Some interesting research from 360i questions what we mean by privacy with Brandchannel discussing the research using the phrase “Twitter takes the private space public” and the use of Twitter by large corporate brands.
In addition to the research 360i released a slide deck summary below.
I was inspired by one of Junko’s tweets to think about when a brand becomes a verb. Back when I was in college studying marketing one of the things that we came across was the challenge of extreme brand love where the product becomes such a part of the customers life that it becomes a verb.
Examples of this include:
This phenomena creates a commercial | legal paradox. Where the brand is so loved that it becomes the generic verb for the whole product category that it dominates in terms of mind share (if not market share) then the intellectual property rights of the brand mark is at risk.
It was a measure of the uphill task that we faced when I worked at Yahoo! that Google has become genericised for web search that the company was having to provide legal guidance to bloggers and the media.
Ian Rogers who at the time worked at Yahoo! Music in the US came up with an idea that I thought could fly “Yahoo! that bitch“, it caught the ethos of the Yahoo! brand being fun and irreverant and paired with the utility of search far better than anything else I can think of .
Unfortunately it was never given serious thought, not even potty-mouth Carol Bartz would have signed off on it if we are honest about it – and this was the time of Terry Semel as CEO.
Junko’s tweet reminded of Microsoft’s desperate efforts to make ‘Bing it’ a verb for search. I realised that even if they got all the search market to themselves ‘Bing it’ would still feel uncomfortable for me to use. It feels wrong in the way you say it. It just doesn’t sing.
What’s more there was prior evidence that it wouldn’t work. Back in 2006 Samsung launched an MP3 player to go up against the iPod called Zing and tried to create that brand as verb for cacooning yourself in music to separate you from your surroundings. The fact that this is probably new to you gives you an idea of how successful it was.
If your brand is going to achieve world domination then it has to be phonetically right as well. Thinking about it, it is something that Microsoft has had a problem with for years, the exception to the rule probably being MSN as a verb for instant messaging which apes the way ICQ and AIM where used in a similar manner depending on your social group.
Think I am wrong? Well think about the way PC compatible was used in most cases instead of Windows compatible or Windows PC compatible in common speech. You could argue that it was because of Microsoft’s domination of that sector, but I would also add that it was because Windows as a word doesn’t sing.
Does your brand sing? Run it past friends and family as a verb, is it used internally as a verb? If not, then your brand won’t suffer the legal issues around genericisation, but also won’t go on to dominate mind share, even it if gets market share.
Dakwak: A Tool For Website Localization Into 60+ Languages – StartUpArabia
MediaTek and NTT Docomo in 4G alliance | FT.com – interesting following on from the Nokia | Renesas deal. Am sure Qualcomm and Intel won’t be happy
The issue of license proliferation – Joi Ito’s Web
Asian shoppers make final purchase in-store | Market-interactive.com
GQ China Pulls July Issue – China Real Time Report – WSJ
Googzilla! Yahoo Japan Confirms Google Switch from Yahoo for Both Paid and Algo Search | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD – Go Google, keeping my fingers crossed that this passes Japanese government muster
The Ask.com Blog: The New Ask.com is Here: What’s Your Question? – interesting move back into knowledge search by Ask
Shanda Games Launches Outsourcing Platform – ChinaTechNews.com
Back to the future: Why push technologies and search are about to explode | VentureBeat – oooh I may get a worth PointCast replacement
Pay as you go sim with data Wiki – handy for tourists who need bandwidth
Moving Up, Moving In | blackrimglasses – interesting take on the future of the music sector
ECJ asked to confirm that emulating software does not infringe copyright | Pinsent Masons LLP – I wonder what the implication would be for WINE
Erickson Longboards | Home – environmentally friendly and fun
MediaPost Publications – Welcome To The Revolution, Nielsen – interesting data on the boomer generation
2011 Ford Explorer: Inside the Facebook Reveal
UI Stencils – Welcome – handy stuff for conceptualising web and mobile designs
Radian6 integrates Webtrends and Salesforce data « Official Webtrends Company Blog – interesting move potentially puts Radian6 and Saleforce in the same ring as Techlightenment
Ways to snoop ‘private’ web sessions identified – tech – 25 July 2010 – New Scientist – I guess that’s the reason why most users call it porn mode
Yahoo! Japan selected Google as its search partner in Japan. It is suggested by commentators that this is contrary to how the parent company handled things. But let’s review:
All of this would have been noted by Yahoo! Japan. However Yahoo! Japan has a number of shareholders to think of, and Yahoo! Inc. despite the commonality in the name is only a minority shareholder. Yahoo! Japan has an iron-lock in a number of sectors including local content, jobs, auctions, mobile and TV-based applications.
