Andrew Lark

Branding in a Recession

Nice site with some great commentary on branding during a recession. This comment is right-on... too many people miss the point of value brands: "Value brands do not just compete on price. Although price is important, value brands also deliver a strong brand experience through customer service, quality products, and brand consistency."

Smart Guy, Smart Advice...

Andrew Tobias has some great advice for navigating through the current financial maelstrom.

This via Zen Habits is smart stuff:

• Andrew Tobias suggests a simple three-step budget: Destroy all of your credit cards. Invest 20% of all that you earn (and never touch it). Live on the remaining 80%, no matter what.
• Elizabeth Warren’s balanced money formula is outstanding. It’s the budget I use. Allocate 20% of your after-tax income for savings (or debt reduction), 50% for needs, and the remaining 30% for wants.
• If you crave a little more complexity, try the 60% solution from Richard Jenkins at MSN Money. He says spend 20% of your pre-tax income on savings (half for retirement, half for long-term savings or debt), 60% to committed expenses, 10% to irregular expenses, and 10% for fun.

And I liked this quote: “There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house, and there are times when you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation.  Today, we have to focus on foundations.” – Barack Obama, Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Social Media Best Practices

Stowe and team are launching an initiative to coalesce and define social media best practices.

The goal is to "give publishers, emerging media platforms and individual participants an evolving set of 'Best Practices' to encourage open, democratic and transparent interaction. Further, to help participants who wish to engage with those platforms to know, at a glance, which aspects of the best practices they can reasonably expect to be applied to their experience."

Some good thinking and ideas here.

Kindle Porn…

Some interesting shots here of what a future Kindle might look like. I’m going to wait for the next generation given I really enjoy the Kindle I have.

I did see a prototype of a PlasticLogic reader this week and it is a stunner.

Digital Trends

Steve has linked to a great paper from Edelman on digital trends. Well worth a read. The five trends are:

1. Satisfaction Guaranteed - Customer care and PR are blending as consumers use social media to demand service. We are all over this at Dell - I believe Dell was the first F500 company to imbed a customer support team in its PR function.
2. Media Reforestation -  The media is in a constant state of reinvention as it transitions from atoms to bits. So is the PR profession.
3. Less is the New More - Overload takes its toll. Gorging on media is out. Selective ignorance and friends as filters are in.
4. Corporate All-Stars - Workers flock to social media to build their personal brands, yet offer employers an effective and credible way to market in the downturn
5. The Power of Pull -  Where push once ruled, it’s now equally important to create digital content that people discover through search

The one trend I would add is:

6. Here is Everywhere -- Mobility changes everything. From iPhones to Netbooks, always-on mobile devices are changing the way information is accessed and consumed.

Kindle This

Amazon really needs to get its social media strategy sorted out for the Kindle. Hard to get links to relevant blogs etc... and very poor community activation. Blogs you might want to read:

• Amazon's blog - mainly focused on content and not enough on technology. Also, no links to community sites and other blogs.
• Blog Kindle
• Kindle Fan
• Kindle Forums
• Kindle 2 reviews and info

I love my Kindle. Would the simplistic brilliance of the device is limit community growth?

Story On Marty

Today’s NZ Herald has a story on Marty. If you are in NZ, the print edition has a terrific photo of him standing in front of a mural he painted in Kaitaia that later became a painting that hangs in our National Gallery, Te Papa.

Celebrating Marty's Life

Thanks to you all for the kind words, prayers and support over the past week. Without question the toughest week of my life.

If you are in NZ and would like to join us this weekend to celebrate Marty's life we will be gathering at the Empire Tavern at Noon on Sunday.

 

As we deal with the shock and pain of losing someone so dear to us so unexpectedly, we are comforted in knowing that Martin's legacy will live on for generations to come. One only needs to spend a few minutes with the children, parents and teachers who benefited from the incredible passion Martin had for teaching to see the amazing difference he made in their lives.

To ensure that even more people will be touched and enriched by Martin's incredible passion and talent, we are creating the Martin Lark Foundation. The Martin Lark Foundation, or MartinLark.org, will be dedicated to improving the lives of children in Thailand and elsewhere. We will do this in specific areas of need and also by providing children with better access to world-class education in the English language through scholarship programs and access to online resources that enable teachers to teach better.

To memorialize Martin's fun-loving spirit we will also be building a playground at the orphanage near Martin's home and creating a scholarship program for the English program he created here.

We invite you to join in our efforts and to see the difference one person can make. Your donation can be sent to MartinLark.org, 3801 N. Capital of Texas Hwy, Suite E240-148, Austin, Texas 78746-1416 USA

A big thanks to Kristen, Casey Jones and the brilliant team at RD2 for helping set this up so quickly.

Offline for a Week or So

I got one of those calls nobody wants to get - my brother Martin has been killed in a terrible accident in Thailand so I'm heading that way and plan on tuning out to focus on family. He was the shining light of our family and imagining the universe without him is hard to comprehend.

When times like these strike you become deeply thankful. Especially for my brilliant wife (in so many ways) and Sophia and Zach. Figuring out how to get me and family members to Thailand in one hour is an amazing feat... We love you!

And hey, you appreciate people who go out of their way without any skepticism. American Express Platinum figured out how to get me to Thailand the fastest way possible and made it happen. And to Qantas who treated my Mum like royalty, held the flight for her, drove her around the airport, upgraded her without her asking and escorted her through customs... You are heroes!

Cool Kudos For the Dell Team...

Mashable, one of the leading blogs on social networking have included Dell as one of the top 10 smartest brands in social media.