Apple & Google Are Corporate Kings Of Consumer Opinion, Big Banks Fail To Impress

When it comes to trusting corporations, it seems we’re a lot more likely to have high opinions of the ones that provide us with shiny toys and zippy technology, rather than big bad banks and other financial institutions. That is, according to an annual public opinion poll on corporate brands.

Even the controversy over the conditions in Chinese factories manufacturing Apple products couldn’t cloud the company’s reputation, as it topped Harris Interactive’s survey of brand reputations, beating out last year’s winner, Google, according to Reuters.

Joining those two tech giants in the top spots are Coca-Cola, Amazon.com, Kraft, Walt Disney, Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods, Microsoft and UPS. The survey is a result of 12,961 responses from people answering questions online in December 2011, covering qualities like leadership, financial performance, workplace environment, social responsibility, emotional appeal and the quality of products and services.

Unsurprisingly, in a year where Occupy Wall Street was a major headline, big banks and financial institutions were sunk to the bottom of the barrel of consumer opinion. AIG was dead last, behind Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

And even though everyone (and their mothers) knows Facebook, that company didn’t even crack the list, perhaps because people don’t see it as a company so much as a place to battle in Words With Friends and obsessively share photos of their babies.

Apple pops, Wall St firms drop in brand study [Reuters]

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