33 states reached a settlement with Texas-based computer manufacturing company, Dell after consumer complaints rose to a level that brought the attention of numerous State Attorneys General.

The complaints against Dell range from warranties and service guarantees not being honored to unpaid rebates as well as falsified financing offers.

The settlement carries with it a 3.3 million dollar price tag and the requirement that Dell be more responsive to customer service issues, repair requests, and issue rebates in a timely manner.

Dell is required to pay claims made until April 13th, 2009 by eligible consumers. Consumers who are interested in finding out if they qualify for inclusion in the settlement payout should contact their State Attorney General’s office. To find out more about getting in touch with your local Attorney General, visit MeasuredUp’s Consumer Resources page.

Now, in order to make the grade with the BBB companies must live up to a new ratings system that ranks their standing in the Bureau with letter grades.

 This move, close on the heels of the growing trend toward online consumer reviews and customer complaints, appears to be the BBB’s effort at bringing their system up to date with the type of feedback consumers are interested in. The old system (based on a simple ’satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ rating) is slated to be replaced with letter ‘grades’ ranging from A+ to F. The formula used to determine a company’s overall grade is comprised of 16 weighted factors, including a business’s overall complaint history.

The new Better Business Bureau ratings system was tested in Los Angeles in 2008 and has already been implemented in some parts of the U.S.

News Analysis: Reviews Roll In As Sites Add Video

Amazon, Orvis, PetCo jump on next wave of customer feedback.
January 14, 2008
By Kenneth Hein

The written word may be powerful, but video is mightier still, and there’s the rub for marketers.

As Amazon, Orvis and PetCo encourage consumers to upload video reviews, the marketers give the public a dynamic tool to tout or trash products.

Before a fan plunks down $69.95 for the Hasbro Star Wars Darth Vader Voice Changer, for example, they may want to watch the video review posted by Gregory J. Daniel on Amazon.com. “This is an example of what the Darth Vader helmet will sound like when you make the mistake of buying it. Don’t I sound just like Darth? Can you even hear his voice, or is it just like a droning in the background.”

Amazon has no issue with such reviews. “Written reviews have been tremendously successful, but when you can actually see the item in action all the writing in the world [can't compare],” said Colin Bodell, vp, Amazon.com, Seattle, which added video in November. “We want to deliver a richer shopping experience and give them as much information as possible so it will lead to a more satisfying shopping experience.”

While a video review for a book may not be necessary, Bodell said they were particularly helpful for new toys like the latest Tickle Me Elmo or complicated consumer electronics devices.

For Orvis, a video of a customer catching a trophy fish using its Zero G Saltwater 909-4 fly rod speaks volumes. “It’s another reason for people to come to our site,” says Brad Wolansky, vp-eCommerce for the Sunderland, Vt., firm. “They want to engage with us and brag about their fish. Of course, we like to see them stay on our site longer—we like video for all those reasons. We also like the fact that it can make a customer feel good about their purchase decision. That’s the root of customer reviews, making them feel more secure.” Orvis added video in August.

Video consumer reviews are still new, very new. They make up only a small fraction of Amazon and Orvis reviews. But, this is expected to change quickly as more consumers embrace video and more marketers offer reviews on their sites (See “New Ideas,” page 10). Video phones and the simplicity of some of today’s desktop applications make creating video “less of an event,” said Marc Karasu, president of MeasuredUp.com, New York. Karasu left his post as vp-marketing of Hotjobs.com to quarterback MeasuredUp.com. The site encourages consumers to sound off about good and bad products and customer service. Next month, the site is relaunching with video capabilities.

Video is a natural for consumers under 30, as they are heavy users of such sites as YouTube, he said. Video can be powerful “if you are shooting secret footage of an outrageous customer service experience,” Karasu said. However, “if it’s someone standing front of a store talking about what happened,” not so much.

Video is currently only about 1% of all reviews, according to Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice, the ratings and reviews service that created Orvis and PetCo’s consumer review section, based in Austin, Texas. However, Web sites can leverage this small pool of video reviews for a larger impact. Sections can be created showing the top-10 video reviews. Consumers can also be connected directly to the videos via e-mail links and RSS feeds.

