The issues raised by Occupy Wall Street are ones that concern many Americans, and offer a cultural insight to what customers want from the businesses in which they buy goods and services. It's not that protesters want everything to be free and on the barter system—no, these protests are in response to feeling that the game is rigged.
Publicly traded companies are beholden to the shareholder; however, over time, the game has shifted from long-term goals with solid annual (or longer-term) profits to the short-term vision of clever accounting to show quarterly profits. So how can corporations connect and communicate with today's consumer sentiment?
1) Customers Are Shareholders Too: Although not direct owners of a company's shares, customers are the ultimate decision-makers on whether a business will be profitable or not. Keep this in mind, and be respectful of consumer power. Look deeper into your company's actions and adjust corporate policies to reflect the sentiment of your customer audience. If your values align to your customer's values, then you will ensure loyalty.
2) Work More Closely on Implementing Shareholder Proposals: These are people who own stock in your company and are willing to go through economic ups-and-downs with you; however, many proposals that seem would seem fair to your customers, do not get buy-in or support from the top—instead they get a fight. Some common and easy-to-implement shareholder proposals that should be considered.
--End Golden Parachutes: Nothing's more outrageous to the average American then knowing someone got millions for a job they failed at when the most people will get fired without severance. Although not all packages are for a job poorly done, these agreements offer a high payout for
--Develop Sustainability & Responsibilty Reports: Explain what you're doing that's good—whether it be environmental or worker's rights in Southeast Asian factories—and attach dollars to the costs (or cost-savings) involved. Layout a long-term plan for how the company is taking responsibility for its actions
3) Invite People To Own More Shares: Explain to customer's that you want them to be involved in the direction of the company and invite them to become shareholders as well. This says, "we're all in this together."
Advertising & Marketing
11/09/2011
06/19/2011
Bad Dad?
Today, in celebration, you could give your Pop a basket of hand-decorated cookies; although, I'm fairly certain that "Stop Dad" is not the sign you want to send. Unless your Papa really, really—like REALLY!—loved you ....
02/25/2011
Multi-Tasker
With the Oscars this weekend, there's a flood of James Franco on all media outlets. Thankfully, being James Franco, it's easy for him to be everywhere at once—print, online, red carpet ... as we know, he can do it all.
And over at New York Magazine—the ultimate caption:
See Photographic Evidence That James Franco Actually Sleeps … while also reading and listening to music, because he is James Franco. (Now is the time to pause and squeal about the cats, if you must. Let it all out.)
02/24/2011
02/09/2011
Dutch Boat, Global Fighters
Greenpeace is on tour. Literally. They took their famous Arctic Sunrise ship on a tour of the Eastern seaboard so that people like you and me could tour the boat. And, let's be clear, touring a boat is always awesome (says the girl who, no exaggeration, never leaves home without dramamine). The irony of the Greenpeace vessel is that it's an old seal-hunting icebreaker ship from the 1970s that two decades later was recommissioned into a stop killing seals, whales, and other beauties of the oceans. And what's also cool is the ship looks like it's nearly 40 years of age with cool steampunk contraptions like this talking piece:
Oh, I know it looks like a movie prop, but it's a legit form of communication between the bridge and the guy up in the ice house at the top of the mast. Even with radar, someone's gotta look for the appropriate cracks in the ice because how the ship breaks it up is it essentially goes up onto the cracked ice and crushes it on its way down. This is a very sea-sick inducing round-bottomed ship. Other neat contraptions are the gyrocompass:
What was most amazing about the tour was talking with a member of the crew about pirates. Turns out that even for Greenpeace, they have to have continengency plans for being attacked, and in fact spoke of stories about barely escaping. It makes you realize how much these folks put their lives on the line for the causes they believe in because beyond the legal skirmeshes of protest, they now have deadly pirates as an issue.
Greenpeace fights for a lot of causes that I personally believe in; however, what was interesting was how mixed I felt about the one for which the boat was on tour about: The coal industry. Coal mining is what puts food on the table for members of my family, plus even Jonathan Franzen will tell you how strip mining actually better protects the land in the long-term (because replanting has long-been a requirement) for the animals and the birds as the land will revert back to forest. However, as Greenpeace points out, coal is the number one polluter of greenhouse gases and it is coal that powers our homes. So, how do we change that? We find way to make alternatives more affordable, such as solar. And we recognize that these alternatives can offer a lot of jobs—turns out that wind now employs more people than coal in the United States.
I'm still not sure I am clear on the coal issue; however, I know that touring that boat did inspire me to renew my membership, which is still great news for Greenpeace.
10/20/2010
10/19/2010
Sugarhound-Goofball ... Rest In Peace
Juan and I met in a conference room, where I interviewed him for a copywriter job that I knew he already had because the group creative directors were gunning for him, so our meeting was a formality. He was so enthusiastic and so wanting to learn. He came on board at Digitas, helping to gel a team of writers into a team of goof-bandits.
For a young man who alluded to some dark demons of days gone past, it was always hilarious that his only indulgence now was sugar. At Tuesday morning's Portfolio Club, Juan would describe in delicate detail the sugarrific breakfast he had: pint of ice cream to full-blown concoctions of sweet waffels and whipped cream. And yet he was so skinny! And cute! And lovely! Because in additon to the hilarity of Juan's sugarlove, he also was flat-out funny. His excitement for anything zombies (before the zombies were popular) and his ridiculous sense of humor that he expressed made me love visiting not just Juan's cube, but JF's (on the other side of the partition wall) ... and in an office known for its pranks, Juan did a great job of foil-ing JFs cube (one of my all-time faves), and so JF returned from vacation only to leave everything wrapped in aluminimium until necessary (foil-wrapped stapler, foil-wrapped monitor, etc.). These two would IM all day—even though the 2" cube wall was the only thing separating them—and if JF made a joke, then you not only heard Juan laugh, he still made sure to type it :-D
Juan's series of i-sight camera profile pics was one of my favorites on the Facebook feed because he was willing to do what it took for the laugh and to write a ridiculously funny, yet poignant caption. Because funny and poignant are what best describes him. Buddy, you were only in your 20s, which is too young for a man to pass on ... and whenever I eat ice cream for breakfast, I will always think of you ....
10/10/2010
09/15/2010
08/12/2010
Steal This Book (for Me!)!
Penguin has long been a publishing house of more than classics, but also classic design. This new book brings together 75 years of covers (1 per year) in one bound edition. Although, you can buy the entire set of 75 books for just over $1100 ... Super Saver Shipping, of course.
Also, the book's website provides lots of fancy extras ... even if it does feature chick lit's Melissa Bank (I don't know why I get so cranky about her ... I always think about how if I'm late it means people don't think I care—Girl's Guide to Hunting & Fishing).
Anywho, the tradition of beautiful graphic design continues with in-house Art Director Paul Buckley (who edited the 75 book covers), and has he's pushed the designs it's interesting to see how far the covers have come since the traditional orange (although the image below has modern titles). This is especially true in his influence of the Great Ideas paperback series.
