Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

One of the most valued asset of an organization is the brand. Recent literature in branding points to the brand playing the role of a social actor capable of forming intimate relationships with its customers. One of the biggest challenges for a brand is in building loyalty (or reducing infidelity). Organizations globally spend billions of dollars annually in building a stronger brand. However most brands  do not take a stance, do not polarize.

It started with a simple tweet by Nokia.  Breakfast in New York on a big day for us! Today we dine on Jellybeans: twitter.com/nokia/status/2… — Nokia (@nokia) September 5, 2012 It wasn't going to be that simple considering the unveiling of Nokia Lumia 920 with the next phase of Windows phone comes a day after Apple announced  its next-gen iPhone event on 12th Sept. 2012. It clearly seemed like a big day. Nokia's social media blitz was on. With the campaign slowly building up, the blitz initially seemed to have lost steam with people questioning the lack of announcement dates and price points for the phone. Also rumors  due to a couple of claimed leaks about the phone were flooding the social media space. An interesting take away is the lack of control brands today have on social media. Controlling the brand narrative is important to make sure consumers get to hear brand's version of the story. With this being touted as a "boom or bust" event for Nokia...

In a landmark case Apple was awarded $1.049 billion in damages by the jury examining the case. There are two important perspectives in this case - First is to calculate the money gained by Samsung in infringing the patents and the money lost through this lost suit. Second is the long term impact on their market share. Apple had made Samsung an offer of $30 per handset and $40 per tablet as a licensing fee to use its patent. Experts say this would've roughly cost  Samsung $250 million dollars in 2010. So clearly considering that Samsung has to pay four times this amount in damages due to patent infringement does not indicate that it was a wise decision. WSJ reports Apple said, it iwas willing to offer a 20% discount to Samsung if the Korean tech giant agreed to cross-license its technology to Apple. Assuming an unsubsidized price of about $600 on a handset, $30 would amount to a royalty rate of about 5%. Payments under the proposal would have com...

What is the biggest thing in the world today? If you ask me it is the alphabet 'i'. In lower case it has made an entire generation spend crazy amounts of money, spend an equally crazy amount of time buying and using iPod, iPhone and the latest in series, iPad. The alphabet i also starts begins the word idle - a period of inactivity compensated by an i-Gizmo app. Earlier you would've been idle. But now you are a touch away from powering your i-Gizomo. I would say that if there was a noble prize in marketing its sure winner would've been Steve Jobs. Marketing is responsible (directly or indirectly) for the word adoption. Adoption of good or bad, beautiful or ugly, irresponsible or responsible, interesting or boring, or simply mundane things in life. Among all the good and bad things that have been adopted by this world there was an idea and effective marketing (whether deliberate or purely accidental). Among the lucky ones that were adopted, the worst in the second half ...

Competition is healthy, but then when one competitor is down and shows lack of character or courage and looses faith in its own men (like laying them off) competition can take an ugly or stupid turn.  Nokia has been loosing market share to many of its competitors and most prominently Apple. The brand cult around Apple has shown the world that "the power of people" can overthrow regimes, big businesses and big money.

Black Swan and Winter's bone are probably two of the finest movies I've seen in the last 12 months. There may be nothing great about their stories, but it is pure finese, the work of a magnanimous and crafty artist that has made these two movies a worth watch. Infact their nominations for the academy awards were not surprising to me. This pure art has obviously sold itself. The same goes for Apple iPad. All Apple needs to do is anounce the date of release. Over time the craftmanship of an artist finds its loyal fans; a cult that derives pleasure in experiencing the art. And, this is not a product that is being brought for social or esteem needs. Its a lower order need, similar to thirst, food or sex, a kind of lust that makes people want more of the artist. Apple has done that successfully by keeping up its tradition of producing masterpieces. You just never get bored and by the day you seem to want it even more. Woman is also a work of art. Look at Natali...

I was having a casual chat with a friend and talking about living with uncertainty . His instant reaction : I hate to live in uncertainty . (Now let me tell you he is impulsive) And yes we all like to live a comfortable, peaceful and certain life. In short we want a risk free life.

Do we like people telling us what to do or what not to do ? I certainly don't, unless I've asked for advice. Steve Jobs is doing his bit to keep porn off the iphone. He has taken the high moral ground. It is good, but a direct invasion into the choices of iphone users. He is simply behaving in a dictatorial manner using his power to control whether or not people watch porn on iphone. A customer of Apple Matthew Browing replied to Steve Jobs in an email saying, ' Unfortunately, I’m really starting to have a philosophical issue with your company. It appears that more and more Apple is determining for it’s consumers what content they should be able to receive.' - Techrunch Web is meant to be free. It is the web that is behind the meteoric success and popularity of Apple. The government of Apple although it seems has changed its ways. Its playing the mummy's role of Iphone users. Interestingly Steve's moral ground does not limit itself to iPhone. He has gone ...

When it comes to the dream gadgets list, iphone and ipod rate very high in my must haves but bad luck, low budget and recession have been the three hurdles for me in getting me my dream gadgets. But on the other side of the world sitting high and mighty are another set of kids who have one of the richest people in the world as their father in the world but still no i-gadgets. Melinda Gates said in one of her interviews that although very few gadgets have been banned for their children, ipod and iphone are two things she does not get for her kids and she too does not have one. They've been practically banned from the Gates mansion as being rival products. Looking at the consequences of the having an ipod or iphone, they could easily distract you from the work. It's like having a pretty girl friend; your mind might loose focus from other issues and you might loose sleep too. The number of mobile thefts are also increasing at an alarming rate with about 35 occurring in Delhi alo...