In this respect videos not only offer a valuable opinion, but also entertainment value. “We’ve had other people linking to our site to watch the videos, there is always that entertainment opportunity,” said Bodell. “We look forward to more content as it gets easier to put video up there. It will also be better produced once the technology gets better and high-speed connections continue to become more prevalent. People will find creative ways of using it that we haven’t even envisioned yet.” Authors reading chapters of their books and explanations behind their writing is starting to appear on Amazon. Brands are also invited to post product demonstrations, as well, said Bodell. However, “they can’t be blatant advertisements,” he said. “They can buy ad placements.” Amazon weighs each submission based on its value to buyers in aiding their purchase decision.

Does this start to blur the lines of marketing? Probably, said Seth Godin, author of the new book Meatball Sundae. “If it is clearly labeled as to who is producing the video, call them what you want. ‘What is advertising?’ is a question we ask every day.”

Regardless, video is “a logical, predictable next step in the evolution of consumer reviews,” said Godin. Still, there are benefits to the written word. “Video is a lot less casual. You can spend 30 seconds writing a few sentences, video is more of a commitment,” he said. “Plus you can scan a whole page of written reviews, but you’re not going to watch a whole page of videos.”

khein@brandweek.com

If you are entering the job market or thinking about ways to see what other opportunities are out there then you need to do 5 things.  These 5 things are free or cost very little and are the most important things you can do to get things going. You should spend 2 hours a week on these and in no time you will see that you are starting to generate some traction.

5 free things to do to start a job search

1. Get your resume together, refresh it, make sure your contact info is up to date and revise any objectives or skills.  You would be surprised how many people have an outdated resume.

2. Get your resume posted on as many job boards as you can.  This is free and it not only allows you to search for opportunities by city or industry but recruiters can find your resume when they search for people.  You can type “job boards” into Google to get the names.

3. Open a LinkedIn account on www.Linkedin.com  This site is amazing and by searching for past colleagues and coworkers you will in no time build a network that will help you find new opportunities and get you references.  Go on to the site and play around with it and you will see the power of it.

4. Ask your friends and family for help and to tell you if they hear of anything.  Sometimes people just need to be asked for their help and do not want to be presumptious by offering.

5. Find the best trade magazine in your industry and start reading is regulalry.  Not only will you be up to date on new industry news and language but you will see who is growing, merging and hiring. Best of all you will sound up to date in an interview.

If you do these 5 things you will see that in no time you will start to get traction in your search and the momentum will open up new opportunities.

December 17, 2007
By Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK In November, Facebook’s 23-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, stood on a low stage in Manhattan and made a boast to hundreds of advertisers and agencies that caused more than a few snickers afterwards: “Once every 100 years, the way that media works fundamentally changes.”

In the subsequent weeks, Zuckerberg’s hubris was slammed, particularly when Facebook was forced to backtrack on its plan to pipe product purchases to users’ friends, a system known as Beacon. One writer, former Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner, even went so far as to title an article, “RIP Facebook?”

Yet despite the hyperbole and inevitable backlash from once-fawning admirers, Zuckerberg’s proclamation has the ring of truth to it when looked at in the wider view. More than ever in the modern era, media and advertising are changing, as epitomized by the rush of middle-aged users to social nets like Facebook. The Internet is finally beginning to live up to its promise to change media and advertising from a one-to-many, passive proposition to a many-to-many experience premised on social connectivity. For media companies and advertisers, this could make Zuckerberg’s irrational exuberance seem not so irrational in retrospect. In fact, the fundamental changes he was referring to are already under way.

“I believe the media business has changed more in the last five years than in the 500 years before that,” Peter Horan, CEO of IAC’s media and advertising unit, told a gathering of publishing, advertiser and agency executives earlier this month.

What’s most changed is how people access information. The Internet has thus far been a search-dominated medium, using faceless algorithms to sort through masses of information for the right link. Google’s role as the starting point of the many users’ Web experience gave rise to what The Search author John Battelle calls “the database of intentions”: people express themselves directly to Google, which can then match up a limitless supply of information to satisfy any need, from a word definition to a retailer selling cashmere sweaters. That’s been a sweet business for Google, which is on pace to rack up over $15 billion in revenue for 2007.

Peer recommendation comes of age

But what comes next? Search, for all its benefits, doesn’t do a great job of helping people separate the wheat from the chaff. The top result for my search is the same as yours.

Many observers see social connections as a credible alternative to search in how we find information, consume media and make product decisions—all premised on the power of peer recommendation. “Social networking is as significant a behavioral shift as search,” says Sarah Fay, CEO of Carat, part of Aegis Group. “The way search has infiltrated our lives, social networking [has become] the fabric of our lives.”

