Claims vs. Behaviors

The Best PR that $1.6 Million Can’t Buy: Authenticity in Action at Zappos

May 25, 2010

Tweet Gotta love those folks at Zappos. They screw up, they explain, they apologize, and they fix it. And we applaud. Why? Because Zappos’ actions support the company’s stated purpose, and Zappos’ actions support its claims about who they are as a company. It’s Authenticity in Action. The Zappos’ Mistake Story in a Nutshell An […]

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Corporate Logo Tattoos: The wrong way to wear the brand

March 31, 2010

Tweet In the domain of “things I just don’t understand about people’s relationship(s) to organizations” is this nagging question: Why would anyone want to brand themselves with a corporate logo? Way back when I began studying organizational identification and employee branding (branding in the metaphorical sense), I heard about an April Fool’s Joke on NPR […]

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Will Newsweek Respond to Claims of Sexism?

March 23, 2010

Tweet I would love to have been in the room when three journalists at Newsweek proposed that Newsweek publish their article criticizing Newsweek for gender discrimination. Why? You know you’re getting close(r) to authenticity when you can have a recursive sentence like that one written about changing things that are wrong at your organization. Here […]

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Does the iPad Signal a Change in Apple’s Core Brand & Identity?

February 2, 2010

Tweet If products reflect an organization’s values and an organization’s identity, does Apple’s new iPad tell us something about where Apple as a company is headed? And, if that’s where Apple is going, do we all want to go there too? Here’s a proposition: Apple as an organization is changing, from an organization that’s “about” […]

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When Brandividuals Violate Organizational Reputation: Ethics, NPR and Fox News

December 15, 2009

Tweet Media Watchdog Eric Boehlert blasts out of the gate this morning with an incisive critique of a longstanding, problematic relationship between NPR and Fox News. Please go to Eric’s post “According to its ethics code, NPR still has a problem” at MediaMattersForAmerica to read the entire story, which he has been covering for several […]

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Bias Bingo: Blending Branding and Learning

November 4, 2009

Tweet I love it when basic business science can be applied to important causes. So, I was excited when my favorite FemaleScienceProfessor pointed me towards a clever website designed to teach about gender bias: The Gender Bias Learning Project. The Gender Bias Learning Project is a great demonstration of how basic web skills, clever marketing […]

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7 Signs of Change at Comcast: What I’ve found so far

October 28, 2009

Tweet It looks like Comcast is, in fact, working to integrate its social media efforts into its internal systems. This integration of their customer contact efforts, along with internal leadership initiatives, is powering overall organizational change. In my previous post, I questioned whether people were assuming cultural change at Comcast simply because their CEO claimed […]

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Is Twitter is Really Changing Comcast’s Culture?: 7 Signs to Look For

October 26, 2009

Tweet If you read TechCruch or pay attention to social media gurus, you might think that Comcast was really making progress towards becoming more customer-oriented. We hear a lot about Frank Eliason and his leadership in getting Comcast onto social media to respond to customer complaints that, increasingly, are being voiced online. With @ComcastCares on […]

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Can a Flu Shot demonstrate Authenticity?

October 15, 2009

Tweet Has your organization made it easy for you to get a flu vaccine? If your organization really wanted to be authentic, maybe it would offer everyone flu shots. At a private pre-school near me, they had a pediatrician offer a “flu shot clinic” for children, teachers, parents and caregivers– doing their best to get […]

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Jews and Social Media: Aligned values reinforce an Authentic strategy

September 21, 2009

Tweet Can your organization’s core values make it easier for you to extend yourselves onto social media effectively? For some organizations, absolutely yes. Consider the opportunity for one Jewish organization as it considers its social media strategy. Last week I had the chance to work with a group of non-profit Jewish professionals in charge of […]

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