- Kenneth Hein

The Home Depot may have struggled with its earnings this year, but don't blame its marketing.

The retail chain topped a survey by the CMO Council being released this week that gauged the consistency of 25 brands across six touchpoints.

The study looked at marketing messages across ads, Web sites, call centers, collateral, events and in-store environment. The brands were studied between January and July.

Home Depot, while not finishing first in any one channel, was consistently among the top spots in each, which propelled it to the No. 1 ranking among the brands studied. Marriott placed second followed by Southwest Airlines.

"Home Depot delivers on its brand promise," said Liz Miller, vp at the CMO Council, New York. "It doesn't promise, 'You can find something easily in our stores.' However, it does provide information, offer educational services and a [wide] selection of products."

The survey's auditors were asked to rate 65 brand communications attributes on a scale of one to five to derive the scores. Southwest achieved the highest Web ranking. American Airlines' call center topped the list. Allstate's advertising was ranked most effective as was its collateral. And, Dell had the best in-store presence.

Comcast ranked worst among the brands studied, followed by DirecTV. Comcast had a consistency problem across various channels. In one circumstance, a platinum package advertised at a payment center did not exist anymore. "The feeling was, if this is what Comcast is going to do with packaging and pricing before I'm a customer, what's going to happen when I am a customer."

DirecTV, meanwhile, scored last in the call center category. "Companies need to stop ignoring the call center," said Miller. "These are often the first consumer touchpoints. Consistency and accuracy within the marketing message is critical."