Image & Reputation

Generous Products: How Products Do What They Do, as a form of Generosity

January 7, 2016

Tweet I’m “working out loud in public” with a rangy, rambling first draft. What I’m working to understand, with this draft, is how to explain ‘generous products’, and how to link ideas about generous products to current conversations about product design. This is a small piece of the puzzle, focused on how products themselves might be […]

Read the full article →

10 Reasons Why The Komen Foundation Should Stop Lying about Defunding Planned Parenthood

February 3, 2012

Tweet It always hurts when organizations lie. Lying hurts the organization, the employees, the organization’s partners, the organization’s prospects, and most importantly, lying hurts the organization’s constituents. When an organization does something that sparks a”‘reputation crisis”, the absolute worst way to respond is to lie. As the reputation crisis of the Susan J. Komen Foundation […]

Read the full article →

Authentic Corporate Reputations: The Real PR Challenge

May 27, 2011

Tweet To craft a corporate reputation that seems authentic, claims about the organization’s character must be anchored in real features of the organization. It’s the organization’s job to demonstrate a link between reputation claims and real features, and it’s the PR professional’s job to explain a link between claims and real features. (This post is […]

Read the full article →

Beyond Positioning: Establishing Authentic Optimal Distinctiveness

February 23, 2011

Tweet Every organization needs to establish optimal distinctiveness – a competitive position within your field, where you are similar enough to other organizations to be seen as legitimate, but different enough that you’re seen as having something unique to offer.  But, optimal distinctiveness is more than being in a competitive place in your field. Optimal […]

Read the full article →

Re-creating Organizational Reputation Using Social Media: Not quite outdated ideas

January 14, 2011

Tweet As much as I love academic writing, conducting studies and developing theories, all of this work shares one acute problem — it takes forever to get from first draft to print. My just-published journal article with Adelaide King took about 8 years from idea to print, while the germinal paper on Organizational Identity & […]

Read the full article →

Personal Branding: It’s Different for Girls

November 12, 2010

Tweet Personal branding is inescapable.¹ A person simply cannot participate in online forums, much less in their full career, without deliberately or unintentionally crafting and framing the way that they are seen by others. However, while personal branding is inescapable, it isn’t easy to make it work in our favor. Personal branding is fraught with […]

Read the full article →

Pattern Recognition: How to spot female digital entrepreneurs

November 2, 2010

Tweet Smarts. Fire. Audacity. Technical chops. Focus. Strong network. Innovative product ideas. That’s what venture capitalists look for when they are selecting which entrepreneurs to support and which businesses to fund. Unfortunately, VCs tend to see these characteristics most often when the entrepreneurs themselves are “white, male, under 30, nerds, with no social life who […]

Read the full article →

Measuring Meaningful Differences: College Rankings and Identity

September 16, 2010

Tweet Here’s a mini-exam for you. College ranking systems are: A. A great way to sell magazines and get your publication’s name in the news B. A scam that preys on the social and economic insecurities of educational organizations C. A somewhat-helpful guide to prospective students D. A process that is entirely gamed by the […]

Read the full article →

Target: Why Organizations Should Boycott Target but Individuals Shouldn’t Bother

August 26, 2010

Tweet I’m a supporter of LGBTQx rights and of organizational diversity. As an individual, I’m not likely to do much to boycott Target in response to Target’s $150,00 contribution to an anti-gay, pro-bigotry gubernatorial candidate. But, if I were Target’s business customer, business supplier, stakeholder, or other important large stakeholder, I would make a bit […]

Read the full article →