Luxury Institute Poops a Press Release

July 8
Appliance News published the top 10 prestigious luxury appliances as "researched" by the New York-based "Luxury Institute".  This is an institute with a phone number that goes direct to voicemail....no receptionist it seems.  Appliance News reported:
     "The top 10 rankings of luxury appliance brands were:"
     1.La Cornue
     2.Bertazzoni
     3.Viking
     4.Wolf
     5.Sub-Zero
     6.Gaggenau
     7.AGA
     8.Thermador
     9.Bosch
     10.U-Line"

Really?  La Cornue #1?  Bertazzoni #2.....even in the top 20??  Bertazzoni more prestigious than Wolf or Sub-Zero or Gaggenau!!!  Really!!!  Are we talking about the same Bertazzoni with economic Italian pro-style products ....or is there some other Bertazzoni we are not familiar with?
U-Line is lovely, but so prestigious as to be in the top 10?  
Just think of the brands not in the top 10:  Dacor, ASKO, Liebherr, Miele, TurboChef.
     -Were the brands presented to the 1880 wealthy consumers surveyed, or did the consumers come up with brand names on their own?
     -If the brands were presented, who was on the list?
     -Was the list longer than the 10 brands listed above?
     -How did they find these 1880 wealthy consumers?
     -Were these wealthy people residing in the United States?  Did they speak English?  Were they screened for mental illness or dementia?

Oh....see it says right here on the website....why didn't we read this?
     "The annual Luxury Brand Status Index survey is a proprietary survey methodology and index..."
     "The LBSI incorporates four main "pillars" of brand value:
               Consistently superior quality
               Exclusivity and uniqueness
               A measure of enhanced social status
               A measure of the brand's ability to make a customer "feel special""
Nothing gives one a "special feeling" like reading survey results based on a top-secret survey method from an "organization" which does not answer its phone during business hours.  Can any idiot get their crap published?  Hmmmmm.....ahhhhhhhh....scratch that last question....................

Where were the Appliance News fact checking goalies?

UPDATE July 9:  Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza reached us and spoke to us both BEFORE and AFTER reading the above report.  Mr. Pedraza was the gentleman for both calls, though we preferred the first call.  He was firm in his belief that the survey methods were correctly used and the results were honestly developed.  He defended the Luxury Institute as a virtual organization with associates all over the country just not physically in the New York office, and as a market research consultant with clients all over the world and as a resource quoted in thousands of articles.  We apologized for our over-the-top characterizations, but repeated our assertion that something's fishy in Denmark if Bertazzoni, as much as we like them, is #2.  We also raised other issues we had with the results.  We offered Mr. Pedraza the opportunity of responding to our piece (as we do for all of you slugs) and hopefully he will see past our intemperate analysis to do so.

UPDATE July 10:  CEO Milton Pedraza of Luxury Institute Responds
Thanks for the opportunity to respond. The Luxury Institute is an impartial, independent and objective entity, over five years old, and with hundreds of luxury brands buying our ratings surveys annually across dozens of categories. Our surveys are conducted with independent, unbiased panels and are weighted using Federal Reserve data to reflect national results. The results are tabulated by external, independent analytical experts to ensure a level of transparency and objectivity that has earned the trust of consumers, the industry and the media. The list for the Appliances survey was created by consulting industry experts and manufacturers, as are all the lists we develop. We strive continuously to reinforce the trust that allows us to facilitate a constructive dialogue between wealthy consumers and luxury brands via our surveys. We stand by the results of this survey, since they reflect the voice of wealthy consumers. We also truly welcome constructive comments that help us improve the list and our survey methodology. To this end, we welcome any and all list changes suggestions. 
Please come to the Luxury Institute site at www.luxuryinstitute.com
     -go to the contact page, register, and please provide your suggestions. We welcome them openly and in a spirit of continuous improvement and look forward.
Thank you for your journalistic integrity and the opportunity to comment.

UPDATE July 10:  Final Note on the subject
Mr. Pedraza provided some information on the methods used.  A list of 20 brands was created from input from the industry and used in the survey.  We didn't ask who from the industry was involved in creating the list, but we did ask which 20 brands were on the list.
And they were:
AGA
ASKO
Bertazzoni
Best
Bosch
Dacor
Fisher & Paykel
Gaggenau
GE Monogram
GE Profile
Jenn-Air
KitchenAid
La Cornue
Miele
Siemens
Sub-Zero
Thermador
U-Line
Viking
Wolf

UPDATE July 11:  Where are our manners?  Bertazzoni, through no fault of their own, were deeply mixed up in our story....which is really just half the story.  The general feeling in the industry is that Bertazzoni has been hitting only doubles, triples and homeruns since they've entered the market.  Perhaps this is the survey result most important to Bertazzoni.