The news that Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of Apple appears to be the end of an era. His official title may have been chief executive, but to many Steve Jobs is (or was) Apple. A man who apparently oversaw every aspect of their production and design process, the creative genius behind and omnipresent in the development of perhaps the most successful and culturally significant consumer products of the last decade: the iPod, iMac, iPhone and iPad.
So what does the future hold for arguably the single most ubiquitous brand in the world today, and a company that at one point earlier this summer was wealthier than the US Government?
Consumers of Apple’s products, typically staunch advocates and loyal supporters, will need convincing that the quality of the products and the power of the brand they have bought into (at some expense) are not about to diminish. Investors in Apple will, in turn, need to hear and see from the new chief executive the right noises about new products and new corporate ventures.
In short, Apple faces an immediate and very important communications challenge: to prove to the world that it is more than just one man.
(Tom Yazdi
Consultant
tom@linstockcommunications.com)
25 August 2011
23 August 2011
Home but not alone: Communicating with stay-at-home students
August, as we all know, is a slow news month, where the banal and the barmy can sneak under the radar and into the national press with alarming regularity. But there is one sector that provides rich pickings during this time of news thrift – higher education. Even before the inevitable ‘back to school’ stories emerge there is the fertile ground of A-level results and case studies exploring all manner of student issues from managing finances to getting the right part-time job. Simon Read’s recent article in the Independent on the need for university students to budget effectively is a case in point.
In fact, finance is a common news thread, a trend that is only likely to increase with the raising of tuition fees. In recent weeks much focus has fallen on the growth in the number of students living at home. The general consensus is that this is a result of students trying to reduce costs in the face of an increase in the cost of a degree. Much has been made of the real cost of a degree and the ‘sticker’ price, the latter being the cost as perceived by the prospective student. In fact, the Government has been significantly surprised and concerned enough by student perceptions of cost to appoint Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com fame to head an independent student finance taskforce to better explain the cost of degrees.
This is important, particularly in developing communications for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who may be put off higher education by increased tuition fees. However, equally important will be analysis of the likely consequences of changes in the student demographic on the back of raised fees. In short, if more and more students decide to stay at home, what will this mean for universities?
One of the greatest challenges of raised fees is the increased power it hands students. Within this landscape, the universities that thrive will be those that better communicate with their students, understand their concerns and attitudes , and react to meet their expectations. Communicating with students in student accommodation is a markedly easier proposition than communicating with those living well outside university boundaries. However, universities must find a way, as the recent publishing of the National Student Survey results is a timely reminder of the dangers of neglecting student satisfaction.
It is vital universities understand the common channels through which these students communicate. Social media has become somewhat of a reflex panacea for communications issues in recent times, but it will undoubtedly have a role to play in reaching students living at home. Another important consideration will be direct engagement, an approach that will require a detailed understanding of the services used by stay-at-home students when they are ‘on-site’. This could focus on the library or the student bar, but regardless, universities will need to make better use of the limited time and resources available to connect with these students.
To maintain student satisfaction, universities will need to need to work hard to ensure students living at home feel part of the student experience. However, this will require significant further thought on how to communicate best with these audiences.
John Hood
Consultant (john@linstockcommunications.com)
In fact, finance is a common news thread, a trend that is only likely to increase with the raising of tuition fees. In recent weeks much focus has fallen on the growth in the number of students living at home. The general consensus is that this is a result of students trying to reduce costs in the face of an increase in the cost of a degree. Much has been made of the real cost of a degree and the ‘sticker’ price, the latter being the cost as perceived by the prospective student. In fact, the Government has been significantly surprised and concerned enough by student perceptions of cost to appoint Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com fame to head an independent student finance taskforce to better explain the cost of degrees.
This is important, particularly in developing communications for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who may be put off higher education by increased tuition fees. However, equally important will be analysis of the likely consequences of changes in the student demographic on the back of raised fees. In short, if more and more students decide to stay at home, what will this mean for universities?
One of the greatest challenges of raised fees is the increased power it hands students. Within this landscape, the universities that thrive will be those that better communicate with their students, understand their concerns and attitudes , and react to meet their expectations. Communicating with students in student accommodation is a markedly easier proposition than communicating with those living well outside university boundaries. However, universities must find a way, as the recent publishing of the National Student Survey results is a timely reminder of the dangers of neglecting student satisfaction.
It is vital universities understand the common channels through which these students communicate. Social media has become somewhat of a reflex panacea for communications issues in recent times, but it will undoubtedly have a role to play in reaching students living at home. Another important consideration will be direct engagement, an approach that will require a detailed understanding of the services used by stay-at-home students when they are ‘on-site’. This could focus on the library or the student bar, but regardless, universities will need to make better use of the limited time and resources available to connect with these students.
To maintain student satisfaction, universities will need to need to work hard to ensure students living at home feel part of the student experience. However, this will require significant further thought on how to communicate best with these audiences.
John Hood
Consultant (john@linstockcommunications.com)
8 August 2011
Urban Cycling, Messaging and Running Over Things in Tanks
It turns out London isn’t the only city to have a cycling-friendly mayor with a penchant for publicity stunts. In a video posted on YouTube, Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania drove a tank over a Mercedes parked illegally in a cycle lane. It shows him sweeping up the mess, after which he hands the startled-looking owner of the crushed car his keys, and cycles off.
