Financial services vies with tobacco for least-loved industry
What do the financial services industry and the tobacco industry have in common? They are held in equally low regard by the public, according to a survey released today.
What do the financial services industry and the tobacco industry have in common? They are held in equally low regard by the public, according to a survey released today.
Only 11% of those surveyed gave positive ratings to the financial services — tying with the 11% for the tobacco industry.
This was the first year that financial services industry was ranked as a category separate from the insurance industry in the survey, conducted by Harris Interactive Inc., the Rochester, N.Y., market research firm.
Technology remained the highest rated industry in the Harris Reputation Quotient, an index that Harris launched 10 years ago.
But corporations in general are not well-regarded by the public, falling to their lowest level in 10 years: A full 88% of those surveyed said the reputation of corporate America is “not good” or “terrible” in 2008, as opposed to 71% in 2007.
After rating the reputation of corporate America in general and the various industry sectors, participants were asked to rate 60 companies that were deemed to be most “’visible.”
Unsurprisingly, of the 60 companies identified in the survey, American International Group of New York came in dead last, recording one of the lowest scores in the study’s history. It had a score of 43.78. This was the lowest score since 2005, when the disgraced Enron Corp. of Houston scored of 30.05.
“We would not comment on a report that we have not seen,” said AIG spokesman Joe Norton. “But we will comment that AIG is committed to re-paying the taxpayers.” The company has taken a $150 billion government bailout.
The only industry that moved up in the rankings in 2008 was the pharmaceutical industry, where the number of companies with positive rankings grew to 31 from 26, Harris reported.
The measurement includes two calculations, with the first resulting from telephone and online interviews of 6,587 people, conducted in September and October, to identify the most visible companies.
A second part of the process included an online survey with 20,483 people conducted from Dec. 31 through Feb. 2, which rated the companies’ reputations on 20 attributes that fall into six areas: emotional appeal, products and services, social responsibility, vision and leadership, workplace environment and financial performance.
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