What do economists think of the cover article ProLogo in the current Economist http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=770992 ?? Back in 1988! I was a lead source for The Economist's survey "The Year of the Brand". This was probably as good as any dating on when the economics of intangibles came centre stage. In this context, it doesn't look to me as if the editorial staff have learnt much in 13 years if they can lead with as light a PROLOGO article. This saddens me as my father deputy edited the paper for almost 4 decades. chris macrae, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.normanmacrae.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Open Letter to Editor of The Economist Who's wearing the trousers, 6 Sept 2001 Your article recycles half-truths mouthed by media darlings we've already heard a lot from and then concludes with a dangerous lie : hooray, the consumer will take social charge of brands. Instead, consumers and employees will become less and less loyal (ie more distrusting of corporate relationships) until organisational productivity reaches its lowest recorded states. Economics theory presumably confirms that we will all feel pain from this, not hurrahs. Is there an intangibles solution? Yes, but it does not begin with brands. It begins with the measurement systems that leaders make pervasive all across their organisations. There's a missing measurement code, without which brands and organisation won't be whole, any social promises they make will be driven by image-makers, leaders won't be growing intangibles connections in human patterns that fit, and customers would be crazy to want relationships management. I write to you as a mathematician first and brand expert second. Here's the missing code: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/melnet2/files/economist.ppt Is your journal game to open source it? Chris Macrae, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wimbledon, & Washington DC (Chief Brand Officers Association, Founding Group)
