tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57359339711781188402024-03-18T00:46:52.841-07:00Brand MixBranding stories, ideas, thoughts and observationsMartin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.comBlogger613110tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-33568316728697251542012-08-21T08:14:00.000-07:002012-08-21T08:14:33.065-07:00Patience--the forgotten virtue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">My second post for Fast Company has been <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3000391/patience-forgotten-virtue-business">published</a>.
By way of John Cleese, it talks about how patience may be a missing ingredient for branding in general and for J. C. Penney in particular.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/candiedwomanire/2205836028/">Photo </a></span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com121tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-1741183873389316212012-07-26T13:01:00.000-07:002012-07-26T13:01:46.951-07:00Olympic sponsors make the public pay the price<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">My first post in Fast Company has been <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1843470/when-olympic-brand-bullying-backfires">published</a>. It's about how the battle between Olympic sponsors and their ambush-minded competitors has gone too far. Sponsors are so focused on stopping ambush marketing that they are not paying attention to the collateral damage inflicted on innocent bystanders, namely the regular people who actually buy their product.</div></span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-38555566162943714192012-03-28T08:58:00.000-07:002012-03-28T08:58:22.231-07:00Brand Architecture: Building Brand Value<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgPhOX3YKzqKGFZoZWhLHQjmg0JHBvpcN-Hd0qygjRkksKkeSYMYKOOhNEFX327SnTihpbKQ-KOwhyZNbqej-zK2TzOFL9Il10JiILeaBuQHMetR5UzAYRi5cFeuL1q6BgzBh2KHGq4A/s1600/Less.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgPhOX3YKzqKGFZoZWhLHQjmg0JHBvpcN-Hd0qygjRkksKkeSYMYKOOhNEFX327SnTihpbKQ-KOwhyZNbqej-zK2TzOFL9Il10JiILeaBuQHMetR5UzAYRi5cFeuL1q6BgzBh2KHGq4A/s320/Less.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">My latest <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/170157/brand-architecture-building-brand-value.html">post</a> is out on MarketingDaily. This one is about brand architecture and, specifically, the usefulness of brand value as a way to evaluate brand architecture options. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Brand architecture is almost always about trade-offs--a single brand strategy may be very efficient but you may lose the ability to focus on a particular customer or market segment whereas a P&G-like house of brands strategy is all about focus but is much more expensive to operate.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Brand value thinking boils down decisions into an evaluation of costs and benefits--will the customer be willing to pay more for a benefit than it costs the company to create that benefit? Such thinking puts a premium on simplicity and challenges businesses to look for sources of inefficiency and waste.<br />
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There can be strong arguments for going to market with a portfolio of brands but there's no excuse for wasting money supporting a complicated and expensive brand architecture if it's not paying its way.
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In brand architecture, less is often more.
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theilr/2200873034/">Photo</a></span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-41748107439279762922012-01-19T10:04:00.000-08:002012-01-19T10:04:38.694-08:00In taste, brand matters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">My latest <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/165900/in-taste-brand-matters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marketing-daily+%28MediaPost+%7C+Marketing+Daily%29">post</a> is out on MarketingDaily. In it, I talk about the power of packaging to influence taste. Research has show that people are highly sensitive to non-taste cues when they are evaluating the taste of something.<br />
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As I say in the post: "It’s not just about the product inside. The brand matters because it tells consumers what to expect and influences how they evaluate a product." </span><br />
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You may be curious which beer was the "outright loser" in my blind taste test (maybe as curious as I am about why this part of the story was edited out) but, hopefully, your curiosity is now satisfied.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pviojoenchile/3339351035/">Photo</a>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-74990841868946829152011-12-14T07:28:00.000-08:002011-12-14T07:28:00.569-08:0015 Social Media Tips for the holidaysHere's my holiday gift to my readers. To be honest, it's a regift, since these social media tips were originally published (in longer form) in the MarketingDaily. There are five tips on basic social media principles and approach and ten tips on criteria for planning social media programs. <br />
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<u><b><a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/162174/5-tips-for-stepping-into-social-media.html">Principles</a></b></u><br />
<b>1. Be human</b><br />
Social media is about engaging with customers on a personal level, something marketers sometimes forget. In social media
interaction, you should be asking yourself: 'What would a human do?' And
do that.<br />
<b>2. Don’t overreach</b><br />
Most brands, especially CPG brands, aren't all that engaging from a consumer perspective. So go easy on the pedal--the #1 reason that brands get 'unliked' on Facebook is that they post too frequently.<br />
<b>3. Add value</b><br />
You can always add value, however mundane your product. You can provide useful information, take up an important
cause or, if all else fails, give
out coupons (which is what most consumers want anyway).<br />
<b>4. Listen and respond</b><br />
95% of questions posted on their Facebook are not answered.
