Perceptions Matter—Auto Industry’s Rep Goes Up, Airlines Lose Altitude: A public perception study by Harris Poll that asks the public how it perceives 22 of the nation’s largest industries shows big changes since 2009, when the survey was last conducted. Those changes include a huge jump in the number of people who think that the automobile industry is doing a good job of serving consumers, and a big decrease in the public popularity of the airline industry. Findings include:
• The auto industry showed a 36 point improvement, from +6 in 2009 to +42 in 2011, while airlines suffered a 27 point decline, from +34 to +7 for airlines.
• The industries with the best images among the public are supermarkets (+80), online search engines (+74), hospitals (+66), computer hardware companies (+61) and computer software companies (+55).
• The least popular industries are oil companies (-31), tobacco companies (-21), managed care companies (-13), health insurance companies (-9) and investment and brokerage firms (+3).
Source: Harris Poll