The World’s Best Brand and It Doesn’t Advertise

Imagine that. Today’s news from research firm Millward Brown’s Brandz study showed that the company with the best brand on earth, the one with the most recognition worldwide, was Google.

Yes, Google. The company that does the least amount of advertising of any on the list. In fact, the article in Advertising Age even states that “Despite doing no visible consumer advertising, the search giant repeats as this year’s most powerful brand…” Truly, this is a company that understands the power of public relations and its role in brand management and development.

Now, before I ruffle the feathers of friends or others in the ad industry, I should note that Google is the only “brand” listed in the top 10 that does not advertise. However, each of the top 10 receives so much coverage that it’s hard to imagine a true need for advertising, except to support its ongoing PR efforts. (more…)

In PR, Transparency Should Always be a Policy

On our blog, we clearly state that we represent clients who pay us to help with their marketing communication campaigns. This means we speak highly of them. Luckily for us, it’s easy to do because the companies we work with are companies we can believe in and support.

However, and this surprises me, not everyone in the profession adheres to similar standards. Well, it doesn’t surprise me that their are unethical people out there who are trying to manipulate the system for their own or their clients benefit, but it surprises me that they feel it is an acceptable tactic.

So why is this news? Cisco recently ran into legal problems because they did not have a disclosure policy in effect. How could they and many other companies avoid a potential lawsuit or loss in the trial of public opinion, be transparent. (more…)

China & the IOC Utilize Spin in an Attempt to Minimize Athletes’ Health Concerns for 2008 Games

The International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) are doing all they can to minimize the fact that world-class athletes are beginning to pull out of the 2008 Summer Games for health concerns.

The story began nearly two weeks ago when Haile Gebreselassie, the current marathon world-record holder, announced that he would not compete in Beijing this August due to his concerns that air pollution in Beijing would permanently harm his lungs. (Gebreselassie suffers from asthma.)

Previously, gold medal tennis winner and four-time French Open winner, Justine Henin, had proclaimed that she would not defend her gold medal in China since the pollution would aggravate her asthma as well.

The decisions of these athletes notwithstanding (and the threat of other world-class athletes withdrawing from the Games due to health concerns), the IOC distributed on Monday, March 17 with the headline “IOC ANALYSES BEIJING AIR QUALITY DATA.”

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Happy Betty Award! Quality Customer Relations - Millhollow

So often, we hear of poor customer relations as the sole reason individuals decide not to return to a company to buy goods or services. But it’s not often we hear about good customer relations that lead to return customers. I wanted to highlight one example and hand out a Happy Betty Award.

Recently, my colleague and I were in Rexburg, Idaho, for a career fair at BYU-Idaho. We stopped in at a local sandwich shop called Millhollow’s for lunch and ordered our meals (I ordered a club on white, and Kris ordered a spicy Italian on white). They were absolutely delicious! There was only one problem: there was no meat. Hands-down, they were the best meatless deli sandwiches I had ever had in my life.

We discovered the gaffe about half-way through eating our sandwiches, and had a good chuckle about it. We decided to go back to the counter to let them know of the mistake. They were obviously embarrassed, but they took the remainder of our sandwiches, piled them with extra meat and returned them with two gift certificates for a free ice cream. They treated us very respectfully and were very nice about the mistake.

It was a prime example of quality customer service that we ought to recognize. Check them out if you’re ever in Rexburg.

The Three-Month Report Card for TheBettyFactor.com

It’s hard to imagine that it’s already been three months since we at POLITIS LLC officially launched our corporate blog about all things marketing related — The Betty Factor. But it is.

As such, I thought it would be appropriate (as the effective publisher) if I, David Politis, took a few moments to

• Review our progress thus far,
• Analyze the pluses and minuses of our efforts, and
• Assign a letter grade to our initial accomplishments.

So here goes.

