at home in…, w| Gerald Zhang-Schmidt

Marketing and corporate communications on social networks are all the rage, I’m somewhat involved and impressed myself (and available for hire) – but something of the social is constantly overlooked: Even as all those communications are supposed to circle around the individual, provide and prove corporate social engagement, and tap into the power of word-of-mouth, [...]

Social media are all the rage, every company seems to be getting onto Facebook and other social networks to interact with customers and find potential new recruits – and, transfixed by the new technology, the developments that are currently bringing about changes are misunderstood. Some companies have not yet arrived in the present world of [...]

Brands have been clamoring to get on the social media bandwagon. They are, by and large, still lagging behind, still misunderstanding why their conversation partners (not just customers, but also potential employees, ‘brand ambassadors’, etc.) actually engage with them – and today’s launch of Google+ pages has the potential to leave slow brands, as well [...]

Advertising, PR, and all that, continues to be big business. More money seems to be spent (percentage-wise) on a product’s marketing than on its development, let alone manufacture (e.g. with the iPhone…). PR has even been reaching into politics and international diplomacy, where spin doctors and experts in “nation branding” roam. Meanwhile, even as online [...]

Nike, as the Wall Street Journal reports, plans to expand its sales in China greatly. The only problem? Everyday sports for recreation are not what Chinese do… and so, Nike needs to “alter ideas of fashion and help foster a culture of everyday-citizen sports.” If only it were that simple. The case of the sports industry [...]