Reputation Garage

Movie Insights: Folks Want More Control Over Life

jarviscromwell — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:31:45 +0000

by JARVIS CROMWELL Paul Giamatti and Alex Shaffer in “Win Win” I’ve spent a career digging into various aspects of the public mindset – a challenge that requires not only an ability to make sweeping assumptions, but also an eye for nuance. You need to be able to spot the patterns that have staying power [...]

Jarvis Cromwell Will Moderate at Social Consumer Event

jarviscromwell — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:43:34 +0000

Reputation Garage Managing Principal Jarvis Cromwell will be running a roundtable at BDI’s Social Consumer Conference on March 23rd at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. His topic: Be the Channel: Discussion on Building Low-Cost “Brand Owned” Online Channels that can Rival Traditional Media Representatives from PepsiCo, Sony, Unilever, Kotex, and others will demonstrate [...]

Brand Lessons from Libya

jarviscromwell — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:44:33 +0000

By JARVIS CROMWELL (This post originally appeared on MENG Blend.) “It is false – and dangerous – to assume that the publics that are important to your organization automatically see you as you see yourself.” I often include the quote above in presentations I give to corporate management teams. And with dictators falling or struggling [...]

Avoiding Messaging Missteps – Part 2

jarviscromwell — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:37:32 +0000

Given that Nixon's "I am not a crook " press conference was a whale fail of epic proportions, you would think that leaders today and their advisors would all know how to avoid this misstep. Nope. In the last election, Christine O'Donnell perfectly replicated the Nixon mistake with her "I am not a witch" commercial. And there are examples of politicians, leaders, marketers and others making this mistake every day. To illustrate the principal, our team at the Reputation Garage created the short xtranormal scene below.

Why the holidays, puffery, and profits don’t mix

jarviscromwell — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:26:49 +0000

The following appeared earlier on MENG BLEND, a popular and insightful blog sponsored by the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) This year Black Friday morphed from a single shopping day into a mega four-day shop-a-thon, helping many retailers turn profitable for the year and, possibly, breathe a little easier. Yay. Of course consumers appear to [...]

Good v. Evil on the Marketing Battlefield

jarviscromwell — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 22:26:24 +0000

By JARVIS CROMWELL The following appeared earlier on MENG BLEND, a popular and insightful blog sponsored by the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) In all kinds of contexts important to marketers, “bad” events and negative experiences can impact brand performance more than the carefully engineered “good” we work so hard to create in areas such [...]

Jarvis Cromwell to Speak at PRSA Event

jarviscromwell — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:02:11 +0000

When it comes to reputational performance, senior executives increasingly fear that their organization may be “flying blind.” So if you happen to be within striking distance of Stamford Connecticut on September 22, consider joining Reputation Garage Managing Principal Jarvis Cromwell who will be the featured presenter at an exciting PRSA WestFair event. Titled Why You [...]

Wicked Problems Are, Well, Wicked

jarviscromwell — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:48:12 +0000

by Jarvis Cromwell For leaders of every stripe, marketing and otherwise, successfully tackling complexity is now a big part of the job; one made harder by an economic backdrop that has left most organizations with some pretty deep holes in their ability to execute. This has gotten me thinking lately about wicked problems — a [...]

Like Your Mother Always Said: You Teach People How They Can Treat You

jarviscromwell — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:57:33 +0000

By Stephanie Fierman Larry King held a two-hour telethon on June 21 to raise funds for those impacted by the BP oil spill titled "Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help." Am I the only one who doesn’t quite understand this? It seems uncontested that the spill was caused by a commercial entity that everyone agrees is responsible; that the U.S. government has vowed to hold said entity to its promise of paying for the clean-up and for losses incurred by all affected parties; and BP itself has agreed to do same. Now I’m not making any claims as to whether BP will or won’t actually do this (or that its version of reimbursement would be agreeable), but this telethon wasn’t saying “We know BP’s 100% responsible, but we don’t believe it’ll come through so we’re doing this just in case.” It was just your regular old telethon to raise money. So why? Why are we raising money? Why are television watchers being prodded by their favorite celebrities to donate?

The Awesome Power of True Intentions

jarviscromwell — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:50:01 +0000

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 [...]