The results of the Harris Interactive survey that tracks the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in America has been released and here they are: Google is tops and Halliburton is not. Not shocking, but there are some interesting findings. Honda is the only car company to make the top 10, and Comcast, Sprint and Northwest Airlines are the least well-regarded in their respective industries.
The Top 10 Reputations
1) Google
2) Johnson & Johnson
3) Intel
4) General Mills
5) Kraft
6) Berkshire Hathaway
7) 3M
8) Coca-Cola
9) Honda
10) Microsoft
The 10 Worst Reputations
10) DaimlerChrysler
9) General Motors Corporation
8) ChevronTexaco Corporation
7) Ford
6) Sprint
5) Comcast
4) Exxon
3) Northwest Airlines
2) Citgo
1) Halliburton
Does this survey ring true to you? Do these companies deserve the reputation they have?
Another interesting bit of data from the survey:
The Top 5 Biggest Decreases In Reputation
1) Bank of America
2) Halliburton
3) Wal-Mart
4) Sears
5) Nike
Seventy-One Percent of Consumers Say the Reputation Of Corporate America Is “Poor” [Harris]
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I wish I could mine everyones data and still have everyone love me.
Hmm… I don’t know why Nike has lost some reputation. They’ve always seemed like an honest company to me (someone care to fill me in?). All the others on the decreases in reputation I can understand, but I don’t know about Nike.
Overall, I’d say they got those reputations right.
I live in the Minneapolis area and for the last 10 years its been Northworst to me. Bad everything. To bad there only numeber 3 now the survey has given them something to work for.
@11hawkinst: And everybody thought they were a shoe-in for the top honors…
Countdown to someone bashing Microsoft in three, two, one…
This list makes a lot more sense than that “The 10 Most Reputable Companies In The U.S.” list last week.
I’m still surprised that Google gets this ranking despite their “see no evil/hear no evil” approach to China.
I’m actually pretty surprised that Apple isn’t on the top, but Microsoft is.
(Disclaimer: use/love both)
Intel: proof positive that you don’t actually need to be a good company to have a good reputation.
Look in to the current anti-trust suits worldwide against Intel and see what slime they really are.
@IrisMR: And hey, Apple isn’t in the top 10. Scandal!
Halliburton isn’t an American Company anymore.
@sleze69: Yeah they are? They just opened up a second headquarters in Dubai. The main headquarters is still in Houston.
@ffmariners: If you mine it while offering your users, oh I don’t know, 6 GB (and counting!) of email storage, a great interface, and a million useful features, then you too can mine data and keep your reputation.
It’s not like Google’s products suck.
I found a dead rat in my Google this morning… @IrisMR: and Microsoft wasn’t any help!
@IamNotToddDavis: You mean you like the companies more? Because, as you know, “The 10 Most Reputable Companies In The U.S.” and the “Top 10 Reputations” are the same thing. They just used different methodology.
As RetailGuy83 said in the last thread, these polls just measure who has the best PR department.
Microsoft is on the wrong list.
Honda sells some seriously ugly gas hogs lately. Their Accord has gotten so big and bloated that it’s now classified as a full-sized car. CRVs were catching fire in parking lots and their manual transmissions have been plagued with problems. They certainly shouldn’t rank at the bottom of the list, but they are by no means any more honorable than GM. I’m shocked that they have been able to pull the wool over consumers eyes for so long.
Yay for Google. Coca-cola?
Surprised AMR (American Airlines) didn’t make the list. Also, Sprint is in there. Although, here’s an advice for Sprint, it’s not the fancy iFone-like devices or unlimited data plans that is important, It is coverage. I’ve had so many dropped calls, please fix that first.
Look at the American car companies on that list, OUCH! Nike is probably decreasing because they use 10 year olds to manufacture their products.
@Michael Belisle: I agree the products they make are great. I am excited about Google Transit starting to incorporate more cities
BUT… I am not a Google fanboy who thinks they are out to make the world a better place. They are mining our data and making money off of it (through search engine/ad optimization and what not)
@Michael Belisle: Yeah, I kinda figured. This list just seems a lot more realistic than the other one.
@nfs: Coverage is important, but Sprint’s major problem is the abysmal customer service. I would know, I used to work there.
@lalaland13: It’s a top 10 of the best/worst reputations in America. Not a top 10 in price gouging and highest margin of all time.
Go Berkshire! I only say that because they used to be sort of a local company (that is actually in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts)
I still think GM gets an undeserved bad rep. They make some great cars. The new Malibu is fantastic.
Funny that Kraft is up there when they haven’t had a successful product launch in years plus the supposed boycott people were doing of them.
@Bladefist: LOl so true. I love my Macbook and all but seriously put a dock on Ubuntu and a few tweaks later and you have essentially something that’s 90% as friendly as a Mac.
See Lifehacker for details.
This list is a pile of putrid garbage. Any list that has Intel and MS as “good” clearly is a list based on the common idiot on the street.
I don’t get the Northwest taint. I lived in the Twin Cities for five years and traveled a lot for work, and considering their “fortress hub” status there I found them to be no worse than any other US airline and a damned sight better for overseas travel than UA/AA. plus they still have free booze across the ponds, though I doubt that’ll last much longer.
face it, they all suck, though there’s a special pit of hell reserved for Delta/Comair who the few times I have flown them, or tried to, has been consistently late or the flights were cancelled for no reason. Now that they are merging with Delta and fading away, I burned all my NW miles on a trip to Paris last month and will start over somewhere else because I will not fly Delta under any circumstances. RIP, Northwest.
Microsoft is in the top 10 because most people are stupid, ignorant, and don’t work in the technology industry (or work at Microsoft — full time that is).