95%! I don't think answering questions is optional. You get to talk but you also need to listen and
respond.<br />
<b>5. Use the f*ing tools yourself</b><br />
Only 26% of CMOs are actually using social media tools. Not good
enough! <br />
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<b><a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/163736/think-about-developing-a-social-media-plan.html"><u>Criteria</u></a></b><u><br /></u>
<b>1. Brand-led</b><br />
Start with the brand, not the social media platform.<br />
<b>2. Theme-led</b><br />
Build your social media activities around a
specific theme. This helps pull everything together and makes the program more
impactful. <br />
<b>3. Product fit</b><br />
Develop programs that take advantage of things your company is
good at or known for. These will have more credibility,
authenticity and impact.<br />
<b>4. Customer interests</b><br />
Develop ideas that appeal to your customers. Find out what they like and what they care about enough to spend some of their limited free time discussing with you.<br />
<b>5. Other marketing program fit</b><br />
Leverage your existing marketing activity. Programs that build on advertising or promotion
activity or sponsorship events have a head start.
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<b>6. Social media fit</b><br />
Pick the right social
media platform for your activity--each one is great for some things, less suited for others.
Not everything needs to on Facebook!<br />
<b>7. Impact</b><br />
Select programs that are worth the effort in terms of the number and quality of people they will reach.<br />
<b>8. Efficiency</b><br />
Define the objectives of your social media activities upfront and identify the metrics that you will use to see if they worked.
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<b>9. Risk assessment</b><br />
Assess the risk are you incurring with social media activities. <br />
<b>10. Long term vs. short term</b><br />
Make sure, especially for longer-term programs, that you are going to be able to support them both financially and operationally.<br />
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Meanwhile, The CMO Council has <a href="http://www.cmocouncil.org/images/uploads/216.pdf">published</a> a survey which shows that marketers are continuing to struggle with what to do with social media. The survey polled both consumers and marketers and found a significant gap between what people want from brands and what they are actually getting.<br />
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As the report says: "The bottom line is that consumers want more—more experiences, more engagement, more rewards, and more reasons to connect with each other and brands through social media. And brands are missing the boat. They see the benefits of reaching out to customers through social channels, but they aren’t yet fully invested. While 52 percent of marketers reported they believe their brands have enjoyed greater influence thanks to their presence in social networks like Facebook, only 17 percent said that social media is fully meshed, aligned, and integrated into the overall marketing mix."<br />
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Lots more to do in 2012!Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-60344772735490121162011-11-21T08:50:00.000-08:002011-11-21T12:15:55.217-08:00Lululemon puts an Ayn Rand stamp on yoga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDlcE3cWFxCUmkmB7j1VmIXBCRc0I3r8K0ePqTU-utHAjr55Nt8aRmJ5ko_7JVNVUa7-Bds-Hn-vngUwd5dOJwdm8GACgChlq6CA_Ea-O-A2kFjr9gsFTm4tb7tXKl3t2M1V_tJ8A4SI/s1600/whoisjohngalt-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDlcE3cWFxCUmkmB7j1VmIXBCRc0I3r8K0ePqTU-utHAjr55Nt8aRmJ5ko_7JVNVUa7-Bds-Hn-vngUwd5dOJwdm8GACgChlq6CA_Ea-O-A2kFjr9gsFTm4tb7tXKl3t2M1V_tJ8A4SI/s320/whoisjohngalt-final.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Lululemon has ridden the wave of yoga's popularity with great success, selling high end yoga clothes and promoting healthy living. So deciding to associate with a philosophy that's the antithesis of what yoga is all about seems a little odd, to say the least. </span><br />
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As <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/11/17/142472057/lululemon-customers-asked-who-is-john-galt">reported</a> on NPR, the company's new shopping bags feature the question: "Who is John Galt?". And who is John Galt? He's the protagonist of Ayn Rand's novel <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> where she laid out her Objectivist philosophy, including the idea that selfishness is a virtue,</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">a very un-yoga-like position.<br />
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Why this seeming act of self-destruction? Lululemon's own <a href="http://www.lululemon.com/community/blog/who-is-john-galt/">post</a> on the subject explains that Chip Wilson, the company's founder, read <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> when he was 18 and was really inspired by it. So this could be a simple story about another ego-charged CEO running amok. But it's a bit more complicated than that.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">The company was, in fact, founded with the mission to "elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness," an idea straight out of the Rand book. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">And its culture reflects many of her ideals. If you look at Lululemon's <a href="http://www.lululemon.com/about/manifesto#">brand manifesto</a>, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">you can see that it's a sampling of ideas and philosophies, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">some yoga-compatible </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">("The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness"</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">) and some more </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Rand-like ("Successful people replace the words 'wish,' 'should' and 'try' with 'I WILL.'"). </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">As long as you don't delve too deeply, the company's mix and match of ideas kind of holds together and the company has clearly thrived despite its ideological impurity. The problem with the John Galt bags is that they shine a bright light at just one of the sources of inspiration and a very polarizing one at that. Now everyone who buys from the store will be carrying out a political statement as well as some expensive clothes.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Let's see what the impact will actually be. Maybe nothing. Whole Foods didn't suffer any lasting damage when its CEO did something <a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/14/ceos-anti-obamacare-comments-incite-whole-foods-customers/">similar</a>. But the bags have caused quite a stir in some quarters of the yoga community with many promising never to buy anything from the store ever again.<br />
</span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-42396462164987402092011-11-14T08:06:00.000-08:002011-11-14T08:06:00.582-08:00Australia's new cigarette law bans branded packaging, tests branding principles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrqLwNv3XjnWpE46J4sgxf8sdCxabjC3Tyg2AZXzqqu67D3w274U1y7AOwWo-I7nUopriKaVSfwPoiNCLqG_LV71qMH4r2U916JlLfqjWALRzlZW5fkXQlNV126MLpOGeKIoPEt_G_rAU/s1600/plainpack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrqLwNv3XjnWpE46J4sgxf8sdCxabjC3Tyg2AZXzqqu67D3w274U1y7AOwWo-I7nUopriKaVSfwPoiNCLqG_LV71qMH4r2U916JlLfqjWALRzlZW5fkXQlNV126MLpOGeKIoPEt_G_rAU/s320/plainpack.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="line-height: 1.5;">
Australia has become the first country in the world to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/us-australia-smoking-idUSTRE7A924N20111110">ban</a> the branding of cigarette packages. From next July, all packs will look like the one in the picture--they will be a deliberately unappealing olive green color, the brand of the manufacturer will be printed in a tiny, generic font (i.e. no trademarks) and the only images will be graphic health warnings. Thus the Australians are setting up an interesting, real world packaging test. What will happen when the new, generic packaging hits the shelves? <br />
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The one thing that the government and the cigarette manufacturers agree on is that the impact will be significant. Given previous bans on advertising, sponsorships and other forms of marketing communication, the pack is the last bastion of branding activity. Health Minister Nicola Roxon <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15670297">says</a> that she believes the new law will give Australia the best chance of having the lowest smoking rate in the world.<br />
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Manufacturers, for their part, have threatened legal action on the basis <span id="articleText">that the new rules restrict their trademark and intellectual property rights. </span>The British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) issued a statement which <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hdkJ8HVfL7ckbMTeYK2EYMEmhhqg?docId=CNG.03f64e6a0a046fdfd69a2fac4e9f8644.241">said</a>: "The result of BATA's legal challenges could force Health Minister Nicola Roxon to pay tobacco companies billions of dollars for the
removal of trademarks, brands and pack space." <br />
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Assuming these legal challenges fail and the law goes into effect, what will happen? Will demand go down as expected? Not according to the cigarette manufacturers. They are actually predicting that demand will go up because they will be forced to compete on price. David Crow, CEO of BATA, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/11/11/142232709/australia-passes-plain-package-law-for-cigarettes">says</a> that's what his company intends to do: "We will obviously focus on pricing given it's the only thing really left to differentiate brands."<br />
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So could the unintended consequence of the legislation be that smoking actually increases because the market is flooded with cheap cigarettes? The cigarette manufacturers have an obvious interest in coming up with worst-case scenarios but this one does seem to have some merit.</span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-22627569600091891352011-10-25T12:20:00.000-07:002011-10-25T12:20:52.398-07:00Moleskine misstep miffs most-loyals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Committing social media suicide by upsetting your most loyal fans is something of a trend. Netflix <a href="http://brandmix.blogspot.com/2011/10/farewell-qwikster-we-hardly-knew-ye.html">blazed</a> a trail. And now it's Moleskine, maker of the "legendary" notebooks so beloved by the designers, following along.<br />
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With apparently no sense of a design community hot button issue, Moleskine thought it might be kind of cool to organize a competition to design a new logo. In other words, to crowdsource it. That's, to say the least, not going down too well with one-time Moleskine lovers, now turning into Moleskine haters. Here's a comment posted on Moleskine's Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/moleskine?sk=wall">page</a> by Seth Johnson which is representative of the aggrieved point of view:<br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 1.5;">"Count me as another designer who has purchased and loved your products for years but feels slapped in the face by your shortsighted attempt to crowdsource a logo. No more will I be purchasing or using your products; no longer will I advocate for your brand."
