Published CommPro.biz 2014.02.04

The Bad Apples

Every year Harris Interactive surveys Americans on our level of trust in a group of nineteen industries. Over the last ten years a dismal outlook has gotten worse. Harris asks, "Which of these industries do you think are generally honest and trustworthy – so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry?" Not a single industry met that standard in the minds of even half of Americans, not one in the last decade. Most businesses are trustworthy, it’s the few bad apples that drag everyone down

Supermarkets did best at 30%. That means 70% of us do not trust supermarkets. The list gets worse quickly. All but one of the remaining 18 industries scores in the teens or a single digit. Oil and tobacco companies are at the bottom of the list. Oil comes in at 4%, putting their distrust level at 96%, tobacco scores 3% putting their distrust level at 97%. Fitting for a couple of industries that have fed the grim reaper millions of people around the world? Tobacco is at the bottom. We can’t imagine how anyone could have a positive outlook when it comes to tobacco. It’s more like a criminal enterprise that has killed more people than all the dictators of the 20^th century combined. Imagine, more than the big three –Mao Zedong, Jozef Stalin and Adolf Hitler– plus all the minor tyrants of the last century. 

Hospitals came in second at 28%, dropping from 36% in 2012, a result of the wide range of healthCARE entities that have become healthGreed entities. Banks come in at number four with a trust level of 18%. That means eight out of ten Americans have no trust in anything our bankers say. In 2004 the banks had a 40% trust level. That collapsed with the recession and recognition by the public that the monster banks are out of control. We would guess the 18% who trust banks are referring to their local community bank. In the same poll the number of Americans who say banks should face stronger regulation jumped 50% in the last decade. No surprise given what’s happened since the banksters lobbied away the regulations that protected us for almost a century. 

Industries sharing a low trust level and support for more regulation are topped by two that are literally killing us, tobacco and oil. The health care industries follow close behind. Driving costs out of control are Big Pharma, insurers and hospitals focused on money in this industry group that is immune to competition. Any fix is being blocked by those we elect to protect our interests. Our legislative bodies, in the states and at the national level are controlled by the lobbyists who pour money into their pockets. That leaves all of us out in the cold, spending more by far than on healthcare any nation on earth and getting third world outcomes.  

"Am I wrong?"--"Am I Nuts?"--

"What do you think?"--"Do you agree?"

Reputation, Reputation, Reputation!

Harris Interactive rolled out their 12th annual Reputation Quotient® (RQ®) last week (5/2/11). They compiled the views of 30,104 Americans to determine what Harris describes as the “public’s positive perception” of  “the 60 most visible companies in the United States.” It is great news that overall these well-known companies have earned a dramatically improved image in this year’s rankings.

Google sits atop the Harris RQ® study for the first time. Certainly no big surprise given the company’s well-known drive to be good guys. It’s no surprise either to find the big banks at the other end of the scale with Goldman Sachs leading the race to the bottom. Actually, Goldman is the major loser across the board. They were buoyed slightly by a few of the study respondents who –can you imagine– saw Goldman as a good place to invest. In the same vein, however, Goldman was rated the very least likely to be recommended; probably by those investors Goldman hammered.

Goldman Sachs’ view from the sewer doubtless makes it hard for them to even see the top of the Harris Sixty. However, in the unlikely event that they should ever glance in that direction with a mind to improving their reputation, they might try practicing Google’s informal motto, “Don’t be evil.”

Actually, more companies than ever are striving and succeeding in bettering their reputation. The number of companies that attained the Harris “Gold Standard” RQ® score of 80 or above increased dramatically to an all-time record high this year. It almost tripled from 6 in 2010 to 16 in 2011. Three factors drove the reputations of these list toppers: transparency, ethics, and performance. This is the first time ever that there have been more than a handful of companies at this level.

There are ten companies that have scored above 75 for the last ten years or more. That kind of consistent reputation maintenance shows a true commitment to doing the right thing.  No surprises here: Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola, 3M, Procter & Gamble, Sony, General Mills, UPS, FedEx, Microsoft & Kraft Foods. The 2011 study has 27 companies with an RQ® above 75, and a 28^th just below that bar. While the number of companies scoring 80 and above grew dramatically, the number of companies that scored 75 or better was only up one this year over last from 26 to 27; about half of the Sixty.  The bottom half of the list seems to be made up of those who haven’t gotten the message that, “ethics works.”

In nearly every ranking you are once again looking at the same cast of characters–including the bottom feeders.Leading that gang Goldman Sachs is the least trusted company in the 2011 Harris RQ® Study. Sachs and four other big banks take half of the ten spots in the bottom rank among those respondents who say they would “definitely not” trust these companies. The other five are a dog’s breakfast of oil, chemical, and cable television companies along with one of the biggest insurers on the planet, AIG.