Study after study, not to mention common sense, suggests that when friends recommend a movie, product or event, it has more weight than hearing from a commercial message. Beacon was supposed to morph this premise into an ad vehicle, only to fall flat on privacy concerns. Still, the $15 billion valuation pinned to Facebook is a direct result of the belief it will turn its 58 million-plus users into a formidable advertising opportunity. And other companies are fast at work making this a reality. Archetype Media, for instance, has begun Social Vibe, a marketplace for consumers to get sponsorships (rewards) from brands they endorse within their social networks. Izea, formerly PayPerPost, is building a similar marketplace for bloggers.

The Tay Zonday DIY media model

For months, a Minneapolis graduate student had posted quirky videos to YouTube of himself singing covers and original songs in a remarkably deep voice that didn’t seem to fit his small, youthful appearance. Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain,” first posted in April, generated a tsunami of attention, racking up more than 12 million views.

By the end of the year, Dr Pepper had approached Zonday to record a follow-up version called “Cherry Chocolate Rain” in advance of next year’s introduction of Cherry Chocolate Dr Pepper. Creative merits aside, Zonday brought something else to the table: his own network. Dr Pepper relied on Zonday’s YouTube network of 20,000 subscribers to spread the Dr Pepper video. Within two weeks, it gained more than 1.5 million views. By that time, Zonday had turned himself into a mini-media property, joining a YouTube program that will show ads on his videos and give him a cut.

While the rise of a quirky personality like Tay Zonday is undeniably amusing, the story also points to how social connections on open platforms like YouTube are feeding the process of distributed media. Take Tila Tequila. At the start of the year, she was merely a wannabe model who had an inordinate number of MySpace friends, over 1 million. She was able to parlay her social networking base into a record deal and a top-rated reality show, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, on MTV.

Social media is not just about becoming famous. Within their own, much smaller networks, people are becoming media distributors via widgets, tiny Web applications that can be embedded on blogs and social-network profile pages. MySpace has long let users embed photo slide shows, video clips and other tools of self-expression into their pages. Having watched YouTube grow into a force on the back of distribution through the site, it sought earlier this year to exert more control, blocking some widget makers that included advertising. It eventually backed down. Rival Facebook opened its site to outside developers to build widgets that used social data, and now over 10,000 have been created, with the most popular spread friend to friend. By the end of the year, more than 50 percent of Web users encountered a widget monthly, according to comScore, typically through a slide show or video posted to a social network or blog.

In this regard, social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are likely to spawn millions of mini-networks where content is shared among a trusted circle. “MySpace isn’t a social network with 120 million people,” says Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at new marketing shop Crayon. “It’s 120 million social networks. There’s a lot of focus on consumer-generated media when there’s more impact on consumer-recommended content.”

Brands have nowhere to hide

As consumers take control of the spreading of media, they invariably have a say over how brands are perceived. Old notions of planning a brand image through commercial messages are running up against consumers actively voicing their opinions to each other in venues as diverse as message boards, consumer reviews, blogs and social networks. Problems can occur when there’s a disconnect between the rosy image dreamed up by marketers and the everyday reality expressed by consumers.

The crossroads the advertising industry stands at was on full display this year in Cannes. Dove won the Film category for “Evolution,” a touching short film by WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather that looked at the beauty industry’s false and manipulative notions of beauty. Buoyed by the ad’s impact—”Evolution” has been viewed more than 5.5 million times on YouTube—Dove released a more pointed follow-up in October, “Onslaught,” which shows an angelic little girl deluged by the marketing industry’s messages about beauty. The video met with wide praise from critics and industry types. But then something else happened. A video response was posted to YouTube, pointing out the hypocrisy of Unilever, which owns not only Dove, but Axe—a product that peddles stereotypes of women as little more than sex objects.

Although the video response gathered only a fraction of the views that Dove’s ad did, it showed how brands can get called out on empty promises in an age when connections are paramount. Wal-Mart found that out this year, too. Eager to get involved with social media, it ran a back-to-school campaign on Facebook that fell flat after the brand page was flooded with young critics of the company’s labor practices.

Some brands have taken the criticisms to heart. Back in August 2005, Dell’s customer-service problems drew the ire of blogger Jeff Jarvis. His resulting “Dell Hell” tirade sparked similar stories of shoddy services from dozens of others. Dell responded, after initial fumbling, by forming its own blog and an outreach team to contact those posting negative experiences with its products. The company went even further last February by launching IdeaStorm, a section of its site that solicits ideas from customers and gives them a forum for feedback, positive and negative.

