• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, April 12, 2007

A new Consumer Reports survey brought good news to managers of several mid-range appliance brands and not-so-great publicity for a number of high-end brands this week.

CR released highlights from the appliance segment of its "Annual Products Reliability Survey," which will be published in full in its May issue.

The release's headline: "High-end brands for major kitchen appliances prone to repairs; Whirlpool, Kenmore & GE have been more reliable."

The results are based on more than 950,000 CR reader responses to the online and paper survey, according to CR, which notes that because many consumers own more than one type of product in the same category, this translates to a total of more than 5.1 million product reports.

The survey found that high-end brands such as Viking, Thermador, Dacor and Jenn-Air rank among the least reliable brands of major cooking appliances as identified by CR readers. For example, 33% of Viking gas ranges and at least 15% of Viking, Thermador and Dacor gas cook tops were repaired or had an unrepairable problem during the period 2002 through mid-2006, according to CR's survey.

On the refrigerator front, CR writes that "pricey Sub-Zero" appliances are repair-prone: 24% of side-by-side models, and the same percentage of top/bottom freezer models, have needed repair over the last several years. Whirlpool's category-best refrigerators, in "stark contrast," required the least number of repairs (14% for side-by-side models, 7% for top/bottom freezer models), the release observed.

CR further noted that Whirlpool, Kenmore and GE "prove to be safe bets for major appliance shoppers," having relatively low repair rates in recent years across a variety of appliances, including electric and gas ranges, gas cook tops, electronic wall ovens, refrigerators, gas and electric clothes dryers and front- and top-loading washing machines.

So are marketers at the high-end brands gnashing their teeth? Perhaps. But if they're smart, they're not preparing public responses, says Laura Ries, principal in the Ries & Ries branding consultancy.

While companies of course have the right to respond, as long as they accurately describe the results of the survey or test, responding to negatives is usually counterproductive, unless there's a pressing need for crisis control, she says: "It just draws more attention to the negative."

(The high-end brands mentioned above apparently understand this. Marketing Daily called most of these companies, but none responded by press time.)

Moreover, since perception often bests reality when it comes to any product's brand image--and high-end products in particular--there is likely to be little impact from such surveys, Ries notes. "McDonald's coffee came out better than Starbucks in another Consumer Reports survey--but have people stopped going to Starbucks? Of course not. The perception of Starbucks as superior is so firmly entrenched that McDonald's would find it extremely difficult to overcome.

"Obviously, people aren't buying high-end products just for reliability," she adds. "As long as there is no egregious, persistent problem, like a truly defective product or a massive recall, coveted status brands will continue to be coveted. Consumer Reports is a great tool, but it's not going to change that fact. Many factors are involved in the consumer satisfaction equation. Some consumers want more high-tech cars, and more complex products are going to be more prone to need repair. But high-ticket brands can afford to offer excellent customer service, and that's what matters most to people who buy these brands."

Ries stresses, however, that brands with negative results shouldn't just ignore the survey. "They should look at their own data and determine whether they might have a problem--whether some products might be defective, whether consumers are unhappy--and address any issues that they find," she says. "And of course make sure that consumers who do need to contact them are indeed receiving excellent customer service."

On the other hand, marketers whose brands are given high reliability rankings can gloat privately to their hearts' content, but CR has a strict policy prohibiting companies from using any of its information for any commercial purpose, including ads, press releases or promotions of any kind.