Attention economy

Sorry that I left my blog alone for nearly 2 weeks. Today I found a very nice summary for building relationships and gaining attentions (especially online), namely "10 things to remember about the attention economy" by twdanny, as follows:

1. You want to receive attention.
2. You want to receive long-lasting attention. This is where a brand is born.
3. In order to receive long-lasting attention, you need to build trust.
4. Trust is built when relationships are formed.
5. Relationships are formed when conversations take place.
6. A true conversation is based on transparency.
7. The intrusion of money into the formula annihilates transparency.
8. Transparency is a son of authenticity.
9. The Web, compared to other types of medium, is more likely to transfer authenticity through the use of links.
10. Authenticity, transparency, and conversations are possible only when you let go of control and first trust the other.

The author then introduced a powerful book about attention and conversation, named The Cluetrain Manifasto, which now ranks #6 in Businessweek's list of 2000 business bestsellers and #9 in Amazon's list of 2000 business bestsellers. Moreover, luckily for all of us the entire book goes public online. Just click here to read everything.

再议苹果

蝎眼兄(呵呵，这么简化称呼没什么问题吧，比较上口)看了上篇我对苹果的微词，发表了不同意见。太谢谢了，本人真的希望有人参与讨论，可惜blogger不支持traceback，只能留言提醒了。蝎眼兄在他的《苹果广告，跟粗鲁没有关系》中，中肯地对苹果的广告失误做了评价。与他的意见相比，我的似乎更像是感情聊天节目中的万峰老师，更加喜欢当头棒喝，找找别人没有找到的茬儿，但绝对不是无事生非。

当今的消费这话语权大的出奇，比如以往的星巴克的紫禁城事件，在国内的网上被讨论了无数回，也如同肯德基和耐克的争议广告一样。而苹果，这样的图腾式的创新公司，也应该为自己的广告失误付出代价。上次，本人所说的“忽略”和“不尊重”，并不特指消费者。其实，这是苹果骨子里流淌的东西，一种精神状态，就如同创新一样，都是根深蒂固的东西，一种舍我其谁的态度。只有这样的精神，才能够有苹果这样的公司。连普通的手机，都被iPhone的推出显得失色，无疑给了业界一种刺激。苹果用它天生的与众不同，把手机变成了人人欢呼的玩物。而为了保持这种不同，苹果必须“忽略”。

而正是这样，难以相信现在人所皆知的全球广告投放原则会被苹果和手下的策划公司给忽略掉。Mac vs. PC的争议广告本就是敏感的话题，然而选择全球统一播放，自然会引起很多人不满。如果采取幽他一默的态度，那就更加需要仔细考虑各国不同的幽默特色了。或许是我有些偏激，但是苹果在广告中，并没有能过做到用美国式的幽默，把对PC的“鄙视”好好地藏起来。

KFC在新加坡有一个广告，是用来讽刺McDonald的，细节是KFC的员工接到一个神秘电话，询问炸鸡如此美味的秘密。而当KFC问起电话来源是，此人唯唯诺诺地留下一句“我姓麦”就匆匆挂断。这种讽刺不亚于苹果，但仅仅限于新加坡地区。当然还有很多可口可乐和百事互相讽刺的广告，都是在公司内部播出，似乎非常注意。

如同我上次所说，Apple是认准了本身的特色，而希望让自己的形象宣传放之四海而皆准。这没有问题，但如果涉及到了对手的广告，放之四海就是粗放式的，却不一定能够起到宣传自己的作用。当我看到那些Mac vs. PC的广告之后，我想说的第一句话是“挺高笑的”，然后就是：PC之所以那么脆弱，暴露在病毒之下，是因为它远远比Mac出名。

我个人认为苹果是否粗鲁并不重要，苹果自己到底是否粗鲁我们无从知道，但问题是，在日本，已经有人认为这样的广告和幽默是无礼的，这才是苹果需要注意的。可以说，如今，我们说它无礼，它就是无礼的，谁让我们是消费者。

苹果应该学会尊重

Apple这样的字眼，可能比起水果应该更容易让人想起全球热卖的iPod，和来势汹汹的iPhone，也容易让人想起“创新”、“革命”、“颠覆”这些已经有些泛滥的词语。可是在这些簇拥和火热之后，真实的苹果却也和另外两个词联系在一起，那就是“忽略”和“缺乏尊重”。

