Awards are polarizing

When you see the term: award-winning, what does it mean to you? Like religions, coasts (as in east coast versus west coast) and sports (college versus professional basketball, for example), awards contests are polarizing.

You either are real impressed or you're ambivalent. Maybe it's because award-winning work doesn't necessarily equate to result-achieving work. You can create a beautiful ad that doesn't differentiate its brand versus the competition, but it certainly is eye-catching. A car can be award-winning yet not be attractive to the eye, but it was best-in-class for rear seat legroom and trunk space.

Let's face it; we use awards to our advantage. When our product wins an award, we trumpet it. When it do ownership experience or winning a JD Power award? If it's the latter, your goal is to win the award, not necessarily provide the best ownership experience. They are two different animals.

The ideal award will motivate the competitors to do the right things in order to win. But that's a rare award.

Maybe there should be an awards contest for the best award contest?

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com