Listen to this Engaging Brand podcast with me and Anna Farmery where we explore brands, trust, business and social capital, all subjects covered in my new book Why Should Anyone Buy From YOU?

Apple's Cupertino event today will raise more questions than answers. The pressure was immense - would they or wouldn't they announce an iPhone 5? The news was mixed and the signals this sends to customers, employees, the media and investors potentially indicate things may not be all well at this icon of our modern age.

Walking among strangers in an unfamiliar place has always had a certain piquancy to it…but these uneasy feelings are now more and more common even as we make our way around our own communities and countries.

More than half of all three-year-olds in America have a T.V. in their rooms, rising to two-thirds by age six, with the average hours watched daily as high as five. What responsibility does this put on marketing and marketers today?

Watch Steve Jobs delivering an Apple presentation to witness a brand completely in control of the development and evolution of their narrative. Don’t fall into the short-sighted trap of focusing on one campaign at a time, especially when the pressure is to acquire new customers or drive volume. Any new communication must be seen within the context of past and future promises.

From Lehman brothers to BP to Toyota to British politicians’ expenses to global warming science and even the global financial meltdown, brands and their consumers have suffered from serious, catastrophic collapses in trust.Through a series of blog posts and excerpts from my new book Why Should Anyone Buy from You? we will create insights around strategy, brands, marketing and communication that will help you create trust in brands and understand the twenty-first century mission for marketing: the re-humanization of business.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.What we have witnessed over the past few days with the closure of the News Of The World and the fast creep of the flames to other newspapers is proof that this aphorism is true.And let's be clear despite the best efforts of the Murdochs' to stem the blood loss what we are witnessing is a fundamental reshaping of the balance of power in the British media.