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Sony Shrugs Off Bad Press - Still A Strong Brand

Posted by Zonk on from the no-one-knows-what-a-rootkit-is dept.

netbuzz writes "The Sony brand name took a beating last year over all those burning batteries and the rootkit fallout, right? Wrong, at least according to a recent survey of 2,000 adults who are apparently willing to forgive just about anything ... if you give them the right reason. Other technology companies, most anyway, also fare well in the brand survey. From the article: 'According to the survey, the Sony brand finished a gaudy ninth among the "Top 20 Winners for 2006," sandwiched comfortably between a couple of saintly American icons: Oprah and the National Football League. Moreover, the respondents see Sony climbing to No. 4 among this year's gainers, right above Amazon and eBay. Moral: Build a better PlayStation and the American consumer will forgive all else.'"

3 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. They have a saying for that by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I can certainly say that *my* image of them has tarnished over time, and I am now seriously thinking about buying HD-DVD just to spite them.

    I believe the term you were looking for is "Cut off your nose to spite your face".

    I can understand someone being angry at Sony and thus not wanting to buy products from them.

    But walking into an obvious dead end like HD-DVD when Sony is clearly popular and will prevail with Blu-Ray (along with Disney and Apple and Dell and Fox and other other members of the Blu-Ray forum), well that's just silly. How is that going to hurt Sony in the slightest? You'd be much better off simply not giving your money to Sony than to throw it into a competitor. At least think about giving the money to an organization like the FSF, who does more real work to counter proprietary things companies like Sony do than any competitor who simply does the same things as Sony but with a different format.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. Flamebait? by spun · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Hey cool, they give mod points to astroturfers now! That's SURE to up the quality of dialogue here on /. Hey PR flaks, take Bill Hicks' advice and go kill yourself.

    If I'm gonna get marked flamebait, you ARE gonna see some flames...

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  3. I hate to rain on this conspiracy theory, but ... by netbuzz · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ... to believe that Sony bought this survey and the conclusion that its negative press in '06 hasn't hurt its brand takes quite a leap of logic. The press release issued by Landor doesn't even *mention* Sony or how it did in the survey, never mind make any attempt to pass off the company's positive survey results as evidence of anything. No, to believe this was part of a PR plot, you'd have to believe that Sony/Landor bet the entire scheme on its confidence that a writer (in this case me) would request the supplemental survey findings (which again make no special mention of Sony), notice Sony's appearance on the '06 and '07 "winners" lists, draw the conclusion himself that it proves the Sony brand to be bascially immune to the battery/rootkit disasters, post that opinion to his blog, have Slashdot pick it up, and, presto, instant corporate whitewash. Now that *would* be clever PR.
    Of course, it is always possible that I, too, am part of the conspiracy, but if that's the case my check must have gotten lost in the mail.