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(FranchisePick.com)

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Consumer Reports Shopsmart released its top picks for companies that are making employees, charities and the environment top priorities. I’ve to state that I’m a fan of many companies that made it to the list.

Shopsmart has picked Ben & Jerry’s, yum, for the company’s continuing support of local community projects and manufacturing methods which focus on reducing waste and carbon dioxide.

Also, Clif Bar for being certified organic and taking its packaging seriously with recycled content and no shrink-wrap. And Stonyfield Farms, one of my favorite companies, for their tasty 100% organic yogurt that supports family farm operations. Stonyfield is also huge on the recycling with large results.

Burt’s Bees, Seventh Generation, Tom’s of Maine, IKEA, Patagonia and Timberland also made the top 10. In checking out this list, I realized that most of the companies are located or originated in the Northeastern US. I always have this back and forth in my mind about which coast is greener and I usually underestimate the East Coast. I don’t know why. But I like these kind of reminders that there are green companies all over.

Did any of your favorite companies make the list?

Via Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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The next huge viral thing is here - video reviews of products. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Orviz and PetCo are already asking customers to upload video reviews of products in addition to the existing written reviews. Let’s face it. Those written reviews are helpful. I know I use them. Of course, there are often some fakers who post reviews, and usually there are people from the company behind the product or brand who write fake 5-star reviews, but overall, a consumer can typically find something useful within customer reviews.

As we already know, research shows that consumers are most heavily influenced in their purchase decisions by other people. Family, friends even complete strangers (online or offline) are considered to be powerful influencers, so these customer review videos will undoubtedly have some affect, be it positive or negative, on sales.

Another thing to take into account about video reviews is this - human nature tells us that people who are unhappy with something are usually more vocal about their experiences than those who are happy about that same thing. That means customer reviews will naturally be skewed toward the negative. Making a video requires more time than writing a few sentences, so the argument could be made that many customers who go to the trouble of producing a vide review have an extreme opinion about the product or brand they’re reviewing (be it positive or negative). An intelligent consumer will, hopefully, be able to make that distinction and search through a list of on the web reviews to find the most pertinent and unbiased information.

Will it be easier to identifiy the honest reviews through video? Will people really take the time to watch several video reviews when they could skim 20 written reviews in the same amount of time? In other words, will video reviews truly enhance the buying experience or will they become more of a viral marketing/entertainment ploy with funny or unusual videos making their way to YouTube, blogs and other forms of on the internet social media?

What do you think? While I think the addition of video reviews is certainly a good thing, I do wonder just how much value they’ll bring to the overall shopping experience.

Tags: online marketing, retail marketing, viral marketing, social media marketing, Amazon, PetCo, product reviews, video customer reviews, branding

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