= = = = = = = = = =

First off, it may be helpful to re-examine what it is we’re trying to accomplish with this blog (www.TheBettyFactor.com), as well as what it’s all about.

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Miscommunication Can Happen Anytime, Anywhere

Typically, I just delete pass-along emails without even opening them; you know the kind: the ones that include sappy tales or lame jokes.

But when my wife showed me the photo to the right, I knew I just had to share it here as well.

You can almost imagine the phone order coming into the local grocery store, can’t you?

EMPLOYEE:  “Pastries. Can I help you?

CUSTOMER:  “Yes, I’d like to order a chocolate sheet cake for a going away party this week.”

EMPLOYEE:  “Okay. And would you like anything written on the cake?”

CUSTOMER:  “That would be nice. How ’bout, ‘Best Wishes Suzanne,’ and underneath that ‘We will miss you.’”

EMPLOYEE:  “No problem; we’ll get right on that.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Unfortunately, just when you think you’ve been absolutely, perfectly clear, someone comes along and slaps you upside the head.

Welcome to the world of miscommunication.

Sounds like an opportunity for better employee training at some store somewhere.

Qtrax Lands “Bewildered Betty Award” for Announcing Deals with Major Music Labels Before Said Agreements Are Signed

Major PR faux pas by Brilliant Technologies puts future of nascent free music download service — QTRAX — in serious doubt

Can you think of ANY reason why a company would ever want to “announce” it had closed deals with one or more major partners at a HUGE industry event without having such deals actually signed?

Me neither.

Amazingly, that’s apparently what happened this past weekend at the MIDEM music conference held in Cannes.

According to media reports from around the globe, New York-based Qtrax — a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies (Pink Sheets: BLLN) — spent close to £500,000 to host a launch party that featured such recording artists as LL Cool J and James Blunt and was designed to promote the “fact” that Qtrax was going to announce Monday it had

• Signed deals with the four largest music labels – EMI, Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group; and that
• These deals would provide more than 25,000 free downloadable songs for users of the new free ad-supported QTRAX music download service.

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Congratulations Sen. McCain?

Our fellow pr practitioners at the Michigan Republican Party made a major goof tonight. I mean, really, congratulating the wrong candidate? Their explanation…they simply pushed the wrong button.

Full story at LA Times.

Facebook’s First Shot in the Spotlight–On TV that Is

Here’s the scenario: You’re 23, a Harvard dropout, CEO of the company you founded with some friends, a computer programmer, your company is valued at more than $15 billion and you’ve just been invited to come on 60 Minutes. Mark Zuckerberg, what do you do?

Well, given that the founder of Facebook probably had weeks, if not months to prepare for the interview, you hire someone to train you for going on camera. Then, you train again and again till you feel completely ready to go with Lesley Stahl on one of America’s most watched news programs. You get questions thrown at you till you feel confident about your responses, and confident that you can handle any question. You practice with a camera to see what you look like when the lights are turned on. In short, you prepare for the interview the best you can.

Quick disclaimer, I’m a fan of Facebook. A big fan. I’ve been a user for almost a year now and have reconnected to many friends and associates who I had lost contact with. I want Facebook to succeed since I’ve already reaped some of the benefits the site has to offer. I don’t want it to be successful at my expense, but I want it to succeed at becoming profitable. I’d love to help them with their marketing communications efforts. I can only imagine how fun the challenge would be. Do I think Mark would be a hard client to work with? Absolutely.

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Royale Energy Lands the First Sad Betty Award for its Most Recent News Release

There are a couple of questions in life you never want to answer, such as

• Does this dress make me look fat?
• Have you made that appointment yet for your prostate exam?
• You paid how much for that?

Well . . . I’ve got another question to add to the list. It’s

• What do you think of our news release?

Unfortunately, Royale Energy (NASDAQ: ROYL) has just landed the first Sad Betty Award for its January 11, 2008 news release. In my opinion, this is probably one of the most confusing and most awkwardly written announcements I have ever read.

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