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…)

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.

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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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