A poor consumer experience in search could let a competitor such as Microsoft or Google go after some if not all of these franchises. It would also affect Softbank’s broadband business and Yahoo! Japan’s mobile carrier | handset content relationships.
If Yahoo! Japan went along with a Microsoft search deal they would get screwed on the search revenue like Yahoo! Inc did. Why should Microsoft pay more for what they think they have coming to them already? Microsoft thinks that it has all the moves.
However, Yahoo! Japan – despite its name is a product of Japan, occupying one of Tokyo’s most prestigious business addresses, with a management team made up from some of Japan’s best entrepreneurs – at a time when Japan has little to be proud of in the technology sector.
All this at a time when Microsoft has come close to humiliating Japan’s Sony Corporation in the games console market and the disproportionate profit that Microsoft makes from Japanese computer makers through the monopolistic position of its Windows software licenses.
Then the Yahoo! Japan also has a compelling consumer argument in terms of the quality of the search experience. This could be a battle royale, pitting Microsoft money-fuelled lobbying and bluster against a Japanese national champion. And I hope that the Japanese cut Microsoft down to size.
Soon you will be able to use it on your computer once it has been ratified by Unicode
Put simply the Gruen Transfer is when the confusion of a shopping experience sets in wearing down our determination, changing the consumer from a destination shopper on a mission to purchase a particular item and instead turn into an impulse shopper who wanders through the stores.
Gruen Tranfer is named after Victor Gruen who invented the modern shopping complex: the Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota. The delicious irony of it all is that the Austrian was a committed socialist in his younger days.
Will Zynga Become the Google of Games? – NYTimes.com – nice profile of Zynga
Digital Domain – Even With All Its Profits, Microsoft Has a Popularity Problem – NYTimes.com – Microsoft’s financial performance is not not reflected in its share price and a far bit of that has to do with the corporate communications letting the organisation down
中古レコード・CDの販売／買取 COCONUTS DISK – awesome Tokyo record store
Sissy Bounce, New Orleans’s Gender-Bending Rap – NYTimes.com – Derek B’s 808 roll on Rock the Beat is a cornerstone, immortalised like The Winston’s Amen Brother. Really interesting sound very similar in spirit to the roots of hip-hop like the live shows back in the day at Harlem World
Why United States Lawsuits Against Chinese Companies Are Trending Up. Just Follow The Money. : China Law Blog – part of the development process for Chinese companies becoming global players
The end of the bandwidth race is here – The Inquirer – interesting take on the network infrastructure challenges faced by the UK
Webinar Recording: Impact of Social Technologies to the Analyst Industry « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang – social media and analyst relations
Facebook: Welcome PR “flacks” of the world | Reuters – interesting that Facebook felt PRs needed a 101 in the social network. Is engagement slipping?
Monocolumn – Book fair stories [Monocle] – I love Hong Kong which is why it saddens me that Jeffrey Archer’s books seem so popular there, actually its less of a feeling and more of a gagging sensation as I want to vomit
Big Money: AOL’s Beauty Pageant With Google, Microsoft For New Search Deal – interesting that there are more than two companies competing for AOL’s search traffic. Techcrunch says Yahoo! but it could be Ask?
Playdom CEO John Pleasants: why “social gaming” will die | VentureBeat
Twitter CEO celebrates dramatic growth in Japan › Japan Today – Japanese people make up about 12 per cent of Twitter’s global user base
Slashdot Linux Story | Open Source Participation Gains Support In China – congratulations to Taobao for the contributions that its making to the open source software community
I wouldn’t say that I agree with all Minxin Pei‘s presentation content, but it is very interesting to watch because of the economic facts that he marshals and I like the way he puts China’s growth in the context of growth of the US in the late 19th century.
