Johnson & Johnson And Microsoft Top List Of Best Corporate Reputations.

The results of the third annual RQ Gold study on corporate reputation reveal stability for Johnson & Johnson and Intel – both of which remained among the top 10 ranked companies — and a downward trend in reputation for a number of companies in the technology industry. These are some of the findings from the RQ Gold 2001 — the third annual Reputation QuotientSM (RQ) study conducted by Harris Interactive and The Reputation Institute. The RQ Gold 2001 study measures the corporate reputations of the most visible companies in the U.S.

Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson tops the survey for the third year in a row with an RQ of 82.5 out of a possible 100 points, with technology giant Microsoft (81.8) and beverage-maker Coca-Cola (80.8) rounding out the top three. Despite continued attempts at changing its image through advertising, troubled tire-maker Bridgestone/Firestone (RQ of 46.7) and Philip Morris (RQ of 56.4) continue to anchor the bottom of the list. With 60 companies measured, this year’s RQ Gold study is the most comprehensive conducted to date. DaimlerChrysler saw its score plummet with a 15.8-point decline from last year (the largest decline ever recorded in an RQ Gold study) with Lucent enduring the second largest decline of 7.3 points.

“The general public is remarkably good at sensing what companies are up to,” said Charles Fombrun, Executive Director of the Reputation Institute. “On one hand, Microsoft earned good marks from the public for carrying out a smooth leadership transition from Gates to Balmer and for emerging relatively unscathed from the government’s antitrust efforts. Coca-Cola got credit for conveying invigorated leadership under CEO Douglas Daft and unveiling an effective global advertising campaign. On the other hand, the public was not fooled by DaimlerChrysler’s rocky intercontinental marriage and Lucent’s unraveling business model.”

“The RQ results over the past three years highlight the challenge of improving corporate reputation, and the ease at which it can be lost,” said Joy Sever, senior vice president and Director of Harris Interactive’s Reputation Practice, “Looking at the 32 companies that have been measured over three years, six have seen two consecutive years of significant declines, but no company has seen two consecutive years of significant improvements,” Sever continued. The six firms with two consecutive declines are all tech companies — Lucent, AT&T, Gateway, Xerox, Amazon, and Yahoo.

This year’s RQ study also looked at corporate citizenship and the corporate response to the events of September 11th. Interestingly, the results show that the more impressed people were with the corporate response to September 11th in general, the more positively they rated companies reputations across each of the six areas of reputation — emotional appeal, financial performance, products and services, vision and leadership, social responsibility, and workplace environment. Not only was the public impressed by the corporate response, but also most felt that companies’ actions made them more “human” and more “sensitive.”

To see more results of this years’ RQ Gold study CLICK below:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/pop_up/rq/gold.asp