Ford's fall from grace with Consumer Reports has been breathtaking. The brand finished in second-to-last place, 27th of 28, in the magazine's closely watched, newly released automotive-reliability ratings — just three years after the bible of product quality praised Ford as the only domestic automaker with "world-class reliabilty."

Stunningly, Ford still apparently hasn't corrected its huge problems — real and perceived — with its MyFord Touch system, which continues to confuse some customers even a year and a half after Ford publicly acknowledged the usability problems with what is essentially Sync 2.0.

"They've put out some updates to try to address some of those problems for both the transmissions and the infotainment controls, but it doesn't seem to be enough," Jake Fisher, director of testing for Consumer Reports, commented on the most and least reliable rankings to the Detroit Free Press.Continue reading...

America is settling in for a long summer of campaigning between the Democratic candidate President Obama and the Grand Old Party’s Mitt Romney. News of minor flubs by candidates and those who work for them will come up at bars, barbecues, and ice-cream joints across the land (or be completely avoided, for everyone’s safety).

Americans will likely hear a constant media drumbeat about red states vs. blue states that will be so loud, it will seem that the country is about to burst into a Civil War.

Just in time for this comes a new study from Buyology that members of the two political parties don’t just disagree on their candidates. They also mostly disagree on the brands they love, though there are three that help bring them together. Next time a president wants to have a bipartisan summit of some sort, he or she might want to involve Coke, Apple, and Visa. Those three names were named by both parties as brands they love.Continue reading...

For the past eight years, fifteen brands have ranked at the top of their category in the Harris Poll EquiTrend Study, a survey of over 1,500 brands across more than 127 product categories.

"These 15 top brands have consistently found a way to remain relevant and valuable to the consumer," said Aron Galonsky, SVP for Harris Interactive's Brand and Communication Consulting group. "It's not surprising why these perennial leaders continue to stay on top. They continually deliver a consistent and balanced brand experience, year after year, that really resonates with the consumer."

Check them out below, along with more from Harris about why they made the 2012 list.Continue reading...

One of the first things marketers learn (or should learn) in business school is that it's far cheaper to keep a customer than gain a new customer — just ask AT&T, Verizon or any cable/satellite operator about their subscriber acquisition costs and retention marketing strategies for an earful on that topic.

That's why recent results of separate surveys have two of branding's rockstars pleased as pie. 

They're sleek. They're iconically brushed matte silver. And they both begin with the letter "A" — the grade they're getting from some very satisfied customers.Continue reading...

Facebook, not surprisingly, is a hotbed for political brand advertising — particularly as the 2012 race heats up.

SocialCode, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, just completed a Republican political message study on Facebook (between May 23 and June 4) in which random users in Iowa and New Hampshire were asked to show their support by clicking “Like” in response to randomly displayed image combinations of seven declared or prospective candidates (or the GOP's iconic elephant) with five common Republican messages.

So how do Facebookers fare for GOPDA?Continue reading...

Solve Media, the TYPE-IN advertising company, has launched Solve Media Insights to offer marketers and advertisers the ability to survey consumer interactions with CAPTCHA ads and measure the effectiveness of consumer recall of key brand messages typed in, as seen in the above video.

Toyota tested the product for its January campaign to promote Toyota Care, its free maintenance plan with 24-hour roadside assistance. A survey with five possible answers to gauge recall was served, by Solve, to nearly 2,000 opt-in respondents.Continue reading...

The BlogHer network now reaches more than 26 million women monthly, according to Nielsen stats from January. So when it taps that base to better understand social media, apps, couponing, gaming and other digital and social marketing efforts, listen up!

The BlogHer 2011 Social Media Matters Study, released this morning, sheds light on some key consumer trends trends, including a shift away from ‘corporate sources’ (read: branded social messaging) and celebrity endorsements for information, and towards trusted bloggers — which may not be a huge surprise for a group that considers its members as trusted bloggers.Continue reading...

Hispanics accounted for half the growth of the total U.S. population in the last decade, and they are expected to exceed 50 million in number, according to the most recent wave of census data.

That's why "Hispanic consumers are a very, very important target," according to Marc Speichert, chief marketing officer at L'Oreal USA. "We see it as a growth opportunity for the future," Speichert tells the New York Times.

One way L'Oreal USA is reaching Hispanic consumers is through a promotional tie-in with Telemundo, a television network known for broadcasting telenovelas.Continue reading...