一个企业的性格和特点往往来自于老板的性格，国内的企业家都这么说。苹果自从1996年迎回曾经因为内部斗争而愤然离开的Steve Jobs之后，创新的篇章就不断的书写。从iMac，iBook，PowerBook，到一代接着一代的iPod和与之天下无双的iTunes，再到今年刚刚推出的iPhone，苹果注定了就是时尚、娱乐、性感、酷炫。Steve Jobs在1996接手Apple时，曾经在会议上脱了鞋，用脚丫子在对方的面前轻蔑、粗鲁地打着否认的手势，然后说：我们的产品出了问题，它们一点也不够性感。

之后，Apple推出的产品就如同Steve要求的一样，性感而赚钱。Apple也如同产品一样性感而赚钱。Steve用了10年的时间不断证明自己的确能够"Think Different"，但是如果看了Wall Stree Journal中文网的苹果广告海外版无人喝彩，你会发现，Apple也如同Steve那样粗鲁，粗鲁在忽略了其他人，也对他们缺乏尊重。

文章说：

苹果公司(Apple Inc.)在将其“苹果电脑PK个人电脑”(Mac vs. PC)系列广告推向全球市场时遭遇了一个难题：美国人认为滑稽有趣的情节在其他国家却可能显得粗鲁无礼。

这里有Apple一系列的广告video。在日本，讽刺他人的缺点，炫耀自己的长处是被认为无礼的，是Apple没有注意到，还是为Apple做广告策划的TBWAChiatDay没有注意到，还是Apple不屑去注意。毫无疑问，Apple是认准了本身的特色，而希望让自己的形象宣传放之四海而皆准。这大概和现在全球市场上的宣传原则相背。

听闻Apple的掌门人Steve Jobs从来没有来过中国，很难想象，又不难想象这样一位偏执的老头会不来拥有庞大市场的中国跑一趟。可能因为偏执才会有他性感的想象力，才会有许多中国企业家认定他为心中的目标，才会有他和Apple粗鲁的行为。

Be an environmentalist

WWF it is an organization the goal of which is to build a future where people live in harmony with nature. I have joined WWF and become a WWF passport holder. It is now my obligation to constantly take actions to make people aware of the damages people are making to the nature.

Below is the second email that I sent to help keep a natural treasure located in Bulgaria, when someone is giong to make it a holiday complex ILLEGALLY. This email is said to be deliverable to Bulgarian Prime Minister, Sergey Stanshev, and Bulgaria Prosecutor general, Boris Velchev.

Protect Bulgaria's natural treasures

Bulgaria has some of Europe's most valuable natural areas, but these treasures are being steadily destroyed.

Holiday homes, hotels, villas and ski resorts are being built illegally in many of Bulgaria's national and nature parks despite contrary to national laws and regulations.

For example a holiday complex is being illegally constructed on the Black Sea coast in Strandzha Nature Park, not far from the village of Varvara. But despite a court decision to stop construction, work still continues and units of the complex have already been sold to foreign investors.

Elsewhere the official protected status of Kamchiiski pyasytsi - the largest sand beach in Bulgaria - has been effectively removed to pave the way for development of a sea resort.

These are areas of European importance and the Bulgarian government is obliged to ensure their protection not only for its people, but for the wider international community.

As a Chinese with exceptionally fast-paced development which caused imbalance of the environment, I am sad to know such imbalance takes place across the globe, especially those activities that are against laws.

I therefore urge you to implement existing laws and regulations and take the necessary steps to ensure real protection for the country's natural riches.

Yours sincerely,
Benny

The first email was sent to help Peruvian mahogany and animal habitats that used to be biologically rich.

Let's do something together for the mother earth.

Just say "Hi"

Hi everyone there. It's been a week that I haven't get my blog updated. One week can be a good gap to update a blog -- neither shorter nor longer works. There is a mess in my mind and nowadays I wasn't able to refresh myself but catching up workload left thanks to the Spring Festival. Maybe it's time to pay for it.

But one thing now: there will be some changes to this blog. Because of some inconvenience constantly caused by the blog server, the blog in China Business News (第一财经) will be the place where I post some ideas on the society, human being, life, religion, me, and so on (sounds a social scholar?), basically no business at all. At this blog will be business-only blog about marketing, IT, financial or any other thing alike.

The reason to have two blogs is I really have something to say but it will be better to have different things in different places.

If you are interested, please refer to the blog in CBN. Thank you so much for your support, although I am not an Internet celebrity =).

春节回归报到

春节回了老家江西南昌过年，紧凑地安排了几天后昨天回到了上海，特来报到。除了过年，这次对老家南昌也有了些不同的看法——秋水广场、生米大桥、红谷滩还有亮化工程，都给带我一种蓬勃发展的感觉。而且，呆惯了繁华热闹的上海，感觉南昌的交通真实特别的顺畅，呵呵。

各位，你们的春节是如何度过的？