This article explains South Korea’s dilemma in falling demand domestically. As a result, manufacterer confidence has been dropping at lowest in four months. Expectations index fell from 93 to 85 and consumer confidence fell in concern of the sustainability of recovery from the economic recession. 

The problem here is universal at the moment. While countries are still coping with the economic recession, consumers are still wary about spending their money and resources. Thus manufacturers selling to elastic demand are met with unwilling purchasers, and the effect is the decline of manufacturer confidence because with elastic demand shifting to the left, total revenue expects to drop. With gloomy sales predicted in the times to come, no wonder supply’s confidence is receding.

Black British Playwrights

Birmingham Youth Service

Black Cultural Archives

Cultural Exchange through theatre in education

Freedom Studios

Future Histories

Mirador

SALIDAA

Siobhan Davies Archive

Talawa Theatre Company

The Black Theatre Forum and Nitro Theatre Company

The Crucible Theatre Sheffield

The Oval House Theatre

Vayu Naidu Company

In depth archive case studies

Situation/Opportunity:
Welded Tubes, Inc. produces high quality carbon steel tubing for customers both in the US and internationally.  Due to their high volume runners, they needed frequent and costly regrinds to eliminate roll marks and had to outsource tooling.

Our Solution:
Roll-Kraft suggested Welded Tubes switch from standard D-2 rolls to Roll-Kraft’s tungsten carbide rolls.

Results:

• Welded Tubes has seen an increase of nearly ten times in the expected tool life before it needs regrind attention
• Surface quality has improved immensely due to the reduced friction from carbide rolls, eliminating roll marks for their plating critical customers
• Tooling can be kept in-house
• Customers are happy with the qualify of product

Audiences Yorkshire have posted resources from their recent event exploring the relationship between audience engagement and artistic excellence. Speakers included Heather Maitland, Arts Consultant, Marcus Romer, Artistic Director, Pilot Theatre as well as case studies from organisations across Yorkshire. You can download the resouces by visiting their website at audiencesyorkshire.org.uk

Principles:

Infuse the excitement and rigor of scientific research

Summary:

In 2002, the Howard Hughes Medical Institution’s Undergraduate Science Education Program launched the HHMI Professors Program. HHMI awarded 20 four-year grants, of $1 million each, to faculty members renowned for their research successes and long-time interest in undergraduate education.

Each professor uses his or her HHMI grant to develop distinct, effective methods of sharing the beauty of science with all students. Some focus on providing research experiences for first-year students; others work to attract more women and minorities into science. Whether communicating the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of cutting-edge science or using technology to develop new teaching tools, these professors infuse undergraduate science education with the excitement and rigor of scientific research by sharing their advancements in teaching.
HHMI professors use[d] the KEEP Toolkit to document their work.

Source: http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/disseminating_effective_practices_and_products.html

Last weekend, I have had an opportunity to make a short speech at Hamburg Barcamp (#bchh09) and sharing of my experiences on website performance optimization. Below you can find my presentation with some case studies:

Many thanks to Florian Bailey, who not only translated his presentation to English individually to me, but also has shown me a link to abtests.com from which there was one case study in my presentation, and what turned out to be one of the hits for the audience

Already on her last legs with publicity faux pars, Kate Moss has this week placed herself back into hot water with a pro-anorexia comment.

Kate claims one of her mottos is “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, resulting in a huge outcry from eating disorder charities.

This latest outcry has created a huge Twitter debate, Newspaper articles galore and yep, a whole lot of blogging!

Modeling agency Storm, who represent Moss, said: “…of course Kate’s words had been misinterpreted.

“This was part of a longer answer Kate gave during a wider-ranging interview, which has unfortunately been taken out of context and completely misrepresented,” the agency said in a statement. “For the record, Kate does not support this as a lifestyle choice.”

Not the first time Kate’s PR team has had to fight her battle, last year the cocaine drugs scandal story initially threatened to break her winning streak before being turned around and coming out on top. Even winning her new contracts with top fashion brands.

But this story seems bigger. High profile celebrities are turning against her – Denise Van Outen fumed: “Kate Moss is talking out of her Size Zero backside”. While ex-Ultimo Katie Green claimed: “There are 1.1million eating disorders in the UK alone. Kate Moss’s comments are likely to cause many more.”

