However, despite a trial lasting six weeks, involving 52 witnesses and costs running into millions of pounds, the Hon. Mr Justice Nicol found in favour of the school on all eight points on which liability had been argued.

Definition advised Everatt & Company on PR issues arising out of the case.

Definition’s role in HFN’s Natural Play campaign includes input into strategy and the creation of a new CRM, overseeing all design and content and project management of a dedicated website and direct marketing.

Process Evolution’s clients are predominantly in (but by no means limited to) the emergency services sector, including over 60% of UK police forces. Its most high profile work is in helping clients that use shift-working staff handling varying 24 hour demand, to secure often dramatic efficiency gains. Please see Process Evolution for more information.

The shortlistings reflect Sainsbury’s highly impressive and on-going progress in reducing its energy use and carbon emissions, much of it through engineering innovations devised by Sainsbury’s consultants, including Red and Halsall. Sainsbury has already achieved a 20% carbon cut by 2004/05 and is now on target to cut a further 25% by 2012.

The Awards ceremony will take place on 3rd February 2010 at a high profile ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. For further information, please visit the CIBSE awards website.

In his new book, Spent, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller shows how and why the object of much consumer spending is not owning things for their direct benefit, so much as their ability to send ‘fitness’ signals about their owner to other people (i.e. to impress your mates / boss / opposite sex etc).

This subtle distinction matters hugely to consumer marketing because it means that, in many cases, it’s not the potential buyer who should be the focus of attention, but those whom the buyer wants to impress.

Consumers couldn’t give a fig about having a relationship with a brand – they’re just using it (shamelessly!) for personal positioning. This is how high-end fashion ads featuring models who are gorgeous but haughty, work. They’re not supposed to make you want to buy the product. They’re supposed to make you feel inferior, so the purchaser will believe that, when she wears the product, you’ll feel inferior to her, too. Closer to home, a booklet on the history of Notting Hill which I produced for estate agents Bective Leslie Marsh positioned my client as better educated, more professional and a little idiosyncratic. Which, in Notting Hill, turned out to be exactly the sort of firm with which owners of big houses would be prepared to advertise their association, not least by sticking a big ‘for sale’ sign outside.

But does this have any real relevance in professional B2B markets? I think so, mainly because it draws attention to how your firm can affect your client’s positioning. How will hiring you make the hirer look to his or her bosses, colleagues etc? Will the client’s rivals and customers react to your appointment with excitement, derision or indifference?

Most of all, Miller’s revelations  highlight how, even if all of your new business comes through word of mouth, if your positioning to the rest of the world is poor, potential clients are going to think twice before hiring you. Your superficial shortcomings could make them look bad in the eyes of others. As Darwinian-driven individuals have known for millennia, if the positioning of your otherwise brilliant offering isn’t up to scratch, its chances of a long and productive life will be much diminished.

Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behaviour by Geoffrey Miller is by William Heinemann Ltd (Amazon page).

Today, Acorn has over half-a-dozen long-term local authority contracts plus similar contracts with housing associations and land-owning corporates. Its growing range of services include tree surgery, consultancy and reports, site clearance, project management and ground maintenance plus analysis using a host of technical equipment such as sub-meter Magellan GPS/mobile mapping and digital hypsometers (which, I am told, measure the height of buildings and trees). More on Acorn here.