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We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World
A social media expert with global experience with many of the world's biggest brands -including Nike, Toyota and Motorola-Simon Mainwaring offers a visionary new practice in which brands leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases. These innovative private sector partnerships answer perhaps the most pressing issue facing business and thought leaders how to practice capitalism in a way that satisfies the need for both profit and a healthy, sustainable planet. Mainwaring provides case studies from companies such as P&G, Walmart, Starbucks, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Nike, Whole Foods, Patagonia, and Nestlé as well as a bold plan for how corporations need to rethink their strategies.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
22 people are currently reading
205 people want to read
About the author
Simon Mainwaring
8 books6 followersSimon Mainwaring is founder/CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He’s a member of the Steering Committee of Sustainable Brands, the Forbes Business Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
He was a Cannes Lions Jury member for the Sustainable Development Goals and Featured Expert in 2021. His company, We First, was a Real Leaders’ Top 100 Impact Companies in the US for 2021 and 2019, as well as a B Corp ‘Best For the World’ Honoree.
Simon’s first book, We First, was a New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of the Year by strategy+business. Simon was a Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World in 2020, and he has been featured on the cover of the National Speaker’s Magazine (U.S.).
Prior to We First, Simon was a writer, Creative Director, and Worldwide Creative Director at top advertising agencies including DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy, and Ogilvy, winning awards at all major advertising festivals on clients such as Nike, Toyota, and Motorola.
He was a Cannes Lions Jury member for the Sustainable Development Goals and Featured Expert in 2021. His company, We First, was a Real Leaders’ Top 100 Impact Companies in the US for 2021 and 2019, as well as a B Corp ‘Best For the World’ Honoree.
Simon’s first book, We First, was a New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of the Year by strategy+business. Simon was a Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World in 2020, and he has been featured on the cover of the National Speaker’s Magazine (U.S.).
Prior to We First, Simon was a writer, Creative Director, and Worldwide Creative Director at top advertising agencies including DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy, and Ogilvy, winning awards at all major advertising festivals on clients such as Nike, Toyota, and Motorola.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 30, 2017
Describing himself as 'a branding and advertising professional' the author explains his initial point of view, and reinforces it with 'contributory consumption, a comprehensive system of mindful consumerism'. Capitalism and consumerism can do a great deal of good. But encouraging owners of phones to upgrade them every few months won't be part of that good. Buying up a nation's water supply so as to make and sell sugary drinks or water in plastic bottles won't be part of it. Moving your manufacturing base to ever cheaper, ever more polluting countries won't be part of it. The author tells us of a mindshift after the 2008 crash, when he saw people getting poorer and losing jobs. He realised that the system was flawed, serving the rich at the expense of the rest. While capitalism should share out increasing prosperity - how else can consumers buy goods? - instead the USA's wealth was being hoarded by a tiny fraction of the population. He suggests social media can help consumers report on bad companies and praise good ones.
Industry experts tell us that social media firms are all about two things - advertising, and harvesting users' details to sell to advertisers. In this way they are more efficient than TV or newspapers, which don't gain back details about their users. So this author's exhorting readers to use more social media, not less, still works out as serving those media and a few wealthy owners, not to mention the makers of the computers and phones used. He doesn't go into privacy issues.
Another book I read recently - 'Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online' by Bailey Poland - told us that some online media sites are horrendously abusive places for women and people of colour or alternative gender. Women were advised to use a man's name when joining a site. If females didn't get outright abuse, they were more likely to have their comments jeered at, ignored or dismissed. This book was largely covering USA.
Quoted thinkers in 'We First' include Jared Diamond, Thomas Friedman, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton. We are asked questions like, how much is enough to pay a CEO in proportion to what his (not her or their) lowest paid workers get? How many people can the world support? Why should nations like the Maldives pay the penalty for rising sea levels caused by other countries? Younger people, coming of age with phones and tablets, think differently and prefer free or shared to high profit. Experiments show that informed consumers preferred ethical purchases even with a higher price. Cause Related Marketing - support our cause with each purchase - has become popular. But the author tells us that corporations are not doing enough, fast enough. And they are still taking the money from each consumer, not from the CEO's wages or shareholders' profits. When he's just told us that Americans are indebted to 130% of their annual income. The author mentions growing Green Tech companies, and suggests Andrew Savitz's book, 'The Triple Bottom Line', which asks government and private sectors to value people, planet and profit.
