Nielsen's recent tie-up with Harris Interactive has led to the joint release of the latest Harris Poll Reputation Quotient - and only one travel brand made the cut on reputation, Southwest Airlines.
The report, available
here for download, looks at six core areas of reputation: Social Responsibility, Emotional Appeal, Vision & Leadership, Products & Services, Workplace Environment, and Financial Performance.
Technology played a significant role in the rankings, specifically related to how much information the companies were holding about customers.
- More than 75% are concerned about data privacy.
- Less than 50% trust companies to behave responsibly with the data.
- 31% learn about companies from social media, and only 17% trust this information more than other channels.
- 60% research companies prior to doing business with them, and 60% decided not to do business with a specific company after uncovering something in this research.
Southwest Airlines recaptured a spot on the list after dropping off in 2013. Another airline, American Airlines was on the list in 2013, but dropped off this year.
This does not bode well for airlines, a segment that has taken a beating over the past decade with terrorism, gas prices and the Great Recession. However, the industry on the aggregate performed well, with only a 10% negative reputation.
Airlines performed poorly in the aggregate, chalking up a 37% negative reputation - tied for fifth worst among the surveyed industries.
Even so, both airlines and travel/tourism showed slight improvements from 2013 - at least reputation is moving in the right direction.
This is the 15th year of the report, which has two phases: one to identify the most visible companies and another to rank those companies' reputations.
NB: Business words image courtesy Shutterstock.