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Maria Raudva, in another post, points out that the inserts in each notebook say: "Moleskine notebooks are partners for the creative and imaginative professions of our time." She thinks the competition is more about plundering than partnering.<br />
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One way to measure your level of engagement with your customers is to see how much of their free time they spend with you on social media. Brands with strong customer relationships benefit from a steady stream of user-generated content that might be comments or videos or statements of their love and affection. That's probably what Moleskine hoped to tap into with its competition. But there's a big difference between giving up some of your free time and giving up some of your professional time for free.<br />
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Crowdsourcing has worked for some brands. It's worked well for Doritos who've used competitions to generate Super Bowl ads. I'm sure the professional community doesn't really like that competition either but they represent a miniscule part of the Doritos customer base. Not so with Moleskine, as it's finding out to its cost.<br />
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(If you are interested in a comprehensive perspective on rights of authorship in new media and how free contributions are leading to our collective impoverished future, read <a href="http://edge.org/conversation/the-local-global-flip">this</a> interview with Jaron Lanier, published at Edge.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicagarro/4253509891/">Photo</a></span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-64017774714609547022011-10-24T10:44:00.000-07:002011-10-24T10:44:31.971-07:00Six CPG social media strategies (that work)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJTALxEdz0p-NDDMfHVXa3yXNXGE8I7fbCg6miHOr5h1cjPzNP6YydFBtY-YYfaRmvveLJ-DQI8qEYr2vy2M1EXvw_2CmROnONtXonf0HsEcp-_sOhLR4S6vVu-bqklgnJg3gvhGY8S0/s1600/header_brandfeed.500w.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJTALxEdz0p-NDDMfHVXa3yXNXGE8I7fbCg6miHOr5h1cjPzNP6YydFBtY-YYfaRmvveLJ-DQI8qEYr2vy2M1EXvw_2CmROnONtXonf0HsEcp-_sOhLR4S6vVu-bqklgnJg3gvhGY8S0/s320/header_brandfeed.500w.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Shameless self-promotion alert! I'm going to be the presenter on the next Landor Brandfeed, talking about different ways CPG marketers can be successful in social media. Sign-up <a href="http://landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.article&storyid=923&bhcp=1">here</a> to listen live (October 27th at 1pm Pacific) or go to landor.com/brandfeed sometime the following week to listen to a recording.<br />
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The presentation will be based on <a href="http://landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.article&storyid=914">this</a> article published earlier this year.</span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735933971178118840.post-76167870628934427082011-10-17T10:38:00.000-07:002011-10-17T10:38:36.481-07:00Is Unilever in favor of the fight against the corrosive power of banks and multinational corporations?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When it comes to aligning yourself with causes, how far is too far? And how far can individual brands of a product portfolio stray from the corporate family consensus?<br />
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Ben & Jerry's is testing the boundaries of both these questions with its <a href="http://www.benjerry.com/activism/occupy-movement/">support</a> of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a movement with the <a href="http://occupywallst.org/">published</a> aim of "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process."<br />
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Such a move is on-brand for Ben & Jerry's to the extent that the company has always had a strong social component to its <a href="http://www.benjerry.com/activism/peace-and-justice/">mission statement</a> and already supports free trade, livable wages and community actions for social, environmental and economic justice. But, even for Ben & Jerry's, is associating and supporting a movement that is both anti-corporate and unpredictable in its future direction a step too far? Is this the sort of thing that an ice cream company should be doing?<br />
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And what about Unilever, the very type of large multinational corporation that the movement is protesting about? Can it really disassociate itself completely from what its 100%-owned company decides to do?<br />
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Ben & Jerry's has always been given a lot of leeway to do what it wants and it does have an independent board of directors. But is there no limit?</span>Martin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01669698154470589105noreply@blogger.com13