â–¶ In Recession, Protect Your Reputation: The Reputation Institute (RI) has released the results of its 2009 U.S. Reputation Pulse study, which ranks 153 companies in the categories of products/services, innovation, governance, workplace, citizenship, leadership and performance.
According to Kasper Nielsen, manager partner at the Reputation Institute, corporate reputation becomes paramount during tough economic times. Among the study’s findings:
• Of the 153 largest companies in the U.S., Americans have the strongest amount of trust, admiration, respect and good feeling for Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, UPS, General Mills and FedEx;
• If a company can improve its reputation by 5 Reputation Pulse points, it can increase recommendations of their company within the general public by 6.5%;
• In 2009, insurance giant AIG lost 27.52 points, the largest year-over-year drop of any one company, followed by Goldman Sachs (-17) and Morgan Stanley (-13);
• 75% of companies measured in both 2008 and 2009 saw changes of no more than 5 Reputation Pulse points; and,
• U.S. consumers feel the most respected and reputable industries are consumer products, transportation and logistics, industrial products, computers and food manufacturing.
Source: Reputation Institute