The author repeats an astonishing piece of advice. He says in economist Dambisa Moyo's book 'Dead Aid', we are told that rich countries transferring over a trillion dollars in aid to Africa has led only to corruption and greed, causing greater poverty. Instead, the African nations should take to the bond and investment markets. Since I just read yesterday in 'The Black Box Society' by law professor Frank Pasquale that California's Orange County went bankrupt after its treasurer gambled and lost over a billion dollars in derivatives, what chance would Africans have of doing anything but transferring public assets to private, overseas hands?
And there are case studies, like Unilever which aims to have all its packaging come from sustainable recyclable materials, but gets only 15% of its tea and palm fats from sustainable sources. Nestle was embarrassed by Greenpeace over palm oil from deforestation, and the data was spread around social media and petitions. So public pressure - not buying plus protesting - can make a difference. The Body Shop and other firms are ethical from the start. The author looks at Haiti, telling us that there were already 10,000 NGOs - that would mean organisations - working there when the earthquake struck. He doesn't mention the cholera which followed, introduced by Nepalese UN troops.
With suggestions for more transparency, statements like "brands should use social media to inform consumers of how they have embedded purpose into their core," and engaging employees, the author seems sincere in his wishes. Public relations would improve for the brands large and small. He even spells out six degrees of interaction, from friends tweeting each other to people reading and relaying information to people in homes (micropolitics), to people following the CEO's tweets about corporate social responsibility activity. Can purchases in game environments be tapped for donations? Well, why not? There are even games we're told, reflecting the challenges of a third world farmer (that's what it's called) or a world without oil. The WWF explains that we all have to work together to save the world in which we live. We're told they organised roundtable meetings of company bosses and got them to agree on codes for sustainable fish farming.
Despite the frequent lists and bullet points, I didn't find the book wonderfully presented. I think the author makes too much of trying to appeal to industry people who might read the book, without getting straight into the tactics that consumer or conscience groups can use, which are left to the very end. This is probably because he is now an industry advisory speaker. I would have liked more quotes from Greenpeace and fewer from business moguls. I suggest reading the book in conjunction with 'Why it's Kicking Off Everywhere' by journalist Paul Mason for some background on global protests organised by smartphones and social media, and corporate or national delinquency. I saw no mention in 'We First' of trolls, abuse of women or diverse persons, which tend to dissuade decent people from using social media or some platforms. The cynical might say that as a white male, the author has not encountered or has dismissed these issues. I don't know.
Notes in tiny print cover pages 236 - 244. I counted seventeen names which I could be sure were female. The index is tiny print, pages 245 - 250 and I counted nineteen names I could be sure were female, twenty if you include Hurricane Katrina.
Industry experts tell us that social media firms are all about two things - advertising, and harvesting users' details to sell to advertisers. In this way they are more efficient than TV or newspapers, which don't gain back details about their users. So this author's exhorting readers to use more social media, not less, still works out as serving those media and a few wealthy owners, not to mention the makers of the computers and phones used. He doesn't go into privacy issues.
Another book I read recently - 'Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online' by Bailey Poland - told us that some online media sites are horrendously abusive places for women and people of colour or alternative gender. Women were advised to use a man's name when joining a site. If females didn't get outright abuse, they were more likely to have their comments jeered at, ignored or dismissed. This book was largely covering USA.
Quoted thinkers in 'We First' include Jared Diamond, Thomas Friedman, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton. We are asked questions like, how much is enough to pay a CEO in proportion to what his (not her or their) lowest paid workers get? How many people can the world support? Why should nations like the Maldives pay the penalty for rising sea levels caused by other countries? Younger people, coming of age with phones and tablets, think differently and prefer free or shared to high profit. Experiments show that informed consumers preferred ethical purchases even with a higher price. Cause Related Marketing - support our cause with each purchase - has become popular. But the author tells us that corporations are not doing enough, fast enough. And they are still taking the money from each consumer, not from the CEO's wages or shareholders' profits. When he's just told us that Americans are indebted to 130% of their annual income. The author mentions growing Green Tech companies, and suggests Andrew Savitz's book, 'The Triple Bottom Line', which asks government and private sectors to value people, planet and profit.
