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"It is a challenge for society, not just business," he said. "But business has co-responsibility for some of the issues in society and for helping find solutions. The time is over to say: 'This is for the Government' or 'This is for international institutions'. Nobody is served by that. Look at how many businesses were affected [by the UK riots].

"If social cohesion and the glue of society become less, I think it would be an environment that would be very difficult for business to be successful. So we have to find solutions."

 

What’s the impact of a bad review?
An interesting post last week investigated how negative service and product reviews impacts consumers’ purchase decisions. A recently released survey found that 80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw.

But what makes these findings so revealing is that most people search for products online. In other words, positive word of mouth online is one of the very most important things a business can have – as witnessed by the explosion of people now trusting blogs on what to purchase:

“There is also something that’s lacking in traditional media that we can get more from social media, and that is the capacity to tell a story,” Huffington said during the second day of the InfoTrends technology event happening in São Paulo last week. “We are too concerned with data in traditional media and I think it is much more difficult to get people’s attention that way than it is with stories,” she said, citing the Huffington Post as an example. “We don’t just give our readers information. We also provide them with a platform where they can share their points of view and interests,” she added.

Gamification is the latest shiny new object for marketers. It’s the practice of adding game dynamics into your campaigns in order to drive participation and engagement.

Excellent insight on Gamification from Tom Fishburne...

Managers and entrepreneurs walk past lucrative opportunities all the time, and later kick themselves when someone else exploits the strategy they overlooked. Why does this happen? It’s often because of the natural human tendency known to psychologists as confirmation bias: People tend to notice data that confirms their existing attitudes and beliefs, and ignore or discredit information that challenges them.

Although it is difficult to overcome confirmation bias, it is not impossible. Managers can increase their skill at spotting hidden opportunities by learning to pay attention to the subtle clues all around them. These are often contradictions, incongruities, and anomalies that don’t jibe with most of the prevailing assumptions about what should happen.

Depending on the organization's karma, not being there may not be an option anymore. However, being more responsive than through normal channels, "DM me your account and we'll take care of things", sets a bad precedent.

With Facebook ramping up its geolocation efforts to combat pressure from the likes of Gowalla, Foursquare and many others, the company announced today that it’s working with McDonalds to create a campaign to reward customers for “checking in” at locations using Facebook’s new geolocation functionality.

BP's problem is that the gap between truth and fiction is so huge, and the stakes are so high when that distance is revealed.

The company’s CEO illustrated this disconnect recently when he said that BP hadn’t done more to prepare for such a disaster because it "seemed inconceivable," after reports surfaced that it had forgone a $500,000 "acoustic trigger" shut-off device required of offshore oil wells operating near Norway and Brazil. Turns out that going "beyond petroleum" didn't warrant another half-million expense.

So where is all the brand equity BP has spent a decade propagating into the cosmos? Gone, I say; worse, it only accentuates the dishonesty at the core of its business. It is going to be harder from now on for analysts to accurately judge its performance, just as media will need to more closely question its statements. Is it possible that those beautiful austere filling stations will serve as visible reminders of disasters and dishonesty to consumers as they drive past?

Think how differently we’d all react if BP had been telling us the truth all along. Instead, as one dim bulber put it, the brand is "beyond pathetic."