by Jarvis Cromwell

Marketers have been handed their biggest opportunity in years. With public distrust – and in some cases disgust – in big brands and companies, the perception that customers, employees, regulators and others have right now is this:

“Big companies are not in it for me.”

So what happens when you show customers otherwise – demonstrating that you place them above other goals? Crank up the cash register, that’s what. How you signal your brand intent is more powerful than kryptonite right now.

To see the power of this idea in action, take a look at the video below.  Titled “Embrace Life” it’s a brilliant public information campaign on seat belt safety that ran only in the local area of Sussex England. But then it went viral.  In just a few weeks it’s been seen in 129 countries, and rated in the top five videos on YouTube with 6 million views and climbing. There’s no dialogue, the language is universal.

It might even make you cry. Why? Because it reminds us what we care about. Us. As the famed New York Times editor Ted Bernstein once said, “eternally basic is how people live.”

Marketers like to talk about building an emotional connection with the audience. To sustain a connection that matters, one that really “connects” to your company or brand – your intentions not only have to ring true, they have measure up to your actions and the customer’s experience.

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Reputation Garage Managing Principal Jarvis Cromwell will be running a roundtable at BDI’s 2nd annual Social Communications & Healthcare – Case Studies and Roundtables conference.

Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Location: The Graduate Center / CUNY; 365 Fifth Avenue; New York, NY 10016
Registration Fee: $195 (Use Reputation Garage discount code “RG” to and fee is reduced to $155)
Website: http://www.bdionline.com/socialhealthcare2010.html

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For the first time in quite a while, the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) is opening up one of their exclusive webinars to non-members. We’ll be the presenters and our readers are free to join. See Below.

If your management hasn’t asked you what steps the company is taking to improve its ability to manage reputational risk, chances are they will. Risk of all kinds has climbed to the top of management and board agendas and reputational risk ranks within the top ten of CEO concerns.

If past experience is any indicator, 10% of the Fortune 1000 will have a severe reputational event over the next decade that costs them 25% or more of their share value. Worse, virtually every organization today is unequipped to fully manage, measure and monitor the “reputational defects” that occur daily across their operations -contributing to what is the lowest trust environment in a century.

Fortunately new ideas and performance-based practices are emerging.

JOIN MENG ON THURSDAY, APRIL 22nd AT NOON EASTERN TIME FOR…

SECRETS TO AVOIDING THE 7 DEADLY REPUTATIONAL MISSTEPS
Open to Non-Members
Practical New Rules & Strategies to Help Management Teams Reduce Reputational Risk and Improve Corporate Performance

APRIL 22, NOON ET

Jarvis Cromwell and Jerry Doyle bring years of experience to the topic and have consulted to and worked for the highest levels of corporate, government and nonprofit management. They will explain how the environment has radically changed in recent years and offer new techniques that you can begin applying immediately. Learn what the 7 deadly missteps are – so you don’t make them!

by STEPHANIE FIERMAN

There’s a real reputation-meets-commerce battle happening online.

Today, any advertiser with a Google AdWords account can buy virtually any keyword to advertise its own goods, regardless of whether the advertiser in question has the rights to use the word. This is particularly troublesome to companies that have spent decades burnishing brand franchises and consider the associated names and words to be reputational assets of great value.

If you go to Google right now and type in “LVMH” (the owner of numerous brands including Louis Vuitton and Hennessy), one of the sponsored ads shouts “Designer Handbags 70% off,” with a URL that includes the Louis Vuitton name. This has LVMH steamed, and the company sued Google in Europe for trademark infringement.

Well the ruling is in… and it’s a split decision. Advantage: Google. Continue Reading

By JARVIS CROMWELL

I’ll be leading a roundtable at BDI’s upcoming Social Reputation Management Conference in NYC on March 24. My topic will be “Quality Assurance for Reputation” Clients, readers and friends of the Reputation Garage can receive a discount and attend for only $155.

You can find more info and register HERE. Use the code RG to receive your discount.

by ANDREW JAFFE

When NY ad agency Kaplan Thaler won the Aflac account ten years ago it was given an interesting challenge: Make employers subscribe to Aflac as a premium auxiliary health plan for their employees.

Most agencies would have rushed to come up with a B2B solution. But Kaplan Thaler had a better idea: How about going direct to employees with a big-budget TV campaign and get them to “ask about it at work,” in other words bug their bosses to take on Aflac as an added benefit.

Today few people in America don’t associate the name Aflac (the company until recently was formally called the American Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus, Georgia) with that intrusive duck which became the singular icon of the campaign.

Awareness is sky high, but more important Aflac has enjoyed double digit sales growth almost throughout the entire period – at least up until the 2007-2009 recession, which resulted in companies cutting back in benefits across the board. But there has always been grousing inside the company that many people responded to the duck – but didn’t have the faintest idea what the duck would do for them.

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