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Survey Reveals Schism in Buyers' Brand Views
 

Wall Street Journal - January 27, 2012

By NEAL LIPSCHUTZ

Consumers consistently rank the performance of global consumer brands higher than they do the same companies' "citizenship"—but the size of that gap can point to problems, according to a survey to be released Friday by units of WPP Group.

The two-year survey aimed at gauging corporate reputation looked at the combination of performance and citizenship, said Mark Penn, chief executive of Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland, two of the WPP units involved. Survey results will be released at the site of the World Economic Forum.

In the survey, consumers rated brand performance on qualities such as good value, high quality, innovation and leadership, while citizenship was measured by attributes including social responsibility, care for the customer, friendliness and helpfulness. In the longer term, performance and citizenship are "equal legs" of success, Mr. Penn said in an interview.

Overall rankings for companies showed an average score of 66 for performance and 54 for citizenship, on a scale of 100. The survey queried more than 40,000 consumers by mail in six countries—Russia, Japan, U.S., Germany, China and Brazil—over two years.

Technology industry rated the overall best ranking in the survey. However, in the tech sector, brand performance far outranked perceived citizenship, 72 to 55. Mr. Penn said the technology results indicated consumers had great satisfaction with products, but concerns about such issues as privacy protection for users. He said questions being raised about manufacturing conditions of some technology products "suggests the gap could get even worse."

Typically, more than 10 points between performance and citizenship is where companies should begin to worry, he added.

The average age of the top 25 companies of more than 6,000 rated was 87 years. Mr. Penn called them "long-term survivors." Many popular technology brands, he said, "haven't yet met the test of time."

The oil and gas industry had the survey's lowest overall corporate reputation rating.

Chinese consumers rated global brands higher on reputation than did consumers in the other surveyed nations.

"They have the highest degree of trust in global brands, even ahead of trust in some of their own brands," said Mr. Penn.

Write to Neal Lipschutz at neal.lipschutz@dowjones.com