I have a theory. What's good for Apple investors...
From Reuters Apple, Google see reputation of corporate brands tumble in survey:
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google corporate brands dropped in an annual survey while Amazon.com Inc maintained the top spot for the third consecutive year, and electric carmaker Telsa Inc rocketed higher after sending a red Roadster into space.
IPhone maker Apple dropped to 29th from its previous position of No. 5, and Google dropped from 8th to No. 28. Apple had ranked No. 2 as recently as 2016, according to the annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient poll released on Tuesday.
“Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys,” John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Reuters. “We’re not quite to self-driving cars yet. We’re not yet seeing all the things in artificial intelligence they’re going to do.”
My take: I disagree. The survey period—Dec. 11 to Jan. 12—was hardly a valley for Apple news. The problem, I think, was the news itself:
- Apple prices new iPhones at $1,000-plus
- Apple opens new $5 billion-plus corporate headquarters
- Apple enjoys a $163 billion repatriation tax windfall
- Apple is surrounded by the usual fog of fear, uncertainty and doubt
If I didn't know better, I'd think that Apple came across to the 25,800 U.S. adults Harris surveyed as too rich and too greedy.
Below: The full Harris 100.
Click to enlarge.
And yet, Apple’s P/E ratio is decidedly humble. (Not really disagreeing with you.)
That poll result seems to indicate responders may have confounded notoriety with reputation.
Hard to tell what the ranking order actually reveals if that’s the case..
https://theharrispoll.com/reputation-quotient/#rq
They claim to measure 6 dimensions of corporate reputation with 20 attributes.
These are
Social Responsibility (things like Supports Good Causes and Environmental Responsibility)
Vision and Leadership (things like Market Opportunities)
Financial Performance (Profitability, Growth Prospects, Low Risk Investment)
Products and Services (High quality, Innovative)
Emotional Appeal (Admire and Respect, Trust, Feel Good About)
Workplace Environment (Rewards Employees Fairly, Good Place to Work, etc)
Those are the criteria that supposedly combine to put Amazon first, Chick-fil-A fourth.
I can’t take that seriously. This has nothing to do with my feeling about Apple.
Social Responsibility. Profitability, Low Risk Investment, Admire and Respect, Treats Employees Fairly and Good Place to Work. If Chick-fil-A and Amazon pop into your head based on these attributes, you don’t know what words mean.
I don’t have any confidence that the Harris Poll measures what they claim to measure.
Then, there is the store itself. It is insanely crowded on weekends with no coherent line or idea as to when or how to get best served. On weekdays the employees outnumber the customers and yet there is still no easy way to get checked out or to find out who is helping who and in what area. The funniest thing is when you use the Store app to check yourself out and then try to find someone who will give you a bag! Seriously, the store store experience, at least on Long Island, does suck badly.
Possibly a bunch of those surveyed had recently tried to get a precious appointment at a Genius Bar, or who had been badly treated by a “Genius,” or who had had to spend an extra ten minutes trying to find someone who could check them out or wait on them, or who has an iPhone that doesn’t work well, needs to be replaced, but is within some idiotic parameter?
Wife went back and they did replace her phone. That was the third trip, after doing everything else they told her to try (most of it obviously futile since they didn’t really listen to us the first time.)
Some of the ‘Geniuses’ are terribly smug and condescending. (Yeah, I’m over 60. But I also have been using personal computers for more than 40 years, and Macs for more than 30 of those years. So don’t treat me like “your grandfather whose VCR flashes 12:00.”) Others are really helpful and know their stuff. It’s “luck of the draw” these days on whether you get competency or condescendence.