the watershed where we operate, and analyzing the situation across the spectrum – from farms to the supply chain to runoff.”

Ter Kuile used PepsiCo’s Casa Grande, Arizona facility as an example. The plant operates at near net zero waste and zero landfill. It is powered entirely by renewable resources – solar and biomass. And a new water filtration plant cleans used water to US drinking water standards, enabling it to be reused in operations and eliminating wasteful ‘one-pass’ water. It isn’t hard to see how this story would make the news in a desert city, and earn a positive glow for the company.

PepsiCo took the ripple even further, signing a joint declaration with the UN, stating that … read the full story at : http://www.marcstoiber.com/2012/03/13/building-ripples-into-your-futureproof-brand/ 

What Makes an Iconic Brand?

Brands are an accepted part of our daily lives. But some brands seem to transcend their product or service categories to become part of the popular culture. What distinguishes these iconic brands from the rest of the pack, and what can marketers learn from them?

In today's world, brands are everywhere, a familiar part of daily life for most people. But a few brands, such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald's, have set themselves apart. These brands have come to represent something more than a product or service. They are embedded in our culture and our consciousness. They are icons.

Iconic brands inspire an enduring form of affection that any marketer would want for his brand. But iconic status, which has traditionally been built over decades, is enjoyed by relatively few brands. What can we learn from these brand icons that might be useful to all brand marketers today? Read the full report by WWP :

http://www.wpp.com/wpp/marketing/branding/whatmakesaniconicbrand.htm

Restoring Confidence in Brands

Long before the crisis, a number of studies showed a growing lack of trust in business and their leaders,. For example, only ¼ of the public trust them. Further on, brand importance goes also steadily down. For example, brand loyalty today is only 9%, from 40% some years ago. The crisis also showed that the notion of “Powerless State” is a myth. Society is now pressing harder for a new “corporate social contract “ and the new issues for the businesses are endless, including: regulation, environment, unions, privacy, safety, off shoring, civil society, governments as owners, consumer activists, NGOs and others. How modern corporations and brands could respond to these strategic and organizational challenges, beyond simplistic CSR, “Green Wash” practices and the recently invented by brands concept of “social missions in the supermarket shelf? See more and contribute to the debate here.

Rebranding Greece

Brand Greece certainly has a perception problem. While other EU countries have worse economic indicators regarding debt and fiscal discipline,  Greece  easily is considered Europe’s top laggard and a  prominent member in the PIGS club. Greeks are the ones that according to Eurostat are  working more harder in EU (30% more that the Germans and the others in the European North … not included the usual second unregistered job sometimes ) and are consider lazy !! So who to blame about that? The answer is ..Zorba, according to  Peter Economides, a prominent branding guru. Peter Economides is a Greek  brand strategist with a global perspective. Owner and founder of Felix BNI based in Athens, Peter is a former Executive Vice President and Worldwide Director of Client Services at global advertising agency McCann Erickson Worldwide and Head of Global Clients at TBWA\Worldwide. You can see the relevant slide presentation here and watch a  recent video  with his speech about ‘ Brand Greece’ and some other  big misconceptions here. 

Brandkarma: an open reputation system for brands

Brandkarma is a new, open reputation system for brands designed to amplify ratings and suggestions to drive positive change.
Brandkarma looks at brands in a new light. How good are their Products, how well do they treat People, and how well do they look after the Planet?
For a brand to have good karma it needs to score well on all three Ps. It's a simple approach to sustainability that everyone can engage with.
Brandkarma is open, democratic and transparent and we're aiming to be a positive influence on brands. Besides rating them, users can make suggestions to improve a brand's Product, People or Planet karma.
Interesting enough to see in the top 3 position in relevant rankings up to now one of our favorite, nice , brands : Patagonia. See more about Brandkarma here.

Tribute to Steve

What Brands are Doing to Our Brains?

Brands activating our left angular gyrus, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex  or left orbitofrontal gyrus, ie systems  in our brain that are associated with the extraction of meaning, conceptual organization,  reward, etc could be  common topics in the  daily agenda of branding managers of  high-value brands in our  times.

Neurosciences have entered in a close engagement with marketing in search of the Holly Gray of Branding: finding  and controlling  our Buy  Button in the deep of our vast brain ocean with billions of connections.

But where are the ethical boundaries of such initiatives like  Neuromarketing and Brain Branding? Paradoxically, and contrary to what is believed by naïve observers and writers , in the last  decades the more the brands were growing  and flourishing the less  is the level of  human happiness and human satisfaction, in steady decline in the western world (see Easterlin Paradox).  We are not all aware but we are  living in the era of Branded…  Unhappiness, as I had analyzed in my  book Nice Capitalism. As Tim Kasser’s  (The High Price of Materialism) research shows, those who place a higher value on acquiring material goods  and brands, aren’t as happy as their less materialistic counterparts. He further provides evidence that such a behavior leads to low satisfaction, personality disorders and even antisocial behavior. And are the brands today that,

through advertising, are imposing our Value System  and Lifestyle.  But what is even more worrying is that brands , through overstimulation, invasion and manipulative techniques, could lead  individuals to  the dark sphere of depression. Depression will be the second larger killer after heart disease by 2020 and a contributor to coronary disease. Almost 15% of the population suffers severe depression  in the western world (more than 20 million Americans). Further on, it appears now  more and more in  the youth and not only in those around 40 years old. The mechanism that describes the secret path to depression in  our branded world is described in detailed in my book and is graphically presented in the illustration above (click to enlarge). As a scientist  with a long experience in marketing, I strongly believe that branding  should exist for the mutual  good of the individual and the business. And that good, ultimately, is to improve human satisfaction and human happiness and well – being. Those brands that are investing in the exploration of the ocean of  our brain connections should  return back to their true  and legal mission. In the opposite case the society has to  re - evaluate  their license to operate. What’s your opinion? Do you share the view that branding should have certain moral boundaries? Let’s start the discussion.