The lesson for brands: The days of papering over poor products with snazzy messages are faltering now that we’re connected. That means the once mundane area of customer service becomes an important definer of the brand experience, says Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics. “That’s unfamiliar terrain for anyone in the marketing business, but it’s low-hanging fruit.”

What’s a friend worth?

But in a year marked by brands’ experimentation in social media, including MySpace profile pages—what Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Forrester Research, describes as fishing “where the fish are”—agencies are left with a quandary: How can such voluntary interactions be measured?

It’s often noted that the Internet’s greatest strength is its measurability, but when brands move from counting clicks and site visits to connections, the system breaks down, says Troy Young, CMO of VideoEgg, a social media advertising network that embeds overlay “invitations” into a brand experience. “It’s a real challenge because true engagement cost doesn’t fit into a buyer spreadsheet,” he explains. “The whole media marketplace is priced around the cost of impressions to unengaged users.”

The solution is unclear. For now, the ad industry is left with familiar forms of measurement, mostly clicks and impressions, and what will follow is becoming an ever-important discussion.

The price of all this social connectivity is the inundation of the mundane, from Facebook updates on what groups people join to Twitter messages on what someone had for lunch. And as Beacon showed, the line between what is personal and public is blurring—and sometimes the decision is outside of our control. Yet no matter where the line is drawn, the social trend set in motion this year is likely to only continue.

“Once someone starts to use social networks,” Fay says, “they rarely go back.”

Sales ‘driven by reviews’

14 December 2007

Consumer reviews are driving web sales, according to new research.

A report from eMarketer claims that word-of-mouth advertising – always an important tool for marketers – is especially influential now the internet has made view-sharing so easy.

Social networking websites, blogs and videos mean that user-generated content is proliferating on the web, with recommendations from other consumers increasingly forming the basis of purchase decisions.

Research from eMarketer found that 17 per cent of adults use social networking websites in order to participate with their favourite brands – although most do so to gain a sense of community.

The Wispa campaign is said in the report to be one example of the influence that can be exerted by consumer-generated campaigns.

“From brands’ point of view, consumer word-of-mouth is extremely valuable,” the report states.

It emerged this week that Facebook is opening its development architecture to third-party developers, with Bebo the first rival website to take advantage of the new offering.

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Leading website for customer service reviews invites business to demonstrate commitment to consumers and put up or shut up

New York, NY, December 4, 2007 – www.Measuredup.com a leading online customer service review site today announced the launch of “The Pledge Challenge” for companies that want to differentiate themselves this competitive and budget constrained Holiday season. The “Pledge” allows participating companies to demonstrate to online cyber shoppers and offline consumers that they care about Customer Service and satisfaction as much as the bottom line.

The Measuredup “Pledge” is a free downloadable customer service statement and logo that companies can download for free from the Measuredup.com website and post on their own websites so that consumers know that management, the company and brand are committed to trying to meet the consumers customer service needs.

The Measuredup.com site founded by Marc Karasu is designed to address the customer service void growing in the wake of technology’s fast pace forward. The rise in Internet shopping, automated voice systems, outsourced—and off shored—customer service departments and other technology-driven trends have served mainly to distance customers from companies rather than bring them closer together. And while the Internet has helped customers become more informed in their purchasing decisions, it hasn’t given consumers an avenue for holding businesses accountable for their customer service.

Measuredup.com addresses and resolves this void in a way that is both fun and empowering to consumers and valuable to companies who can use this information to improve and to create a conversation with consumers.

Through the Measuredup.com site, users can rate businesses or services on a 5-point scale in many categories from the expected to the unusual.

Measuredup gives new meaning to the phrase “The Customer is always right.”

About Measuredup.com

Measuredup.com is a leading Customer Service review networking site where consumers rate and review their customer service and brand experiences in a public forum. The site’s founder, frustrated by an increase in incompetent, rude and outright abusive treatment by businesses both large and small, sought to develop a platform where consumers could share their experiences, vent or praise as appropriate and, ultimately, effect change.

