08/06/2005 05:59:00 PM 
Case in point, both examples were published in August 2005.
"Sony Electronics topped a poll of "best brands" for the sixth straight year, while Dell's reputation landed it the runner-up spot.
The annual Harris Poll asked 2,339 U.S. adults the question, "We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?" Respondents were not given a list of suggested brands, and were asked to supply their own.
For Sony, the brand's reputation has remained among the top five since 1995."
Another recent headline, this time from the financial pages.
"Sony reported a $64.6 million first-quarter loss and slashed its net profit outlook by 88% for the year."
There's an apparent disconnect; both reports seem to be contradicting each other. How can this be? One is telling me that Sony is the leader and the other gives me the grim financial reality.
This is a legacy of the old marketing paradigm that talked about weight and number of impressions and ignored quality; the discussion was always about quantity.
Now it's quality that matters everywhere; in the advertising, in your products, in your media connections, in the perception of the brand and the conversations that people are having about your brand. People can be having a lot of converations, but a lot of negative conversations are a bad thing.
Marketing's role has switched from generating masses of conversations to creating good conversations.
Perhaps Sony's problem has been its slavish belief that's been reinforced in all these surveys, that they have a truly great brand.
While they were sleeping, the consumer had gone and changed the category conversation on them. Although they recognized Sony, they didn't believe that the brand was sufficiently differentiated from the competition and worth its price premium.
In such a scenario, all the recongition in the world counts for nothing.
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