[LINK] Brand Karma

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Brands on notice as rating website launches 

by JULIAN LEE  March 26, 2010 - 10:04AM
<http://www.theage.com.au/technology/enterprise>


The wisdom of the crowds as well as its collective buying power is being 
harnessed to reward companies that treat the planet and workers well and 
punish those that don't. 

A web-based service created by an Australian, launched this week, enables 
shoppers to vote on which companies treat their staff, customers, 
suppliers, investors and the environment the best.

 <http://www.brandkarma.com>

Thought to be the first of its kind, the service invites users to comment 
and rate a company based on up-to-the-minute information it publishes 
about the world's top 300 brands. 

By aggregating the individual opinions of thousands of users 'the crowd' 
determines how good or bad a company is. 

High-scoring companies are likely to attract more custom from communities 
of concerned shoppers, while lower-scoring one will be encouraged to do 
better.

Brandkarma founder Craig Davis said it adds "another voice in the room" 
to balance those of NGOs, corporations and governments in the debate 
around sustainability. 

"The question around the choices that we make is becoming more 
significant. People exercise those choices - in effect their vote - every 
time they buy something," said Mr Davis, whose day job is chief creative 
officer at Sydney advertising agency Publicis Mojo. 

After more than 20 years of creating ads for global companies such as 
Nestle, Shell, Unilever and Ford, Mr Davis said he asked himself the 
question: "What kind of world do you want to live in - and leave to your 
kids." The answer is a service that borrows social networking tools to 
create a Facebook of brands that claims its mission is to "help people 
help each other make better brand choices and encourage companies to be 
good to all their stakeholders".

A brand's overall performance is easured by its appearance on the 
website – red is bad while green is good – and by its overall score that 
can allow comparisons to be made with competitors. 

He said he was not worried about companies that were receiving poor 
ratings rorting the system as they "would eventually be found out". He 
would make money out of selling the insights gleaned from the data back 
to companies to "make better brands" but would not divulge any personal 
information of users. 

Experts in the field of ethical or consumer activism welcomed the idea. 

Oliver Wagg, the managing editor of Ethical Investor magazine, said that 
Australian consumers who were interested in shopping sustainably had few 
places to turn to for information. 

"An increasing number of directories and websites are emerging to help 
consumers make the right decision about 'green' products and services. 
But these sources generally point consumers to products and services that 
brand themselves as 'green', leaving them to carry out their own 
verification and of course open to false advertising, or 'greenwashing'," 
he said. 

Although Brandkarma is thought to be the first service of its kind in the 
world, consumer activism in generally has already taken root. 

A US-based service called Carrotmob is gaining traction with its co-
ordinated grassroots efforts that leverage consumer power. 

In October its Australian debut attracted 200 people who shopped 
exclusively at a Surry Hills supermarket that had pledged 20 per cent of 
its sales to go towards the "greening" of the store. 

More such events are planned.

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Cheers,
Stephen