Financial Sector Leads Brands With Plunging Reputations: Harris Poll

The U.S. economy may have exited 2011 on an upswing but it looks like the year left most Americans feeling worse about corporate America.

Just 20 percent of Americans view the corporate world positively, a new report from Harris Interactive finds. Only a handful of companies saw the public's perception of them improve, most notably Apple who received the highest score in the history of the market research firm's Reputation Quotient study.

The company was joined by Toyota, BP and General Motors for companies whose score improved this year but for the vast majority of the 60 companies included in the poll things took a turn for the worse, rather than the better. Indeed, only 9 percent of respondents said that the reputation of corporate America improved over the year, with 60 percent saying it got worse.

Financial institutions fared particularly poorly, with big banks like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase seeing some of the biggest drops in reputation. But the plunge may be not be surprising given last year's headlines.

Bank of America was mired in negative publicity last year over allegations of foreclosure abuse and improper mortgage practices and the banks attempt to charge customers $5 to use their debit cards. In 2011, BofA threatened foreclosure over an outstanding balance of $0.00, a house that no longer existed after being destroyed in Hurricane Ike and even on a building that housed one of its own branches, among others.

Likewise, BofA's reputation wasn't helped when it experienced a widespread backlash to its proposal to charge customers a $5 fee to use debit cards, a plan the bank ultimately scrapped.

Indeed, 75 percent of those polled said they saw banking as one of the problems facing the United States economy.

Here are the top 10 brands with the best reputations and the 10 brands with the biggest reputation declines, according to Harris Interactive:

RATE IT!   |  

VOTE

Hate That Brand

Love That Brand

CURRENT TOP 5 PICK YOUR OWN TOP 5

USERS WHO VOTED

NEW! CREATE YOUR OWN SLIDESHOW

Comments

[lagunasuz]

01:52 AM on 02/19/2012

People need to start using their power as a group and start boycotting some of these companies. We have boycotted grapes, and tuna and furs so why not the big banks? The government is not going regulate them, but maybe we can as a group.

[HELLRAISER81]

06:55 PM on 02/14/2012

They've earned their bad reputations from screwing customers. No miniture fiddle playing for these crooks.

[cats530]

06:41 PM on 02/14/2012

Hey B of A and other TBTFs, here is how to clean up your image:
1) Fire your incompetent CEOs and upper management and stop giving bonuses for driving the company into the ground.
2) Quit taking corporate welfare and stealing from taxpayers.
3) Your insolvency and overleveraging needs serious work - don't even know if you can recover. Maybe you are better off BK or gone.
4) A thorough UNBIASED audit of your company & an immediate improvement plan.
5) Stop coming up with new and creative ways of ripping off your customer base.
6) Stop stealing homes you do not own.
7) Quit lobbying/removing financials safeguards that are good for our country.
8) Pay your fair share of taxes.
9) Quit laundering drug money.
10) Stop doing business with MERS. They have clouded title to 62 million properties.

[ranspears]

05:58 PM on 02/14/2012

Why are people so stupid to give Apple a high score when they send all their jobs to china!!!

[tcoxdenver]

06:25 PM on 02/14/2012

Possibly because they are smart enough to recognize that sourcing work where it can be done most cost-effecively is good for everyone, expanding the size of the total pie for Americans and Chinese alike. Now, if only we could get more policy-makers to fully appreciate the Law of Comparative Advantage, we might get away from protectionist policies that end up hurting the protectionists as well as everyone else.

[ranspears]

06:39 PM on 02/14/2012

In 40 years Japan rose from complete ruiens to a major finanical power using protectism.
China has used this same tatic. Protectism works!

[longnkrnch]

04:03 PM on 02/14/2012

I'm sure I am painting with a broad brush here, but, not all that broad. The reputation of corporations is suffering due to the way they treat consumers and, employees. The greed of the stockholders and upper etchalons of many corporations is nothing less than hostile to employees and consumers. Companies are cutting wages or denying wage increases, demanding more per employee and gouging consumers in every way they can legally get away with.

[jbeachboy32]

03:24 PM on 02/14/2012

who are the 20 percent who view corporate america as positive"? anyone know , i wonder

[simzillyjp]

03:28 PM on 02/14/2012

Not me....that's for sure.

[jbeachboy32]

02:38 PM on 02/15/2012

is 20 percent part of corporate america? or view it positive in thats where they want to be someday?

[longnkrnch]

04:07 PM on 02/14/2012

don't know. I can't think of 5% I would view as positive.

[jbeachboy32]

02:38 PM on 02/15/2012

maybe there is 20 percent corporate in america?

[castlemike]

03:08 PM on 02/14/2012

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/chris-whalen-jpm-has-mf-global-money.html

Chris Whalen, Institutional Risk Analyst

"Where is the lost customer money? At JP Morgan Chase and other banks, or course. See, "How JP Morgan and George Soros Ended Up with MF Global Customer Money", www.clearingandsettlement.com.

So why is it that the Large Media have such trouble reporting this story? The fact seems to be that the political powers that be in Washington are protecting JPM CEO Jamie Dimon from a possible career ending kind of stumble with respect to MF Global. By stuffing the commodity customers of the broker dealer via an equity bankruptcy resolution supervised dutifully by SIPIC, JPM and Soros apparently get to benefit at the expense of the commodity customers of MF Global. This situation stinks to high heaven and everyone on the Street we've spoken to about the matter knows it. As the article above notes:

"Rather than being treated as a bankruptcy of a commodities brokerage firm under sub-chapter IV of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy law, MF Global was treated as an equities firm (sub-chapter III) for the purposes of its bankruptcy, and this is why the MF Global customer money in so-called segregated accounts "disappeared".

