Is paying for an award false advertising?

[Brian Pasch]

You gotta love when Hamas is a BBB accredited company!!!

Joe, thank you for sharing this video on the BBB...all I can say is WOW.

 

[dscarry]

I know at face value it may seem that way - but it's really not the case. There aren't all that many award programs that don't charge money - but it's not about the money that is what generates the award.

Even the highest level of awards (like Clios, Cannes and OnePencils) charge entry fees. In those cases, the entry fees can be tens of thousands of dollars.

We've never run an award program - but you have to consider that it would be pretty expensive to conduct - and why would you invest a bunch of time in an award program if you couldn't even cover the costs?

You have to promote the award, so people know about it and enter. You have to promote it so that it has value to the public. You have conduct the process, and that might involved travel, it, etc. Then you have to produce awards.

So, while it may not make sense at first glance, charging an entry fee and perhaps even and award fee - makes perfect sense and even in some of the biggest award shows, there are heavy entry and award fees or significant sponsorship fees to make the world go round.

My 2 cents -

 

[yagoparamo]

We know by now that the award thing is not only not a free enterprise but it is actually a for profit organization just like most other things of value in life anyway.

But we are not tackling the real question:

Why some vendors are unhappy about it?

Obviously Mr. Fitzpatrick is not new to business so I'm sure he understand the reasons for things. I'm sure he also understands that he can pay and participate but it seems he is not willing to.

These are not such a bad thing... so are these awards projecting the wrong image to and about the vendor world as a group of friends trying to manipulate things to elevate themselves and sell dealers inferior quality products just because they have a better fabricated image?

 

[tijerin]

The DrivingSales Awards are excellent resources for dealers, because they are voted by dealers who use the product and have a stake in its success. These dealer votes have no peer comparison or quantitive testing. DS awards are completely fan based and if you have witnessed the voting process, you start to ask why certain companies have 50 votes come in on the last week of December out of the blue. That happens because the vendors coach their customers to vote for the award to game placement .

I'm not saying that the dealer votes are not real, but they are coached and strategized. The dealer voice is important, but with any system, they have their weaknesses.

1) I know for a FACT that the reviews on DrivingSales are real. I used to go through each of them one by one and verify them. You are the last person who should be talking about "gaming" anything on DrivingSales, Brian, but we won't go into that.
2) Saying a vendor is "gaming" the DrivingSales reviews by actively and aggressively soliciting their clients for reviews is like saying a dealer who practices good reputation management and review building processes is also "gaming" Google (or Yelp, etc.) because they are asking for reviews.

Practice what you preach.

 

[Eric Miltsch]

Mike,

I have to agree that "some" of the awards in this industry do what you describe. However, there is a "Consumer Reports" version for dealers to get truly unbiased reviews of the products and services - you can find them all within the DrivingSales Vendor Ratings & Reviews

All of our reviews come from dealership professionals and each review is verified to ensure the integrity of the review received. We invented the industry's only verified platform to provide a truly objective & unbiased view of the vendor products and services available today.

The DrivingSales Satisfaction Awards (Going into it's 4th year now) are given to the vendors with the highest ratings and reviews - as provided by the dealership community. We don't pick them, we don't give them to a secret inner circle and we certainly don't accept payment for these awards.

Our goal has always been to provide the best information possible to help dealers make the most informed decisions about the vendors they're about to spend money. Think of the DrivingSales Vendor Ratings as a buffer between your dealership's money and your emotions; our platform has helped thousands of dealerships make great decisions.

And the best part, we've only just begun with regards to the power and effectiveness of the platform. Look for more awesomeness with items such as more specific categories, internal reputation scoring and more targeted connections within the platform to help deliver relevant contacts - a win-win scenario for any professional sharing information within DrivingSales.com.

As a dealer, I relied heavily on the review information provided. I saw the value in the ratings & review sections - so much value that it was one of the key elements of DrivingSales that led me to leave Auction Direct and join DrivingSales. From my perspective, it was, and will remain to be, the most authoritative and trusted source for unbiased vendor information.

If anyone has any concerns, doubts or questions, I would love to personally hear them - feel free to contact me directly at either eric@drivingsales.com or my cell: 585.704.8841. Your feedback will only help us make this even better!

 

[MikeFitzpatrick]

Duncan, all of the awards that you mention do in fact require an entry fee. There are differences though;

• With a much larger volume of entrants and minimal if not finite number of winners, there is a strong possibility of entering and not winning anything.
• The judging is done by a panel of experts from different companies, countries etc., not just one company.
• If a company doesn't enter their products or services they aren't reviewed at all. They don't get the benefits of marketing their award, but that is their choice.

Every year companies that did not opt in for a demonstration session have won. In fact each year companies have won that have never spoken to me before. So anyone's "theory" that the AWA awards are pay to play are unfounded.

How many companies paid and didn't win anything?

Read the 48 Laws of Power and you'll better understand the reasoning behind all of this.

I'll admit that I haven't read the book, just the list of 48 on wikipedia The 48 Laws of Power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and the cliff notes on Amazon. All I have to say about the 48 Laws of Power within the context of creating any award system is…."hmmmmmm" (that's a direct quote from me by the way )