Note 7. The device probably haunts the nightmares of top Samsung executives. After all, when a product that you were projecting as the epoch of your company’s efforts turns out to be so dangerous that it has to be banned from airplanes, well, you can expect your PR department to have a field few months.
Add exploding washing machines and the involvement of its top brass into an affair that saw South Korea’s president get impeached, into the mixture — well, it is a testament to the reputation and the robust financial foundation that the company has built for itself over the years, that it is still standing.
However, Samsung’s reputation has taken a hit. A Reuter’s poll suggested otherwise, when it claimed that the company’s reputation in the US was mostly intact. Well, a new survey from Harris Poll claims that the Samsung’s reputation has nosedived in the US. According to the report, Samsung dropped 42 places from last year, and arrived at the 49th position in a reputation survey conducted in the US.
To put things in perspective, Amazon, Apple and Google were ranked at 1st, 5th and 8th positions respectively. The survey took into account inputs from as many as 30,000 U.S. adults and took factors like social responsibility, leadership, financial performance, workplace environment, products and services into account.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s ranking could have improved over the few months — since the survey was conducted in December, last year. The company had issued multiple apologies since then and held various conferences and press interactions, so that could have helped. But then again, it recently had its chairman arrested, so its hard to say either way.
