Archive for March, 2009

Thoughtpile

Posted in Interactive on March 31st, 2009

Thougtpile is a new crowd sourcing tool currently in demo mode, invented by Herman Miller.
Miller has produced the project to promote a new chair ‘Embody’, which is ‘a chair built on ideas’.
The idea behind it is that you are able to submit questions of a life, universe, nature,…(e.g. ‘everything changes, whether we are agree or not’). There are bubbles all over your screen and by clicking on them, you can see what others have written down.
You can also participate in the questions of others by choosing if you are agree about a certain subject or disagree. If you like, you can add a certain quote to your favorites ones or you can send it to a friend. On my opinion it looks great and I hope they make a real tool out of it. It is an opportunity to gather people around and getting to know their opinions about certain ideas.
Check it out and visit the site.

Thoughtpile –>

Your

Posted in communication on March 3rd, 2009

Within the expert group Sustainable Branding at Stichting Marketing we mentioned the changing influence of all stakeholders in the way your brand (and company) will survive in the future. This is of course a dayful discussion by itself, but what about the ownership of a brand!? Like we always say ‘perception is everything’, does that mean that you don’t own your own brand anymore? Before it was a fact that your  audience liked or desliked your brand, due to several reasons which were created by the product, the quality, the marketing and that’s about it. So it was quiet straight forward to control that position. Today a lot more arguments have to be considered, related to a communication which goes to much more stakeholders. If Nike creates the most wonderful running shoes, supported by an appealing ad campaign, but offends the local community around the distribution center, then today ther symbol would become a real boomerang that slams in their own face. But this was just a small example. Just think about it and it will open a complete new mindset, not driven by smart marketing boys and girls, but by your audience which is not just your clients. They own your brand… –>