The company was in the limelight, due to the $1.7 billion accounting scandal; hiding the losses cost many of the top-executives – their high-paid and reputed jobs, and one amongst them was Michael Woodford, the ex-Chief Executive of Olympus, who had a very tough time after the incident. My cousin, who works for Appco Group Canada had gifted me an Olympus Digital Camera, on my birthday – must say, it is one of the best things I have today.

Back to the story: after the scandalous event, offices of the company were being raided by the officials, many arrests were being made, and the ‘once’ reputed brand lost its good reputation; everything was bleak…!

However, now, it seems things are getting back on track for Olympus after the incident; the shareholders wanted someone responsible to hold the baton in helping the company fix the lost reputation and win back trust in the market.

…and yes, the shareholders have finally nominated members for the new board, at the general meeting; the new Olympus president, Hiroyuki Sasa has vowed to bring new changes in the firm; but then, let us see – if Olympus could be able to rebuild trust…and enhance its core values!

I came across this piece of news, while working for a client project – Oracle Advertising; please have a look.

The cyber world haunts him just like any other company, which made this 24-year old engineering graduate think of seeking help of Reputation management firm, to re-establish his online reputation, after five long-years of being pronounced as a shop-lifter.

This is true – five years ago, this 17-year-old did not even realize that forgetting to pay his DONUT bills in a store would land him in a big trouble; yes, he left without paying (then) – was charged with shoplifting, and was being heavily penalized by the court. It was a bad-phase that he wants to put in his past (Alas)!

The engineering graduate is planning to begin a job career, and did not want his history come back to haunt him; and lo – online reputation management firm put in efforts, and buried everything BAD about him over the Internet, with his academic achievements and other positive skills and attributes.

He is quite a satisfied man, today, as expects to start a fresh life ahead without worrying about his past history; well friend, best of luck for everything!

When I told about this latest move of Yahoo to one of my closest friends who is working with Web Listings Inc., he commented, ” It is not new about Yahoo as they have done the same before with Google regarding advertising patent issues”. This issue was in 2004 and, Google settled the case by issuing 2.7 million shares to Yahoo!This time, the web portal claims that Facebook ignored its patents by using technology Yahoo created for online advertising, including tools that customize web pages and ads to specific users, methods to prevent click fraud and news feed generation.

Yahoo!’s lawsuit says: “Facebook’s entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo!’s patented social networking technology.” The lawsuit comes ahead of Facebook’s planned stock flotation, which is expected to value the social network at about $100bn (£64bn).

As usual, Shutterbugs are busy capturing the event; excuse me folks, let me wrap-up the Sirius Star Marketing work, first. Thank you!

Yes, now the substance: the Olympus sources say, since (Late) Tsutomu Omori used to manage the SALES front, he might not have any direct connection with the $1.7 billion accounting scandal.

Investigating officers (India) found two suicide notes from the place – one was in English, while the other was in Japanese; they are trying to decipher the Japanese version.

About the accounting scandal – all former executives and auditors are behind the bars; so far no reports are available, whether Tsutomu Omori was a target of the investigation or not.

Well, some may try to connect this suicide case with the accounting scandal, but then, let investigations go on in its own way – things will be in clear light, and we all will get to know whether the gentleman was in any way involved in the accounting-scandal, or not. Until then, let us not start speculating things!

My cousin (employed with Coulson Organisation) was at a loss of words for his favorite brand Olympus; and yes, we both agree – a REPUTATION (Good or bad) has the power to twirl things around.

The Japanese consumer electronics giant has been struggling hard to come out of the $1.7 billion accounting scandal, but then it seems LUCK is not by their side.

Poor financial report of the company (of the nine months, ended on December 2011) show out the aftermath of Accounting Scandal. Well!

Never did Olympus know that hiding losses (of $1.7bn) for more than 20-years will land them in a BIG trouble; and the word is, Olympus is braced to interrogate some of the ex-Board members, very soon.

Even after the scandal, the 92-year old company has been permitted (with a fine of 10m yen) to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE); though not everything is GREEN, but the firm has a tight grip in the endoscope market, with about 70% share.

We wish the scandal-hit company a speedy recovery; try to come out with a bang, to fight off Canon Inc., Medtronic, Inc., ArthroCare Corporation et al.

Over the phone with a friend from Appco Group, I casually checked how his favourite brand (Samsung) is doing, and he said – NOT GOOD!

