For one thing

Chuck Porter of Crispin Porter + Bogusky on brands and the CP+B way of advertising.

Just found this on some webpage.

I always thought that any more Apple addiction than at UdK Berlin is hardly possible, but this proves me wrong. The Missouri School of Journalism is almost Windows-free territory, which they underline on their website:

Students are encouraged to acquire wireless laptop technology from Apple, which the School has designated as its preferred provider, but students also will have a choice of a Windows-based alternative. Last year, 99.5 percent of incoming students chose the Apple option.

Watch out Mr. Gates, the intellectuals are up to something.

Charles Leadbeater just finished a user-edited book on collaboration. A comment on our increasingly participatory culture that presents a historical overview about co-innovation and shows countless examples. Leadbeater tries to develop underlying principles that foster user participation.

Have a look at the full draft on his website:

PDF

?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ or read a short abstract from Guardian or Times:

Welcome to We-Think, Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

A speech on co-creation and collaborative innovation: Charles Leadbeater describes the rise of the so-called ProAms, who are highly passionate about a certain product, brand or more generally a certain cultural niche.

Jerry Zaltman argues that most moderated research “adresses at a surface level what consumers think about what managers think consumers are thinking about.”

In How Customers Think, Zaltman references HBS professor Rohit Deshpande, whose study found that “over eighty percent of all market research serves mainly to reinforce existing conclusions, not to test or develop new possibilities.”

(Wipperf?ɬºrth “Brand Hijack”, p. 175 & p.177)

Which is exactly the reason why focus groups digging for game changing consumer insights must fail most of the time.

Advertising and marketing is under fire: Targeting consumers has become increasingly difficult as an easily available over supply of media entertainment provokes avoidance of advertising content. Traditional advertising and thus traditional communication models focus on the transmission of a message to group of consumers ultimately addressing only the brand?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s needs: an unbalance value exchange is occurring. Marketing communication only relying on push strategies meets customer defiance, as they are increasingly reluctant to spend valuable time and attention on dealing with marketing messages. Furthermore fragmented consumer groups are hard to pin down to some kind of common denominator which is badly needed to come up with a key message, to lay out a media plan and to develop consistent strategies.

In the course of my master thesis I will call the described status quo into question, arguing for a different stake at advertising communication. Considering that our society is increasingly linked and networking has become a common phenomenon one can conclude that collective intelligence and collaboration as illustrated by Wikipedia?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s success are also applicable to brand building. Countless blogs and online communities professed with brands denote the consumer?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s enthusiasm for participation. At the same time the consumer has become a powerful player in this whole new ball game. I would like to explore how companies can productively use the consumer?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s definitional power on brands. How can consumers and companies collaborate on brand meanings and how can advertising transform closed branding systems into open source networks? How is co-creation and co-innovation applicable to branding and advertising?

Anyone with interest and/or expertise gladly invited to join me on my quest. Just drop me a comment and I get back to you.