The Business Journals (http://thebusinessjournals.com/) has named Apple the 2012 Grand Award winner as part of its ninth annual American Brand Excellence Awards, which recognize brands that best meet the needs of small to mid-sized businesses (SMB). This year marks the second consecutive year that Apple, a pioneer in brand excellence, has received the award.
“Year after year, the American Brand Excellence Awards serve as a unique way to dive into the minds of business owners to determine how they view the companies that play a key role in their success on a regular basis,” says Michael Olivieri, chief revenue officer of American City Business Journals, parent company of The Business Journals. “The results of this year’s study prove how dynamic these companies really are and continue to offer the highest class of service to the SMB community, as five of the six winning brands took the same titles just last year.”
Over 250 business brands were rated and over 2,000 SMB owners and managers participated in The Business Journals’ annual proprietary study. The winning companies were chosen as the brands who best met the needs of small and mid-sized business owners and managers. The criteria used to select the American Brand Excellence Award winners include “easy to do business with,” “industry leader,” “forward thinking,” “for growing companies,” “behaves ethically,” “growing in popularity” and “has a good price for what you get.”