Change the Game: Michael Lebowitz > "Brands are Adapting at the Pace Imposed by their Existing Infrastructure"

In my blog mediaclinique ('Distinctive Leadership for Media & Agencies') I wrote (in German) about the 'beautifully' orchestrated Nestlé/Greenpeace 'case study' on social media pitfalls - explaining that this is no problem of social media at all but of old school corporate thinking. See also "Loser, Inc. - Past, Present & Future" (English) a few days ago here at lead/marke.

Now I just stumbled upon a 'great' quote from the Nestlé fb page (found by Michael Lebowitz, founder & ceo of bigspaceship):

"To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic - they will be deleted."

Fortunately they already 'understood' their mistake and apologized (as above): "This (deleting logos) was one in a series of mistakes for which I would like to apologise. And for being rude. We've stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude."

Please feel free to read in the original comments, what happened after that. Or get a summary from Advertising Age: "Nestle to Facebook Fans: Consider Yourself Embraced".

Brands and corporations must desperately strive to become faster than their existing infrastructure and current consultancy allows.
They must quantum leap ahead in understanding the new independence, individuality and impatience of consumers, citizens or the man in the (online) street.

Brands and corporations must 'stop making sense', they must find shortcuts to where the consumer already is. They must outgrow themselves.

This - and I know this sounds counter-intuitive at the moment - this has never been easier than today. But - and that is a great but - that (outgrowing yourself) does not compute with traditional thinking about communication, marketing, and business models.
(And it sounds counter-intuitive because your intuition is still stuck in the traditional worlds!)

Brands and corporations must become human personalities, distinctive characters, they must respect people, must treat people like they themselves would like to be treated!

This must start in the brains of the corporation and at the heart of the brand.
Call it intuition, call it wisdom. But think about it - and do it.
And forget everything you have 'learned' before. Old school is dead!

(Headline quote from Michael's "Maybe this shouldn't shock me, but it does".)

UPDATE

March, 22nd

09:36hrs > "Your Kit Kat campaigns", Greenpeace. "The Two-Year Lag from Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0", Business Innovation.