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Amazon.com Beats Out Apple For Top Reputation Rankings In 14th Annual Harris Poll RQ Study
Not Caring Keeps Apple On Top
Tim Cook and Apple Delusional About Innovation
Hybrids Could Be The Way To Blunt The Flash SSD Onslaught
Apple Releases MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7
LibreOffice 4.0: First Take
Bare Bones Software Releases BBEdit 10.5.2
Amazon.com Beats Out Apple For Top Reputation Rankings In 14th Annual Harris Poll RQ Study
While the overall perception of corporate America remains relatively grim, there were mixed signals to be found in the results of the 2013 Harris Poll RQ Study which engages over 14,000 members of the general public to measure the reputations of the sixty most visible companies in the country.
16 percent of the public said the reputation of corporate America showed some improvement, 7 percent more than in 2012, while 49 percent said it declined, which was 11 percent less than those who felt this way last year. Only six companies achieved RQ scores of eighty and above, which signifies a great reputation, 25 percent fewer companies than in 2012 and nearly two-thirds less than just two years ago.
"The public seem to have become pragmatically realistic with their expectations of corporate America," says Robert Fronk, Executive Vice President of Reputation Management at Harris Interactive, publisher of the Harris Poll, "and we characterize this year's overall findings as the great muddling of corporate America."
Earning the highest reputation this year is Amazon.com, edging out last year's top dog as most reputable company, Apple, which is fell to second this year. This is Amazon's first time earning the top ranking, but the company's fifth consecutive year with a great reputation score. The Walt Disney Company, Google, and Johnson & Johnson complete the top five - Google's eighth consecutive top five appearance, an remarkable achievement for a fourteen year old company.
AIG and Goldman Sachs return to the bottom two reputation positions on the list of the most visible companies, joined by Halliburton, American Airlines, and Bank of America. With a full six point increase in RQ score though, Bank of America had the highest year-over-year increase in the 2013 study. Best Buy and Honda experienced the greatest decline in RQ scores, 6.76 and 4.73 points, respectively.
RQ measures six dimensions that comprise reputation and influence consumer behavior. The dimensions and the 2013 leaders are:
Social Responsibility - Whole Foods
Emotional Appeal - Amazon.com
Financial Performance - Apple
Products & Services - Amazon.com
Vision & Leadership - Apple
Workplace Environment - Google
Amazon's reputation strength runs wide and deep as it ranked in the top five in five of the six dimensions of reputation. Amazon had a five point advantage over any other company in the study in the dimension of Emotional Appeal, despite an entirely virtual relationship with the public. Amazon also achieved the top rating in the dimension of Products & Services.
Amazon earned nearly 100 percent positive ratings on all measures related to Trust. More than 50 percent of respondents also recall discussing Amazon with friends and family in the past year, and nearly 100 percent of these conversations were positive.
"Our results show that Amazon has managed to build an intimate relationship with the public without being perceived as intrusive," says Fronk. "And as the company that is so widely known for its personal recommendations, more than nine in ten members of the public would recommend Amazon to friends and family."
The results for Apple and Google are equally as impressive as those for Amazon and continue a compelling trend that has been developing for the past few years companies that begin in the technology sector, which is by far and away the highest-rated industry when it comes to reputation, absorb the reputation equity from the industry, then transcend the industry to become a more multi-faceted business. Companies that are able to do this are perceived to "Play A Valuable Social Role," a characteristic, which according to the RQ study, has become a key driver of reputation.
By transcending beyond being thought of as tech companies, Amazon, Apple, and Google earn high marks for the other drivers of great reputation as well; Trust, Admiration, Respect, Outperforming Their Competition, and Being A Great Company To Work For.
While still in negative territory, the banking industry showed some encouraging signs in 2013. Positive ratings of the industry are now 25 percent, a more than 50 percent increase from 2012. Wells Fargo became the first of the four big banking companies in the past four years to move from negative to positive equity in the dimension of Emotional Appeal. Harris's fourteen years of conducting the RQ study show that a company cannot build or maintain positive reputation without this positive equity. Wells Fargo also received significantly higher marks on attributes related to its people and work environment, and it is possible that these may be the first signs of a bank once again being seen as trusted.
What can companies learn from the 2013 Harris Poll RQ Study?
Companies need to evaluate and understand the increasing importance that playing a valuable social role has on reputation, purchase consideration, advocacy and positive word of mouth. This is about a business having a purpose, not just checking the box on social responsibility or sustainability.
Additionally, companies need to adapt to a major trend in consumer behavior. More than 60 percent of consumers now "pro-actively try to learn more about how a company conducts itself" before they are willing to consider that company's products or services. This group, which Harris calls Seekers:
• Proactively engage in conversations with others about what they find out about a company;
• In 60 percent of cases, decide NOT to do business with a company because of something they learn about that company; and
• Actively try to influence friends and family on whether to do business or not with a company based upon what they have learned about that company's conduct.
Reputation Quotient Methodology
In its 14th consecutive year, the annual RQ surveys more than 19,000 members (includes nomination and rating phases) of the American general public, utilizing its proprietary online panel. Respondents are first asked to identify the 60 most visible companies and then surveyed to rate these companies based on their reputation on 20 different attributes that comprise the RQ instrument. The attributes are then grouped into six different reputation dimensions: Emotional Appeal, Products & Services, Social Responsibility, Vision & Leadership, Workplace Environment, and Financial Performance. In addition to the twenty attributes, the study includes a number of reputation-related questions that help provide a comprehensive understanding of public perceptions. The 2013 Harris Poll RQ Study was conducted from November 13, 2012 to November 30, 2012.
