In search business, Google, which is nobody’s guess, is a market leader in the United States. Google has 64.2% market share. At number two is yahoo with a 14.3% market share. Bing, despite its growth, is on number 3 with 13.6% market share. At number four and five slots are Ask.com and AOL search with 2.1% and 1.9% market share, respectively.

In terms of YoY growth, AOL search is the biggest loser. It has lost 38% market share. At number 2 is Yahoo Search which is slimmer by 17%. Google too shed some pound, but it is mere 1%. Two search companies to gain weight are Bing (51% YoY growth), and Ask.com Search (24% YoY growth). See image for detail.

The US consumers’ perception of the financial services providers was quite low in 2009, which seem to have got back to its 2008 state in April. Even AIG, whose reputation touch the bottom in 2009 during the financial crisis, has also gone up in 2010.

Visa got the highest brand equity score of 65.76, followed by MasterCard whose brand equity score is 60.66. The Hartford with the score 53.40 and Fidelity Investments Financial Services with 53.29 score on brand equity make the bottom two of the report that studies top 10 highest ranked financial services company. See image for detail.

Not only the perception (brand equity) is on the way up, but the trust is also going up on the scale. Although it has not touched even 2008 level, the hope of its speedy recovery can be felt in the report released by Harris Interactive.

In the trust ranking, TIAA-CREF Financial Services ranked at number one with a trust score of 6.64, and at number two is Vanguard Group with a trust score of 6.55. Visa is at number 3 with the total score of 6.6. The Hartford which was at number 9th position in terms of brand equity has fared relatively well on the trust quotient. It is on number 5 with a trust score of 6.39. See image for detail.

Better Business Bureau (BBB) has recently revealed that in 2009, the industry that drew most consumer complaints was cell phone industry. In the year in question, BBB received 1 million consumer complains, which is a 9.7% increase over the complaint volume of 2008.

BBB is a symbol of trust for business on the Internet, and many consumers use this service to research business in 2009. In total, users used the service of BBB 65 million times in 2009 to ensure that the business they are dealing with is trustworthy.

Leading the number of complaints against, the cell phone industry received 37, 477 complaints in 2009, which is an increase of 2.1% over the volume of complaints received in 2008 against this industry. At number two was cable and satellite TV industry with 32,616 complaints and number 3 slot was taken by banks with 29,920 complaints.

In terms of percentage change in number of complaints banking industry rule the roost with 42.3% more complaints over the last year.

There are industries like collection agencies, auto dealers- new cars, and furniture-retail that saw decline in the number of complaints. See the picture for more detail.

]]> http://itlist.com/which-industry-has-the-most-disgruntled-customers/feed/ 0 http://itlist.com/what-lie-are-you-telling-yourself-to-avoid-freelance-writing/ http://itlist.com/what-lie-are-you-telling-yourself-to-avoid-freelance-writing/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:01:31 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/?p=2086 Many people cherish this desire to take freelancing as profession, but not all of them end up taking this as a career. Not because they did not have writing ability, but because they are sold to self-beguiling lies.

Lie Number 1: Do not have time

This is the most common lie people tell themselves. I often hear people say that after a work it is hard to take time out for writing. This lie is preceded and supported by the fact that they cannot leave their job because the family needs food on the table. Indeed, your family needs your support, so you should not quit your day job, but it has nothing to do with the lie of “not having enough time” that you fool yourself in believing.

Dare to ask people and you will be amazed to find how many people are taking 2 hours each day from their life for part-time freelance writing. This is worth the effort. If you cannot do it daily or on alternate days than stick to weekend-only routine, but do it. Start now and soon you will see the difference.

Lie Number 2: Words, empty words

Well words are important for we freelancers, but words not backed by action ends up being empty words. And empty words do no good to anyone. I know many people who speak volume, but when it comes to taking action, they are just not there. Start writing, do not just speak about starting to write.

Lie Number 3: Excuses, colorful excuses

From not having time, to not having money to not having enough space at home to make it a workstation, there are many lies that people tell themselves. These lies are colorful, and at times have vivid details, nevertheless, it’s a lie.

The time to start freelance writing is now. There will not be any other good time, nor will you ever have more money than you have today to start freelancing, nor will you have enough space to do that. For those who sell themselves lie, there will not be any opportunity.

Cebra score attempts to measure the power of celebrity and brands. For this it has integrated the following factors:

• Familiarity (How much consumers know about a celebrity and brand)
• Affinity (how strongly do the consumer like or dislike a celebrity and a brand)
• Buzz (How much buzz quotient a celebrity and a brand has)

The Cebra score is then combined with a personality matching matrix to identify which celebrity ad brand can partner to offer the highest potential to influence the market place.

Celebrities with Highest Cebra Score

1. Will Smith
2. Brad Pitt
3. Tiger Woods
4. Oprah Winfrey
5. Denzel Washington
6. Clint Eastwood
7. Ellen DeGeneres
8. Morgan Freeman
9. Johnny Depp
10. Angelina Jolie