Apple's reputation is taking a beating with growing calls for a consumer boycott of Apple products. It seems that shiny new iPads come at high human cost.  But how much do you really care? Will you put down your Apple products in protest?  Will you step out of the line for a new iPhone?  At the very least, will you share your opinion with friends and rate Apple's karma?

The announcement of Apple's off-the-charts results for the last quarter had groupies and analysts frothing - $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads sold. But by far the more contagious news has centred on the barbaric treatment of Chinese workers in parts of Apple's supply chain.

The story isn't a new one, but this time it's been fired up by mainstream journalists and outraged commentators and consumers.  The latest chapter started with a New York Times article on January 25 entitled, "In China, human costs are built into an iPad".   

It's become clear that Apple has been aware of the issues but is conflicted in dealing with them. But what's that they say about principles, it's not realy a principle until it costs you money?

Anti-Apple momentum is building with The Observer posting this today, "Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuse in China". 

As a conscious consumer you can voice your opinion by a) keeping your money in your pocket and/or, b) putting your views about Apple on the record and into circulation via Brandkarma.

You decide Apple's karma.

(image via pcmag.com)

Use muscles you never knew you had. Environmental and social campaigners say that ordinary citizens have three big levers to use with corporations.  Actually, there are four, and the fourth could be more powerful than the first three put together. 

If you’re a conscious consumer, conventional wisdom says that you have three ways to exercise your values.  First, by using your spending power to support brands whose values you believe in. Second, by investing in the companies behind those brands.  And third, by working for corporations that are doing the right thing.

Aligning your spending with your values is definitely compelling, companies just don’t work without customers.  But the investment and labour levers are far harder to exercise. 

Much of the world’s population is strictly invested in survival with no chance of investing significant money in companies.  As for picking and choosing where to apply your professional talents, that presupposes an abundance of choice and mobility for the seller which, for most of us, is simply not the case.

By far the biggest lever you have at your disposal is your opinion and it costs you nothing to let it loose.   What you think about brands and how far and wide you share your views directly influences friends and family, perfect strangers, and a company’s reputation and value.

80% of the value of S&P 500 companies, and pretty much any publicly traded company, is now intangible (read “brand”).

So we set out to harness this new-found people power with Brandkarma.  It’s a new reputation system that insists we look at brands holistically and think about their performance across products, people and the planet.

Next time a company makes you feel short-changed, aggrieved or powerless, keep your money in your pocket and start flexing your points of view.  

We live in interesting times.  Economies are quaking to the core, governments are rattled and corporations are planning scenarios at the extremes of climate, resource and political change.  So what comes next? Who will lead us into a new era of enlightenment and prosperity?

"We" will. 

If 2011 has taught us anything, it's that ordinary people can organise and mobilise to become potent agents of change.  As the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement have demonstrated, people power, networked and amped up with social media technologies, is an unstoppable force.

We're stepping up. We're taking progress into our own hands. We're writing our own future. 

Together, we're beginning to understand, we're smarter and more influential than we've been led to believe. Pennies are dropping, tables are turning and, happily, the green shoots of this movement are poking up through pavements in some unexpected neighbourhoods. More that just paying attention, business leaders and the broader media are showing some signs of support.

Late last month, Forbes published a story on the centralisation of corporate power - "147 companies control everything."  An extensive research project involving 37 million corporate entities and investors showed that corporate ownership and control is wielded by surprisingly few companies globally.  The story exposed the facts around issues many of us instinctively knew, but just how acutely concentrated this control is came as a shock.  This story inflamed debate and became one of the most tweeted, liked and shared in Forbes' online history. 

Then, this weekend the New York Times published an opinion piece by Jefferey Sachs titled, "The New Progressive Movement" in which he writes, "The overarching challenge of the coming years is to restore prosperity and power for the 99 percent."  It's no small challenge, but this time there's a deep and widely distributed will from people to get involved and find good answers. 

"The young people in Zuccotti Park and more than 1,000 cities have started America on a path to renewal. The movement, still in its first days,  will have to expand in several strategic ways. Activists are needed among shareholders, consumers and students to hold corporations and politicians to account. Shareholders, for example, should pressure companies to get out of politics. Consumers should take their money and purchasing power away from companies that confuse business and political power. The whole range of other actions — shareholder and consumer activism, policy formulation, and running of candidates — will not happen in the park." 

On the other side of the Atlantic, The Guardian continues it's wrestle with the ideal of sustainable business.  Guardian Sustainable Business just published an article written by current captain of industry, Jochen Zeitz, leader of Puma and PPR, on the importance of environmental accountability.  Puma and parent company PPR (owners of Stella McCartney, Gucci, YSL, Alexander McQueen and more) have become the first publicly traded company to adopt Triple Bottom Line accounting principles and discuss their environmental P&L in public.