The video, which lambasts the owners of “expensive cars” who “think they are above the law” has gone viral. It garnered a respectable 400,000 views in the first twenty-four hours and has been picked up by both the Guardian and the New York Times. Bloggers have called on mayors the world over to follow suit in taking a harder line when dealing with nuisance parkers. According to his deputy; the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is “firing up the tank”. Boris Johnson, never one to pass up a chance to drum up some publicity, must surely be on the phone to Liam Fox demanding the Royal Armoured Corps police his cycle super-highways.
The stunt is obviously not supposed to be taken entirely seriously, and a spokeswoman for Zuokas clarified that the car destroyed was bought specially for the video. For bored journalists on a hot August day, it provided some easy copy and light relief. But, says PR Moment, it was also an effective piece of messaging. I think it highlights the importance of communications in urban transport policy, and particularly cycling (no, really).
When people talk about promoting cycling in cities they usually focus on infrastructure projects, such as cycle lanes or hire schemes. These things are important: between 2006 and 2009 New York City built 200 miles of cycle lanes and cycling increased by 45%. But over the same period, San Francisco built no new cycle lanes at all, and saw a 53% increase in cycle commuting. This isn’t really that surprising: things like bike lanes promote cycling by making it safer and easier. But the most important determinant for bike safety isn’t infrastructure, it’s other cyclists. Research from Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands has shown that the more people cycle regularly in a city, the less likely an individual cyclist is to be involved in an accident.
This is good news for cyclists – city cycling has been increasing in popularity all over the world. It’s also good news for municipalities that want to promote both cycling and reduce accidents. Building cycle-friendly infrastructure is expensive, and cities are increasingly cash-strapped.
In fact, a good communications strategy can be just as effective at getting more people to cycle, and by extension to do it more safely. Humans like to conform: as Thaler & Sunstein discuss in Nudge, one of the best ways to get someone to do something is to persuade them that everyone else is doing it. And people favour the status-quo. Just by making cycling more visible TFL could make cycling more popular and safer. It’s counterintuitive, but telling people about cycle lanes might well be more effective than building more of them. Moreover, they should be positioning cycling as mainstream, fun and useful: they need to make cycling the obvious choice for city journeys. Events like Sky Ride are a fantastic start, but they could be doing much more.
So although Zuokas’s methods may be unorthodox, running over a car with a tank to promote cycling is in fact a sensible use of public money. It’s hard to imagine the same thing happening here, but the video shows that a viral campaign that harnesses social media can be both powerful and cost-effective, particularly if fronted by a charismatic cycling mayor. If only we had one of those…
Tom Lyttelton, Intern (thomas@linstockcommunications.com)
The video, which lambasts the owners of “expensive cars” who “think they are above the law” has gone viral. It garnered a respectable 400,000 views in the first twenty-four hours and has been picked up by both the Guardian and the New York Times. Bloggers have called on mayors the world over to follow suit in taking a harder line when dealing with nuisance parkers. According to his deputy; the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is “firing up the tank”. Boris Johnson, never one to pass up a chance to drum up some publicity, must surely be on the phone to Liam Fox demanding the Royal Armoured Corps police his cycle super-highways.
The stunt is obviously not supposed to be taken entirely seriously, and a spokeswoman for Zuokas clarified that the car destroyed was bought specially for the video. For bored journalists on a hot August day, it provided some easy copy and light relief. But, says PR Moment, it was also an effective piece of messaging. I think it highlights the importance of communications in urban transport policy, and particularly cycling (no, really).
When people talk about promoting cycling in cities they usually focus on infrastructure projects, such as cycle lanes or hire schemes. These things are important: between 2006 and 2009 New York City built 200 miles of cycle lanes and cycling increased by 45%. But over the same period, San Francisco built no new cycle lanes at all, and saw a 53% increase in cycle commuting. This isn’t really that surprising: things like bike lanes promote cycling by making it safer and easier. But the most important determinant for bike safety isn’t infrastructure, it’s other cyclists. Research from Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands has shown that the more people cycle regularly in a city, the less likely an individual cyclist is to be involved in an accident.
This is good news for cyclists – city cycling has been increasing in popularity all over the world. It’s also good news for municipalities that want to promote both cycling and reduce accidents. Building cycle-friendly infrastructure is expensive, and cities are increasingly cash-strapped.
In fact, a good communications strategy can be just as effective at getting more people to cycle, and by extension to do it more safely. Humans like to conform: as Thaler & Sunstein discuss in Nudge, one of the best ways to get someone to do something is to persuade them that everyone else is doing it. And people favour the status-quo. Just by making cycling more visible TFL could make cycling more popular and safer. It’s counterintuitive, but telling people about cycle lanes might well be more effective than building more of them. Moreover, they should be positioning cycling as mainstream, fun and useful: they need to make cycling the obvious choice for city journeys. Events like Sky Ride are a fantastic start, but they could be doing much more.
So although Zuokas’s methods may be unorthodox, running over a car with a tank to promote cycling is in fact a sensible use of public money. It’s hard to imagine the same thing happening here, but the video shows that a viral campaign that harnesses social media can be both powerful and cost-effective, particularly if fronted by a charismatic cycling mayor. If only we had one of those…
Tom Lyttelton, Intern (thomas@linstockcommunications.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
