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Two of the early 1990s icon brands for social responsibility, were The Body Shop and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Now, over 15 years later, both these companies are still around and to a certain degree, thriving. Ben and Jerry's is now owned by Unilever, who has brought discipline and structure to...
In Part One, we covered some of the trends and the media opportunities that were enabling the rise of the creative consumer. Now, thanks to our friends at Trendwatching, our task for Part Two has been made much easier. Trendwatching just released a comprehensive summary, highlighting examples of...
Last year's documentary film, The Corporation presented a radical theory, that corporations are psychopaths. This year, Alex Gibney's film, Enron-The Smartest Guys in the Room, expands on the point and goes into detail on the excesses of corporate power. It will remind people of the significance...
Consumers now have the opportunity to be more creative and participatory in the marketing, media and entertainment worlds, Influx thought it would make sense to catalog some of the stories, a short history, that highlights this trend and identifies a few examples of the opportunities that exist for...
Instead of expecting consumers to come to you and test drive, Mercedes-Benz is trying a different tactic, bringing the test drive to the consumer. These events on their own, aren't especially new, but the way Mercedes has integrated the them into its advertising campaign is interesting. Using...
Dismissed by many as a fad, molecular gastronomy has a new found legitimacy, as last week, Britain's The Fat Duck was named the world's best restaurant.At The Fat Duck you will find the most extraordinary menu items imaginable. The Degustation Menu includes; snail porridge, sardine on toast...
Every marketer knows that reaching consumers today is a difficult job. Yankelovich has just released a study that's supposed to show just how tough it is. However, the findings are far from conclusive and somewhat contradictory and confusing.In a way it highlights some of the inherent problems with...
Much of the last week's buzz on the web has been around Google Maps,which for the first time, combined a map search service with a satellite image. Suddenly, we could sit at our computers and search around America. Within hours, sites had emerged that took you on tours to familiar locations and...
It isnt just Mattel that's in trouble, Hasbro and Lego, two of toyland's giants are also feeling the pain. Lego recently announced that it will spin-off its theme parks to focus on its core construction block business. All companies are feeling the pressure from the retail shake-up that has seen...
Polo Ralph Lauren confessed last week to compromising credit card data on 180,000 of its customers. It is the latest in a string of revelations over the past two months from companies like ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, DSW Shoe Warehouse, and Bank of America that have outraged and startled consumers....
In the high stakes game for next generation console supremacy, the early running is a PR battle up until E3, when both Sony and Microsoft will unveil their new machines. Clearly both corporate giants have aspirations for these consoles, way behind gaming.Microsoft has struck early in its bid to...
Tom Friedman's new book, The World is Flat-A Brief History of the 21st Century, explores the concept of the leveled global playing field. Friedman argues that due to developments in technology combined with increasingly open global markets, countries, companies and individuals are now operating...
Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola, have many similarities, one key attribute they both share is the presence of giant core brands, with Budweiser and Coca-Cola respectively. While these brands contribute massively to the bottom line, any slight slow down in sales has a dramatic impact on the company....
In the 1950s brands promised us that we could be just like everybody else and now we want to be different from everyone else, so what's a brand to do? The solution for many brands as they start to suffer from the ubiquity problem is to try and find a willing partner to partner with and add some sex...
Communicators and analysts are always busy searching for the next, new thing, for the past few months it has been Branded Content. Then there has also been considerable discussion about the power of product design, with Apple, being highlighted as the iconic success story.Packaging design, although...