To put a vale on that, the economic costs of their environmental impact were independently valued at £124m for 2010.  A big negative number, but top marks to Puma for honesty and disclosure. 

It would be easy to discount these moves by business leaders like Zeist and Unilever's Paul Polman as greenwashing and opportunism, but their actions come from a belief that a model for sustainable business needs to be baked into our ideas of progress and prosperity.

As Zeist writes, "Whereas in the past, there was only investor demand for transparent accounting, now there is public demand for transparency on corporations' environmental footprint.  To continue disregarding externalities is to put at risk the health and long-term prospects of our businesses, our society and the planet we live on. "

It's clear that some of the thoughts championed by the OWS movement are occupying minds in the C-suite.

In this era of people power there's massive potential to change the conduct of companies. Combined purchasing clout is one lever, our collective ability to effect the reputational capital of companies is another. Brand value is, hands down, a company's most valuable asset and the point around which ordinary people have the most leverage. 

We've designed Brandkarma as a progressive reputation platform bringing public accountability to brands.  It's an easy way to become an activist, exercise you opinions and amplify your views. 

If you can't spend the time camping out, occupy the brand instead.

Acres of paper and pixels have been expended in attempts to explain the current state of the global economy - Masters of the universe teaching lesser mortals that some combination of financial levers and buttons will put it all back on track.

But suppose that the explanation for the global funk was a whole lot simpler.  Suppose that it had more to do with universal laws than fiscal theory.  Suppose that the economy was actually a small part of a much bigger system governed by forces beyond economics.

Crazy right? Err, not so fast.

In the natural world forces conspire and collude towards equilibrium, balance, harmony.  Every action, said Newton, has an equal and opposite reaction.  Capitalism, the engine of modern economics, works quite differently.  Capitalism drives towards imbalance.

As the Occupy Wall Street movement has been asking, it’s all very well that 1% are doing nicely, but how about the 99%?

Karma is the universal law of cause and effect.  And because it’s universal it’s just as real and inescapable for countries, companies and brands as it is for the little people.

Brands are the public face of the economy worth trillions. Perhaps they’d be worth more if economic value and wider values were better balanced.

Brandkarma is designed to look at brands holistically – how good are their products, how well do they treat people and how well do they look after the planet?

Just sayin’. 

 

Why are we so interested in brands when the world's news media is focused on the Occupy movement and the conduct of big business? Are we barking up the wrong tree?

Well, no.

Eighty percent of the value of S&P500 companies is now intangible, that means "brand" value. Twenty years ago that figure was more like 65%. Brands are becoming a bigger part of big business, with the world's top 10 most commerically valuable brands currently worth over $400 billion.

Surprisingly it's good news for the 99% who don't work in the C-suite or own tranches of shares. Because brands live in the hearts and minds of consumers - real, everyday people with normal jobs, kids, bills and bank balances - real, everyday people who are not to be underestimated.  

Procter & Gamble, the packaged goods powerhouse, went through a remarkable turnaround in the noughties credited largely to then CEO, AG Lafley, and his mantra, "the consumer is boss".

He meant that paying attention to consumers, listening and learning, was the secret sauce.

So, let's make this really simple:

a) Brands represent 80% of business value.

b) People give brands value, not the other way around, therefore,

c) You're the boss of brands.

Now that you know, what are you going to do with all that potential influence? Who do you want brands to listen to and learn from?  How about you? 

Brandkarma 2.0 is the start of a whole new reputation system for brands that isn't fixated with commercial value. We're asking three simple questions about brands; how good are their products, how well do they treat people and how well do they look after the planet?  You're answers decide their karma.

You don't have to pad down to Wall St (St Paul's or anywhere else) and pull out the pup tent. All you have to do is exercise your opinions.

Rate some brands, make suggestions and share your views with friends. Together we can change brands (and business) for good.  

Last week was a redefining moment in the evolution of Brandkarma as our all-new beta site went live with the support of the global Earth Hour community.   “If we want the world to change, we have to act – Brandkarma is a way to do that”, said Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Earth Hour Global.

Brandkarma.com has been streamlined to give you clear actions and powerful social amplification tools.  In fact, we’ve made the whole idea of a brand’s karma super simple.  How good are (a brand’s) Products, how well do they treat People and how well do they treat the Planet?  Your answer to these three Ps determines the karma score. 

You’re encouraged to rate brands, make suggestions to improve their karma, and share your views with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

 It’s a whole new reputation system for brands that gives our beta users a loud and clear voice.  If you’re looking at ways to change the world, try doing it one brand at a time. 

