Comments on: Brand Karma: Can a Slick Platform For Customer Feedback Improve the World?

By: Caleb Gardner

Caleb Gardner — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:09:44 +0000

Guess that depends on your trust in the crowd to differentiate good from bad. Should be fun to watch, either way.

By: Danny Prager

Danny Prager — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:57:37 +0000

Thanks so much for your input Caleb.

Definitely agree that morality is somewhat relative, and I think you're right that this may be Brand Karma's problem -- They're trying to help consumers define what's good and bad in a business world that is filled with lots of moral ambiguities.

I find myself kind of inspired by the project, and I feel like I may not be the only one. Could Brand Karma be a good example of trying to fix the system from within? I'm excited to find out.

By: Caleb Gardner

Caleb Gardner — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:48:42 +0000

You make some good points here, Daniel. I would also add that, from an economic standpoint, companies trying to make money isn't necessarily a bad thing. People need jobs, people need products, etc. and businesses provide these things. I know “profit” is a negative word in our society, but companies need profits to survive.

That having been said, I love what Brandkarma is essentially trying to do, which is separate moral companies from amoral companies. The problem is that morality is somewhat relative.

By: Danny Prager

Danny Prager — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:24:05 +0000

Absolutely. Brand Karma may not actually succeed in changing the world for the better, but at least reflects a reality that consumers expect brands to take some responsibility in the way they create and market products.

Thanks for reading Nick!

By: Legaris

Legaris — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:43:06 +0000

This is interesting. Maybe having a platform like this could lead gradually to the overreaching paradigm changes that we need. It's hard to call for an overhaul in the way we consume, easy to build a feedback platform, and I think the most important thing is that we build social awareness of the truly important things about the brands that are drummed into our heads all day. Hopefully with this awareness we can gradually get our damn minds right.