[vieragam]

02:44 PM on 02/14/2012

I am very glad that Hewlett Packard made the list. I bought a laptop from them and 14 months later it totally crashed due to their flash drive they sent to me (which I paid for). I did what they said, used the flash drive and it crashed. They simply said TOO BAD!

[longnkrnch]

04:05 PM on 02/14/2012

I bought a Flat screen from Sanyo (Walmart). It crapped out, they would not stand behind it. Now I have to leave it on 24/7 or it just shows a black screen for 30 min till it warms up.

[longnkrnch]

02:42 PM on 02/14/2012

Obama is acting like a hypocrite. On one hand, he complains that corporations are not paying "thier fair share" in taxes. But, then on the other hand, he gives it right back to them in bailout money. Keep the bailout money and the tax they pay is a profit for americans. Give it back and its just more profit for the corporations. And example is Solyndra. Obama gave them more money in bailouts than they paid in taxes for the last several years, and we see where that went.

[aodell]

03:30 PM on 02/14/2012

Bush gave the first bailout and it was to the big banks and Wall Street, with no strings attached.Obama gave the second one , mainly to the car industry with strings attached! We have gotten some of that money back!

[longnkrnch]

04:06 PM on 02/14/2012

And Obama has given several since then, that we will never get back because they took the money and declared bankrupcy.

[longnkrnch]

02:34 PM on 02/14/2012

Funny how sooooo many large corporations get plenty enough (taxpayer) money from the government every year to provide thier profits from that alone. Then the money they gouge from consumers with over pricing and underservicing is just icing on the cake for them. On top of all that, the taxes they pay are a pittance compared to the percentage that everyday citizens must pay. No wonder the public has such a bad view of them.

[longnkrnch]

02:28 PM on 02/14/2012

What do they expect? Consumer gouging is at an all time high. Corporations are sticking it to customers more every month it seems like, and are doing it with a pay up or shut up attitude. Customer service is at an all time low. You can't call a customer service number and get a human most of the time, and if you do, they don't speak english. Credit card companies raise interest rates on a whim and have teams that do nothing but look for loopholes in the law to allow them to do it. Consumer protection is NON EXISTANT these days. Banks are taking the position that the money deposited is THEIRS and they just allow us to use it when they feel like it (for a fee of course) and don't even get me started on how you are treated by ANY government agency, if you have to deal with them for anything.

[sillygames]

01:40 PM on 02/15/2012

To book a room with Hilton Hotels 800 number your call get's routed to the Phillipines.

But, we have to know what Paris Hilton is doing everyday don't we.

[Kenz300]

02:03 PM on 02/14/2012

The too big to fail banks need to be broken up into 2 or 3 smaller banks. They need to quit acting like Casinos and go back to the business of lending money.

Multinational banks lend overseas.

Move your money to a local banks, savings and loan or Credit Union, They lend locally.

[tyger]

01:36 PM on 02/14/2012

They truly earned the bad reputations. Apple's will take a hit too.

[irishlion7]

01:30 PM on 02/14/2012

What is the problem most people associate large companies with the Republican Party and you are viewed by who you associact with. We have no value for the Republican party and we have no value for most of the large Corp. in the United States. Though I did hear that the House wants to pass a National Bank Holiday. Were Banks are presented with awards more the most illgeal Forclosure's or for raising the rates of small account holders the most in a 12 month period.

[Kenz300]

02:04 PM on 02/14/2012

It is time to vote Republicans out of office. They are bad for America.

[longnkrnch]

02:30 PM on 02/14/2012

LMAO, the pot calling the kettle black.

[vieragam]

02:45 PM on 02/14/2012

Republicans are truly toxic for the mainstream....the 99%.

[Virulancer]

01:13 PM on 02/14/2012

"Indeed, 75 percent of those polled said they saw banking as one of the problems facing the United States economy."

Lol...and 90% of Americans don't even know what it means to be a banker.

[n ferra]

01:46 PM on 02/14/2012

Any one of the 90% of Americans that had their eyes open durring the Great Recession know all to well what it means to be a banker. Any one who watches the news or reads the newspaper knows what it means to be a banker.

Your Arr.og.ance precedes you, so how about YOU tell us what you think it means to be banker?

[Virulancer]

04:23 PM on 02/14/2012

Lol, the media is the worst place to understand what an investment banker does. An investment banker is not some fat-cat, money hugging slug that the news seems to be making it out to be. Investment bankers work harder than anyone I know and I know this because I work with investment bankers on a daily basis and am personally "tangled" with one as well. iBankers work on industry level deals with different products but the primary ones being IPOs, M&A, restructuring, and many others. They work tirelessly 100-110 hours a week and make a lot of money annually...but to be honest, they make an hourly wage probably less than that of other well-paying college jobs. These people are the top academics in the world, banks recruit only the top from the top schools. Respect is due to these people, because when the "working man" can come home at 5 or 6 at night and eat dinner with his family, bankers are still at work and will continue to be until 3am working on a deal that can ensure Facebook's continuing success or perhaps change the face of an entire industry.

[David Jeffers]

02:27 PM on 02/14/2012

Got it all figured out, don't cha.....