We’re very excited about the potential of the new platform to drive change and the initial feedback from users and commentators has been super positive.

“Brandkarma has the potential to revolutionize our idea of brand. A brand's story won't be a professionally crafted piece of fiction, but instead a collaborative biography written by conscious consumers" - Alex Bogusky, FearLess Cottage.

"There has never been a better time for ordinary citizens to make the difference" - Peter Davies, Sustainable Futures Commissioner, Wales.

"Brandkarma is based on two very important truths: first, that in today's world, brands that span national, social and cultural divides can be a greater force for good than governments; and second, that we have much greater power to influence those brands and their actions than we ever imagined" - Jon Steel, Head of Strategy, WPP.

"Brandkarma is as critical as it is prescient. By requiring brands to prove their commitment to social change, it inspires them to improve their bottom line by building a better world. Brandkarma is an indispensible bridge between purpose and profit for brands and customers alike" - Simon Mainwaring, author of 2011 New York Times bestseller, We First.

World’s biggest brands – you decide their karma. Have your say on the new Brandkarma 2.0 site now. BK.

It's taken more blood, sweat, tears, caffeine, late nights, weekends, patience, inspiration and perspiration than anyone imagined, but we'll push the "go" button on the all-new Brandkarma site tonight.

Many months after setting out to radically simplify the Brandkarma concept we've come up with an infinitely simpler and more social solution.  We've made huge leaps and bounds with the user experience and created a powerful platform for a progressive and influential discussion around brands.

The whole notion of a brand's karma has been boiled down to this - how good are its Products, how well does it treat People and how well does the brand look after the Planet?  User ratings for these three Ps determine the brand's overall karma.  With enough users involved there is massive potential for amplification.

You won't find the site via search or URL just yet as it will take up to 72 hours to do the global run around, but we're very close to "live". By Wednesday you'll be able to see what we've been up to and get involved.

There'll also be news very soon on our collaboration with a global NGO that will start this coming week.

Thank you all for your encouragement and support.

More soon...

Passion, persistence and determination are under-rated.  Most people think that success comes from good luck and talent, but it's just not so. It took Joseph Heller 22 attempts to find a publisher willing to put Catch 22 (get it) into print.  That staple of the tool shed, WD40, took even more stamina.  Water Dispersant number 40 took many iterations to get right.  Imagine if they'd stopped at WD39. 

You may have been wondering what we've been up to lately.  Has Brandkarma gone the way of the Dodo? Well, no, more the way of the duck...calm on the surface and paddling frantically underneath, or fighting like Daffy, to get a whole new user experience in place.

Convinced that we're doing something good here, we're going through an extensive redesign and rebuild.  We've scrapped all the original code and started fresh. 

We were also one of the projects selected for the X Media Lab last month and made the most of the opportunity to learn from mentors like Tim Chang (Norwest Venture Partners), Christopher Tanner (inventor of Google Earth), Dr Vesna Petresin Robert, Dr Michael Hawley and many others. The feedback was fantastic and extremely helpful. 

Then there's this great piece from Techcrunch called,  "Startups don't die, they commit suicide", which gave us a lot of heart. The writer, Justin Kan, had this to say. "Long before startups get to the point of delinquent electricity bills or serious payroll cuts, they implode. The people in them give up and move on to do other things, or they realize that startups are hard and can cause a massive amount of mental and physical exhaustion — or the founders get jobs at other companies, go back to school, or simply move out of the valley and disappear."

But it's this quote from Calvin Coollidge that gives us the fuel for the trip, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”.

We know what we're doing is hard and exhaustion is par for the course - anything new is always going to be hard.  But we're committed and on plan to deliver much simpler and more social experience. Stay with us and spread the word, we need all the beta users we can for the next stage.

Brandkarma Founder, Craig Davis, Chaired the judging and hosted the seminar for YouTube's inaugural "Good Work" initiative at this month's Cannes International Advertising Festival. He urged marketers, media companies and agencies to take on more responsibility for environmental and social issues. Here are some notes from the opening presentation.

 

Good afternoon, my name is Craig Davis, and thank you for being here at the first ever Cannes Lions and YouTube “Good Work” seminar. 

 

Good Work is a catalyst for action and momentum around issues that are, quite literally, world changing. In this initiative, designed to join together typically under-resourced NFPs (Not For Profits) with the talents of the global creative community, YouTube is both provocateur and platform.

 

So why does this really matter? 

 

1. Firstly, creative people love to solve problems and some of the best work we produce is solving problems that go well beyond selling stuff.  

Think of some of the great work for AIDS prevention, work for the NSPCC, WWF, Greenpeace, Red Cross and Amnesty International that has been celebrated at this festival.  