For more information on the 2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient Study, visit:
http://goo.gl/Nb7jO
2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient Executive Summary Video
http://goo.gl/anPUw
2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient Public Perspective Video:
http://goo.gl/TU3KR
Not Caring Keeps Apple On Top
TechCrunch's Josh Constine observes that Apple doesnt care if competitors have cheaper products. It doesnt care if its next big thing cannibalizes its last big thing, or about buying big money-makers, and certainly not about how you think it should deal out stock, noting that at Tuesday's Goldman Sachs conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook played the defiant king of an empire too powerful to be distracted by the present or the past.
Constine cites Cook saying that Apple's basic belief is, if they don't cannibalize, someone else will, so if the company sells fewer iPhones or iPods because it makes an iWatch, fine. Better than people buying a Samsung Galaxy Watch S 7 or Google Time, or whoever else tackles the wrist eventually.
However, Constine takes Cook to task for claiming that Apple has skills in software, deeming, as many of us do, that save for its prowess in OS development Apple's software skill is sorely lacking. It would be nice if Apple cared a bit more about the shortcomings of its software apps. For example, fter two years in release, iOS Siri is still a beta, and the less said about the iOS 6 Maps app. fiasco, the better.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/12/nasty-crazy-apple-doesnt-care/
Tim Cook and Apple Delusional About Innovation
svenontech.com blogger Sven Rafferty disputes Apple CEO Tim Cook's claim at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday that, innovation is strong as ever and in the DNA of the company.
This, says Rafferty, from a company that's been playing catch-up and suing its competitors for the past two years other than really innovating. Rafferty acknowledges that Apple has over $100 billion in the bank, packed stores, and enjoys the majority market share for tablets, smartphones, and even still for audio players, but says all those numbers are slipping and show little sign of reversing, and Apple's last true innovation being the release of the iPad in 2010.
Rafferty observes that the last two iOS updates, iPad mini, and the iPhone 5 are all indicators that Apple now does better at catching up than pushing the competition, and says if it doesnt wish to become the next Sony, it needs to stop the madness of its delusional outlook on innovation and actually innovate again.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/1JoEQ
Hybrids Could Be The Way To Blunt The Flash SSD Onslaught
The Register's Chris Mellor says with the rise of Apple's iPad and all-flash MacBook Air notebook, fueling growing desire among consumers and enterprise for sexy and speedy gadgets, it seems that Flash drive makers are holding all the cards, leaving the hard drive industry holding its breath, wondering how to replicate the expensive experience.
Mellor suggests that the response could be hybrid disk drives, which include a speedy Flash cache along with traditional, capacious, and much cheaper spinning disk storage. Could hybrids be just the thing to spread tablets and Ultrabooks into the mass market? Noting that users hate waiting while a disk dribbles operating systems and applications into memory at start-up time, and takes a seeming age to shut the systems down, hybrid drives would fix that issue, and Mellor thinks it's increasingly likely that hybrid drives combining flash speed and disk drive capacity and affordability will take a mass-market bite out of the computing pie, leaving a reduced wedge for pricy all-flash tablets and notebooks and just a small sliver for lumbering and slow disk-only notebooks and desktops.
In a thoroughgoing analysis, Mellor profiles the history and projected future for hybrid drive data storage in computer devices, vbut also notes that two trends that could potentially change the coming hybrid drive scenarios are three-layer-cell flash (TLC), and helium gas-filled drives.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/12/hybrid_sshds/
Apple Releases MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7
TheMacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7 addresses a rare issue on some Apple notebooks where a battery that has accumulated more than 1000 charge cycles may unexpectedly shut down or stop functioning.
System Requirements
• OS X 10.6.8
• OS X 10.7.5
• OS X 10.8.2
• MacBook Pro (15 and 17-inch, Early 2011)
• MacBook Pro (15 and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
For more information, visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1633
LibreOffice 4.0: First Take
ZNer contributor Mary Branscombe reports that LibreOffice 4 promises a range of improvements, from better compatibility with Office documents and document management systems to the usual catch-up features in Writer and Calc. However, the most significant improvements continue to be under the hood, where most users won't notice them.
For the full review visit here:
http://www.zdnet.com/libreoffice-4-0-first-take-7000011083/
Bare Bones Software Releases BBEdit 10.5.2
Bare Bones Software has announced the release and immediate availability of BBEdit 10.5.2, an update to its professional strength HTML and text editor.
The BBEdit 10.5.2 update includes various refinements and fixes for specific reported issues in this award-winning HTML and text editor. BBEdit 10.5.2 now requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later, and is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion." Detailed information on all of the changes in BBEdit 10.5.2 can be found at:
http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/current_notes.html
The BBEdit 10.5.2 update is free of charge to all BBEdit 10 customers. Customers who purchased in the Mac App Store will automatically receive the update when it becomes available, while customers who purchased directly may download the update immediately from the Bare Bones Software web site:
http://www.barebones.com/support/updates.html
For more information on BBEdit or to download a fully functional demo version, visit the company's web site:
http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/
BBEdit 10 has a suggested retail price of US$49.99. Any registered owner of BBEdit may upgrade for US$39.99 directly from the Bare Bones Software online store:
http://www.barebones.com/store/
For more information, visit:
http://www.barebones.com/
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