Friday, November 21, 2008

Vanity Awards

The other day our remodeling company won an award! It’s not just any award, mind you. It’s the Best of Our Town’s Award in the Bathroom Remodeling Category. But wait, I didn’t enter. And I’ve never heard of the sponsor, the prestigious sounding U. S. Local Business Association or USLBA, for short.

I googled the name and quickly found this to be a marketing ploy. The scheme was outed in The Responsible Marketing Blog this past summer.

What’s the catch? I buy one of their plaques to display in my office. Over-priced, of course. But they do provide a press release I can use!

Be careful about unsolicited awards. Like the Who’s Who Directories that try to get us to buy a high-priced never-to-be-opened book just because it contains our name, these schemes are only after our hard-earned money.

If you really want to win an award, enter one of our industry’s fine competitions. There are many to choose from such as The Chrysalis Awards, Qualified Remodeler’s Master Design Awards, and Remodeling’s Design Awards . You can even find local contests such as NARI’s COTY Awards and your local Chamber of Commerce probably has some small business awards.

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