To the surprise of nobody who drives, J.D. Power and Associates released a study stating that Prius drivers are the worst drivers on the road. Yes, Prius drivers have replaced Subaru drivers as the ones most likely to be in the left lane going under the speed limit when traffic is going at or above the speed limit (in my opinion).
Over Labor Day weekend we went to Video Only and said we needed a new TV as our plasma one was getting more and more red speckles on the black areas. A guy behind the counter said, “I’ll bet it’s a Toshiba, about six or seven years old.” He was right on both counts.
What ties the above two vignettes together is that they both are about reputation. No, not all Prius owners are slow or bad drivers. Toshiba makes some great electronics; they just didn’t do well with plasma TVs (and don’t make them anymore).
Word of mouth marketing, which is how many of you reading this have built your business, is based on reputation. When I hear things like, “three people referred you to me” or, “I hear your name all over town” it means I’ve done good for clients and they’ve spread the word. Just like I spread the word for people who have done a good job for my clients and me, for restaurants we love and more.
As the quote below illustrates, reputations are also fickle. Just look at baseball players Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.” Warren Buffet
