Jeremy Morris
Building A Community Around Your Blog: Part 1
If you want your company to be known as an expert online you need to earn attention and credibility among the folks you want to engage with. The best way to do that is to start a blog – packed with relevant, compelling information...
The Razorfish 2010 Outlook Report: 5 Reasons To Expect More
This is a really unfair post. Razorfish just published their 2010 Outlook Report. I think it's a disappointment and I'm going to tell you why. So why is that unfair? Because they took the time and energy to write it and I didn't. Instead...
Brands Are Dead. Reputation Is King
Doc Searls (he of Cluetrain Manifesto fame) has a great post up called Reputation vs Branding. His premise is that the idea of branding is dead and that what's really important is the sum total of a company's reputation, established over years, and held...
Lipstick On The Pig: BP’s Teachable Moment
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Jeez you'd think these guys would have learned a bit about crisis management by now) still has a very pretty blurb on its website about the work it did back in 1999 to help rebrand the oil company BP. Quote: "Our...
Cisco’s Social Strategy: Customer Engagement Isn’t Enough
As customers and consumers become more active in social media, they're gaining access to the wealth of constantly evolving information that resides on the web and increasingly contributing their own knowledge of brands, products and services. At the same time millions of businesses –...
3 Lessons For Successful Co-creation
Crowdsourcing and co-creation are two major buzzwords in social media circles and for good reason. The network effect of social enables companies to engage with consumers and customers in ways that might radically accelerate innovation and creativity – and drive WOM, loyalty, market-share and...
Social Is Useless If You Have Nothing To Say
One of the core beliefs that underpin Understand And Serve is the need for companies to stand for something that transcends the usual corporate mission of maximizing profit. Previously we've talked about a bunch of companies that fall into that category including Apple and...
Comfortably Numb: Too Many Companies Still Aren’t Listening
Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me Is there anybody home? If that's a consumer asking the question they might have to wait a while for a reply at least according to a recent Alterian survey of marketers Are…
Case study: Why ad agencies make horrible marketing partners
Last week Sir Martin Sorrell gave an interview in the WSJ India. In it he discussed his thoughts and attitudes towards social media. Money quote: "… not a medium that really lends itself to commercial exploitation…The more you try and invade it with commercial...
A Spend Strategy Even Your CFO Will Love
Strategy sets direction in which a company wants to go. The key is to develop a strategy that accounts for consumer and competitive realities and then communicate it to all stakeholders. It can be formal or informal, very detailed or simple, but...
3 Things Every Company Can Learn From Pixar
Watching the Oscars last night I was struck (yet again) by the utter brilliance of Pixar. Across 17 years, 10 movies and a major (successful) corporate merger, Pixar has consistently delivered movies that not only redefine what's possible in the worlds of visual technology and...
Innovate Or Die (Why Corporate America Needs Great Leaders)
"A relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And what I think we got on our hands is a dead shark". Three guesses who came up with that little gem Sprint customers The American people about…
Why Companies Must Talk To Customers (And 5 Reasons Why They Don’t)
One of the most exciting opportunities the web opens up for companies is the potential to use it as a publishing platform and engage directly with customers and consumers. Companies, just like individuals, now have the tools to go where their customers hang-out online and...
Three Reasons PR is Conquering Advertising
Edelman, the world biggest PR agency, made news today with the announcement that they've hired Richard Sambrook to be Chief Content Officer and to lead their crisis and issues practice. Why is this news? Because it points to how the web has turned both...
5 1/2 Golden Rules For Business Success
Golden rules are simple in theory perhaps but much harder to put into practice – unless of course you happen to occupy the corner office in which case you can do what you want….until the next board meeting. Anyhow, here they are. Pay me...
Why America Needs Steve Jobs
One of my favorite economics phrases (let's face it there aren't many) is 'animal spirits'. First used by John Maynard Keynes, 'animal spirits' refers to the red-blooded, naive optimism that raises the pulse of entrepreneurial business leaders and leaves them feeling invincible; masters (and...
Why Companies Must Lead, Not Consumers
In a recent post my colleague David discusses a critical issue to do with the shift of power between corporations and consumers. As David notes, while consumer empowerment creates an urgent need for companies to understand and serve the needs of their customers better,...
Why Consumers Don’t Trust Companies (And What To Do About It)
At Understand & Serve we believe the companies that win are those who understand their customers best – their needs, views and life-context – and then serve them in the best way they possibly can – with great products, a clear mission, and personal,...
Live Long And Prosper
At Understand & Serve we believe the companies that win are those who understand their customers best – their needs, views and life-context – and then serve them in the best way they possibly can – with great products, a clear mission, and personal,...
Ten Steps To Integrate Social Media
I've been reading a lot about how 2010 will be the year in which companies begin to take social media seriously – looking for bigger ideas, throwing real money at it and demanding greater proof of ROI. That's great. It's definitely time we moved...