Key numbers | facts
Over the past week I have been working with a great freelance developer we use to sort out a security problem on this blog. The site got hacked, more details on how that could have happened here. The code seems to have been Javascript that would have directed you to sites which included malware if you had clicked up on it. Most of these links were in the archive section of the website.
The code was cleaned out, a couple of errant user accounts deleted, passwords were changed and WordPress updated. Google’s webmaster tools seems to have given the site a clean bill of health.
So apologies if you haven’t been able to read this blog over the past few days but (fingers crossed) we think that we have it licked.
Monocolumn – A dent to the Murdoch empire [Monocle] – in Australia
Activists claim Ofcom Code fails to implement Digital Economy Act | Pinsent Masons LLP – why am I not surprised that Ofcom went with this interpretation of the act?
SRI chief: Now’s the best time for innovation — just don’t choke it | VentureBeat – interesting the way SRI think that a lot of fields are wide open to be transformed through innovation at the moment
Wal-Mart to Put Radio Tags on Clothes – WSJ.com – privacy issues in terms of where readers are and how the data can be mined
Digital Comics Could Be Savior or Supervillain | The Big Money
Digital Pharma have a couple of good pieces on mobile applications
BP – victim or villain? | Market-interactive.com – my former colleague Rachel Catanach gives her tuppence on the BP oil spill and the way the comms team handled it
Carbon Copy Cloner – Home – great back-up software endorsed for years by @bloodybigspider
Android’s ascent in China might not elevate Google – since it has a GPL licence it can be configured for other services and can even go to another application marketplace rather than Google’s. Mobile Linux makes sense even for feature phones
The LA Flea Market – I need to go and see this if if I get get to LA. Period GE electric fans and other cool stuff
MediaShift . How Content Farms Train Their Writers to Write for the Web | PBS – the future of online media
Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan — Draft beer on board – courtesy of ANA and Asahi Breweries, its one of them why hasn’t anybody thought of this sooner?
Long-term unemployment: Leaving the labour force, bit by bit | The Economist – interesting article on the economic impact of the long term unemployed
A Louis Vuitton Bag With A Side Of CSR « The China Tracker – Forbes.com – CSR taking a bigger roll in the luxury market brand preference (it based on research done by my colleagues at Ruder Finn Asia)
Ten Reasons Chinese Companies Fail In The U.S. « The China Tracker – Forbes.com – interesting article on differing business practices and cultural differences
飛騨高山 留之助商店 本店 – amazing Japanese store full of modern pop art and cool kitsch stuff
Monocolumn – Better living through artistry [Monocle] – using art to encourage engagement across generations and between rural and city-dwellers
Old Spice a hit everywhere but the store – that’s if sales was the score
Analysts Troubled By Weak Yahoo Sales | paidContent – no real surprises here beyond the fact that Yahoo! didn’t have an uplift from its World Cup activities
Skype gets businesses to foot the bill with Click & Call | Econsultancy – really smart for customer engagement
Asiajin » Recruit’s New Coupon Site Troubled, Raises Suspicious On Groupon Model
Foxconn reminds local critics in Taiwan that it can invest elsewhere – an alternative way of dealing with a hostile media, right up there with we’ll pull the advertising budget if you write something we don’t like
‘Microneedle’ Patches Claim a Pain-Free Vaccination Experience – I love the smart thinking behind this
You want an interactive map of where Facebook is used? Happy to help | Technology | guardian.co.uk – whilst Facebook has 500 million users, the usage is relatively concentrated still
CSR Done Right: Pepsi’s Oil Spill Activity – PSFK – smart and low-key
Bit.ly revamps analytics dashboard for enterprise customers | VentureBeat
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Ask Wolfram|Alpha about Medical Drug Treatments – developing some hardcore medical features
Price cuts fall short for many German brands – Warc – sounds like PR could help raise perceived value
Communities Dominate Brands: Obituary for OPK: Wall Street is a Cruel Mistress – Tomi Ahonen articulates a coherent position on Nokia that the company itself has failed to communicate
(mt) Media Temple » Am I Hacked? Security Explanations From (mt) – handy guide to what’s been happening here
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