Tag Archives: Survey

Sep 09

Hey Teach, better keep a close eye on Little Jack Moed

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September 9 - Dunce_Cap A just-released survey of 3,000 grade school teachers by parenting group Bounty.com shows that instructors do, in fact, judge a book by its cover. The survey asked teachers if they can identify naughty, nice, popular or bright students in advance simply by reading their names on the classroom register. The answer is a resounding, ‘Yes!’

Researchers discovered that teachers keep an eye out for boys with names like Jack, Callum or Connor and girls named Chelsea, Courtney and Chardonnay (Who would name their kid after a type of wine? ‘Oh, Pinot Noir? Time for dinner, hon.’).

Conversely, teachers say they look forward to meeting boys named Alexander, Adam and Christopher and girls named Elisabeth, Charlotte and Emma. Those six names topped the list for ‘brightest’ school kids.

Life is tough enough without being pre-judged based upon one’s name. But, the survey shows that, like the rest of us, teachers tend to react with their hearts rather than their heads when it comes to anticipating a child’s performance.

All of which bodes ill for Little Jack Moed as he moves through the Montclair, NJ, school system. That said, his old man is a tough, smart dude so I’m sure Jack will do just fine. I do have my doubts, though, about some of the other kids named on the top 10 ‘naughtiest’ list. Jake and Liam sound like they’re already spoiling for a fistfight and Demi has ‘drama queen’ written all over her. I wonder how Dick and Jane or John and Mary would fare in these lists?

Jul 16

Are brand image and customer service intrinsically linked? You can bank on it

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July 16 A new J.D. Power retail banking survey shows that image is more important than proximity, products or service.

A bank's image is based upon a customer's unique experience. And the customer experience, in turn, drives his or her recommendations: both positive and negative. So, a bank literally lives or dies based upon how well it treats customers. And that is as it should be.

While these findings may elicit a 'no duh' from most marketers, it's shocking to see how many organizations still get it so wrong. Airlines and cable companies are classic examples (so are NJ Transit and my buddies at the TSA. But, that's another blog for another day).

While the airline and cable industries are making positive strides, they continue to suffer from what I've been calling the 'other' digital divide. On the one hand, airline and cable company marketing teams are champing at the bit to ramp up their social media efforts so they can better engage with customers. On the other hand, their peers in customer service are being incentivized to disengage from customers as quickly as possible. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!

T.D. Bank, which earned top Power scores in the Mid-Atlantic region, gets the connection. They ensure brand and customer service are intrinsically linked. 'Before we hire someone, we see if they smile at us during the initial interview. Then we continue to measure and monitor their attitude to customers,' said Linda Verba, EVP of retail operations and service. A smile? So simple, but so utterly lacking in so many retail experiences.

Public relations can, and should, be playing a lead role in aiding airlines, cable companies and any consumer-facing organization improve their image. But, the best image work in the world can't overcome a horrific product or service experience. That's a C-suite responsibility that too many C-suites have abdicated. Maybe they should smile a little bit more?

*Thanks to Greg Schmalz for the idea behind this post.

Jun 05

PR Pros may have access to C-suite, but their digital message isn’t getting through

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USC’s Annenberg School for Communication’s GAP V survey is a timely and helpful measurementCsuite_2
substantiating PR’s rising importance within the corporate infrastructure. The main findings show that 64 percent of the 520 senior corporate communications respondents report directly to the C-suite. As a result, they are more likely to have more resources than those who don’t. OK, so far, so good.

Jerry Swerling, who heads the school’s PR studies program, says the question is no longer whether or not PR has a seat at the table, but what to do with it. No argument with that point either.

But, here’s where the Annenberg findings fall short. We’ve participated in two recent (and fairly extensive) surveys of PR pros. Both showed a huge ‘digital’ gap between the PR/communications function and the C-suite. In fact, PR pros are incredibly frustrated about the C-suite’s lack of understanding and support of digital. Respondents to our survey overwhelmingly ‘get’ digital’s importance, but cannot get the C-suite to get it. As a result, PR executives report little support to properly their fund digital initiatives.

I’m not suggesting there’s a gap in the Annenberg Gap V survey findings, but I’d love to see next year’s Gap VI probe more deeply into what I see as one of the biggest, and least well understood, pain points facing PR pros today.

Feb 25

Students determined to be more successful than their parents

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Steve and Ted sit down with University of Vermont students to discuss their job perspectives and whetherRepchatter_logo_2 or not
they believe they will be as successful as their parents. 

This discussion centers on the latest student survey that shows that this is the first generation that does not believe they’ll do better than their parents in terms of financial and job success.  What are the reasons for this?

Is the recession causing concern for young job seekers? Perhaps Generation Y has a different definition of success?

Jan 14

Looking for love in all the wrong places

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Surveys about client-agency relationships are a dime a dozen and tell you what you already know. To wit,Reardon
clients are unhappy with their firm’s strategy, creativity, execution and responsiveness. Probe a little deeper and you’ll find concern about agencies simply not understanding the business of their client’s business.

So, as I reviewed yet another one of these surveys from a Cincinnati-based group called Reardon Smith Whittaker, I was taken aback by one ‘new’ finding: forty percent of client respondents said they ‘look forward to’ or find it exciting’ to search for a new agency. Can you believe that? Do they have no idea how tortuous new business pitches are for agencies? These respondents would be right at home in Gitmo or most any concentration camp of the 20th century.

‘…Enjoying and looking forward to…’ agency reviews is a clueless remark for many reasons, including:

– The inordinate amount of time and resources an agency has to devote to a new business pitch
– The business disruption caused by agency searches to both client and agency organizations
– The fact that an agency search means the prior firm, and the client conducting the search, failed to achieve the business communications goals.

For me, this last point is what rankles most. Enlightened corporate communications departments realize that success (and failure) should be shared. Sadly, there are still too many client-side personnel who will claim credit for success, but point the finger at the agency when things go south.

Obviously, there are some bad firms, but most provide a similar level of service. So, what’s the real issue? Usually, it comes down to staff turnover on the agency side (a big agency problem) and a corporate communications department that is either too far removed from the organization’s strategic decision making to connect it to PR, or simply too lazy to do much more than enact a purely tactical, media-by-the-pound campaign. Either way, senior management gets antsy at some point and demands a new PR firm. And, the communications department readily accedes because, ‘hey, it’s fun and exciting’ to do an agency search.’

Don’t get me wrong. Agency searches are critical when a client is looking to re-position itself, take the business in a new, more strategic direction or, if the PR firm really has failed to live up to its end of the bargain. Sadly though, most are fishing expeditions that may be fun for the ‘angler,’ but pure torture for us ‘fish.’