Best Companies

Brands, Companies, Industries

Polls listed chronologically. Data are from nationwide surveys of Americans 18 & older.

The Harris Poll. July 10-16, 2007. N=approx. 500 adults nationwide.
.
"Do you think [see below] generally do a good or bad job of serving their consumers?"
.
		A Good Job
.
		7/07	4/06	2003	2001
		%	%	%	%
	Supermarkets	92	91	85	n/a
	Online search engines	84	75	n/a	n/a
	Computer hardware companies	78	75	71	78
	Hospitals	78	74	73	67
	Banks	78	80	72	71
	Computer software companies	77	79	70	80
	Packaged food companies	77	77	75	n/a
	Car manufacturers	72	62	64	67
	Electric and gas utilities	71	66	n/a	n/a
	Internet service providers	70	76	n/a	n/a
	Investment and brokerage firms	70	59	n/a	n/a
	Online retailers	69	69	n/a	n/a
	Telephone companies	67	67	57	61
	Airlines	61	66	64	51
	Pharmaceutical and drug companies	60	61	49	57
	Life insurance companies	57	64	56	60
	Cable companies	48	61	n/a	n/a
	Health insurance companies	39	46	40	38
	Managed care companies, such as HMOs	37	41	30	29
	Oil companies	33	36	42	27
	Tobacco companies	26	34	30	28

Gallup Poll. Aug. 7-10, 2006. N=486 adults nationwide. MoE � 5.
.
"For each of the following business sectors in the United States, please say whether your overall view of it is very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative or very negative. How about [see below]?"
.
		Total Positive	Neutral	Total Negative
		%	%	%
	Restaurant industry	65	25	9
	Computer industry	60	26	9
	Retail industry	53	33	11
	Farming and agriculture	56	25	15
	Grocery industry	55	29	14
	Banking	56	25	17
	Accounting	42	41	11
	Travel industry	46	34	17
	Internet industry	50	24	22
	Publishing industry	44	33	19
	Sports industry	45	24	27
	Real estate industry	42	31	25
	Telephone industry	43	25	31
	Automobile industry	39	27	32
	Television and radio industry	41	22	36
	Education	41	19	38
	Airline industry	33	32	31
	Movie industry	34	26	38
	Advertising and public relations industry	33	27	38
	Pharmaceutical industry	39	15	45
	Health care industry	35	17	46
	The legal field	27	27	44
	Electric and gas utilities	28	20	51
	The federal government	25	23	50
	Oil and gas industry	15	7	77

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Dec. 7-11, 2005. N=1,502 adults nationwide. MoE � 3 (for all adults). (FORM 1: N=761 adults; MoE � 4. FORM 2: N=741 adults; MoE � 4.)
						.
"Thinking about some major companies, is your overall opinion of [see below] very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly UNfavorable, or very unfavorable?" Companies rotated
						.
		Favorable	Unfavorable	Never Heard Of (vol.)	Can't Rate
		%	%	%	%
	Home Depot Form 2	82	9	1	8
	Johnson & Johnson Form 1	78	8	1	13
	Coca-Cola Form 2	76	14	0	10
	Target Form 1	76	14	1	9
	Microsoft Form 2	73	15	2	10
	Toyota Form 2	72	14	1	13
	McDonald's Form 1	69	24	-	7
	General Motors Form 1	66	24	-	10
	Wal-Mart	65	30	1	4
	Google Form 1	62	6	13	19
	Southwest Airlines Form 2	60	12	2	26
	United Airlines Form 1	56	16	1	27
	Exxon/Mobil Form 2	42	47	1	10
	Pfizer Form 2	39	25	19	17
	Halliburton Form 1	23	33	25	19

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Robert Teeter (R). June 8-10, 2002. N=500 adults nationwide.
			.
"Now I�m going to mention some areas in which prices have increased over the past couple of years. Please tell me which one or two you feel are LEAST justified. [See below.]" If "All," ask: "If you had to say, which one or two are least justified?"
			.
		%
	Prescription drugs	39
	Health care	30
	Oil and gasoline	28
	Health insurance	21
	Housing	12
	All (vol.)	16
	None (vol.)	2
	Not sure	2

"Which one or two of the following industries do you feel have stopped listening and being sensitive to their consumers? [See below.]" If "All," ask: "Well, if you had to say, which one or two have stopped listening and being sensitive to their consumers?"
			.
		%
	Health care	36
	Pharmaceutical	34
	Oil and gasoline	22
	Banking	15
	Housing	8
	All (vol.)	16
	None (vol.)	3
	Not sure	3

The Harris Poll. April 8-13, 1999. N=1,006 adults nationwide. MoE � 3.
.
"If a [see below] had a serious safety problem with one of their products or services, do you think you would trust them to do the right thing, or not?"
.
		Would	Would Not	Unsure
		%	%	%
	Hospital	70	29	2
	Computer hardware company	69	21	9
	Airline	67	28	5
	Bank	66	30	4
	Telephone company	65	32	3
	Computer software company	64	26	10
	Car manufacturer	60	38	2
	Pharmaceutical and drug company	57	40	3
	Life insurance company	52	42	6
	Oil company	47	46	7
	Health insurance company	47	50	3
	Managed care company, such as an HMO	37	58	6
	Tobacco company	21	76	2

The Harris Poll. Nov. 11-15, 1998. N=1,010 adults nationwide.
.
"If you had to pick two major companies that you think are really good companies, which two would you name?"
.
		Top Responses, Ranked
		1998	1997	1996	1995	1994
	Microsoft	1	1	4	4	8
	IBM	2	2	2	2	1
	General Electric	3	7	5	5	5
	AT&T	4	4	1	1	3
	General Motors	5	3	3	3	2
	Ford	6	5	6	6	4
	Wal-Mart	7	6	7	7	7
	Coca-Cola	8	8	8	11	10
	Sears	9 tie	15	13 tie	10	13
	Chrysler	9 tie	11	9	8	6
	Intel	11	9	*	20	*
	Boeing	12 tie	10	20	*	18
	Merck	12 tie	*	*	*	*
	PepsiCo	12 tie	*	*	*	*
	Procter & Gamble	12 tie	12	10	15 tie	9
	Hewlett Packard	12 tie	13	*	*	*
	Exxon	12 tie	16 tie	*	17 tie	11 tie
	Kellogg	18	*	*	*	*
	Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream	19	*	*	*	*
	Walt Disney	20 tie	18	15 tie	12 tie	16
	Lucent Technologies	20 tie	*	*	*	*
						.
		* Not in top 20

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