Originally published November 27 2005
Loyalty to brand names spurs blogs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
From Gatorade to Starbucks, more and more people are using blogs to comment and inform on specific products. Some companies are starting to take notice and use them as a measure of consumer opinion.
It's my beer," said Mr. Marx, who started his blog, thebarqsman.com, last year to collect news about Barq's, commercials he likes for the drink and musings on why he thinks Barq's is the best.
Most of them are written without the consent of the companies that own the brands; a spokesman for Coca-Cola, which owns Barq's, had not heard of Mr. Marx's blog.
"In addition to viewing blogs as another media channel, it allows us to keep our pulse on the marketplace," said Ken Ross, a vice president of Netflix, the movie rental company based in Los Gatos, Calif.
He also started a blog about Trader Joe's, the specialty grocery chain based in Monrovia, Calif., at trackingtraderjoes.com/.
When it comes to Netflix service, postings about scratched discs or torn return envelopes generate dozens of comments from readers.
For these bloggers, intertwining their personal stories and commentaries gives them a stake in defining the brand's image while linking them with fans of similar mind across the country.
"They feel like they own the brand, that it's theirs," Jackie Huba, author of the book "Creating Customer Evangelists," said of the bloggers.
For readers, these blogs, like the customer reviews on Amazon.com, help them make decisions about what to buy.
And according to a survey released this spring by Yankelovich, a marketing firm based in Chapel Hill, N.C., a third of all consumers would prefer to receive product information from friends and specialists rather than from advertising.
Darren Rovell, of Bristol, Conn., whose blog, firstinthirst.typepad.com, focuses on the sports drink Gatorade, said that people who typed "is Gatorade unhealthy?"
Jim Romenesko, who runs a well-known Web site about the media, maintains a separate blog about Starbucks, starbucksgossip.typepad.com.
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