With this years media coverage and heavy campaigning against the use of ultra-thin models, can it be certain Kate will survive yet another PR disaster?

Maybe this time, because public relations techniques are stronger than ever. With the integration of viral and online media to her already commendable campaign – it’s fairly certain she’ll survive in the fashion world purely on credibility. But continuing to act as a role model for youngsters and mothers is not such a secure path.

Could public relations recover the fashion queen through her next mistake?

As they say…three strikes and you’re out! So Miss Moss watch out.

Team Trades is different.  As Team Trades’ Phil Jarvis says:

“We want to communicate with our customers and continue the relationship once the work is complete.  It goes without saying that after every large commission we offer a complimentary follow up: but we feel it’s about more than that.

We find that cards work really well. Giving people all the detail that they need about the business and what services we offer. It’s great to have something to hand that people will keep and hopefully refer to time and time again.

We want to let customers know what we’re up to and how our business is changing.  It’s about letting them know what we can do for them, their families, neighbours and friends.

That’s why we have decided to create a newsletter.  It will be informative and give our customers some useful hints and tips, such as seasonal maintenance jobs they may want to consider around the home or office.

We hope our clients will find the newsletter useful and informative, and we will welcome their feedback.  You never know, we may feature the work  we have done for them in a future edition.”

For more information on Team Trades contact Phil Jarvis on 0800 077 6171 or visit their website at www.teamtrades.co.uk

For more information on using greeting cards as part of a customer retention strategy call Andrew Helm at Latitude 53 on 0844 504 5353 or visit www.latitude53.co.uk/cards4business

Established company. Founders wished to gradually retire, creating a management succession problem.

Result: through Minerva the company located an experienced manager who became a director and invested a sum approaching £100,000.

In early stages. Developer of software products and tools, concentrating initially on large organisations in the financial services industry. High level of sales/marketing skills and technical ability. Needed capital for product development and to fund their sales campaign.

Result: we introduced a private investor who joined the Board as Financial Director (part-time) and we then introduced a venture capital company. Together they invested over £800,000. Eighteen months later the company gained a listing on AIM, having increased in value by sixteen times (from £2.5m to £40m).

Principles of good practice:

• Document the know-how of the different pedagogical approaches implemented in practice.
• Improve students’ learning outcomes throughout implementation of technology that serves such purpose.
• Continually improve the means and spaces of interaction with students.

Case summary

The HP Technology for Teaching initiative grants teams of faculty from colleges or universities, 2-year or 4-year, public or private, an award to redesign a course using technology, such as Tablet PCs. Project teams include one or more faculty members acting as the principal investigators often with other team members who are experts in instructional design or technology integration.

Over the last three years, for more than 200 projects in 34 countries, the use of the technology, the changes in pedagogy, and the courses being redesigned have evolved as technology is used in new ways across academic disciplines. [The] aim [is] to improve student-learning outcomes.

Source: http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/transforming_teaching_and_learning_through_the_effective_use_of_innovative_technology.html

Principles of good practice:

• Guarantee quality of student learning.
• Foster connections between academic disciplines and practical and theoretical knowledge in students.
• Propose to students different approaches to cross-cultural knowledge and perspectives.
• Empower students to gain intellectual and practical skills through life.
• To be creative
• Integrate and interpret knowledge form different disciplines.
• Apply knowledge to real-world
• Know how to learn
• To be reflective
• Foster students’ self – assessment and design rubrics for this purpose.

Case summary

Some organizations are exploring the state-of-art of integrative learning and its potential to improve education.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002),[ reports that ] many campuses today are creating opportunities for more integrative, connected learning. First-year seminars, learning communities, interdisciplinary studies, capstone experiences, portfolios, student self-assessment, and other innovations are increasingly in evidence. [However, ] they often involve small numbers of students or exist in isolation, disconnected from other parts of the curriculum and from other reform efforts. Indeed, the very structures of academic life encourage students to see their courses as isolated requirements to complete.

Some institutions have implemented such models within their curricula.

To support [integrative learning], many colleges and universities today are developing new kinds of institutional “scaffolding”—courses that invite students to take different perspectives on an issue, capstone projects that ask students to draw on learning from earlier courses to explore a new topic or solve a problem, experiences that combine academic and community-based work, or systems of journaling and reflection like those known as “learning portfolios.”