The author repeats an astonishing piece of advice. He says in economist Dambisa Moyo's book 'Dead Aid', we are told that rich countries transferring over a trillion dollars in aid to Africa has led only to corruption and greed, causing greater poverty. Instead, the African nations should take to the bond and investment markets. Since I just read yesterday in 'The Black Box Society' by law professor Frank Pasquale that California's Orange County went bankrupt after its treasurer gambled and lost over a billion dollars in derivatives, what chance would Africans have of doing anything but transferring public assets to private, overseas hands?
And there are case studies, like Unilever which aims to have all its packaging come from sustainable recyclable materials, but gets only 15% of its tea and palm fats from sustainable sources. Nestle was embarrassed by Greenpeace over palm oil from deforestation, and the data was spread around social media and petitions. So public pressure - not buying plus protesting - can make a difference. The Body Shop and other firms are ethical from the start. The author looks at Haiti, telling us that there were already 10,000 NGOs - that would mean organisations - working there when the earthquake struck. He doesn't mention the cholera which followed, introduced by Nepalese UN troops.
With suggestions for more transparency, statements like "brands should use social media to inform consumers of how they have embedded purpose into their core," and engaging employees, the author seems sincere in his wishes. Public relations would improve for the brands large and small. He even spells out six degrees of interaction, from friends tweeting each other to people reading and relaying information to people in homes (micropolitics), to people following the CEO's tweets about corporate social responsibility activity. Can purchases in game environments be tapped for donations? Well, why not? There are even games we're told, reflecting the challenges of a third world farmer (that's what it's called) or a world without oil. The WWF explains that we all have to work together to save the world in which we live. We're told they organised roundtable meetings of company bosses and got them to agree on codes for sustainable fish farming.
Despite the frequent lists and bullet points, I didn't find the book wonderfully presented. I think the author makes too much of trying to appeal to industry people who might read the book, without getting straight into the tactics that consumer or conscience groups can use, which are left to the very end. This is probably because he is now an industry advisory speaker. I would have liked more quotes from Greenpeace and fewer from business moguls. I suggest reading the book in conjunction with 'Why it's Kicking Off Everywhere' by journalist Paul Mason for some background on global protests organised by smartphones and social media, and corporate or national delinquency. I saw no mention in 'We First' of trolls, abuse of women or diverse persons, which tend to dissuade decent people from using social media or some platforms. The cynical might say that as a white male, the author has not encountered or has dismissed these issues. I don't know.
Notes in tiny print cover pages 236 - 244. I counted seventeen names which I could be sure were female. The index is tiny print, pages 245 - 250 and I counted nineteen names I could be sure were female, twenty if you include Hurricane Katrina.
May 7, 2013
Better than the title, so far. Mainwaring is an advocate who has marshaled his facts and puts together his arguments with power and care.
There are a lot of books on linking social media and sustainability. This is not like most and better than others I have read. Why? Because Mainwaring is sharp in his comprehensive take on what he thinks this world needs and his path to getting there.
I also like that he isn't ignoring many of the stakeholders in this enterprise. He speaks well to both the consumers and to the brands they can choose or not choose to support with their money and their loyalty.
It is a book that make me more conscious of my power for "building a better world."
There are a lot of books on linking social media and sustainability. This is not like most and better than others I have read. Why? Because Mainwaring is sharp in his comprehensive take on what he thinks this world needs and his path to getting there.
I also like that he isn't ignoring many of the stakeholders in this enterprise. He speaks well to both the consumers and to the brands they can choose or not choose to support with their money and their loyalty.
It is a book that make me more conscious of my power for "building a better world."
October 17, 2011
A very good outline of how we can and how we are already changing the principles of capitalism.
Anyone who is interested in contributing to positive change in the world should read this book.
"The evolution of revolution begins with contribution."
Anyone who is interested in contributing to positive change in the world should read this book.
"The evolution of revolution begins with contribution."
May 16, 2012
Interesting, but reads like a textbook.
October 29, 2013
There's a lot to like about Simon Mainwaring's We First. This former advertising executive pulls no punches. He tells his former clients that the way they do business has got to go.
Capitalism, Mainwaring points out, is flawed as a system. It leads to class rule, booms, bubbles, and busts. It promotes selfishness and greed. It sacrifices workers and their families and despoils the environment in a short-sighted grab for immediate profit. Capitalism is not sustainable, neither economically, environmentally, or ethically.
I agree with all of this, and I believe that if every reform Mainwaring proposed were put into practice, we would all be better off. Yet I finish the book profoundly dissatisfied.