I don’t understand why people think Microsoft is so great. Perhaps they think Bill Gates is a wonderful human being who never exploited anyone and never underpaid for anything. Perhaps they think just because Microsoft Windows and Office are installed on every computer, or because those are all they’ve learned and all they are capable of using, therefore it must be an awesome company. Or maybe they all secretly hope to be as ruthless and deceitful and mind-numbingly rich as Bill Gates is.
Two things….
Since when is Honda an American company?
And since this survey is supposed to be of American consumers, how many American consumers could honestly tell you what Berkshire Hathaway DOES to form an opinion on it, I bet I could ask everyone in my office and fifty would have no idea, three would say “that warren buffet guy”, and one would know.
@stickystyle: I’m not sure how a company qualifies as American, but Honda has 12 manufacturing plants in the US, so they do employ a large number of Americans.
Why is Exxon and Chevron up there? Is it because people are blaming them for gas prices?
Because I certainly can’t imagine people having a bad experience getting gas.. it’s one of the most convenient things out there.. open 24 hours, don’t even need to talk to anyone.
@sean77:
Why ExxonMobile Doesn’t Care About Alternative Fuels: [money.cnn.com]
ExxonMobil fights off call to invest in oil alternatives: [findarticles.com]
ExxonMobil Accused of Disinformation on Warming: [ipsnews.net]
hee hee hee
halliburton loses =D
Where’s Amazon?
@ffmariners: The dream always starts pure: they are out to make the world a better place. They just realized they can monetize all that information while they’re at it.
@mikelotus: Dude, so much hate.
I was a devoted AMD user until I got my recent Core 2 Duo. Seriously, they are making some good products.
Awesome to see GM, Daimler Chrysler, and Ford up there, makes me proud to be American…
Hells yeah Sprint deserves their reputation.
Their service (customer and coverage alike) is horrible and their current corporate environment is a circus of layoffs and in-fighting.
-and that’s coming from someone who lives in Kansas City, where they’re based.
No right-minded employee in KC these days takes a job at Sprint. Its too risky and miserable.
@battra92: I agree that the “common idiot” remark was a bit harsh, but I think the idea is warranted. Those who are uneducated about Intel and Microshaft tend to give them much more positive reputations than those who have researched them. I don’t know of many people besides monopolists that will be willing to give positive marks on reputation to a monopolist.
The problem with Intel is that they were still on this list when they weren’t making good products because they forced PC vendors into contracts that required exclusion of AMD specifically. Granted that’s not a reason for them to be off the good list now.
The problem with Microshaft is that it’s been over 6 years since they sold a product that improved on the previous product… and they are still on the good list… even after threatening to sue customers of their competitors for patent infringement for which they appear to lack proof.
I still don’t know why anyone thinks that Kraft has a good rep?
It’s not going to be around much longer, it’s run by idiots & all of us know we’ll be out of a job when the company’s brands are sold off, bit by bit.
Here’s one current idiocy, somewhat inside, but illustrative: The Bannockburn office is being closed & all the employees there are being moved way down Waukegan Rd. to Glenview. To make room for them, several hundred people will be moved from Glenview, north on Waukegan Rd. to Northfield. Why not just move the Bannockburn employees to Northfield?
This is Irene’s idea of saving money, a double move!
Obviously what makes sense to us makes no sense to her.
All of Kraft’s offices in the Chicago suburbs are on Waukegan Rd.
Northfield even has a cemetery on the campus, right next to the building. It’s the bodies of the Russell family that once farmed the land.
@sean77: More or less.
I actually prefer to go to Cumberland Farms (Gulf) or Sunoco since they are usually cheaper and right on my way. Always good service at those and supposedly Sunoco is more enviro-friendly than Exxon.
@Optimus: Oh I still hate Microsoft and I use Ubuntu on my home desktop and have a MacBook.
AMD always made solid processors as did Intel. I always built my own PCs so it was more I bought AMD as they used to be cheaper.
AMD also never advertised so people tended to opt for the Intel PCs and only get the AMD when they were cheaper as such AMD got a “bargain brand” processor name.
Whys Nike on the decline list?
@Optimus: As a windows user, Microsoft definitely screwed up with Vista, and is not admitting that, and making life harder.
As a developer, Microsoft is absolutely amazing. The tools they provider at the price (often free) they provide them allows for many people to make a living writing programs for windows.
@stager:
Their use of underage workers?
[www.globalexchange.org]
@Bladefist: I agree. They do make some surprisingly good programming tools. I hadn’t thought about that because I haven’t used them since VS 6, but I’ve seen them in use recently and they are very good.
I think the only reason they’re nearly or completely free now is because of the competition and people like me who have managed to almost totally avoid paying for programming tools for years because of the GPL and GNU.
Unfortunately for Microshaft:
Once you’ve gone GPL…
You shun lock-in Hell.
I don’t understand why Northwest is on the list. I like them. I’ve never had any problems.
How is Johnson & Johnson always doing good? I’d rate them as neutral, similar to 3M.
@Bladefist: What in the hell are you talking about? Price gouging is just your precious free-market in action, baby! High profit margins? Again, capitalism! How can someone as republican as you slight a company for making money? Because their stereotypical consumer base has an opposite ideology from you? You have a lot more in common with Apple than you give credit for.
Sears sucks, it is true, but, alas, i dont see the positivity as #2 being J&J
on another note, i wish you could see posted comments after yours on here
Johnson & Johnson is only trusted because they’re the first shampoo you remember using, and they’re what parents rely on to make their kids healthy and nonstinky. I temped in their office, they are just as evil as any other drug company.
Hmm… I don’t know why Nike has lost some reputation. They’ve always seemed like an honest company to me (someone care to fill me in?).
Sweatshops, I guess.