Failure™ Magazine

Consumer Reports

You’ve got a friend at Consumer Reports magazine.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Business, Life

How often do you do a test and the results don’t yield anything meaningful?
There have been very few dry wells. We do a lot of pilot testing to see if the approach we are taking makes any sense. That’s not to say that we haven’t done tests where we said, “You know what? These things are all alike.” But that’s because they’re all alike. You don’t want to force a difference that isn’t significant in any way.

Take windshield wipers, for example. They were all good, except we did see that if you buy the whole blade rather than just the insert you get a better, longer lasting product. But I buy the insert because they’re $4 apiece and a blade costs $16.

We also tested household bleach and found out they all did exactly the same thing. In fact, they are the same thing. It doesn’t matter whose name is on it. So we told everybody buy by price and we’re not going to test it anymore because it’s always the same answer.

How has the Web impacted what you do?
On the Web we provide more information and provide it in a way where subscribers can make choices. What’s really useful about the Web is it’s searchable. The Web site provides an opportunity for the user to search and get information tailored to what they want. The Web is the here and now . . . and the future. We have, if not the first, tied for the first paid-subscriber site on the Web. We have well over 500,000 paid subscribers, and it’s growing.

What’s the key to Consumer Reports‘ success?
People trust us and they believe in what we’re doing. We don’t have an axe to grind—and that’s very important. I think people have learned that in today’s society there are a lot of institutions they just don’t trust anymore. But they do trust Consumer Reports. And we don’t take that trust for granted. We have to earn it every day. I’ll do everything I can to see that we are never wrong but I’d rather be wrong than not independent because I can get right tomorrow but once you lose your independence you are really something very different.

Consumer Reports

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