This book proposes that:
1. By changing their mentality, corporate capitalists will be able to make "purpose" as important as profit.
2. If they won't change on their own, social media-savvy consumers will be able to compel them.
3. The changes they make will create the world we want to live and avoid the hell we're headed toward.
But none of these is true.
1. The profit motive is not a matter of mentality. It is the engine of capitalism. Yes, it may just be possible for global corporations to swear off some of the pollution and exploitation that has given them such extraordinary profits in the last thirty years--and it would be a good thing if they did. Always, though, they will feel the pressure to grow or die. Inexorably, they will be forced to push products at the expense of people and the planet. Only a countervailing pressure will force them to put "we first."
2. Consumers on social media can embarrass corporations. We can cost them money by ruining their reputation and reducing their sales. And we should. But this is not enough to compel real change. Mainwaring himself cites the danger of "greenwashing": businesses adopting feel-good policies that don't ultimately change their environmental impact (or simply donating to good causes to buy themselves a better reputation). Corporate PR has kept many the company profitable despite its terrible labor practices. Consumers can add to, but not replace, government regulation, social activism, and labor unions. (Mainwaring never mentions unions. It is a telling silence.)
3. Even if corporations make huge changes in the direction that Mainwaring calls for--and it would be a good thing if they did--they would still be in charge. That means they'd make those changes on the schedule and in the way they find best--not what's best for the rest of us. It's not just corporate greed that's unsustainable. It's corporate power as well.
I give credit to the author for recognizing that capitalism is the problem. I fault him for his naivete in thinking capitalism can be the solution.
Capitalism, Mainwaring points out, is flawed as a system. It leads to class rule, booms, bubbles, and busts. It promotes selfishness and greed. It sacrifices workers and their families and despoils the environment in a short-sighted grab for immediate profit. Capitalism is not sustainable, neither economically, environmentally, or ethically.
I agree with all of this, and I believe that if every reform Mainwaring proposed were put into practice, we would all be better off. Yet I finish the book profoundly dissatisfied.
This book proposes that:
1. By changing their mentality, corporate capitalists will be able to make "purpose" as important as profit.
2. If they won't change on their own, social media-savvy consumers will be able to compel them.
3. The changes they make will create the world we want to live and avoid the hell we're headed toward.
But none of these is true.
1. The profit motive is not a matter of mentality. It is the engine of capitalism. Yes, it may just be possible for global corporations to swear off some of the pollution and exploitation that has given them such extraordinary profits in the last thirty years--and it would be a good thing if they did. Always, though, they will feel the pressure to grow or die. Inexorably, they will be forced to push products at the expense of people and the planet. Only a countervailing pressure will force them to put "we first."
2. Consumers on social media can embarrass corporations. We can cost them money by ruining their reputation and reducing their sales. And we should. But this is not enough to compel real change. Mainwaring himself cites the danger of "greenwashing": businesses adopting feel-good policies that don't ultimately change their environmental impact (or simply donating to good causes to buy themselves a better reputation). Corporate PR has kept many the company profitable despite its terrible labor practices. Consumers can add to, but not replace, government regulation, social activism, and labor unions. (Mainwaring never mentions unions. It is a telling silence.)
3. Even if corporations make huge changes in the direction that Mainwaring calls for--and it would be a good thing if they did--they would still be in charge. That means they'd make those changes on the schedule and in the way they find best--not what's best for the rest of us. It's not just corporate greed that's unsustainable. It's corporate power as well.
I give credit to the author for recognizing that capitalism is the problem. I fault him for his naivete in thinking capitalism can be the solution.
September 22, 2011
Earlier this year, I flew across the country to visit my friend, a law student in Washington DC. On the last leg of my flight I sat next to two people who were around my age (early to mid-20's). There was an unpleasant woman sitting behind us who complained about various insignificant things during the entire flight. When we touched down in DC, my row-mates and I pulled out our phones to let our friends/family (or whoever was picking us up) know we'd landed. Unpleasant Woman saw us with our phones and launched into a tirade against "the twatter twitter tweeter," going on to tell us how dumb, spoiled, and narcissistic we were. We held our tongues as she wrestled her way out of her seat to make sure she would get off the plane before us. When I passed her as we were leaving the terminal (I had a bus to catch), she was still ranting about Facebook and Twitter. I'd heard people complain about social media before, writing all of it off as a frivolous tool for vanity, but I'd never seen someone completely lose their shit over it.
