March 15, 2018

Which Company Do Americans Love Best?

Things are a little slow today, so let’s take a look at the 2018 Corporate Reputation Poll from Harris. First, here’s their complete list:

There are a few interesting things to note:

  • Americans really love their supermarkets. They’re all in the top 25.
  • Americans really hate their cable companies. They’re all in the bottom 25.
  • Americans really love Amazon. And Wegmans. I have some friends who were bereft when their Wegmans closed down. What’s the deal with that?
  • The Trump Organization managed to avoid the last spot. They were beat out by (a) the airbag company, (b) the sexual harassment company, (c) the clueless credit reporting company that lost everyone’s personal data to hackers, and (d) the ripoff banking company. However, they scored worse than (a) the GMO seed company, (b) the oil spill company, (c) the other clueless credit reporting company, and (d) the vampire squid company.
  • The marcom folks who created this graphic used slightly larger fonts in the first two lists, which is why all four aren’t the same size. This is poor graphic design.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at a few specific sectors. First up, car companies:

Tesla is on top, but that’s not going to last long if they can’t figure out how to manufacture the Model 3 properly. Also note that Fiat Chrysler has an even worse reputation than Volkswagen, which has been fined billions of dollars for the enormous con it pulled on its diesel cars. Nice work, Fiat! Next up is high-tech companies:

Are you surprised that Microsoft is #1? They may be boring, but apparently people think highly of them. (Amazon would be #1 if I counted them as a high-tech company, but I’m not really sure what sector they belong in these days.) Facebook, on the other hand, makes people pretty suspicious—and rightfully so.

Finally, here’s the sector where reputation is truly the coin of the realm: consumer packaged goods.

I don’t really have an explanation for any of this. Why is Kraft #1? Why is Pepsi the lowest? Do most people even know what Unilever is?

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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