Yes, Samsung is DEEPLY buried under patent infringement cases; be it the Dutch court, German court, or the California court – Apple is in no mood leaving Samsung or others that are trying to get on its way.

Why it is that Apple so love to be around GALAXY (chortle)?! Be it Galaxy Nexus (which is talk of the town, now), Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy S II or other – all are in the FIRE line of Apple.

More than 30 lawsuits against each other; well, Apple has tried VERY hard to be where it is now, so – we can understand, it would never want to lose the NUMBER ONE position to anyone, be it Samsung or others.

With Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0) in question for copyright infringement, Google may even have to bear the brunt.

And then, it is not just with Samsung, but even Motorola and the Taiwanese manufacturer (HTC Corporation) have the same story to tell us, as all are busy defending their GOOD REPUTATION!

The DESIGN and FEATURES of Apple’s machines (that others are after) it seems won’t give Timothy D. Cook and his men the time to sleep! (Yawn!)

Hey, the whole industry is watching; and if this FIGHT continues for long – then we doubt, someone (trying to stand tall for quite long) may take advantage of this situation, who knows!? So, think over it!

But, this has turned out to be a serious issue as the Advertising Standards Authority received 11 complaints so far that the promotion is misleading. ASA is now assessing it to check whether there are grounds to launch an investigation. It happens to almost all the companies who are into business, and face a reputational check once in a while. Most of the companies like Redwoods Advance get over it soon.

Here, Tesco faced a reputational check when Tesco’s promotion offered a £5 voucher when £40 is spent. It attracted complaints when the in-store communications for the promotion did not make it clear that the £5 voucher can only be redeemed against a further £40 spend.

Comments also complain that the offer is misleading because customers have to spend £80 to claim the £5 off voucher and that the promotion promised a £5 voucher all week, but was only available for five days. The promotion has also been criticized for devaluing the Clubcard loyalty scheme by rewarding non-cardholders and members alike.

Tesco have recently been facing ad bans and this one comes as the latest.

2012 sees many marketing firms including reputed ones like Oracle Advertising concentrating on spending their time and money on mobile and social rather than email. The trend that is being witnessed is that social and mobile programs are being commonly used to supplement traditional marketing activities like direct mail, public relations and media buys.

Perfectly executed and well targeted mobile and social marketing campaigns has on the whole garnered a positive response and today marketing companies have been able to surprise their clients with the increased level of customer engagement through these channels.

With people spending more time on the mobile and social these days it only makes sense that concentrating on these areas is likely to gather more attention from a client’s target customers.

After hearing and reading a lot about bribery, corruption and scandals everywhere, I thought of checking Anti Corruption and Bribery Laws and Policies in different countries; went through the UK Bribery Act 2010, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and some other.

Whether the $1.7 billion accounting scandal with Olympus Corp that took a toll on Briton Michael Woodford; ‘corrupt asset/money’ issue that the Swiss Government is buried in, the corruption charges against ex Zambian President’s son Henry Banda (over Zamtel), the Asiagate match-fixing issue (Zimbabwean footballers), or other business and political scandals – MONEY played the game everywhere, and the REPUTATION was put at risk!

Most of the people FEEL that they can easily ‘gain favors’ by greasing someone’s palm, even though we all know that promising to offer and giving a bribe to others is an offense.

Well, if you do not wish to end up behind the bars, or desire to lose your GOOD reputation to anything, then tread only the path of values and ethics! Yep!

This invited trouble happens when consumers (who otherwise use their mobile device to basically communicate with their family, friends and peers) are stricken with unsolicited text messages by marketing companies who want to win their end. This text spamming by some direct marketing companies are causing trouble for the whole of the direct marketing industry which wants to fight any anti- direct marketing moves. And, direct marketing associations in some countries (like Appco Group Malaysia) are very much concerned about their reputation.   

The direct marketing companies usually make use of all the channels possible to get maximum outreach to their consumers. And with ever increasing numbers consuming mobile services, companies will more and more use mobile as a direct marketing channel and send so-called spam messages and risk upsetting the very people they are striving to appeal to.

Problems persist but there is a movement born from a desire not to at the very least worsen what is already a pretty poor reputation. That movement, however, was as much prompted by pressure from regulators and government as it was the industry and the same now needs to be seen for text messages. So direct marketers need to be careful that how they utilize one service. Text marketing can be, if targeted, relevant and measured, as legitimate a direct marketing tool as any. The channel needs, however, to be carefully managed and regulated or it risks being universally dismissed as an irritant before it has time to flourish.