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 Australia, 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.

Yes, it was an out-of-the-blue cyber attack on the website of the fashion retailer Zappos (subsidiary of Amazon) that specializes in shoes, handbags, apparels and accessories. This is why web experts like Web Listings Inc. insist on sound web protection for their clients.

About 24 million online customers were put on the line through the attack; spokesperson from Zappos said that credit card/payment details were not being exposed to, though “contact name, phone/addresses” are in question.

Investigations are on in the matter.

Tony Hsieh is upset; he feels 12 years of good reputation has been marred by a hacker. Well!

Zappos has reset all customer-passwords, and counseled all of its customers to choose different passwords for future online dealings.

The brand it seems may have to work on internal network and system security; besides we presume – to win customer TRUST will now be their new agenda.

Online attacks are not new to the world; after computers, hackers are NOW busy experimenting on mobile devices/gadgets, and corporate IT units that often use Smartphones and other for online dealings and transactions – the word is for you, “be aware of hackers – the trespassers”!

In the year 2010, a person was found guilty by the US court for larceny; unauthorized access to 130 million cards. You may seem free from harm TODAY but others are devising plans to conquer the web-world!

Prof. David Phillips (President, the Royal Society of Chemistry) it seems is not happy how the James Bond movies have brought NUCLEAR ENERGY in a bad light that people get an anxious feeling when they think of harmful RADIATIONS associated with it. My friend Jacob (Flash Organisation) and I are eagerly waiting for “Skyfall”, the James Bond movie. Yes! As usual, we won’t forget to keep our ‘BRAINY-HEADS’ at home while watching it. (Laugh!)

Well, people definitely need education on the positive aspects of nuclear reactors and energy plants, to help them overcome fear about nuclear reactors and radiations.

He cited reference of the movie – Dr. No (year 1962), featuring Sean Connery as James Bond, where the villain has a personal nuclear reactor, and how he uses that for death and devastation; he said, such movies only show ‘nuclear energy’ as the source of DESTRUCTION, which is bad.

Many of us might know, through controlled nuclear reactions the nuclear energy can be used for generation of electricity; in comparison to fossil fuels the nuclear energy is clean and does not emit harmful gases (dioxides – nitrogen, carbon, sulphur etc.), and is comparatively safe on the ecosystem.

David Phillips said, the movie-makers need to draw a thick line between FACT and FICTION, and should better try to educate people in letting them know how nuclear power/radiations could be suitably used to address different needs of the world.

In any rewards programme, there will always be a group of customers who value most of the offer that marketers like Appco Group consider most obscure or least profitable. But when someone invests time and money in sticking with a brand only to have that offer taken away, it will feels like a broken promise.

Here, the issue comes as a surprise that Starbucks Marketing has made the same mistakes as Avios, previously AirMiles, when overhauling its loyalty card programme. Starbucks introduced its rebranded scheme, My Rewards, on 5 January and immediately prompted calls of foul play from existing card holders. Despite the coffee company’s vice president of marketing Brian Waring telling that “no-one will lose benefits”, irate customers took to comment on “Starbucks” own Facebook page to protest that they were indeed worse off. It has quietly taken away benefits without appreciating that no-one knows the terms and conditions of its loyalty scheme better than the loyal members who use it. And customers have responded with anger.

Every marketer knows the value inherent in loyalty scheme data, but that data will become less valuable if you forget that “loyalty” is more than just a marketing strategy. Let this be a lesson for every marketer.