Indeed.com Earns Online Job Search Brand of the Year Distinction While Job Market Slowly Grows

NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- While the unemployment numbers may be slowly drifting downward, Americans' attitudes toward their region's job market have not been looking good of late. As reported in a recent Harris Poll (conducted online by Harris Interactive among 2,286 U.S. adults from August 14-19, 2013), nearly half of Americans (46%) rate the current job market in their region of the country as bad; three in ten (31%) classify it as neither good nor bad, and fewer than one-fourth (23%) describe it as good.  

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Luckily, perception is not everything: hiring is in fact rising, albeit slowly, and Americans have many online job search options to help navigate the growing job market. Indeed.com earns the Online Job Search Brand of the Year distinction in the 2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend® (EQ) study, an annual study which measures the perceptions of 38,500+ American consumers on more than 1,500 lifestyle, product and service brands across over 155 categories and is comprised of three key factors: Familiarity, Quality and Consideration. Indeed.com garners high scores for both Quality and Consideration, and Americans display substantially more Familiarity with the brand in 2013 than in previous years.

CareerBuilder.com also ranks ahead of the category average, with its Brand Equity score on the rise from last year.

Fidelity Investments is Investment Brand of the Year
According to the same August Harris Poll, one-third of Americans (34%) have a 401k, while roughly one-fourth each have IRAs (27%) and pension plans (23%); two in ten (19%) report having stocks that are not in a plan, while 16% have mutual funds that are not part of a plan. Overall, the majority of Americans have at least one of these types of investments, with just over four in ten (42%) saying they have none of them.

Many investors look to firms to help manage their investments, and among the investment brands tested in this year's EquiTrend study, Fidelity Investments takes the top spot. The brand has made strong gains in Brand Equity over the last five years, largely driven by increasing Familiarity, especially in 2013. Additionally, Fidelity shows growth in its Consumer Connection score, which is comprised of Trust, Fit, Emotion and Performance.

Other brands ranking above the category average include AXA, the Vanguard Group, ShareBuilder, Franklin Templeton, Edward Jones, Ameriprise and UBS.

Chase Bank repeats Brand of the Year distinction
For the second year in a row, Chase Bank earns the National Bank Brand of the Year title. Chase's category leadership is driven by strong Quality and Consideration scores. Chase Bank also enjoys a strong Brand Momentum score, which is comprised of Energy, Ubiquity, Future Outlook, Leadership and Popularity.

Wells Fargo finishes behind Chase but above the category average, and is closing the gap in 2013 with a significant improvement in Brand Equity driven by increases in all three elements of Brand Equity – Familiarity, Quality and Consideration.

Ally Bank moves to the top of its category
For the first time, Ally Bank earns the Super Regional Bank Brand of the Year, with strong growth in Brand Equity. Its rising score is attributable to substantial gains in both Quality and Consideration and modest gains in Familiarity.

"Ally Bank's performance on critical metrics like Consumer Connection and Brand Momentum helped it rocket to the top of the category," says Don Best, Senior Vice President, Custom Solutions Group Senior at Harris Interactive.

Other banks that finish above the category average include Regions Bank and PNC Bank. 

Visa scores a hat trick
For the third straight year, Visa is the top ranked Payment Network brand. Visa enjoys a Brand Familiarity score that ranks among the top 30 among the study's 1,500+ brands. With strong Quality and Consideration scores, Visa holds a strong Brand Equity position in this category.

MasterCard also ranks above the category average and is experiencing significant growth in Brand Equity for 2013, driven by higher Quality scores.

USAA regains Brand of the Year distinction in Insurance category
USAA Financial Services earns the Insurance Brand of the Year title for 2013. Gradual improvements over the last four years for Familiarity and Consideration have helped to move USAA's Brand Equity higher. Additionally, USAA's Consumer Connection and Brand Momentum scores have risen significantly, year over year.

"USAA has been in the EquiTrend study since 2005, and has been at the top of the list for five of those nine years, with State Farm earning the top ranking for three years and AAA for one," says Best.

Other brands to finish above the category average include State Farm, AAA, Allstate, Northwestern Mutual, Pacific Life and MetLife.

Harris Poll EquiTrend® Methodology
A sample of 38,814 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over were surveyed online by Harris Interactive from January 11 through February 8, 2013 and the survey took an average of 35 minutes to complete. The sample was from the Harris Interactive online panel of respondents, a database consisting of over a million cooperative respondents who have double-opted in to be randomly invited by Harris Interactive to take part in online surveys. The total number of brands rated was 1,511. Each respondent was asked to rate a total of 40 randomly selected brands. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings. Data were weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. population of consumers ages 15 and over based on age by sex, education, race/ethnicity, region, income, and data from respondents ages 18 and over were also weighted for their propensity to be online. This is the same precision weighting approach Harris has used to become the leading online polling organization when calling elections.

The Brand Equity Index is the keystone to the EquiTrend program providing an understanding of a brand's overall strength. A brand's Equity is determined by a calculation of Familiarity, Quality and Purchase Consideration. Brand of the Year is determined by a simple ranking of brands.

An academic study concluded that when using the Harris Poll EquiTrend® Brand Equity model to determine brand value (as opposed to a financially-based measure of brand value), the stock performance of the top brands consistently surpassed the market during the 2008 financial downturn. The academic study findings appear in the September 2012 issue of the International Journal of Research in Marketing in the paper titled, "The Performance of Global Brands in the 2008 Financial Crisis: A Test of Two Brand Value Measures." The paper was authored by Johny K. Johansson, Claudiu V. Dimofte and Sanal K. Mazvancheryl.

The Harris Poll and Harris Poll EquiTrend® study results disclosed in this release may not be used for advertising, marketing or promotional purposes without the prior written consent of Harris Interactive.

Product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Harris Poll Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between August 14 and 19, 2013 among 2,286 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll® and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers proprietary solutions in the areas of market and customer insight, corporate brand and reputation strategy, and marketing, advertising, public relations and communications research. Harris possesses expertise in a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Additionally, Harris has a portfolio of multi-client offerings that complement our custom solutions while maximizing our client's research investment. Serving clients in more than 196 countries and territories through our North American and European offices, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

Press Contact:
Corporate Communications
Harris Interactive
212-539-9600
[email protected]

SOURCE Harris Interactive

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