However, the mayor impediment to implement successfully integrative learning is the credit system in which the programs are articulated.

Since the replacement of the required curriculum with “free electives” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the provision of content through courses counted in standard credit units has long encouraged faculty and students alike to think of learning in course-like modules or chunks.

Since a growing number of students are taking advantage of the credits system to take courses in different institutions, the need to implement a solid strategy of integrative learning is even bigger.

The need to find ways to help students connect their learning is underlined by the fact that a growing proportion are now taking advantage of the portability provided by the course-credit accounting system and attending more than one institution over their college careers.

During the last decades some models and tools have been developed to guide students with their learning process.

The idea that integrative learning depends on students to make connections is hardly a new one. Indeed, the burden of integration has traditionally fallen primarily on the learner, with campuses assuming that bright students would have the wit and grit to pull the pieces together as they moved through their studies. What’s new, perhaps, is a conviction that “intentional learning,” as called for in the Greater
Expectations report (AAC&U 2002), is a capacity that we can and should help all students develop as a key to integrative learning.

The following models and tools have helped to achieve this goal:

· Self-directed learning (Brookfi eld 1986; Sabral 1997; Taylor and Burgess 1995): a process in which students reflect on and formulate their own learning goals.
· Learning how to learn(Fink 2003): describes three capabilities associated with this term.

· Strategic learner (Weinstein, 1996): Characterized by students’ knowledge in five broad categories:

· Metacognition (Glaser, 1984): it entails knowing what one knows and does not know, predicting outcomes, planning ahead, efficiently apportioning time and cognitive resources, and monitoring one’s efforts to solve a problem or to learn.
· Doing and thinking are complementary (Schon,1983): we “surface and criticize the tacit understandings that have grown up around the repetitive experiences of a specialized practice, and can make new sense of…situations of uncertainty or uniqueness.”
· Student portfolios, mentioned earlier as a vehicle for fostering integrative abilities, can also be a vehicle for assessment. A typical focus of portfolio assessment is writing ability, which is highly relevant to integrative learning. But some campuses are employing the approach to assess a broader set of outcomes as well (Cambridge 2001).

The Carnegie Foundation and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (…) are working with ten campuses in a joint project called “Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect.”* Selected on the basis of work already accomplished and a plan to extend that work, participating campuses are developing new models to provide students with more purposeful, progressively challenging, integrative educational experiences.

Reference:
Huber, M. & Hutchings, P (2004) Integrative Learning: Mapping the terrain. [online] Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/sites/default/files/publications/elibrary_pdf_636.pdf
(Accessed 20 november 2009)

Author: Jason Pires
Source: MVC Agency

Situation:

After reviewing several agencies, Armen Art, a furniture design and manufacturing company, chose MVC as its marketing partner. Armen Art realized that MVC understood the severity of its situation and is passionate about helping its partner clients create powerful results in the face of adversity and change. MVC presented Armen Art with a powerful creative vision and an unprecedented strategic approach that would be essential to the company’s future. MVC’s strength in lifestyle marketing, modern visual style and strategic thinking served as the right foundation for the leading brand that Armen Art needed to become.

When Armen Art partnered with MVC it was facing an internal renovation that included a change in leadership at a time when the industry itself was experiencing a generational transition and a waning economy. In its 30 year history the company had not made any changes to its brand and marketing. From a sales perspective the word “Art” in the name Armen Art Furniture had become a misleading roadblock as the art and accessories market had grown into its own distinct and thriving segment of the industry. The old logo, two ribbon style and interlaced “A” letters, didn’t do much more to communicate the company’s values or even offer an idea of the type of products the company sold. To worsen the scenario, the company’s marketing strategy had ignored the web. In essence, the company was in danger of failing if it did not make immediate and drastic changes.

Solution:

MVC realized that Armen Art was in need of a complete reinvention of its brand, which would include a fresh new market position and a marketing strategy that leverages the power of the web.

MVC knew that to reinvigorate the company’s appeal it would need to connect with the lifestyles of modern day consumers even though it does not sell directly to consumers. It would also need to demonstrate to its clients within the industry that Armen Art Furniture understands what consumers want in terms of design, quality and price. With this mentality, MVC would go on to help Armen Living bridge the disconnect between its products and the end consumer as it was perceived in the minds of the buyers. Ultimately this would set the platform for consumer brand awareness that will drive the behavior of industry buyers and create further interest in the Armen Art brand and products.

