According to the latest Harris Poll Reputation Quotient survey, Apple’s reputation has tumbled over the last 12 months. The poll shows the company dropping from fifth place last year to 29th place in 2018.
The survey, which was carried out for the 20th consecutive year in 2018, polled 25,800 adults in the United States between December and January about the world’s ‘most visible’ corporate brands and their reputations.
Amazon managed to retain the number one position, which it has now occupied for four of the past five years–dropping to number two in 2015.
Google’s reputation also tumbled from number eight last year to number 28th this year. Tesla, on the other hand, managed to climb from number nine last year to number three this year.
Although the poll is an interesting read, one should probably remember that multiple variables might have influenced public perceptions. Apple’s reputational woes might not be because it did anything wrong, but rather because it failed (or is perceived as having failed) to make any major breakthroughs over the last year.
At the very least the poll does show that Apple might not be doing enough to inform the public about its new products and services.
The CEO of the Harris Poll, John Gerzema, said the reason why Apple and Google dropped in rankings could be because they failed to launch as many ‘attention grabbing’ products over the last year as before.
He added: “Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys.”
To show how fickle the area of public opinion is: another poll carried out earlier in 2018 rated Apple as the ‘most intimate’ brand in the United States – which means that both polls should probably be taken with a pinch of salt.