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Big Drop since Last Year in Reputation of Car Manufacturers, Investment and Brokerage Firms, and Banks

Business Wire, August 18, 2009

Health insurance, internet providers, and pharmaceuticals also lose
ground

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Every year, The Harris Poll asks a cross-section of adults whether they
think about 20 leading industries do a good or a bad job of serving
their consumers. The latest poll finds very big changes in the last 12
months. Some industries have seen their reputations crumble. Some show
modest slippage. A few show significant improvement.

These are some of the results from The
Harris Poll, a new
study of 1,010 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between July 8 and 13,
2009 by Harris
Interactive. While the question asks how good or bad
different industries are at serving their consumers, our experience
suggests that the answers reflect a somewhat broader picture
of how the public feels overall about these industries.

Unsurprisingly, the industries whose reputations have been most badly
hurt in the last 12 months are car manufacturers (down 31 points), banks
(down 24 points), and investment and brokerage firms (down 27 points).

In light of the current debate about health care reform it is
interesting to note that health insurance companies (down 10 points) and
pharmaceutical companies (down six points) have also slipped while
hospitals have improved by six points. Interestingly, life insurance
companies improved (up 12 points) while health insurance lost ground.

Industries that are most likely to be thought of as doing a good job

Supermarkets, hospitals, online search engines, packaged food companies,
and computer companies enjoy the best reputation for serving their
consumers. The percentage of adults who think they are doing a good job
are 92% for supermarkets, 78% for hospitals, 76% for online search
engines and 72% for packaged food, computer hardware and software
companies.

Industries that are most likely to be thought of as doing a bad job

The most unpopular industries, using this measure, are tobacco, oil,
managed care, and health insurance. These are the only industries on the
list used in the survey where more than half of all adults believe they
are doing a bad job: tobacco companies (63% doing a bad job), oil
companies (60%), health insurance (58%) and managed care (54%).

Other industries with relatively high negative ratings include
investment and brokerage firms (46%), car manufacturers (45%),
pharmaceuticals (45%), banks (38%), and cable companies (37%).

Industries that are doing better this year

Airlines show a bigger improvement this year than any other industry.
Tobacco (while still at the bottom of the list), life insurance, and
computer hardware companies have also improved.

The score used to measure changes over time, since Harris first asked
these questions in 1997, is the number of adults saying good job
for each industry minus those saying bad job. Using this
measure, airlines are up 16 points, from 18 to 34 (which is still far
lower than their score of 66 in 1998), life insurance is up 12 points,
from 26 to 38, and tobacco companies are up 11 points, from minus 43 to
minus 32.

Industries that are doing worse this year

The biggest declines using the same measure (those saying “good job
minus those saying bad job) are for car manufacturers, and investment
and brokerage firms. The car manufacturers score has dropped 31 points
from 37 to 6
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