For interviews, quotes or discussion please call the founder and President of Measuredup.com, Marc Karasu. Contact info available here and on the site at www.Measuredup.com

Study Conducted by comScore and The Kelsey Group Reveals that 24 Percent of Online Local Service Review Users Purchase Service

November 29, 2007: 02:49 PM EST

RESTON, Va., Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the results of a new study conducted with The Kelsey Group, a leading research and strategic analysis firm focused on local media and advertising, that examined the impact of consumer-generated reviews on the price consumers were willing to pay for a service delivered offline. The study, based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users in October 2007, revealed that consumers were willing to pay at least 20 percent more for services receiving an “Excellent,” or 5-star, rating than for the same service receiving a “Good,” or 4-star, rating.

The study examined the offline sales impact of online reviews for restaurants, hotels, travel, legal, medical, automotive and home services. Nearly one out of every four Internet users (24 percent) reported using online reviews prior to paying for a service delivered offline. Of those who consulted an online review, 41 percent of restaurant reviewers subsequently visited a restaurant, while 40 percent of hotel reviewers subsequently stayed at a hotel.

    Purchase Behavior Subsequent to Online Review Consultation
    October 12-18, 2007
    Source: comScore, Inc./The Kelsey Group
                                             Percent of Review Viewers
                                               Subsequently Making a
    Service                                  Purchase of Stated Service
    Restaurant                                         41 %
    Hotels                                             40 %
    Travel                                             27 %
    Automotive                                         24 %
    Home                                               19 %
    Medical                                            14 %
    Legal                                               8 %

Online Reviews Very Influential in Offline Purchase Decisions

More than three-quarters of review users in nearly every category reported that the review had a significant influence on their purchase, with hotels ranking the highest (87 percent). Ninety-seven percent of those surveyed who said they made a purchase based on an online review said they found the review to have been accurate. Review users also noted that reviews generated by fellow consumers had a greater influence than those generated by professionals.

    Online Review Influence on Purchase Decision
    October 12-18, 2007
    Source: comScore, Inc./The Kelsey Group
                                              Percent of Review Users
                                            Identifying Review as Having
                                             a Significant Influence on
    Service                                       their Purchase*
    Restaurant                                          79 %
    Hotels                                              87 %
    Travel                                              84 %
    Automotive                                          78 %
    Home                                                73 %
    Medical                                             76 %
    Legal                                               79 %
     * Based on responses indicating at least 4 on a 5 point scale

Consumers Willing to Pay at Least 20 Percent More for 5-Star Service than 4-Star Service

comScore asked the study participants how much they would be willing to pay for a particular service based on the quality of the service. The results showed that consumers were willing to pay between 20 percent and 99 percent more for an Excellent (5 star) rating than for a Good (4 star rating), depending on the product category.

    Amount Consumers Willing to Spend for 5-Star Service
    October 12-18, 2007
    Source: comScore, Inc./The Kelsey Group
                                             Excellent      Good
    Service (Suggested Average Price)        (5 Stars)    (4 Stars)      Lift
     Restaurant Meal ($20)                    $37.95       $25.44        49 %
     Restaurant Meal ($50)                    $59.93       $41.40        45 %
     Hotel ($100)                            $137.36       $99.73        38 %
     Home ($250)                             $252.15      $209.50        20 %
     Travel ($350)                           $366.72      $299.81        22 %
     Legal ($60)                             $104.36       $52.51        99 %
     Medical ($15)                            $29.67       $23.54        26 %

“These data show the importance of local service review sites in consumers’ purchase process,” said Steve Marshall, research director for The Kelsey Group. “With such a large percentage of review users subsequently purchasing, it’s vital that local service providers have a positive presence on these review sites.”

“This study underscores the importance of providing not just good, but excellent, service if a business hopes to generate positive consumer reviews which will result in greater sales,” said Brian Jurutka, senior director, comScore Marketing Solutions.

About this study

The comScore study was based on 2,078 survey respondents, including 508 who used online consumer reviews, conducted from October 12-18, 2007. Consumers were asked about their usage of online reviews and were also asked what price they would be willing to pay for a service given an average service price and an aggregate consumer rating.

About The Kelsey Group

The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of research, data and strategic analysis on directories, small-business advertising, online local media and mobile advertising. Founded in 1986, the company has built a reputation as the premier analyst firm covering the directory publishing community and the emerging local search marketplace, providing advisory services (The Kelsey Report(R) and Interactive Local Media), publishing (Global Yellow Pages(TM)), consulting (more than 400 individual assignments) and conferences (69 events).

About comScore

comScore, Inc. is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com.