To start the process of rebranding, the Arment Art company name and identity needed to offer a completely new and fresh impression of the company. Through extensively studying the market, Armen Art’s history and the vibrant new product line introduced by the company’s new leaders, MVC decided that to reposition Armen Art it needed project the company’s values beyond those of just a company that sold furniture.

With the understanding that consumers now look for furniture that can help them enhance their lives and express their unique personalities, MVC substituted the word “Art” for the word “Living” in the company’s name, and kept the “Armen” so as not to lose the company’s core personality, culture and existing brand equity. To compliment the new name “Armen Living (Furniture)”, MVC created the tagline “Furniture for Contemporary Lifestyles” to encompass what the company offers and that can be further qualified by the remaining facets of the company’s branding and advertising.

Having set the initial feel for the company’s brand, MVC would then create a modern logo that directly reflects the form and idea of furniture, and a color palette that exudes the warmth of a joyful life while balanced by an air of self-assured sophistication.

MVC would then bring the marketing to life with the campaign titled “This is Living” which gave context to the company’s new name and that is supported by custom lifestyle photography and images depicting the alluring aspects of a sophisticated contemporary lifestyle.

Through the use of a dynamic web video presentation that introduced the direction of the new brand and the vibrant new collection MVC succeeded in generating immediate buzz as well as new business for Armen Living. The video proved to not only keep viewers tuned in to its entire message, but it was also distributed virally through the internet by furniture enthusiasts and followers of the new brand.

Building on the “This Is Living” campaign, MVC created an elegant catalog designed to compliment and unify the eclectic and diverse nature of Armen Living’s new products. MVC also designed and developed a fresh new company website for Armen Living. The website not only features an optimized SEO framework but also social networking aspects that allow users to share the products and content on Facebook, Twitter and other networking websites.

MVC continues to expand the reach of the new brand through a carefully planned and executed marketing strategy which includes PR and advertising campaigns, email marketing.

After only five months of partnering with MVC, Armen Living experienced the best month in sales that it had in over 2 years. The company is not only steadily growing again, it is also poised to be an industry leader in the coming years. The partnership between Armen Living and MVC Agency has been a true success in terms of brand positioning, marketing strategy and most importantly in terms of financial growth for Armen Living.

To learn more about specific aspects of the new brand:

Logo/Brand Identity:
http://www.mvcagency.com/#/works/?cat=55&id=102

Video Presentation:
http://www.mvcagency.com/#/works/?cat=51&id=106

Website:
http://www.mvcagency.com/#/works/?cat=50&id=105

Catalog:
http://www.mvcagency.com/#/works/?cat=52&id=101

I have struggled with trying to decide if reviewing case studies is a productive tool in leadership education. I’ve decided it is what you make of it. Reviewing and responding to case studies is one of my favorite things to do, I think exercising the mind is a great thing.

Reviewing and responding to case studies is a great tool for getting people to THINK. I think that is the most difficult part of teaching and learning. Leaders must learn to think and think objectively. Too often, students in leadership education often have one thing on their minds: When do I get to be the leader? (Not, how do I get to be the leader?)

If the case studies responses are presented to a forum, the art of LISTENING may come into play. One must listen attentively and again, objectively, to be able to come up with a formidable opinion. This is another crucial leadership skill.

Along with actually presenting the case study response or writing it out, if you can attain these skills by reviewing case studies, then, well, they make a half-way decent educational tool!

Situation/Opportunity:
MWI Components manufacturers products for the post frame building industry.  When they ran open tube through their machines, the final product was flared and required additional modifications before they could be shipped to customers which added time and expense.

Our Solution:
Using our custom engineering software, we were able to identify the problem area and recondition MWI’s tooling so the end flare on their open tube was eliminated.

Results:
MWI was able to continue using this tooling rather than purchasing a new one, saving them a tremendous amount of money and keeping their customers satisfied.  Also, product could go straight from the mill to the customer without additional modifications by MWI’s staff.

Analyzing Bing performance through Kenshoo and comparing it with Google numbers to decide the effectiveness of the campaigns. The product was Remittance to India.

Client’s Objective:

Improving performance of lateral themes on Bing and measure their effectiveness. The critical task was to measure the effectiveness of ad position & their CTR on Bing, as the targeted audience was USA NRIs.

