I haven't deleted my account in the hope that Facebook will suddenly have a change of heart and start to treat my personal information as private, giving it the respect it deserves, and recognising that it is a privilege - not a right - for them to have access to it. Pigs might fly.

Interestingly, the reaction I now get has started to change. More and more people now tell me they've done the same, or are thinking about it. They too have a growing level of discomfort around Facebook's approach to their personal information.

Facebook's agenda of world domination seems to be built around cashing in on the minutiae of our lives with little or no regard for the fact that they never asked us if it's OK to do so. I was fascinated recently to read a blog published by the former Development Director of Google+ about why he left Google, citing that it is because it has become an advertising business rather than a technology business. He says: "Google could still put ads in front of more people than Facebook, but Facebook knows so much more about those people. Advertisers and publishers cherish this kind of personal information, so much so that they are willing to put the Facebook brand before their own. Exhibit A www.facebook.com/nike, a company with the power and clout of Nike putting their own brand after Facebook’s?"

I had an epiphany! Am I blaming the wrong organisation? Should advertisers be taking more responsibility for the privacy concerns surrounding the likes of Facebook? After all, if there weren't a market for my personal information then there wouldn't be any point in them commercialising it so aggressively. OK, so once again pigs might fly, but what if advertisers started to demand that personal data was "ethically sourced"? Much like the wave of ethical responsibility that swept through the food industry. What if they asked for proof that I have given my consent to be targeted in this way? Would Facebook be forced to re-invent their advertising models to target their users in a way that is more respectful of their personal data, and that adds genuine and welcomed value to their lives? Could I control which aspects of my 'social networking life' I'm willing to share, and have a say in how they collect my information? Would advertisers be prepared to pay more for talking to me as a happily engaged participant? Would this close the chasm between 'Personal' and 'Private' in social networking?

Personal = Private. It's certainly got my vote.  

Here's a link to the 'Why I Left Google' blog for those who are interested in reading it in full: 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/13/why-i-left-google.aspx

As mother to a one year old, baby wipes are used in our household for all kinds of things baby, and not. I wonder, do Pampers, Huggies & co know that they hold this potentially lucrative opportunity in their hands? We encourage them to explore it by drawing inspiration from the approach of super brand WD40. A brand with an intriguing name (it took 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula right), and an even more intriguing relationship with its customers. Over the years, they have been encouraged to share thousands of uses for WD40 with the company. This has given WD40 a rich source of consumer-led innovation that has not only enabled them to broaden their product usage significantly (did you know that today there are over 2,000 uses for WD40), but has also inspired them to create new products like the WD40 pen, opening up the female market. Companies like P&G and Kimberly-Clark already have a strong presence in the cleaning aisle so, if not already in the works, investigating this further feels like a no brainer.

When was the last time you had a good old natter with your customers, or just quietly observed them using your product? You never know what kind of gold it will unearth. 

I’m reminded of a Brand Innovation project I worked on a moon or two ago. The product was a beer with far fewer carbs than "regular beer". The problem was, the men buying it didn't feel compelled to buy it because of that. In fact, it put many beer swillers off. The catch was, once they did buy it, they remained loyal specifically because of its low carb benefit. Their wives were suddenly clearing room in the fridge for them to store their beer! We realised that the key to success was not in making this product stand out from the crowd. The key to success was in doing the opposite, letting consumers discover the low carb benefit on their own. Sure, we gave them a few hints, by placing a nutritional label on the bottle, for example. It worked. This product went on to become the fastest growing regular packaged beer brand in its market.

Walkers Mystery Flavour crisps tackle the Joy of Discovery from a different angle, focusing on product attribute rather than benefit. It’s a clever campaign, not because of of the lure of substantial prize money if you guess a flavour correctly, or because of the way they’ve used social media to fuel the debate, but actually because of the way they’ve approached distribution in supermarkets. The mystery crisps are thrown into multi-packs with Walkers ‘classic’ crisps. A brilliant way to use ‘new news’ to drive trial of ‘old’ products. 

Does your product have any attributes or benefits that would be better left to the Joy of Discovery?

As for Mystery Flavour B. My taste-buds have no idea. Clearly I’m no crisp connoisseur!

Why should consumers be asked to pay a premium for businesses to make less of an effort than they do in the 'outside world' when, actually, the operating environment and customer needs are entirely different and demand the opposite. Travel Retail is a lucrative industry, but does this environment breed lazy marketeers? Is there potential they're not exploiting?

OK. Some companies get it right (hold me captive with Virgin any day), but generally the standard leaves a lot to be desired. Just because you have a captive audience doesn't mean you shouldn't inject a little creativity into your Marketing & Operations. Innovation is critical. You need to think differently. You need to put yourself in your customers' shoes. So, here’s our challenge to travel retailers: build value through customer-centric thinking. It will earn you more than respect from your customers. It will earn you competitive advantage.

A big shout out to the very talented Rabbit & Hare team. Thank you for doing such an amazing job in designing our website for us.