What A Company Does Is More Important Than What It Says

States across the nation are struggling to address the pandemic as it takes different shapes and forms across communities. Americans are applauding the likes of firms like Honeywell, GM and Ford who are making ventilators, masks and other PPE. Over 9 in 10 Americans have improved opinions of companies that donate money, supplies or employee’s time to aid relief in communities (92%) and when a company shifts production to make equipment or supplies necessary to fight the pandemic (91%). 

But desired corporate action extends past addressing the pandemic directly to encompass supporting consumers who are indirectly affected; 91% have improved opinions towards companies that allow customers to forgo payments for up to 6 months or offer lower interest rates or other programs. 

This also extends to protecting employees: 84% have improved opinions of company executives who forgo salaries, bonuses or other compensation. In fact, 84% say large companies’ top priority should be keeping its employees safe, even if it means that customers need to wait to get their products. 

Today, corporate action is becoming a requirement to advertise around C19: 36% say that Marketers should only advertise if they are have taken action to address COVID19 and the amount of Americans who felt companies that advertise about COVID19 is “a good thing regardless of actions they have taken, because it shows they care,” decreased from 41% last week to 38% this week. In fact, 26% think companies who advertise about C19 are just doing it for publicity, most of them feel contrived/forced. 

However, the industries who are taking action see their reputations improve and are also the most trusted sources of information on C19. Public opinion of the healthcare industry has increased since the coronavirus outbreak to 62%, and Doctors/nurses as well as medical journals are the top two most trusted sources of information on the topic (93% and 87% respectively). 

And Big Pharma is becoming Good Pharma with its position to provide solutions: Nearly 2 in 5 Americans (39%) say their view of pharmaceutical industries have become more positive since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and 6 in 10 also say the pharmaceutical industry is best suited to provide solutions. We also see this trend rising across technology. Over 4 in 10 say technology is best suited and should to provide solutions (42%) and almost four in ten people (37%) now have a favorable view of big tech. 

Takeaway: Every corporate reputation will be redefined by the response to Cv19. And as seen in pharma and tech, esteem can literally be remade by a leadership position. Don’t be limited by the constraints of your industry, regulation etc to not re-think what you could mean to society at this moment. Everything is on the table. 

METHODOLOGY 

This survey (Wave 6) was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 1,993 U.S adults from April 3 – 5, 2020. Wave 5 was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 2,016 U.S adults from March 28 – 30, 2020. Wave 4 was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 2,023 U.S adults from March 21-22, 2020. Wave 3 of the survey was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 2,019 U.S adults from March 17-18, 2020. Wave 2 of the survey was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 2,050 U.S adults from March14-15, 2020. Wave 1 of this survey was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 2,019 U.S adults from March 05 – 09, 2020.

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