Execution:

After optimizing Bing for 3 months, we realized that the brand terms which always perform in Google are not giving sufficient volume in Bing. Also in Bing the reach is very limited, as the lateral themes can be expanded up to a certain extent after which it reaches to a saturation level. Also tracking of registrations was a major problem in Bing, as it always showed a major difference between Interface & LMS data. This made the optimizing part more critical. In Bing, USA targeted ads can’t be seen from an Indian domain, or not even through the proxy sites like ktunnel.com.

So, we started implementing Kenshoo, which is a tool that manages, analyzes, and optimizes multiple SEM campaigns running in multiple Search Engines, simultaneously.  After starting Kenshoo, we got Google data as well as Bing data in one interface only. That helped us to identify what is performing in either of two.

Through the ‘Advance Search’ option of Kenshoo we observed that many lateral themes which are performing in Google, can be tried in Bing, so we started those themes in Bing. Also we added more direct competitor themes in Bing on Search. We generated Bing & Google reports together through Kenshoo. Then came to know that along with the band terms, lateral themes are also performing in Bing & that too with extremely good CTL.

We arrived at a conclusion that Bing audience is very specific, as our CTL was almost 15 % which is more than usual. So finally, we kept only those lateral themes active with brand terms. Now after optimizing through Kenshoo on a daily basis, we can deliver adequate registrations through Bing with a highest CTL and also comparing the Bing performance with Google has become easier through Kenshoo.

click to enlarge

]]> http://benjroberts.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/case-study-2-panel-shops-1-work-provider/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:59:39 +0000 ben http://benjroberts.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/case-study-2-panel-shops-1-work-provider/

Today i want to share with you a story of 2 panel shops that receive their work from the same insurance company and their paint from the same supplier with dramatically different results

Panel shop 1, Is a small to medium shop in the inner metro area of a major city, this shop is in an old rundown building, has a dirty crappy office and no customer area, they struggle to get work and feel there work provider keeps cutting down there quotes and wont allow them extra panels to blend colours

this shop constantly complains to its sundry suppliers for discounts and to their paint company for compensation for colours not matching edge to edge

To the owner of panel shop 1, Stop you winging and complaining, when was the last time you spent money on your business to create a better customer experience, when was the last time you surveyed your customers to see how there experience was with your business and the claims process, when was the last time you took the manager of your work provider out to lunch (don’t be a tightass you pay for this) and talked about how happy there customers are that have had the vehicle fixed at your shop and showed him or her proof via the survey’s you collected, when was the last time you even thought of how to improve your customer’s experience when visiting your business and finally when was the last time you grew some balls and took responsibility for your own business and stopped blaming others for your business not making any money..

Panel shop 2, Is also in the inner metro of a major city they operate out of a modern purpose-built facility, they have created a clean secure car park, have a fully air-conditioned office with WIFI access for customers, they offer tea and coffee and have a childs play area to keep the kids amused while the parents wait.

They have set up an office where Insurance assessors can sit and get on the net to do their work whether or not that work has anything to do with this shop, they survey all customers after the work has been finished to make sure you exceeded their expectations and ask if there is anything they can improve on and whether they will re-new the policy with their insurer

This shop never complains about cost of materials or paint accuracy and cost, there insurer never tries to cut the quotes and pay them less, in fact sometimes the insurance assessor wont even come out untill the job is already half complete

This shop never has to bid for work, and now im going to tell you why…..

One of the biggest myths when it comes to insurance companies is that they will give the work to the shop who supplies them with the cheapest quote, this is simply not true, if you are one of these shops that has to cut down your quotes and bid for work, it’s because the insurance company doesnt see value in your shop and you wont help them retain policy holders through your facility and service

All an insurance company wants is its customers to re-new their policy with them and will pay anything for that and by providing a great professional customer experience you can deliver that for them, clean up you office spend some money on you customer area and look professional, prove this to you work provider and i’ll guarantee they will stop cutting you quotes they will pay you more money and you might start making a profit for once in your life.

