Brand Central Station

Okay, for starters, I don’t receive 231,000 e-mails a year. Close to it, maybe. But most of it is spam for porn sites, free college degrees, home re-fi or Nigerian Lottery winnings.

But Lands’ End receives at least that many e-mails every year from customers and makes sure they give each note personal attention and response. That’s just one of several interesting bits in a fascinating post on customer service from the Slacker Manager Blog.

Very good stuff.

Thanks to Rex Hammock and the Hammock Blog for this handy list of words most commonly mispelled … er, misspelled.

Debra De-Jong blogs about international marketing and corporate PR – right up our alley. This post, about supermodel Kate Moss and the impact of her recent legal problems on the brands she represents is a noteworthy take loaded with helpful links.

Thanks, Deb and welcome to the BCS Blogroll!

If blogging about blogs being the “next big thing” is my biggest pet peeve, blogging about how blogs aren’t “all that” is coming in a close second. Let it be known that if this trend gets out of hand (which it is likely to do), we have both Peter Shankman and Jeremy Peppers to thank for it.

… and after all the naval contemplation? More blogging!

Ugh.

From AdBlather Blog …

YES!

Here’s a great screed from Nick Wreden at FusionBrand that lays out a cogent argument against using AVE’s (advertising value equivalencies) and other less-than-reliable methods to judge PR’s “return” on investment.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing provides a step-by-step routine for using free news services (e.g. Yahoo! and Google News) to track PR campaigns and key industry events and issues for clients.

This is good stuff – and essential intelligence gathering for those who consult with clients on a regular basis.

From Vincent at Web Pages That Suck, this one is unbelievably suck-y. In fact, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, this site may be “the suckiest suck that ever sucked.”

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With the Trend Tracker from SBT.

Today’s headline: “Small businesses are being sold more frequently than in the past. Statistically, on any given day, 1.7 Million small businesses are for sale in the United States. Yet, business brokers report that in many industries there are more buyers than sellers.”

You have no idea how relieved I am to find this post by B.L. Ochman. If SHE says Technorati’s rankings have problems, then I don’t feel so stoopid for my inability to figure out how they’re supposed to work.

Be sure to read the additional comments from other bloggers on this post. They provide some additional insights into what’s up with Technorati.

From the What’s Next Online Blog.

From the Wizards of Ads (in Australia) – Craig Arthur and his colleagues have put together some interesting arguments/concerns with good, old-fashioned newspapers.

Women Using Newspapers To Line Canary Cage

Newspapers Part Deux

and

Funny You Should Mention It …

Okay, this one is a classic twist on the blogging on about bloggers who blog about … whatever. As part of last week’s “Global PR Blog Week” (can we get much more self-interested?), Peter Shankman posted a blog entry about blogging that rang true with PR’s everywhere.

Peter’s a non-conformist (which explains why he jumps out of airplanes, among other things) and has the nerve to say what everyone is thinking but afraid to mention.

He doesn’t do PR the old-fashioned way, Peter definitely does PR Differently.