Readers Report
Branding: It's All in the Eye of the Beholder
One of the few hard facts about brands is their intangibility ("The best global brands," Cover Story, Aug. 6). They cannot exist anywhere but in the minds of customers, employees, suppliers, retailers, or even competitors. In "avoiding the vagaries of consumer perception surveys," you omit the single most important factor in creating and building brand equity: human perception.
Stephen Walker
New York
Quality guru W. Edwards Deming would be turning over in his grave if he knew of the efforts being made to quantify something that cannot honestly be quantified. Attempting to put a value on brands is time-consuming and, ultimately, meaningless--except for the consultants who will profit from this fad.
Steven G. Brant
Brooklyn, N.Y.
I would not go so far as to state that Gerry Khermouch's commentary, "Why advertising matters more than ever," is totally self-serving, but it would fit better in your ad sales presentations.
Harley Schnall
New York
In a turbulent economic environment, advertising may be the Dramamine (there's a great brand) for an advertiser's brand communications efforts. Advertising provides consistency and stability during a bumpy ride. Give in to the temptation to cut back, and you may find your brand a little green around the gills for the duration of the rough ride and after the seas calm.
David A. Park
Chairman
American Advertising Federation
Washington
Editor's note: The writer is also CEO of DDB Group/Los Angeles.
Your otherwise excellent article ignored privately owned brands such as Mars and LEGO. LEGO appears in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary--a recognition achieved by only one brand on your list, Xerox.
Peter Eio
Retired President
LEGO Systems Inc.
East Granby, Conn.
I shed a tear that what reigned for a half-century as the world's most widely recognized trademark was not among your top 100: The dog, Nipper, listening to "His Master's Voice" on a gramophone. The design was introduced by my grandfather, microphone and gramophone inventor Emile Berliner, in 1900.
Oliver Berliner
Beverly Hills
There's More Than One Kind of Racism
"Racism in the workplace" (Social Issues, July 30) is nothing more than superficial sensationalism. The article failed to cover the more subtle, yet equally damaging, forms of racism: glacially slow advancement of qualified minorities, highly selective hiring criteria for minority candidates, and blatant job mismatches--which often lead to the failure of the employee, only to be countered by the response: "We hired one, and he didn't work out." Some liberal whites may be horrified, but most black readers will probably skim the article and say "Yeah, what else is new?"
Dwight J. Browne
Brooklyn, N.Y.
I read your article on racism with sadness that this is still going on, especially among professionals. But I like to turn the tables on these stories. In our country, a white man cannot make derogatory remarks about women or other races without serious repercussions. But what happens when a woman says she cannot get ahead because of the good-ol'-boys network, or when a black person says the white man is keeping him down? Nothing.
I tell the minority teens I work with that there is a certain amount of prejudice in any group, whether it's blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, men, or women. Only white men are expected to change, and this makes me, as a white man, a better person. Then I ask them to look inside to see where they are prejudiced and how they can improve.
Ray J. Wallin
Minneapolis
City Slickers Can Be Too Slick with Stereotypes
In the same issue with an article about racial discrimination, an illustration in "Craig McCaw's space shot" (Information Technology, July 30) perpetuates a stereotype of rural people as unintelligent: The city user is smartly dressed, while the rural user appears to be several bales short of a load.
Edward E. Rigdon
Conley, Ga.
Common Ground in the Globalization Debate
Protests won't stop globalization ("Time to regroup," News: Analysis & Commentary, Aug. 6). But they may influence political leaders to include other voices in the decision-making process.
There is one model where companies, social and environmental advocates, governments, and labor have come together to achieve progress on a key issue of globalization--accountability. This unlikely partnership, known as the Global Reporting Initiative, has designed a common framework for public disclosure of corporate environmental and social performance. More than 100 companies are already using the guidelines.
Robert Kinloch Massie
Global Reporting Initiative
Boston
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Copyright 2001, Bloomberg L.P.
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