Avid is proud to help the KIPP Endeavor Academy in Kansas City meet its telecommunications requirements. I could cite many reasons why we are so excited about what KIPP is doing, but this short video says it far better than ever I could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCj1TdAmlS8

A few weeks ago I posted a white-paper, Determining the Impact of Customer Relationships, providing some well researched information on social media measurement and analysis. I also created a slide deck outlining the information in much more digestible format. The deck provides a good outline of the importance of measurement as the web continues on its path toward a widely adopted social communication platform. The presentation also provides a good overview of the type of data the social web provides, how businesses can utilize the data to obtain actionable insights, and how to synthesize those insights into a measurable social media strategy. Some case studies are also provided to outline some good examples of social media success stories. Enjoy!

-Briefly summarize the events in this case study and list the issues it raises around privacy(Identify 3 issues)
Rick a grade 10 student notices that at the entrance of his school they installed security cameras, and they also installed them in the cafeteria. People feel like they will lose their privacy but most feel ok with it if it helps stop crime. Rick feels disturbed about being on camera all the time and starts to notice where they all are. In malls, grocery stores etc. He remembers pictures he has on Facebook and the webcam he has installed in his room. How do we really know where those pictures really go..? After he presents his presentation, his raised up their hands not to ask questions but to show him that they filmed him with their camera phones. Showing you how easy it is to film someone. In public places we completely lost our right to privacy.

-How serious do you think the issues raised here are? Why? Which is the most serious?
The issues are really serious because the loss to privacy is a threat to our humanity. Where ever we go we are being constantly watched. Really our only place for privacy is our own home. The most serious is the fact that filming someone is such an accessible thing to do now-a-days with camera phones, portable video cameras.

-Does this case study seem relevant to your own life? Why or why not?
Yes it does seem quite relevant to my life because cameras are already installed in my school and most of the public places I go to are riddled with security cameras. I don’t feel like I lost my privacy though because I  am so used to it I don’t even notice it anymore

Volkswagen’s foundry in Hannover, Germany, uses Metris laser scanning to inspect the geometry of sand core parts used in the production of molded aluminum engine parts.  A CMM-mounted laser scanner accurately captures the fragile sand grain surfaces of entire sand core parts, a task delivering unsatisfactory results through touch probe measurements. Reports containing graphic geometric deviations help Volkswagen instantly evaluate the quality of the entire sand core surface, providing consistent and more reliable quality monitoring of sand core production equipment. In addition, the laser scanner’s capability to accurately inspect complex free-form parts showed great added value in optimizing sand core geometry, saving time, effort and cost by avoiding design iteration during aluminum part production.

Click here to read this full article.

This article in the New York Times Small Business section provides anecdotes of small business owners who rely on Facebook as a critical selling and relationship management tool. Business owners are using it to find new customers, build a base of followers, and hone in on targeted prospects. With forthcoming advancements in digital communications technologies, like geolocation for Twitter, it will be even easier for mom-and-pop shops to take advantage of social media tools. Highlights from the New York Times article include:

For most businesses, Facebook Pages (distinct from individual profiles and Facebook groups) are the best place to start. Pages allow businesses to collect “fans” the way celebrities, sports teams, musicians and politicians do. There are now 1.4 million Facebook Pages and they collect more than 10 million fans every day, according to the site.

Businesses can easily create a Web presence with Facebook, even if they don’t have their own Web site (most companies still should maintain a Web site to reach people who don’t use Facebook or whose employers block access to the site). Businesses can claim a vanity address so that their Facebook address reflects the business name, like www.facebook.com/Starbucks. Facebook pages can link to the company’s Web site or direct sales to e-commerce sites like Ticketmaster or Amazon.

Facebook enables small businesses to engage in targeted marketing that they only could have dreamed about a few years ago. Facebook users fill out profiles with information like hometown, employer, religious beliefs, interests, education and favorite books, movies and TV shows — all of which can help advertisers deliver messages to specific demographic slices.

Read the full article and see what other small business owners say at New York Times.

Looking online for information on an electronic retailers return policy, we discovered vivid discussions, exclusively describing frustrating experiences with the company in question. Obviously, other consumers were seeking the same information and even more consumers were eager to provide it. All these second hand opinions leave a very negative impression of the company’s handling of customer care. Simply missing is a statement from the company to clarify their policy to their target group instead of having their brand harmed by frustrated customers. But the company obviously does not check web2.0 communication and has no clue about their online reputation problem. Not that they can wipe out bad consumer reviews, but the simple act of responding to their customers questions would make a big difference and is a good way of building good will for their brand.