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Archives for 2008

A Sweetbox of Integrated Sustainability

Can I can I can I can I can I? The refrain of pester power, through which children have “persuaded” their parents into a course of action for millennia.

Often parents agree simply to get the little angels to belt up. Often the little devils come to learn that if they repeat it often and loud enough, their wish will come true.

Many companies have assumed the parental role, embarking upon programmes of disclosure simply to simply to get external pressures (including regulators) to belt up and not bother them.

In the meantime sustainability professionals keep repeating the mantra that sustainability has to be embedded into all of a company’s activities, not just bolted on as an afterthought.
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Disney Co. Chooses ESPN Brand Over Disney Brand

In October 2007, I wrote a post on my branding blog, Brandcurve, about the Disney brand strategy. In the post, I referenced a q&a session with Disney (NYSE: DIS) CFO Tom Staggs at the Merrill Lynch 2007 annual Media Fall Preview event where Staggs basically revealed the secret to Disney’s brand strategy – identify strong, popular brands then exploit them around the world.

WIth that brand strategy in mind, I was actually surprised to read that Disney is abandoning its brand name on one of its popular properties. According to Brandweek, Disney will remove the Disney brand name from its sports complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and replace it with the ESPN brand name. [Read more…] about Disney Co. Chooses ESPN Brand Over Disney Brand

The Future of Sustainability Reports

You know when you’re in awards season in the film industry. Everyone seems to be handing out trophies, statuettes and gongs. Paparazzi snap away at gleaming white teeth while fashionistas obsess over the width of stars’ shoulder straps.

After a while the endless cycle of red carpets and acceptance speeches starts to get a little draining and you can end up wishing that Hollywood would crawl back under its habitual rock on the other side of the pond.

Sustainability Reporting is starting to establish a similar annual love in.
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The 6 Hats of a Chief Brand Officer

Chief Brand Officer (CBO) – it’s still a fairly new term in the business world, or at least it’s still fairly unused. So what exactly is a chief brand officer? What does a CBO do, and what value does the CBO bring to an organization? Let’s take a closer look.

First, if you haven’t already read Branding Spotlight: What is Branding? and Branding Spotlight – How to Develop a Brand, and you’re not clear on the basics of branding, then take a moment to read those posts. Then, come back to this post and read on to learn more about the role of a chief brand officer. [Read more…] about The 6 Hats of a Chief Brand Officer

Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability AA1000 Series — A Brief Overview

Isn’t it wonderful how punnets of soft fruit appear on the shelves every summer? Ready for the eager user to take hope and lovingly smother with cream before gobbling them up in a slightly guilty display of hedonistic decadence.

But think back before the grocer’s shelves and there has to be a way in which the fruit got there in the first place. A method which ensured not only that the fruit got from field to the shelf, but did so without bruising or any other misfortune occurring to such delicate foodstuffs.

This, broadly speaking, is what the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability’s AA1000 series is all about. It’s not concerned with the fruit of sustainability reporting, the actual metrics.

Rather, it concentrates upon how those metrics are brought about and how appropriate they are to the organisation reporting them. The quality of the reporting process in other words, not the metrics of the report itself.
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A Quibble of Acronyms

It’s an odd existence to follow. First everyone says “Eh? What’s that then?” Then they fall in love with you and can’t get enough.

two people discussing terminologyLater there’s the inevitable falling out, typified by arguments over what it was all about to start with. Lastly, the final stage is a grudging acceptance that no matter what, this is how things are set to remain for evermore.

Yep, life as a TLA* is tough. Only the most successful reach the heights of HTTP, the JK Rowling of acronym-land, used and translated the world over.

Most of the others fall by the wayside, the discarded betamaxes of their generation.
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