Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
February 19th, 2010 | Published in Marketing News Round-up
Google Surpasses Coca Cola to Become the Second Most Valuable Brand on The Planet
Google has reached another milestone in it’s relatively short history and surpassed Coca Cola, Microsoft and IBM to become the second most valuable brand in the world.
The search engine is valued at $36.1billion and considered a more powerful product than the planet’s best-selling soft drink ($34.8bn), say analysts Brand Finance.
But for the second year running both are behind retailer Wal-Mart, the supermarket giant, which is worth $41.3bn. Google, which has risen in the table from number five to number two, shares top ten status with other technology brands including IBM (4), Microsoft (5) and HP (9). GE, HSBC, Vodafone and Toyota complete the top ten.
Poor Customer Service Costs Companies $83 Billion Annually
Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Datamonitor/Ovum analysts, measuring the cost of poor customer service in the U.S., found that enterprises in the U.S. lose an estimated $83 billion each year due to defections and abandoned purchases as a direct result of a poor experience. Nearly two-thirds of consumers said they had ended a relationship due to customer service alone. The survey participants said that when they end a relationship, 61% of the time they take their business to a competitor.
Facebook has replaced Yahoo as the second-largest U.S. Web property and is closing in on No. 1 Google, according to the latest data from Web analytics firm Compete. The social network in January drew an audience of nearly 134 million unique visitors, surging past Yahoo’s 132 million. Google remained the top site, with a monthly audience of 148 million. (Google overtook Yahoo as No. 1 in Feb. 2008).
ComScore’s estimate of Facebook’s audience isn’t quite as large. Its latest figures show Facebook doubling its audience in 2009 to 112 million, but still ranked fourth behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Compete’s methodology includes reliance on a panel of 2 million U.S. Internet users selected as a representative cross-section of the population. ComScore also uses a panel of 2 million, but half its members are outside the U.S.
Comcast Changes Name To Xfinity, Customers Don’t Care
Comcast, the biggest cable provider in the United States, is changing its name. According to the company’s blog, Xfinity will now replace Comcast as the company’s new product name in an attempt to show customers that it’s not the ”same old company,” but rather an innovator. That could be a tough sell considering the company’s current reputation as a behemoth with terrible customer service.
If Xfinity sounds familiar, it’s because Comcast used the name back in December when it announced the launch of Fancast Xfinity TV, providing the internet TV platform a host of popular TV shows, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos. The company actually announced the name change on its blog last week, but is only making a big publicity push for it now.