I think that as an industry, we’re at our most potent when working on issues that matter to humanity, not just to business.  And we sometimes forget that business is a microcosm of a much bigger system that cannot be ignored.

 

 2. Secondly, because the volume of responses in Year 1 was far greater than we’d ever imagined.  Good Work has hit a nerve.  More than 500 NFPs posted briefs on the Good Work platform sparking hundreds of submissions from all around the world.  

 

Five winners have been selected and they’ve been flown to Cannes to be with us today. You’ll get to meet them and see their work later.

 

But first I’d like us to examine some of the issues and opportunities that have sprung up around YouTube’s inaugural Good Work initiative.

What I haven’t come to do is talk about the NFP causes themselves, or the generosity of the creative community in responding through this initiative. It would be a pleasant distraction from the relentless focus we have here at Cannes on making marketing more efficient through the application of creativity, media and technology.

 

But it would be a massive missed opportunity. There’s something much bigger going on that needs our attention.  Something that opens up important new opportunities and imperatives for marketing, for brands and for business.

It’s a challenging and uncomfortable conversation, but it’s one that as an industry, we must start having here in Cannes.

Who here has children?  I do and by the time they’re my age the world will be heaving with 9 billion people.  Between now and 2050 we'll be facing a great many critical issues. Many of those problems are with us already and continuing to do business as we do now will spell disaster.

 

 And I’m certainly not alone in that view.

 

In January this year, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, had this to say at the WEF in Davos.

 

“For most of the last century, economic growth was fuelled by what seemed to be a certain truth: the abundance of natural resources.  We mined our way to growth.  We burned our way to prosperity.  We believed in consumption without consequences.

 

Those days are gone.  In the twenty-first century, supplies are running short and the global thermostat is running high.  Climate change is also showing us that the old model is more than obsolete.  It has rendered it extremely dangerous.  Over time, that model is a recipe for international disaster.  It is a global suicide pact.

 

So what do we do in this current challenging situation?  How do we create growth in a resource-constrained environment?  How do we lift people out of poverty while protecting the planet and ecosystems that support economic growth?  How do we regain the balance?  All of this requires rethinking”. 

 

Clearly, this is not a time for business as usual. These are big problems that are crying out for creative solutions.

 

It’s clear to me that business must provide leadership, and as marketers and advertisers who have helped create and exacerbate many of the issues that we now need to address so urgently, we are in the engine room of change.

 

That’s why today is so important.  How we move beyond discussion to action is more important still.

 

NFP organizations are the public face of the problems we face – extreme poverty and hunger, education and literacy, disease, violence and abuse, exploitation, climate change and the destruction of the environment and biodiversity. 

 

Are there ways to navigate and solve these issues and serve the interests of business at the same time? Can good businesses grow from alignment and involvement in solving these problems?

 

I believe the answer is yes.

 

This year upwards of $450 billion will be spent on advertising. How do we spend it in ways that might be wiser, more effective and more beneficial for the future of humanity?  How do we spend that kind of money and make genuine progress?

 

Here to offer their thoughts are Simon Mainwaring and Michael Wolff.

 

Simon is a former creative director at Ogilvy and W+K, turned speaker and author, and has a new book released last week called “We First” that is now on both the NY Times and Wall St Journal’s bestseller lists.

 

Michael Wolff has written five books, including a controversial biography of media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, is a columnist for Vanity Fair and is the Editorial Director of Adweek.

 

Both Simon and Michael have strong views on the future for business and brands and so do I.

 

(A Q&A session followed).

 

The video of this session will be available shortly and will be posted on this blog.

While many companies are fixated with quarterly results and appeasing investors in the short term there are some prepared to act with more vision.

Puma is the first major company to commit to accounting for their environmental and social impacts.  In a story from The Guardian the enormity of this commitment from Puma is made clear.  "Puma has become the first company in the world to put a value on the eco services it uses to produce its sports shoes and clothes, signalling a radical change in the way business will account for its use of natural resources."

This is not a cosmetic attempt to curry favor with consumers, it's genuine step change in corporate thinking.  Puma has set a new benchmark for corporate responsibility with this move and has thrown down the gauntlet for other CEOs, companies and brand owners to respond to.

John Elkington, who pioneered the idea of triple bottom line accounting, said of Puma's actions, "In the sports and apparel sectors, Nike and Gap pioneered in making their supply chains more transparent, but Puma has jumped well ahead of its competitors with this initiative.  Let's hope they trigger the competitive instincts of CEOs well outside their sector – spurring a race to radical transparency." 

What is abundantly clear is that current business models are deficient and that allowing companies to operate without taking the measure of their environmental and social impacts is, quite literally, unsustainable.

You can join the conversation on Puma's initiative here.