Google’s Corporate America Reputation Ranks Top

Jun 23, 2008 at 8:56am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has best reputation in U.S., airlines fall: survey from Reuters reports on a recent Harris Interactive study that showed (PDF) Google is the number one company ranked for corporate responsibility in America. Google took over the number one spot from Microsoft, who is now ranked number ten. Here is the top 10:

Google
Johnson & Johnson
Intel Corporation
General Mills
Kraft Foods
Berkshire-Hathaway Inc.
3M Company
The Coca-Cola Company
Honda Motor Co.
Microsoft

Robert Fronk, senior vice president at Rochester, New York-based Harris, said:

The ratings they get focus on how they treat their employees, their workplace environment. They absolutely get tremendous credit for the social responsibility, which for them is also linked with their vision and leadership.

How did Google achieve this stratospheric climb? The company scores either in first or second place on reputation drivers of financial performance, vision/leadership, social responsibility and workplace environment. For Americans to hold a company in high regards today, clearly more than just profits are needed – companies need to focus on overall corporate social responsibility and how their employees are treated in order to build trust with today’s consumers.

Here are the results by category:

Social Responsibility – Whole Foods, Google, General Mills, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson
Emotional Appeal – Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, General Mills, Google, 3M Company
Financial Performance – Berkshire Hathaway, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Procter & Gamble
Products & Services – Johnson & Johnson, 3M Company, Intel, Google, P&G
Vision & Leadership – Berkshire Hathaway, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple
Workplace Environment – Google, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Intel, Kraft

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >

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