surprise! Who has excellent reputation?

When someone asked me, who do you think the most reputable company is? Why, of course, Google, was my guess.

Actually, according to a study conducted by the Reputation Institute, in 2009 Google ranked globally at #23, whereas #1 is....

The Ferrero Group, a chocolate company from Italy, that makes Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and Kinder chocolates... ranked number 1.

The Reputation Institute ranked companies on how esteemed, admired, trusted and liked each was, based on its surveys of the general public. Ferrero, IKEA, Johnson & Johnson Rank as most reputable companies in the world on Reputation Institute's Global Reputation Pulse Study.

I can totally see IKEA and J&J being up there...IKEA experiences are amazing, simple and clean and approachable...and J&J is just so natural and friendly...no wonder their reputation scores are high!

Studies reveal critical links between reputation and consumer recommendation in driving bottom line results. For example, by improving a brand's reputation score by 5 points, a company can increase recommendations within the general public by 6.75%.

In a competitive situation, increasing recommendations by 2 -5 % can have big impact and dramatically improve bottom line.

With 67 percent of consumers saying they would recommend one of the world's top 20 most reputable companies to others, organizations like Japan's Nintendo, France's Christian Dior and India's Tata showed they have effectively used recommendations to drive business and reputation in their respective countries.

However, reputation and brand is not to be confused as the same, because oftentimes they are mentioned together. A company's reputation and reputation value; and a company's brand value is correlated but distinct.

Take a look at the company's reputation scores:

---- ------- ------- -----
1 Ferrero Italy 85.17
2 IKEA Sweden 83.98
3 Johnson & Johnson U.S. 83.58
4 Petrobas Brazil 82.37
5 Sadia Brazil 82.06
6 Nintendo Japan 81.63
7 Christian Dior France 81.37
8 Kraft Foods U.S. 81.09
9 Mercadona Spain 80.99
10 Singapore Airlines Singapore 80.97
11 Tata India 80.89
12 UPS U.S. 80.84
13 General Mills U.S. 80.80
14 El Corte Ingles Spain 80.80
15 Matsushita Electric Ind. Japan 80.31
16 FedEx U.S. 80.30
17 Grupo Bimbo Mexico 80.22
18 Honda Motor Japan 79.86
19 Whirlpool U.S. 79.86
20 Votorantim Brazil 79.59
21 Walt Disney Co. U.S. 79.44
22 China Faw China 79.35
23 Google U.S. 78.80
24 China Merhchants Bank China 78.72
25 Caterpillar U.S. 78.69

(From Biz Journals)

...now, more reasons to love chocolate and Italy?

Marketers move to online, but social media plans spending decrease

Good news for digital folks, we are heading towards a 50 - 50 world:

A 2008 McKinsey & Company survey found that 55% of global marketing execs planned to cut spending on traditional media in order to fund increased online efforts.

The move to online has become steady. Laura Desmond, chief executive of Starcom MediaVest, the media planning arm of Publicis, says the industry is heading into a “50-50 world” in which half of revenues go to digital and interactive campaigns.

However, in tough times, here's a snapshot of planned changes within the online marketing budget:
Paid search is still going strong. While over 90% of marketers polled by eMetrics said they would increase or maintain their spend on e-mail advertising, more than 83% said the same about paid search.

The largest decreases were planned for social media and general online advertising, but even those paled in comparison to overall online spending increases.

In addition, many marketers are realizing the need for increased digital intelligence. One-quarter of the respondents said they planned on increasing their Web analytics budgets, and over 60% planned to maintain spending. This is key...the beauty of digital are the results, and strategically digging into it, to get insights and learnings needed is where the money is.

( From emarketer)

looking for a new RTB, anyone?

Looking for a new RTB, P&G or Unilever?

We always associate wine with drinking, but what about using it as an ingredient for your body wash? In Japan, a new body wash - a liquid bath salt, called Spavino was recently launched. For a new product, the name is catchy and easy to remember, ( spa + vino)which plays on the insight that wine soaks from European spa treatments provide tighter, smoother skin.

Brand teams and ad agencies are always on the lookout for new and compelling RTBs, "Reason To Believes"...This RTB not only conveys an unique ingredient, but also associates us with the emotional benefit of luxury and pampering.

Luxurious Vinotherapy is not new in the US, but could it be introduced to the masses? For the right price, I bet it could!

( From Japan Marketing News)

All Marketers are liars

Click here to review Seth Godin's presentation at Google in 2006

Great speaker...beautifully crafted and keeps the audience captivated. Presents general Marketing concepts more approachable, even to non-marketers.

It is down to the essentials: Marketing has to be consumer-centric, ( personal and relevant), that is what Seth Godin meant by "permission marketing", by delivering and reaching consumers at the right time and touchpoint...and, stories becoming branding, just how Google has become a brand everyone loves... brands should all become lovemarks....

Seth Godin also touches upon who our target audience is for marketing - ( The cat food is not for cats but for the cat owners), and brands should tell a story of emotional benefits. At the end of the day, your product has to be really appealing and remarkable...""keep making stuff worth talking about", and leverage on word of mouth from your target audience, and leverage on the beauty of web 2.0

Here's a great example of how technology has changed our behavior, and how

" People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways in years past"

The sad but true ending to Encarta, the encyclopedia Microsoft introduced in 1993

In Randall Stross' digital domain column on the NYT, " Encyclopedia Knowledge, Then vs. Now", he provided the history of the start of Microsoft's encyclopedia, and how it was unable to compete with Google-indexed Web form of virtual encyclopedia.

Nowadays, who pays for information, when you can get it for free?