I'd recommend this book to Unpleasant Woman. But this book isn't all about Facebook and Twitter.
Simon Mainwaring has some great ideas for the future of capitalism and our global economy and how social media will play a role in making positive change (hint: it already is). We can all agree that some people use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets ONLY to complain about things like traffic and how much they hate their jobs. But these outlets, Mainwaring argues, are also powerful tools for organizing in the name of activism and promoting ideas for the greater good. I thought some parts were a little redundant and the branding of "We First" seemed kind of corny. Maybe that's because the concepts behind "We First" reflect the ideals I've held as a young consumer for years. But overall this book is informative, insightful and readable. Mainwaring does a good job of spelling out why we need to change our habits as consumers and corporations (with the aid of a number of interesting case studies about popular brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nike, and TOMS) and what we need to do to create that change (if you still have any hope for capitalism, which he admits is inherently flawed).
I'd recommend this book to Unpleasant Woman. But this book isn't all about Facebook and Twitter.
Simon Mainwaring has some great ideas for the future of capitalism and our global economy and how social media will play a role in making positive change (hint: it already is). We can all agree that some people use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets ONLY to complain about things like traffic and how much they hate their jobs. But these outlets, Mainwaring argues, are also powerful tools for organizing in the name of activism and promoting ideas for the greater good. I thought some parts were a little redundant and the branding of "We First" seemed kind of corny. Maybe that's because the concepts behind "We First" reflect the ideals I've held as a young consumer for years. But overall this book is informative, insightful and readable. Mainwaring does a good job of spelling out why we need to change our habits as consumers and corporations (with the aid of a number of interesting case studies about popular brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nike, and TOMS) and what we need to do to create that change (if you still have any hope for capitalism, which he admits is inherently flawed).
May 10, 2016
OK - so We First is a bit of a conundrum. I've met Simon Mainwaring twice now, and I like him a lot. He presents well, he's smart, and he's got a lot of great ideas and enthusiasm. However, We First is his Jerry Maguire moment. It's his mission statement on how Capitalism can be made better through brands and consumers working together to solve the world's many ills. Sounds good, right? Well, while there are definitely ideas in here worth your time and consideration, there are also too many that are just plain ridiculous — even for the most liberal of liberals. Example: holding the makers of candy, fast food, and other sinful treats responsible for obesity. Lord knows, we don't have a choice when stuffing greasy fries down our throats! If you take the book at face value, all charities are benevolent organizations, free from corruption and worthy of your ongoing donations — while corporations, focused only on Me First greed, need to give more of their profits to charities. (It's interesting how Churches were never discussed here, as many folks I know give up to ten percent of their income to their church - which BTW are non-profit organizations that give to many worthy causes.) But I digress. As I said, the book has some truly good points to make. But it also misses on many others. For me, it also felt disorganized — and I've come to the conclusion that the reason it felt this way to me is because the chapters are not clearly defined. The same topics and points are covered again and again in every chapter until it feels like you've been reading the same stuff over and over. If you haven't noticed by now, the book mostly focuses on how Capitalism can be "fixed" with Social Media playing an important part. If that's of interest, give it a read and see for yourself. If you want a hard-hitting business book on social media, please look elsewhere.
May 12, 2012
The world is changing, and so is the way we do business. It is not business as usual anymore. We have to collaborate, cooperate and creatively engage with the world in the way we do stuff in business, politics, NGOs and the rest of the pillars. WE FIRST is a great guide to that!
April 24, 2014
Pie in the sky Pollyanna crap. Corporations will never ever voluntarily do what he recommends en masse. The most hilarious part was categorizing Nike as anything like a corporate citizen when they have driven manufacturing overseas.
December 4, 2014
I thought this book would be about social media, but it's really about economics. The title led me astray a little. I chose it for a presentation for class. I read enough of it, the parts about social media, for my presentation and then moved on. It just wasn't the type of book I needed.
December 27, 2011
Truely transformational book that I highly recommend!
July 7, 2012
This book sucked. Read the most useful critical review on Amazon, it's dead on. I'll never get that part of my life back.
May 13, 2013
Interesting book on how capitalism needs to move forward in order to make the world a more sustainable place. Great ideas..started out slow. The last 3 chapters move along much better.
September 17, 2013
Repetitive. Good to think about the future of corporate social responsibility.
October 18, 2013
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